West Franklin graduates prepare for school’s first commencement
New traditions
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The end of high school is near for high school seniors. Students can’t wait to don their cap and gown to commence the next step in their lives. For many, dreams of the future make them practically delirious with anticipation.
It would be a shame for students to be so eager for the future that they fail to enjoy the present. The present includes their graduation ceremony.
This year will mark the first graduation class for West Franklin High School Falcons — a result of the consolidation of Williamsburg and Pomona high schools into one.
More than 40 students dressed in royal blue robes with blue and silver tassels will be led into their school’s gymnasium next Saturday morning by the combined faculty from both schools. The united class may not have spent four years together but, no doubt, feel like one unit, especially after their coming senior trip to the Ozarks.
Combined traditions from each high school, such as the slide show of seniors and presentation of a flower to graduates’ parents, will be enhanced with new traditions. These traditions will include a keepsake graduation program created by a member of the senior class, a speech from the classes’ salutatorian and a violin music presentation from the school’s Kansas Scholar.
While the senior class is smaller than what the two high schools had prior to consolidation, most of the students who hung in there realize the district made the right decision and should have combined the schools even sooner.
These students, along with their schools’ faculty and staff, formed a unique alliance and made the best of an initially tough situation.
It is easy to take the present for granted when all eyes are pointed toward new goals and destinations. West Franklin seniors should slow down, catch their breath and enjoy the end of this historic Falcon journey before embarking on the next one — wherever that road takes them.
— Jeanny Sharp,
editor and publisher
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