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HIGH POINT, N.C. -- Forty two years after Penn-Griffin graduated it's last class and closed it's doors for what many thought would be for good, a new generation of high school graduates will get diplomas from the school. The school's alumni are excited for the new future of their alma mater.

William Penn High School Alumni still remember magic of the big school on the hill. “I spent my sixth grade, seventh grade and eighth grade at Griffin looking up this hill in great anticipation of my ninth grade year and my opportunity to attend William Penn or the big WP as we called it,” Carlvena Foster, a Board of Education member and Penn-Griffin alum said.

And it was a solemn end of an era when they learned the school would be condemned. “We look forward to high school graduation,” Foster said. “But with some sense of sadness that our beloved high school would be closing it's doors for what we thought would be forever.”

But now, a new chapter for this school and it's alumni. For the first time in 42 years, 15 high school seniors will graduate from this school. “We're bridging the gap from 42 years ago and that's a big deal. I mean this community remembers what the high school used to be and now they are seeing the same school basically the same school produce yet again, another class,” Penn Griffin Senior Trevor Rhodes said.

When the school reopened back in 2003, officials combined seventh through 12th grade and created a school for the arts. “We knew we were making history and we knew that this was a big deal and it was very important to us to finish this off and persevere just as those graduating classes of a long time ago did,” said Penn Griffin senior Brian Castro.

A dream that's realized when these students accept their diplomas. “The school has climbed back and done what some people said was impossible,” Rhodes said.

The school is graduating 15 students, seven of which have gone to Penn-Griffin for all seven years.