Friday, July 11, 2025
Nine years after a flood at Seaford High School caused a plaque honoring the school’s earliest valedictorians and salutatorians to go missing, their names have finally been restored — thanks to school officials and a former top graduate.
A new plaque was unveiled at a dedication ceremony in the high school auditorium earlier this month. It lists the names of the valedictorians and salutatorian beginning with the class of 1958 — the high school’s first graduating class — and continuing through 1970, and will be mounted alongside plaques honoring the district’s top graduates since then.
For district Superintendent Adele Pecora, restoring the names was a way to honor the legacy of students who have walked the halls of Seaford High. “It is always important that we remember we are built upon the foundation of those that have come before us,” Pecora said at the June 5 ceremony.
She was joined by members of the Board of Education, school administrators and Susan Ranaudo, valedictorian of the class of 1970. Also in attendance were Ranaudo’s family members, including her husband, John, a 1969 Seaford High graduate.
The effort to restore the plaque began in 2019, when Susan, now 72, attended her husband’s 50th high school reunion. As they walked the halls, the couple noticed that the plaque was missing and brought it to the attention of school administrators.
“I was very disappointed,” Susan said. “You’d like to see your name on the wall when you come back to visit the school.”
Although her name was eventually restored, the plaque remained missing — and she hoped that one day, the rest of the names would all once again be displayed on the walls.
In 2023, Principal Nicole Schnabel and clerical assistant Toni Coacci began the process of recovering the missing names. They combed through old records and commencement programs and contacted alumni social media groups in order to identify the valedictorians and salutatorians from the school’s early years.
The process wasn’t easy, Schnabel noted, because records from that time were often inconsistent. Graduation formats varied from year to year, making verification difficult.
“I wasn’t going to publish the plaque until I was certain of the names,” she said.
Schnabel and Pecora thanked the Ranaudos for their role in advocating for the restoration of the names of the district’s early academic high achievers. As part of the ceremony, the couple received a citation from the office of State Sen. Steve Rhoads, recognizing their efforts.
Susan said she was proud to be Seaford’s 1970 valedictorian, adding that the education she and her husband received was “outstanding.”
“We felt like we were very well prepared to go to college and then go out into the world,” she said, “because the education we got was excellent.”
Ranaudo went on to attend Hofstra University, where she studied math and elementary education, and eventually tested satellites as an aerospace engineer. Her husband also had a career in aerospace engineering, after earning a degree from New Mexico State University.
The two were friends in high school, where they both sang in the chorus. They began dating in 1971, moved to California in 1976 and married in 1978. Now retired, they live in Manhattan Beach, California. They have two sons, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
At the ceremony, Susan recalled that the 1970 Seaford High graduation was rained out and moved into the gym, which meant limited seating. Only her parents were able to watch her walk across the stage. Decades later, she was grateful that her three sisters and brother could be on hand for the plaque dedication, a moment that honored not just her, but all of the top graduates of Seaford’s early years.
John described growing up in Seaford as “storybook,” recalling a close-knit community and a well-rounded education. And according to this year’s valedictorian, Anastasia Perlegis, and salutatorian, Ava Caruso, that storybook atmosphere lives on at the high school today.
“I think we can all relate to how Seaford is for being so tight-knit and such a close community,” Perlegis said at the ceremony. “There are always teachers to support us to this day. That has not changed. Even as technology and the world are constantly changing, Seaford remains a family.”
Schnabel added that the community takes pride in the strong tradition that has shaped it over the years. Dedicating the plaque, she said, is a way to show students that the district is grateful for the past leaders who laid the foundation for the opportunities they have today.
“Every year we look to get better,” Schnabel said, “and we can’t keep getting better if there’s a huge gap.”
