Akron's Buchtel High School will be transformed in the Fall, and over the weekend, students, staff and alumni said goodbye to the current school building.

Many said they'll miss the building, which will be replaced by the new Buchtel/Perkins Community Learning Center next school year.

Todd Webb - Buchtel Class of 1984 - has mixed emotions as he watches his old school close.

"I've got a lot of fine memories of Buchtel High School," Webb tells AkronNewsNow.com, "but you know, change is inevitable, and that's one thing we have to do, is we have to make some changes to progress in the future."

Joanne Jones - Buchtel Class of 1979 - remembers playing sports.

"My memories are in the old gym, of course, where I played basketball, and back when we had fields, and all my classrooms were up here," Jones recalls. "So, I hate to see the old building go away."

Buchtel High School head football coach Ricky Powers remembers the assemblies before the City Series championship games on Thanksgiving Day, though his teams have been aiming higher...in the state playoffs recently.

"Yeah, that's missed, that's well missed," Powers tells AkronNewsNow.com. "I'll tell you what, I wish we could bring that back because that was something that brought the whole community together, not just the Buchtel community, but everybody."

Buchtel High School head football coach Ricky Powers by MPWard

Current Buchtel students say they have fond memories in the old building. But they say there are definite advantages to the new CLC.

"I'm gonna look forward to the air conditioning," says a student who'll be a senior in the new building, "because we didn't have air conditioning in this old building."

Buchtel High School will become a "New Tech" school in the fall, and students will be joined by students from Perkins Middle School - in separate parts of the new complex.

The new Buchtel/Perkins CLC is being built directly behind the closing Buchtel building.

The current Buchtel High School building will then be demolished.