Re-2 graduates ready for next step

With graduation now behind them, graduates of the class of 2009 at Rifle High School and Coal Ridge High School between Silt and New Castle are now looking toward the future and a vast majority of them plan to seek higher education at college, universities and technical in and out of state.

RHS graduated 93 students at the afternoon ceremony on Sunday, May 17.

“We now have students that are going to community college, tech school, CMC, Western, UNC, CSU, CU Boulder and many out of state colleges including BYU, Boston University, Seattle University and Notre Dame,” said Cindy Skinner, counselor at RHS.

Others will do on-the-job training and a few have enlisted in the armed forces.

“This year we have a class that speaks to individuality,” Skinner said. “It’s many students with many ideas and many directions. For example, our female wrestler, Keaton Long, will be attending Menlo College where she will study business and be a part of their women’s wrestling program. Others have signed to play sports and some will do culinary, but they all will pursue their dreams whether it be tech school or college.”

There were two co-valedictorians at RHS this year — Marcy Kreimier and Francisco Lariz, who both graduated with a 4.19 GPA and have completed enough college credits to be sophomores already.

In her graduation speech Kreimier summed up a description of her class in one word — “Heart.”

“No matter what happened, our class brought heart every time,” Kreimier said. “We all make up a heart that beats 2009.”

The salutatorian was Shea MacLeod.

To qualify as a valedictorian or salutatorian, students at RHS must earn an academic letter (a minimum of five solids with a 3.5 GPA each semester in a year) for four years.

RHS chemistry teacher, David Ziegler, was the featured speaker at the ceremony and led the class in a victory song.

“Victory. Victory. That is what today means to me,” he sang and the crowd of RHS graduates followed in unison.

Down the road in New Castle, 122 seniors graduated that evening at Coal Ridge High School as the first four-year class at the school. The school opened in 2005 with freshman and sophomore students only.

“Class of 2009, we rock,” said class valedictorian Nicholas Lapka. “We need to thank all the teachers and staff that have mentored us through these four years.”

The commencement speech was delivered by language arts teacher Brian Blair, who gave the commencement address.

“A new school is like a new house,” Blair said. “Coal Ridge was like a new home. WHen it opened, I was afraid to touch anything because everything was clean a new.A house has no character until someone has lived in it. BUt, since our school has had these guys living in it, it now has character.”

Of the 122 graduates, 106 graduating seniors celebrated their plans to further their education with the first annual Academic Signing and Recognition day on May 4.

“Our promise when we opened Coal Ridge was that every student would be prepared to go on to further their education - wherever they may choose,” said Coal Ridge Principal Jeanie Humble. “Little did we know that we would be witnessing 87 percent would make plans to continue learning, growing and achieving.”

Several students were asked about their school of choice and if they had advice for underclassmen.

“Don’t slack off your senior year,” said Colorado State-bound Mikaela Guettler.

“Take a full load of classes your senior year,” advised Sierra Grove, who is headed to the University of Idaho.

Students plan to attend institutions in Alaska, Hawaii, colleges throughout Colorado and the Navy.

“The bulk of them are going to two- or four-year colleges,” said Theresa Hamilton, director of district-wide services for the Re-2 school district. “And we’re looking at nearly 90 percent of the class — that’s unheard of.”

Post Independent reporter John Gardner contributed to this report.