Hayesville High School will bid farewell to an estimated 69 seniors during Friday’s 6 p.m. graduation ceremony in the high school gymnasium.
“That could change,” said Superintendent of Schools Mark Leek referring to the number of graduates. “We won’t have a real total until mandatory testing is completed which should be Thursday.”
This year’s class is one of the smallest in recent history. Over the past 20 years Hayesville has averaged 88 graduates with the largest class reported at 96 in 2010.
While the class size may be small, scholarship money has surpassed the million dollar mark. This year’s seniors racked up $1,232,750 to pay for continued education. Scholarship money comes from individuals, colleges, businesses, military and civic groups.
Isaac Nicholson accounted for a large chunk of scholarship money after receiving an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy. His benefits will equate to more than $400,000.
This year’s ceremony is an hour earlier than usual and Leek said there’s a good reason for that.
“We opted to have the graduation at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. to give families more time for things like going out to dinner,” Leek said.