By Michael S. Hoey
Correspondent
The Delavan-Darien School District honored the district’s academic top 10 students for the Class of 2021 at a banquet at Lake Lawn Resort on April 28. Typically the Southern Lakes Conference hosts a banquet for all the schools in the conference, but it was canceled for the second year in a row due to the pandemic.
High school principal Jim Karedes thanked the school board for hosting the event on its own. He thanked District Administrator Jill Sorbie specifically for making DDHS the only school in the SLC so far to host such an event.
Karedes also thanked the board for approving in-person learning this school year. He said the district has offered face-to-face learning every day this year with no shutdowns related to the pandemic. It was also important to Karedes that the district was willing to host events such as the top ten event, especially since athletics have been allowed to compete this year.
“This is a big deal,” he said. “The people in this room are the top ten of your class.”
Karedes said they did not get to that honor in just the last six months, year or even four years. He said it began when each of the kids was 3-to 4-years old and their parents were reading to them. He credited parents for the 18 years of success these kids have experienced.
Students then were encouraged to stand up and introduce their banquet guests and a buffet meal was provided.
While enjoying the meal, Karedes asked each table to complete a series of questions, some for the students and some for the parents. The questions were a fun way for everyone to get to know one another, like “If your child was a song, a book, a movie, or an animal, what would they be and why?” Another question asked what the most embarrassing thing the student has done or the parent had done to the student.
The students were presented with individual plaques and a plaque recognizing all of them will be hung at the high school. All of the students were grateful the district recognized them.
Read comments made by some of the students – and additional coverage from the banquet – in the May 6 Delavan Enterprise.
