It took Frank Reekie five years and one month, but last Thursday, along with 11 other classmates, he was finally able to don his cap and gown and receive his diploma from Riverside-Brookfield High School.
Thursday’s ceremony was much smaller than the main graduation that took place June 3 on RB’s football field. This one was held in the faculty cafeteria, with less pomp and circumstance: there was no music or keynote address, and Reekie was the only one in the graduating class who chose to wear the bright blue cap and gown. It was all over in 15 minutes. But it didn’t mean any less than RB’s ceremony in early June; to some, it meant more.
“It means my future,” Reekie said. “A lot of my friends dropped out of school, but this means I can move on to college and fulfill my dreams.”
The event was the end result of an accelerated summer school program offered to RB students who ended their senior year just a few credits short of graduating. Rather than having to come back in the fall to complete their requirements, the students attend four hours of classes in various subject areas every day for four weeks. In the end, they earn their high school diplomas.
Superintendent/Principal Jack Baldermann explained that the program, which is in its second year, was created because many students who don’t finish high school within four years decide to drop out rather than return as a fifth-year student.
“For some students, if they didn’t graduate on time, with the stigma of coming back for a fifth year, they wouldn’t do it,” Baldermann said. “We’ve had kids miss it by a credit or half credit and never get their diploma. Now these students get a chance to get on with their lives.”
At the ceremony, friends Viktorija Stasaityte and Lauren Charapata were ecstatic at the thought that they wouldn’t have to return to RB in the fall. Both said this was the main reason they decided to enter the program.
“Now we don’t have to come back next year,” Stasaityte said. “I’m excited to be done with high school.”
So far, the program has been successful. Of the 15 students offered entry into the program this summer, 13 accepted. Although one didn’t attend the final graduation ceremony, all of the students completed their final requirements by the end of the month.
The reasons these students found themselves just shy of graduating with the rest of their class varied, but many followed a similar pattern: slacking off in schoolwork for two or three semesters, and realizing too late the damage it had done to their progress.
“It was my fault,” Reekie said. “My first two years I didn’t really try.”
However much they may have ignored school in the past, the demands of the program made some of the students focus on their work like never before. Each had a different number of requirements to fulfill. While some had it relatively easy?”Reekie, for example, only had one credit to finish?”others had a much harder task. Tanya Clancy had four credits, or the equivalent of eight semesters of work, in math, science, fine arts and history to complete during the program.
“I was doing work at home and staying late a lot,” she said, adding that in the end, she thought the extra effort was worth it. “Instead of wasting more time, it was better to just get it over with.”
For those who watched the students work toward their diplomas, the experience was inspiring. RB teachers Barbara Panek and Colleen Westerkamp led the class through the curriculum, with Panek teaching math, Westerkamp teaching English and both providing extra assistance for students taking correspondence courses, or independent-study classes in subjects not taught directly in the program. Both had known students in the program for many years, and were proud to see them finally overcome their problems and earn their diplomas.
“I’ve had some of these girls crying on my shoulders,” Westerkamp said, “so to watch them get to this point is a happy moment. It’s beyond happy.”
Now that they’ve cleared this hurdle, most students are already looking toward the next one. Reekie, Stasaityte, Charapata and Clancy are all planning on attending college. Reekie said he’d spend two years at Triton Community College before moving on to a full four-year program, and Charapata said she hoped to study nursing sometime soon.
These four are not the only ones planning their next step, however. During the ceremony, Westerkamp read passages from the students’ first English assignment during the program, an essay answering the question “Who are you and why are you here?” In most, the message seemed to be one of hope, with optimism about the future.
“Changing from being a lazy person to a committed person changed my way of viewing certain things,” one student wrote. “I need to make my own choices, do my own thing, and I will go far.”