Hamburg graduates its 2012 class

Eighth-graders — Class of 2012 — graduates from moves on to

HAMBURG —Grade school is behind them now.

Thirty-one eighth-graders at the Hamburg Borough Public School have now been promoted to high school. As a crowd of more than 250 family members and friends looked on, each student was called down from the stage by school superintendent Roger Jinks and given their graduation credentials by vice principal Patrick Ketch and Hamburg Mayor Paul Marino in the school gym on June 14.

Class president and salutatorian Wesley Walton lead the gathering in the Pledge of Allegiance. Classmate Tyler France read a poem, titled “I am, I can, I will,” before introducing Superintendent Jinks. In his short speech, Jinks told the students that many challenges lay ahead of them, but he knows they “are ready and able to meet and rise above those challenges.”

Next on the agenda, class vice president Mikayla Savastano introduced fellow graduate Nicole Justino, who read a poem called “We Made It,” that summed up the class's experience at the Hamburg School.

Jinks called upon his faculty to confer honors to the students, many of which went to class valedictorian Nicole Spangenburg, who was the next, and final, student to address her class before board of education president Patricia Harby left them with a few words of wisdom — telling them: “Reach for the stars, they are never too far away to reach.”

After each of the students had been awarded their certificates, the “Ode to Joy” recessional was played and students stood for photos before marching out.

Refreshments were provided in the school’s cafeteria, courtesy of the school PTO.

— By Scott Baker

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