Graduating seniors, veteran educators set to celebrate

WASILLA — Over the next two weeks, the Valley’s 1,348 high school seniors will mark the end of childhood as they receive their diplomas and begin new chapters of their life stories.

This year’s graduation ceremonies will include a few fond farewells to school principals who will be moving on as well.

Dwight Probasco is retiring from Wasilla High after 18 years and 29 years total as a Mat-Su educator. Burchell’s Dave Holmquist is passing the torch after 12 years there. And Ben Eveland is stepping down from his post at Career and Technical High after helping open the school four years ago.

“I have nothing but gratitude to express to Wasilla High, its staff, students and community for allowing me what I see as a true gift in a career of the nurturing and education of its young people,” Probasco wrote on the school district’s website. “I leave Wasilla High with feelings of sadness, anticipation for the future and humility for the years I have spent here. I also leave with the strong belief that the cornerstone of our society rests with contributions from our youth and the spirit that they bring as they transition into adulthood.”

The same bittersweet feelings expressed by Probasco most likely will be shared by many donning graduation robes after months of planning by graduation committees from Palmer to Talkeetna.

Palmer High will celebrate the graduation of about 150 seniors May 18 at 7 p.m. in its gym after students fought the district for the right to hold the ceremony on their own turf.

PHS Guidance Secretary Jolene Grover said she was proud of Senior Class President Tim Rockey and Class Secretary Alexandra Van Hoomissen for sticking to their guns against holding the ceremony at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, as the district requested.

“They just didn’t want to go into Wasilla,” Grover said. “They just really like the hometown feel of having graduation in their school. But they won the right to hold it here in a respectful way.”

Rockey and Van Hoomissen wrote and circulated a petition to seniors last fall and started a Facebook group that garnered more than 300 members in favor of keeping it at PHS.

“Multiple meetings were arranged with adults who made the decision on the graduation,” Rockey wrote in a December 2010 Frontiersman article. “Senior ambassadors proposed regulations for graduation to ease the pressure of having it in the gym.”

Palmer’s ceremony will feature music by close friends Julius Thompson and Jared Logsdon singing “You’ve Got a Friend in Me,” as well as “Sling Life Away” by Nancy Means and Stefan Marty. The song “Dynamite” also will be performed by Melissa Kaylor and Josh Anderson.

A slideshow of seniors’ baby pictures, words of wisdom from physics teacher Michael Fry and two or three speeches by those who win the school’s “speech off” today will round out the ceremony.

A Grad Blast at Raven Hall on the Alaska State Fairgrounds is planned afterward from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m.

At Wasilla High, bagpipes played by Crow Creek Pipes and Drums group will help set the mood at the start of its May 19 ceremony at the Menard center, beginning at 7 p.m. The school boasts the highest number of graduates with 252.

Although there was a bit of controversy surrounding the symphonic jazz choir’s plans to sing “Bohemian Rhapsody” after a parent or two complained to Probasco about the appropriateness of the song, an edited version of the popular Queen tune got the green light from Probasco on Monday.

The ceremony also will feature Probasco as keynote speaker and a presentation by the school’s three female valedictorians, Senior Class Sponsor Deb Haynes said Monday.

“Something unique this year will be a time capsule that the art teacher engraved that will be on the graduation platform,” Haynes said. “Students will write letters to themselves for the time capsule during the Grad Blast at Menard for their 10-year reunion.”

Houston High will celebrate the graduations of 64 students during its May 18 ceremony at the Menard at 7 p.m.

The HHS choir will sing the Boyz II Men song “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday” and science teacher Colton Conner will seek to inspire students as a former HHS graduate. Senior Class President Kassidy Kuhn, School President Amber Acton and Valedictorians Garrett Elder and Tyler Howlett will give speeches as well.

HHS Counselor Stephanie Sparks said that for the next week, she’ll be busy de-stemming 500 red, white, pink, orange and purple roses seniors will give to those who’ve helped them on their journeys.

Three smaller schools — Burchell, American Charter Academy and Mat-Su Career and Tech — will be doing things their own special ways May 23 at the Menard, May 16 at Wasilla Bible Church Gym,and May 20 on their own turf, respectively.

Those ceremonies will be more personalized, featuring special recognitions and kudos from school staff for each graduate. Burchell will have the most graduates with 223.

It will be the first graduation for American Charter and the first Mat-Su Career and Tech class to have gone through all four years of the hands-on school.

“Our seniors are grouped by career pathways and as they walk across the stage, a transition plan is announced for each,” Mat-Su Career and Tech Administrative Secretary Melody Daniel said of the school’s 95 graduates. “There are also business partners from the community who acknowledge them with certificates and achievements, so it’s really a special event for them.”

Calls to Colony High, Su Valley and Valley Pathways regarding their ceremonies were not returned Monday. Those schools are celebrating the rites of passage for 223 seniors May 17 at the Menard, 32 seniors May 19 at Su Valley, and 58 seniors May 20 at the Menard, respectively.

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.