Dr. Janine Walker-Caffrey

By Katherine Massopust—

PERTH AMBOY — It was proposed at the 4/16/13 Special Meeting to have a graduation ceremony for the High School in an indoor venue but no place around was available to suit the volume of graduating students. The graduation ceremony is set to be at Water’s Stadium to be around 9:30 a.m. on June 27, 2013.

Project Graduation has several options such as Bridgewater, the Perth Amboy YMCA or at the High School.

Vice President Ken Puccio said he was involved with the program since its inception in 1992. “I don’t think you can put a price tag on a human life. Another alternative is to have it here (at the high school). One of the reasons to have it out of town is to keep interlopers out. We’ve never had major problems. Project graduation has always been a success. If we have it here at the High School, security wise we can watch everything going on. We had 300 students on the Cornucopia in 2000. They fell asleep before the boat came back. Kids just want to dance and eat. Cost wise at Bridgewater they have ice skating and video games.”

Board Member Milady Tejada had concerns, “If graduation starts at 9:30 a.m., when does project graduation start?”

Dr. Caffrey stated, “Students generally don’t’ carouse in the afternoon.”

Tejada said, “We might lose the kids if we have a big gap. Having it at the High School is too close to home. The kids are looking forward to going out of every day life. They spend four years in the high school.”

Board Member Anton Massopust stated, “When I graduated from High School on State Street in 1958 (The old High School, now the McGinnis School) they told us to look around the room and said, “This is the last time you will all be together. When you go out the door, you are going to the rest of your life. This is a very important day in their lives and I feel it should be something memorable.” Massopust then added, “Going away is better. There are too many distractions here.”

Puccio stated, “We lose sight of how poor our kids are. I understand about going out of town. To them, a normal project graduation we usually get half of the 500 kids graduating. When we take the kids, they are securely taken to the bus. We have portable breathalyzers so no one can pass alcohol to them. Until recently I was 100% for going away.”

Dr. Caffrey stated, “I’ll come up with three options and we will vote on it next Thursday.”(4/26/13)

Board Member Anton Massopust asked, “Will the administration be involved?”

Dr. Caffrey answered, “Of course.”

Board Member Dianne Roman stated that Rutgers University has Project Graduation all the time.

One student who was sitting in the audience stated that although she is not a senior she feels that it is a bad idea to have it at the High School since there is nothing to look forward to. “You will have a lot of angry students.”

Board Member Anton Massopust suggested that the officers of the Senior Class should be involved in the decision. Superintendent Caffrey said they would.