By Jason Gabak
According to Grenardo Avellino, executive principal at East Syracuse-Minoa high school, the way the coronavirus and schools closing for the remainder of the year has truly upended one of the important milestones in the lives of students, their senior year.
While the curricular aspects can not be overlooked, Avellino said as the school year winds down there are so many important moments that students are missing out on this year that it is sad from both the perspective of an educator as well as parents and students alike.
“They are missing out on all those things, their dances and all those social times of their senior year,” he said. “The curriculum is important too of course, but they have been together so long, so many years and they are missing out on all of this time when they would be together all year. It is almost like the grieving process. They don’t get to do all of those things they were looking forward to.”
As a gesture of their care for the students, staff from administrators to teacher and assistants and the transportation department recently organized a special day of deliveries to honor to the class of 2020.
On May 8, they delivered 242 lawn signs to seniors.
There were six bus routes departing from the high school with an administrator on every route.
Some routes had additional staff following in their personal vehicles.
“It was a very emotional day,” Avellino said. “The whole staff, teachers, assistants, our transportation department, everyone did an amazing job. It went beyond my expectations.”
Parents were notified of the surprise delivery and according to Avellino everyone was greatly appreciative of the kind gesture.
Many seniors came out of their houses as the sign was placed in their yard and staff cheered the seniors and bus drivers honked the bus horns.
The deliveries even had their own police escort to help with traffic.
Avellino said each week he has a conference call with other principals across the county and he said many ideas are shared and exchanged about way to honor this year’s seniors and he hopes to be able to find a few more way, including a celebration that took place Friday May 15, where the stadium lights were lit up fields across the county to honor senior students.
While it is not the senior year anyone could have planned for, Avellino said taking the time to do something special is important and events like this help keep everyone connected through a difficult time.
“It was a lot of fun, but it was very emotional,” Avellino said. “For me personally it was very emotional. We really miss the kids and this is just something we can do for them.”
