Scarsdale High School Graduation is Brief, Lighthearted

377 Scarsdale students graduated from Scarsdale High School today in a ceremony that echoed the past and pointed inevitably to the future. It was the 94th graduating class to emerge from Scarsdale High School, and it signaled the 227th year of classes in the Village. For most of the graduates, it was the latest step toward college, maturity and the beckoning greater world.

Running for less than an hour, the ceremony was brief, friendly and celebratory. Inclement weather caused the ceremony to be held in the school's gymnasium, which was packed with ticket-holding family members. The banner draped gym, adorned with brown drops celebrating past sports teams, was so full some of the teachers couldn't get in, and a five-camera video feed provided by student staffers was shown simultaneously to the overflow crowd in the school's theater.

There were no outside guest speakers. The graduates heard from members of the Board of Education, faculty advisors, class officers, Superintendent Michael McGill and their principal, John Klemme, who is retiring after 14 years of service. 

The graduates marched out in burgundy mortarboards and gowns over their streets clothes, tall platform shoes and tennis shoes visible beneath the dignified robes.

Musical accompaniment came from within the school, as well. Standing to the side of the entering crowd, John Cuk, director of the school's Senior Choral Ensemble, watched the crowd enter and remarked that the Ensemble was going to open the ceremonies with the Star Spangled Banner.

"Nobody sings the second or third verses," Cuk said of the song's bloodier, less known lyrics. I asked him if he was planning to. "No. It's a family function," Cuk said. 

After the National Anthem, Board of Education President Jill Spieler welcomed the graduates perfunctorily, then stepped aside for Elizabeth Guggenheimer, the vice president of the Board of Education, who gave the address from the Board. Guggenheimer's son, Brian, was among the graduates.

"The graduating class is the community's greatest asset," Guggenheimer said, noting that its members should be noted for their sense of contribution and voluntary efforts to provide aid to victims of the Japan and Haiti earthquakes.

"The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves all their lives," Guggenheim told the crowd. 

"You are ready," Guggenheimer said. "It's time to move on. Parents, it's time to let go."

The Class of 2011's co-treasurers, John Failla and Alexander Wess, introduced their advisors, Jennifer Wagner and Jose Lamela, before the advisors spoke. The introduction heaped the pair with praise of dubious veracity: Wagner made apple juice out of orange juice. Lamela's ten gallon hat holds 20 gallons. The advisors declined to refute the stories, though Lamela did say that the current class is "the greatest class ever to graduate Scarsdale High School."

Naomi Weinstein, class co-secretary, awarded the Kenneth Rosenberg Memorial Scholarship, named after an SHS student who died in 1984, to Emily Knapp.

Andrew Arbeeny, Class President for each of his years at SHS, spoke of his time at the school and his classmates' inevitable growth. He mourned a lost classmate, Akshay Menon, who died in his freshman year, but celebrated the achievements of the class, noting that 98 percent will be going on to college.

Arbeeny noted the capture of Osama bin Laden, the earthquake and radiation in Japan, politicians falling from grace and the wars and unrest from Afghanistan to Libya.

"But you know what?" he asked. "We are prepared to take on this world."

Following Arbeeny, Klemme spoke.

"The theme of this graduation is 'taking leave,'" Klemme said. "Savor that split second between the past and your future. I am graduating with you after fourteen years."

Klemme, 62, lives in New York City. Next Tuesday will be his last day at the school. He'll be moving to Palm Beach, Florida, where he will be a full-time English teacher at the Oxbridge Academy.

"Nothing is lost forever," he said, in a warning quote from the playwright Tony Kutschner's "Angels in America."  "In this world, there is a painful longing for what's left behind...But the world only spins forward. You are fabulous creatures, each and every one of you."

Following Klemme's speech, the graduates' names were read, and each of the 377 graduating students came forth to shake Klemme's hand and receive a blank diploma before being photographed. When the last name was called, a cheer went up and a sea of mortarboards rose in the air.

When they fell, Klemme took the dais again and spoke into the microphone, this time quoting a lighter cultural reference, "Ferris Beuhler's Day Off."

"Go. Go," Klemme said. He waited a brief moment, looking at the students who gazed at him waiting, before smiling and waving his hand to shoo out the graduating class. "Bye!" he said, and he turned his back and walked away.

After that, the graduating class stood and filed out with their parents, where the rain had stopped, at least briefly.

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