VIDEO: Creekside Middle School Surprises Retiring Principal

It was a retirement sendoff unlike any other at on Thursday.

The entire school, making up more than 800 students and staff, piled into the gym to surprise principal MaryAnn DeGrazia.

"When I walked in, I had no idea that all the staff and students would be in the gym to give me a goodbye assembly," she said.

The suprise, planned by Assistant Principal Sue Goldman was months in the making. The idea originated back in November 2011, when she first heard about lip dubbing at a conference she attended.

Goldman was determined to get the entire school to participate in a lip dub music video of Katy Perry's song "Firework" to dedicate to the retiring principal. [Unfortunately, we cannot show you the video due to regulations.]

The day after spring break in April, while DeGrazia was off campus, students and staff spent almost an hour filming the video. Each class had three seconds worth of the song, which included balloons, signs and other props.

In the time leading up to the surprise assembly, Goldman also had to get approval from the Alameda County Fire Department because it was the first time the entire gym would be filled with that many students all at once.

"I actually called the fire marshall," she said. "I went around to every classroom and explained that the only way we were going to be able to have one giant assembly was to follow all his rules."

Goldman said the day of the assembly, students had one shot to pull off filling the gym in a matter of minutes.

"The kids were awesome. I knew they would do it. I knew that they could do it."

Though a staff party was held for DeGrazia the previous Saturday, she was completely unaware of the assembly, despite the entire school knowing for months.

"I never thought it would be to this extent," DeGrazia said. "I was totally awed and shocked."

Another surprise followed when two of her former students and Parent Teacher Committee member gave speeches on how she has impacted their lives these past 25 years spent in education.

"MaryAnn is really an amazing woman. She worked tireless to get the school opened in the first place," said Lisa Mitchum, the founder of Creekside's Parent Teacher Committee.

Shayna Gelender had DeGrazia in sixth grade science from 1993-94 when she was still teaching at . Prior to coming to Creekside, DeGrazia taught sixth and seventh grade and was an assistant principal at Canyon.

"She's really thoughtful in her craft and she's just one of those teacher's you'll never forget," Gelender said.

"Thinking back to the sixth grade, I can't tell you my locker combination or what I wore on the first day of school. What I can tell you is that you made a difference — we all knew it then and the students sitting in this room know it now," said Erika Conner, who was also one of DeGrazia's former sixth-grade students, 22 years ago.

Walt Lewis, current principal at will be replacing DeGrazia for the next school year. Her offical last day is June 29, which is also her 38th wedding anniversary.

"It's a double celebration," she said. "I'm just going to take one day at a time."

Scroll through the photo gallery above or check out the video and MaryAnn DeGrazia's reaction to her surprise assembly.

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