By: Lauren Sannito 42Fifty Staff Writer
Listen up OHS Seniors! Now is your time to shine! As graduation is approaching very rapidly, so is the student body’s chance to give a speech at graduation. School administration is switching things up this year by not having a valedictorian and salutatorian. Some student body, and school administration have mixed feelings about the new change.
We asked, assistant principal, Mr. Nunamaker, about his feelings toward the change in graduation and he said, “I think this opportunity is exciting and empowering, and I hope it generates a significant level of interest”.
We also asked Nunamaker about how this decision came about, and why the administration decided to do it this year, and he stated, “The move away from valedictorian and salutatorian has been discussed for quite some time. Subsequently, the move to a student speaker was not a sudden change; rather, both schools made the decision to promote this opportunity and chose this time period to roll it out to students”.
Therefore, both Oswego and Oswego East high school will not have a valedictorian and salutatorian.
We also interviewed senior, Chris Grady, and asked for his opinion on the change as well and he said, “I believe that we should’ve kept the valedictorian and salutatorian. The valedictorian works so hard to keep the number one rank in our class and they should be able to give the speech because it’s not easy to keep the number one rank in our class.”
There has been both positive and negative feedback, but the audience will have their own opinion as May 19 approaches.
Lauren Sannito covers both, Oswego High School and community news. She can be reached at 61001122@students.sd308.org Or contact the publication directly at 42fifty@sd308.org
Student Publication of Oswego High School, Oswego, IL
