Over eight decades, tens of thousands of students have left their imprint on West End High School - literally. Depressions on each step of its interior staircases are a testament to 78 years of people walking up and down those staircases to go to class.

On Tuesday, the Class of 2008 will receive the school's last diplomas at Fair Park Arena. On May 29, underclassmen will be dismissed for the final time as West End High School is closed forever.

"We are heartbroken," said Jacqueline G. Jackson, a business education teacher who's been at West End for almost 30 years.

It's a bittersweet time, with sadness overshadowing the excitement the end of the school year normally brings. Students "get very teary eyed," said English teacher Becky Whitworth, who started teaching there in 1998.

"It's a good school; we don't want it closed," said sophomore Keyonna Richburg. "They needed to renovate it. It's a good location."

The Birmingham Board of Education ended hopes the school would be spared when it voted this winter to close 16 schools, West End among them, to avoid state takeover. Closing the schools over three years is part of a larger plan to cut costs in the cash-strapped system.

For West End's underclassmen, it means starting over at a new school next year. Eighty-eight will transfer to Jackson-Olin, 201 to Parker and 201 to Wenonah high schools, said William Prosser, West End's assistant principal.

Good memories:

As the school prepares to close, some alumni recalled their days at the Pearson Avenue landmark.

"There was a lot of school spirit. I had lots of fun and enjoyed the sports," said Henry W. Hartsfield Jr., Class of 1950.

He thought so much of the school that 32 years after graduation, he carried a made-to-order memento of his alma mater into space. A school banner was aboard the space shuttle Columbia when it lifted off on June 27, 1982. Hartsfield, making the first of three spaceflights, was in the pilot's seat.

High school was fun for Cliff Walker, Class of 1961, and he keeps up with his high school friends - thousands of them. His 299-page Web site, www.westendhigh.com, covers the years 1959-63 and has had 166,000 visitors.

For Jesse W. Watts Jr., Class of 1972, there were moments of levity, but high school was a time of high racial tension. He was among the first wave of black students to integrate West End.

"I remember the first day, stepping off the bus and you got all these whites. They were shocked to see black students getting off the bus. The people were like in a freeze frame," he recalled.

Initially, not all the white students were hostile, but those who became friends with the black students were ostracized by their white peers, Watts said. And black students friendly with their white counterparts were condemned by their black classmates. By the time he graduated, things had settled down, he said.

But the white exodus to the suburbs had begun. As the years went by, the student population became mostly black.

Moving on:

While the school is closing, preparations have been under way to help everyone make the transition, including safety concerns, said Michaelle Chapman, spokeswoman for Birmingham schools.

Some students said they and many of their classmates are wary of going to the new schools, noting the fights that broke out a few years ago when Ensley High students were sent to Jackson-Olin after their school closed.

"I know there's going to be some kind of drama when we get over there," said Jermaine Cole, a rising senior who will be at Wenonah next year.

A student transition team has organized activities to introduce students to their new schools and meet their future classmates. Jackson-Olin High hosted a luau and Parker High a cookout for the students transferring to those schools, and other activities are being planned for the summer, Chapman said.

"We're all going our separate ways, but we'll always love West End," said Jackson, the business education teacher.