Terry Cowgill

Wet One

June 18, 2008 on 10:14 pm | In Education, Local |

I wouldn’t say tonight’s commencement exercises at Housatonic Valley Regional High School were a complete disaster. To be fair, considering the near-chaos that precipitated the event, I’d say it went off pretty smoothly.

When I arrived about 20 minutes early, the rain had already started, but the dais and the endless chairs were already set up in front of the main building for the usual outdoor ceremony. There were about 75 umbrellas visible and some of them were already planted on the seats with their owners waiting for the event to begin.

I went inside near the superintendent’s office in an attempt to avoid getting wet and to try to find out what was going on. The band had retreated to the hallway outside the principal’s office, their instruments dripping with Mother Nature’s moisture.

The scene was one of confusion tinged with some bemusement that the wrong decision had been made in a day whose weather forecast vacillated between horror and delight. As I milled about the halls, I finally saw Principal Gretchen Foster, wearing that look principals get when they’ve been dealt a bad hand, striding toward the front doors and announcing under her breath that, “We’re coming into the auditorium!” This was at 6:33 p.m., about three minutes after starting time.

So inside they went. Scott Fellows announced very firmly that only two representatives from each graduate’s family would be admitted because of the sudden and unexpected premium on space. But the show went on — and remarkably well, at that.

If you’d like to view Andrew Sadowski’s salutatorian address, click here. For some hideous reason, Youtube (or perhaps iMovie) insists on cropping the top and bottom of the video frame during processing, so you don’t see all of Andrew’s head. But it’s worth a listen anyway.  Andrew’s mother, former Region One Board member Jane Sadowski, sat behind me and was in stiches the whole time.

I’ll have more in next week’s print edition. Meanwhile, blogging will be light for the next few days, as I will be vacationing on the Cape. Cheers …