NUMBER OF STUDENTS IN GRADUATING CLASS: 338 SIZE OF CLASS WHEN IT STARTED HIGH SCHOOL: 442 VALEDICTORIAN, Traditional Program: Kathakali Sircar
VALEDICTORIAN, Center for Advanced Technologies: Brett Tartler
SALUTATORIAN, Traditional Program: Jessica Leonard
SALUTATORIAN, Center for Advanced Technologies: Jeremy Hicks
SPEAKERS: Hicks; Fred R. Ulrich, principal; Guy Alexander DiBenedetto, National Honor Society president; Tartler; Sircar; Shila Fisher, Student Government president; and Leonard BEST QUOTE: "Thank you for paying attention even though you will forget most of this," said Tartler near the end of graduation address
SPECIAL GUESTS: Mary Brown, School Board member; Cathy Fleeger, assistant superintendent for secondary/workforce education; Ed Baldwin, director of school operations for area III; Claude Williams, SAC chairman; Debra Morris, Parent Teacher Student Association president; Martin Shapiro, CAT assistant principal.
BEHIND THE SCENES: "Gerakios?" asked teacher Joel Iles, preparing for duty at the podium. The student pronounced the name again. Iles wrote: "Ger-Ah-Kiss."
SCENES AND SIGHTS: Audience members used boxes, graduation programs, palm trees and umbrellas to shield themselves from the evening rain.
BEST QUOTE FROM AUDIENCE: "Look, if they are willing to stand in this rain, I'm willing to stay out here with them," said Donna Newby, who traveled from Macon, Ga., to see her nephew Joshua Newby-Ray graduate.
UNINVITED SPECIAL GUEST: Mother Nature, and the rain she brought with her not once but twice during the ceremony.
CLASS SONG: Lakewood High School alma mater. MEMORIAL: Tiny white ribbons some graduates wore on their gowns in remembrance of the death of Cavan Ferguson, who would have graduated with the class of 2004.
