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Partly Cloudy East Rockaway High School seniors graduate
Pomp and circumstance for Class of 2012
“You have completed a 13-year journey, and it’s time for us to let you go.”
So said East Rockaway Schools Superintendent Roseanne Melucci as she addressed the 98 students in the graduating class of 2012 in the school’s auditorium on June 22.
“We’ve enjoyed educating you,” she said, “and watched you grow academically and socially. Who is the person you will choose to be as you leave East Rockaway High School and begin the next phase of your life? Will you continue to demonstrate the good characteristics that have become part of your class’s reputation? Society, now more than ever, needs people with true character … honest, resourceful … I hope that each and every day, you will continue to be a person of good character.”
Melucci also gave a nod to retiring high school Principal Bill Fortgang, who, she said, was also “graduating,” and had given unconditionally to the school. “He is one of those all-around wonderful people,” she said. “He has made this school a place where people feel valued and appreciated.” Fortgang retired after 25 years at the high school.
Guest speaker Linda Schmidt, a Board of Education trustee, shared the story of an 85-year-old man who was recently presented with an honorary diploma by the district. John Rieder had to leave East Rockaway High School in 1945, before he could graduate, to join the military.
“We tend to take things for granted,” Schmidt said. “We here in East Rockaway have it all. There are so many places in this world where people fight and die for an education. There are so many places where people would actual love to walk into a building [like this]. Now you have been given a wonderful gift … appreciate all the things that are available to you, and continue to make your parents and community proud of your achievements.”
Words from the academic honorees
“How will you be remembered?” Valedictorian Sheri Reichelson asked her fellow graduates. “It won’t be by your yearbooks gathering dust on the shelf … you’ll be remembered by your actions and non-actions. The people around us help us become who we are — not only the teachers, but our friends, too.”
