The school board recently accepted principal Rick Rivera’s proposal to add a hall of fame to the school, which would allow for alumni and former staff members to be honored for their achievements, accomplishments and positive influences they made in the school and in their career field.

“We’ve always looked at having ways to honor our alumni, and having a hall of fame is something that we’ve not had here at Augusta,” Rivera said. “It’s something that’s been done in other schools around the state and other schools that I’ve been at.”

Rivera started the process of this hall of fame by creating a selection committee and creating criteria for nominations. Rivera wants this hall of fame as a way to congratulate and honor the accomplishments of students and former staff.

“People can be nominated for a variety of reasons, but mostly for distinguished accomplishments,” Rivera said. “Whether it’s a former staff that had an impact on their students here in Augusta or students that have gone on and excelled in their profession.”

History teacher Jeff Regier, who is part of the selection committee, agrees that this hall of fame is a good way to honor people who have achieved good things.

“I think to honor those that have been supportive in school makes me feel good and a good accomplishment that helped our school in the past,” Regier said. “I think that will hopefully encourage others to keep doing that as well.”

The nomination requirements for candidates for the hall of fame are alumni who graduated for 10 years, and former teachers or staff members who left or retired for five years.

“We look at what they have accomplished or how they have affected our school,” Rivera said. “Now it’s a matter of receiving nominations. The nomination period is Jan. 1 through March 31. Then in April, the selection committee will convene and review those applicants or those nominations and make a selection.”

Junior Alex Evans likes the idea of honoring students, but he has some problems with the nomination criteria.

“I feel honoring former students and staff is great for our school and can help encourage students to be accomplished in their future, but I think the requirements for nomination is stupid,” Evans said. “The only people who are going to remember the students from 10 years ago are a select few teachers. They should make it only five years, which would still allow the nominees to achieve.”

Rivera plans on having there be locations for people to view or see the people that are in the hall of fame.

“For events, we’ve got the scrolling board there in the gym that will list the hall of fame recipients,” Rivera said. “We also want to start putting up plaques somewhere to honor our recipients.”

This hall of fame could become a good way for students to see what people have accomplished after graduating, while encouraging students to go out and achieve their goals.

“We want to honor our alumni that serve as a model to our students of what’s possible from our graduates of Augusta High School,” Rivera said. ”We have alumni who have performed on Broadway, alumni who have had successful medical careers or successful careers in the sciences and we’ve had alumni who’ve had distinguished athletic achievements outside of Augusta we want to show.”