Nantucket High School graduates 97 Saturday
BY STEVE SHEPPARD INDEPENDENT WRITER
Graduation exercises for 97 Nantucket High School seniors will be held this Saturday at 3 p.m. in the Mary P. Walker Auditorium.

For many, the ceremonies will be the culmination of thirteen years of learning in the island's public school system. After what has seemed to some an eternity, the final exams have now been taken and the world beckons.

Most of the graduates are looking forward to college, as 66 students, or 68 percent of the class plans to attend four-year colleges or universities. Eight students are looking to begin new academic careers at 2-year colleges, and 7 are preparing for other post-secondary ambitions.

Twelve students will join the workforce, three hope to travel and one has plans to join the military.

Traditions leading up to commencement include the Senior Ball, held for years at the Nantucket Yacht Club. Parents and teachers also attend the Ball as students bid farewell to their mentors, sign one another's yearbooks and officially begin their lives as adults.

Samantha Pillion, who graduates first in the Class of 2007, will offer Saturday's Valedictory address. Erik Reinbergs is Salutatorian and Erin Lindsay, third in her class, will offer the class prophecy. Class president Kerry Fee will welcome people to the festivities.

The Class Song, "Once in a Blue Moon," was written by senior Josef Kardell and will be played during the recessional. The Class Flower is the Gerber Daisy.

As another song says, "we'll remember always," and that is the case for several school administrators who took time to reflect on their own graduation days.

For athletic director Nancy Larrabee, each Nantucket High School graduation brings back memories of her graduation from NHS in 1969. She was both class president and class historian, and still happily recalls the joy of leading her class in flipping their tassels. The Ruth Havilland Sutton Scholarship that helped get her started in college paid for a full semester's room and board. Her award was $1,350.

Deputy Superintendent Dr. Carlos Colley says his graduation from Taconic Hills in upstate New York was "a joyous day. I remember I was number three in my class. The school put up one of those big tents so they could hold the ceremonies outside."

Schools superintendent Dr. Robert Pellicone also recalls fine weather for his graduation from Notre Dame High School in California. His graduation ceremonies, too, were held outside.

"I'd like to hold Nantucket's graduation outside if I could," he said. "We're going to look at different options for next year." Any decisions will involve the input of students, he said, "because it is their graduation and they should be included."

NANTUCKET NEW SCHOOL GRADUATES EIGHT

Nantucket New School will graduate eight eighth graders Friday morning at 9 a.m. Ceremonies will be held at the school campus on Nobadeer Farm Road.

Seven New School graduates will enter next year's freshman class at the high school, while one will attend private school. The graduates are: Carly Jensen, Haley Congdon (who will attend St. George's in Newport, R.I.), Ethan Lockley, Samantha Lockley, Drew Moore, Melissa Reid, Lexie Thayer and Katelyn Zieff.

LIGHTHOUSE SCHOOL GRADUATION

Lighthouse School's third, and largest, Primary Five class will graduate at ceremonies to be held next Tuesday, June 12, at 4:30 p.m.

The graduates are: Molly Pollock, Livvy Campochiaro, Esme Westerlund, Matias Sejersen, Mikayla Molta, Dana Sundell and

Madison Joslin. I