By CONNIE NOLEN/Community Columnist

“How odd it will be not to teach Helena kids,” I said to a former student from Helena.

As a Pelham High School alum, I have Helena friends and I’ve taught many Helena kids. I see Helena and Pelham as sister cities. As preparations are made to begin PHS’s final year as both Pelham and Helena’s high school, excitement builds.

PHS alums Scott and Carrie Busby, two of my former students, visited PHS last spring on eighth grade parents’ night—with their eighth grade son. The Busby family’s attitude delights me. As Helena residents, they expect their son will begin his sophomore year at Helena High School.

“We’re so excited that our son will be a Pelham Panther just like his parents. We’re glad he will experience this year at PHS,” Carrie Busby said.

For this year’s PHS freshmen, preparations are underway to create the best freshmen year possible. Whether they will be Pelham Panthers for one year or for a lifetime, we want their freshman year experience to be the best imaginable.

When Helena High School opens in 2014, some students will go home to Helena for high school. When that day comes, we will wish them well. Helena students will be a part of making new traditions at Helena High. As a graduate in the fourth graduating class from Pelham High School, I remember the excitement of creating PHS tradition.

Listening to the PHS alma mater’s line, “Through the halls of Pelham High School, I’ve experienced life,” I think about my own teachers who wrote those words — and I think about how especially true those words are for me.

I’m glad that my youngest child will be in the final combined freshman class from Helena and Pelham so that all of my kids will join me in thinking of Helena as a place where we have friends.

PHS Registration will be Tuesday and Thursday, July 23 and 25. See the website for details and be sure to sign up for Camp Pelham at Freshman Registration. Camp Pelham will be Friday Aug. 9.