By LAURA HAMMACK, guest columnist
This Friday, students across our school district will enjoy their last day of school.
This is always a day of mixed emotions. We mark the special day with celebrations including end-of-year awards, as well as field days and other fun activities.
Students leave us with great anticipation for their summer vacation and we send them off with the same amount of joy that is, admittedly, coupled with a little bit of sadness. I’m not sure people believe how much we miss the students over the summer!
One week from our last day of school, we will honor the Brown County High School Class of 2018 during their commencement. We invite all members of the community to attend this very special evening held in the Larry C. Banks Memorial Gymnasium at 7 p.m. Friday, June 8. This evening is a celebration of an extraordinary class with whom (for many) we have been gifted the honor to educate for the last 13 years. We love this class, and quite honestly don’t want to let them go!
One of our new traditions that was started last year will be conducted again on the last day of school to honor the Class of 2018. We affectionately call it the Senior Class Victory Tour.
Students from the Class of 2018 will gather first thing in the morning at Brown County High School to get dressed in their graduation cap and gown. They will then board a school bus to go back to the elementary school where they attended. While at their elementary school, students will be greeted with signs and high-fives from the students and teachers.
There are several purposes for this very special event.
First, one purpose of the Victory Tour is that we want our seniors to know how much we love them and are so proud of them for making it to this great moment in their educational careers.
Additionally, it is very impressive to our younger students when they see these incredible role models walking through their hallways in cap and gowns. We genuinely believe that by seeing what awaits for their future, they will aspire to achieve the same moment.
And lastly, there is nothing like seeing a graduating senior reunited with their kindergarten, first-, second-, etc. grade teacher. It’s a wonderful day to honor the gift that all of the educators in Brown County Schools have given to these students and, conversely, the gifts our students have given to us.
This year, we are extending the stops on the Victory Tour to include all graduating seniors visiting Brown County Intermediate School and Brown County Junior High School. All of their school buses will leave their elementary schools at the same time to head back to campus to do the tour in both of these buildings. We can’t wait to extend this opportunity to every educator in our school district.
We also have invited our Brown County Retired Teachers Association to participate in the day. We know there are many retired educators who have also played a significant role in the development of this extraordinary senior class. We can’t wait to share the fun with our very special retirees.
This senior Class of 2018 was recently honored at their Senior Night awards ceremony where the community gathered to gift the senior class with scholarships, awards and other honors. I am always amazed by the incredible support of the community at this very special event. The Brown County Community Foundation, other local community groups, and colleges and universities gifted our graduating seniors with over $200,000 in awards during the program. This is such an incredible testament to the support our community bestows on our students in Brown County. We are humbled by their generosity.
This year, we celebrate a senior class whose accomplishments are so vast, it is impossible to name them all. With all of their successes, we send them off into the next chapter of their lifelong educational journey to post-secondary educational opportunities, serving our nation in the military, and other exciting career opportunities.
We mean it when we say our rally cry, “We ARE Brown County.” These graduates will always be able to say that they ARE Brown County and can stand on the foundation that this community built for them to prepare them to take on the world. This class will do great things.
Congratulations to the Brown County High School Class of 2018!
Laura Hammack is superintendent of Brown County schools. She can be reached at 812-988-6601 or [email protected].
