Summer Grads ‘Cap Off’ Class of 2012
Again last night DMPS rocked venerable old Hoyt Sherman Place, this time with a summer graduation ceremony on the heels of Monday’s night’s Minorities on the Move: The Youth Speak performance poetry showcase. And this is supposedly the educational offseason?
In a spirit of leaving no graduate behind, the district passed out diplomas to 81 students who earned them in the academic support labs that are now humming at all five of the comprehensive high schools, each of which was represented in the program. Students from Scavo and Future Pathways also earned diplomas.
That’s 81 kids who would otherwise have been close but no diploma, feeling as though they’d been waiting for a sought-after ticket for years only to have the box office shut down when they were oh so close to the front of the line.
Pomp and Circumstance never sounded so good. Some of the proud families in attendance were hearing it for the first time since coming to this country.
Matt Smith, principal at North HS, gave the commencement address. He told the graduates he considered trying to inspire them with famous quotes from the likes of Emerson, Mandela or Aristotle. But instead he told them the personal story of how he was turned down by 11 state colleges in his home state of Texas before he convinced Baylor University to admit him because he was determined to become an educator.
On the subject of inspirational quotes, Bryce Amos, the district’s Executive Director of Secondary Schools/Learning Services, recalled afterwards that one of his high school coaches told him when he was a senior that he’d never last a semester in college. “I never forgot that,” Amos remarked. “But there are better ways to motivate kids.”
Other district officials who participated in the ceremony included Interim Superintendent Tom Ahart, Des Moines School Board President Teree Caldwell-Johnson and school board members Cindy Elsbernd, Joe Jongewaard and Bill Howard.
The district’s continuous calendar schools got the 2012-13 year started last month. And classes started today at the Downtown School and Edmunds Elementary. So the book closed on the DMPS Class of 2012 not a moment too soon. And that’s exactly the point.
