SCHOOLS

East Meadow High to start Hall of Distinction

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There are three walls of fame in East Meadow High School, Principal Richard Howard said. One lists valedictorians and salutatorians of each graduating class. A second denotes the school’s All-State musicians, and a third lists award-winning athletes.

But Howard and EMHS parents felt that something was missing: a physical monument to alumni who’ve achieved success and given back to the community after their high school careers.

“I have a little bit more knowledge of the history of the building because I went to the school and grew up in the town — but I’m restricted by what I know,” Howard said. “I can refer back to what a student was like at the school. This is about what they’ve done beyond their school days.”

With advice from their colleagues at W.T. Clarke High School, EMHS officials are erecting an alumni Hall of Distinction this spring. A Planning and Management Team, which is spearheading the initiative, is accepting nominations until May 1 for the inaugural induction ceremony in June.

For years, parents and community members have been asking him about ways in which school officials could honor alumni, Howard said. He brought the idea to the PMT — a shared-decision-making committee comprising parents, students, faculty and administrators — after discussing it with Clarke’s principal, Timothy Voels.

The EMHS Hall of Distinction nomination process will largely replicate that of Clarke’s Hall of Achievement. Voels explained that his school’s PMT launched the program in 2007, thinking it would be a way to bring generations of Clarke students together.

“The genesis of this is we kind of felt that there were a number of alumni who have gone on after their days at Clarke and launched outstanding careers, some of them public servants who have done extraordinary work within our own community and some even beyond that,” he said. “We just thought it would be kind of a nice way to give credit to them. At the same time, it brings it back home a little bit and is a source of pride for the entire community.”

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