High school
bids farewell
to first class
By kathy baratta
Staff Writer
PLUMSTED — This year’s graduating seniors distinguished themselves in more ways than one by being the first graduating class at New Egypt High School.
After 76 years of sending their high school students to neighboring Allentown High School, Plumsted voters in 1997 approved a $16 million referendum that opened the community’s first high school by converting the former middle school into a high school and building a new middle school.
Superintendent of Schools Gerald Woehr started working in Plumsted in 1988 as the district’s elementary school principal. Woehr said the New Egypt High School graduation ceremony that was held Tuesday was the culmination of the hopes of many people who have watched the district grow.
"Basically, it’s local people responsible for us being a K-12 school system," the superintendent said.
Woehr said former Board of Education members, Mayor Ronald Dancer and the members of the Township Committee were expected to attend the ceremony at the high school, Evergreen Road.
Unique to graduation in a district that has embraced growth while retaining its country hometown closeness by graduating a class of 87 students was the fact no valedictorian or salutatorian was formally selected from among the graduating class.
Instead, students who wished to address the graduating class submitted a speech outline to the staff for selection, according to Darcy Forlenza, 18, who was selected with classmate Karen Hammerschmidt, 18, to address the seniors and their guests.
Both young women are lifelong students in the district who grew up in Plumsted. Being seniors in the first graduating class from the town’s high school is a very special distinction for both seniors.
"I am very proud to be a party of this graduating class and all that we’ve accomplished. It has been our responsibility over the past four years to set the precedents that future New Egypt students will follow," Forlenza said.
Forlenza, who is a member of the National Honor Society, also served on the student council and as class vice president. She is now serving an internship with a local newspaper and will be going on to Boston University as a journalism major.
Hammerschmidt, who will be attending Bridgewater College to pursue a degree in English education, echoed Forlenza’s sentiments. "We’ve had a chance to do things no one else has — given the power to set traditions and set the bar," she said.
Hammerschmidt proudly referred to the 12 athletic teams that were created in a new high school that started out with fewer than 100 students, teams that include football, field hockey, soccer, basketball, lacrosse and baseball.
Speaking of having attended school in a district where everybody knows your name, Forlenza said, "It’s nice to know everyone you go to school with."