LoudounNow LOUDOUN COUNTY’S COMMUNITY-OWNED NEWS SOURCE
[ Vol. 2, No. 32 ]
[ loudounnow.com ]
[ June 15 – 21, 2017 ]
Douglas Graham/Loudoun Now
Woodgrove High School celebrated its class of 2017—395 students strong—with a ceremony Tuesday morning. In all, 5,400 students graduated from 15 Loudoun County high schools this week.
Thousands of Loudoun Graduates Receive Warm Send-Off
BY DANIELLE NADLER
T
his week marked the end—and in a sense a new beginning—for more than 5,000 Loudoun high school graduates. At ceremonies Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, fresh graduates sent caps and beach balls flying, speakers offered words of wisdom sprinkled with a bit of humor, and the class of 2017 reflected on memories made in classrooms and on sports fields and stages. The week of commencement ceremonies marks a major milestone for every Loudoun County high school, but Sunday’s ceremony at Dominion High School was particularly special. Halfway through the class of 2017’s senior year, their principal, John Brewer, was suspended and nearly let go. Hundreds of Dominion students spoke at School
Board meetings from December through March to urge school system leaders to reinstate their principal. Many said it was Brewer who first welcomed them into the Dominion community, and they couldn’t imagine receiving their diploma
from anyone else. The principal, who returned to his post in April, received louder applause than the class of 2017 after commencement speaker Matthew Traenkle first broached the subject.
“This year we experienced great adversity, spending half of our senior year without our beloved principal,” he said, addressing his classmates. “Yet, despite GRADUATION >> 42
An End-of-Year Miracle in the Lunch Line BY DANIELLE NADLER The team that oversees the cafeterias in Loudoun’s public schools got some good news on the last day of school Friday. They could inform the students who owed money for unpaid breakfasts and lunches that their debt had been forgiven. “This was the perfect end-of-the-
! LE W SA NO N O
year miracle,” Director of Nutrition Services Becky Domokos-Bays said. “We’re very grateful.” Loudoun’s public school system has a policy to allow students to eat school breakfast or lunch, even if they don’t have the money to pay for it. But at the end of each school year, the debt accrued from families who don’t reimburse the division adds up, and each
school is usually left to pay the tab. And money taken out of each school’s fund means less money for educational purposes, Bays said. This year, some schools racked up as much as $800, and the school system in total tallied more than $20,000 in meal debt. LUNCH MONEY >> 42
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