Anyone else attend the graduation at West?
Overall, it was a fine ceremony (despite the rain), and they got us out of there in around 2 hours.
But who on earth plans these things and thinks we want to hear extended remarks from 2 school board members?
And why do those board members think anyone really wants to hear them prattle on for 10 minutes or so?
The first speaker was supposed to "accept the gift." So were they satisfied with simply saying, "This is a great day. Congratulations. I officially accept your generous gift."?
Nope. This moron yammered on and on, at an amazingly slow pace - as the storm clouds gathered and thunder rolled - some crap about "the gifts you give and the gifts you receive." The speaker was the only person to find it amusing when they could not locate page 6 - PAGE 6!! - of their speech.
The second speaker was to "certify the class" or some such. So were they satisfied to simply say, "Thank you, I officially acknowledge that these individuals have completed the requirements for graduation"?
Nope. This speaker thought we wanted to hear a number of "clever anecdotes" about Ronald Reagan! Guess what? There were people in the stands who do not share your reverence for this particular past president. So not only did you fail to entertain those people, you succeeded in pissing them off. Congrats! Really added to the occasion. At least you didn't speak into the mike, so you were easier to ignore.
Seriously - why does whoever plans such a ceremony think it needs to be lengthened by extended remarks by people who are not exactly dynamic speakers?
And why do the speakers think that the audience wants anything from them other than brevity?

it WAS a lovely night...and pam zimmerman was very good. the other 2...GASBAGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and KS could NOT be more condescending...reminds me of the enron movie title..."smartest guys in the room." time to retire to arizona!!!!!

I look forward to attending a GW graduation in about 5 years, but for now I will continue enjoying York's. I just returned home and when I saw your posting, I had to comment. At York only ONE board member gets to speak at graduation, the superintendent makes a very, very brief speech, the Principal also a fairly brief speech...there are usually two or three students that speak and two or three musical groups that speak. The students are all chosen by their peers - via vounteer graduation committees. It works out beautifully and with the reading of nearly 600 names, we were out in 1 hour, 45 minutes! Wouldn't want it any other way!

Amy, what is the size of York's graduating class?

whew! sorry about the gasbag remark... that was mean and i apologise. dins...i really didnt appreciate hearing reagan quoted like lincoln...and i also didnt appreciate KS reference to all the great things this class has done for the community..including helping pass the referendum. after all the garbage with referendums the last two years of this classes's time at glenbard i thought that was really unnecessary...enough of her. let's see if they can hang on to 7 periods and the extracirriculars. bye bye KS!!!!! (ps..how long are the terms for school board members?)

Well...there were about 619 who were members of the senior class but some didn't make it and some chose not to participate. So, I'd say there were 585 or so that walked today.

There must have been 2 GBW graduations. The latest Glen Ellyn News (page 5) states the graduation, originally scheduled for Duchon Field, was held in Biester Gym.

Yeah - you know what that tells me? It tells me the caption writer was not the photographer and that the caption writer didn't know what the hell he/she was doing!

What a selfish attitude the D 87 School Board Speakers have!

Come on - its for the KIDS! Political Windbags!

it's ALL for the kids....and i was outside for the grad. dont believe all that you read...except on the BB!!

I thought the term gasbag was appropriate.
Just because they were handed a mic, is no reason for them to go on and on for - what? 10 minutes each?
It seemed as tho they thought they were the highlight of the ceremony - what everybody in the stands came for.
They were mistaken.

OK, I dish out as much criticism of our school boards as the next guy – especially when the subject turns to that bunch of thieves at D 41— ouch, I am still feeling the sting of writing that big check on June 1. But after reading some of the MB comments even I am feeling a little protective towards the two D 87 Board members who are being roasted for their West graduation ceremony speeches last week.

C’mon all you easy-chair heroes . . .what is all this sniping about?? School board members do “work” for free – and devote hundreds of hours in public service, that most of us are too lazy or too complacent or too self-centered to volunteer to do ourselves!!!!!!! I encourage some of you “snipers” to put your names in the hat – next spring will be here before you know it!!!!!! I think we can all agree that school board members perform one of our town’s most “thankless jobs.” How nice for two of ours that the ONE pleasant thing that they are asked to do is now subjecting them to so much public ridicule.

That’s pretty low, folks. With all the bellyachin’, you would think that the G-bard board members pulled a Bill Clinton at the 1988 Democratic National Convention for cryin’ out loud. By my stopwatch, one of them spoke for about 7 or 8 minutes. The other spoke for less than that -- time frames that don’t begin to compare with some of the “gasbags” that they regularly have to listen to during public participation at board meetings.

If I have my facts straight, each of these two board members had a child in the graduating class, which made their participation in the ceremony quite meaningful to them. Let’s cut them a little slack. Pending rain clouds aside, I enjoyed the speeches and felt that for all the time these two board members have given to the community it was not too much to ask us to listen to what they had to say for less than 15 minutes—at best!

We need to keep our eye on the ball. Criticize board members for what goes on at the board table – the extortion at D41 comes readily to mind!!!!!!!! But whining over a couple of brief graduation speeches seems mean-spirited, petty, rude and downright stupid.

No wonder people would rather undergo oral surgery without anesthesia than run for these jobs!!!!!!!

Apparently we differ.

If I were given the opportunity to speak publicly before my kid - and several thousand other captive audience members - I would hope that I would be able to demonstrate to my kid that merely having the mic is not an excuse for self-indulgence. I would also hope to take the opportunity to impress upon my kids that brevity is a prime attribute in most public speaking. I certainly would not prepare 6+ pages of remarks. And if I were choosing a public figure to lionize - well, I guess Reagan IS a pretty easy sell with a solid majority of DuPagers. And who cares about the folks who thought (and still think) he was an incompetent embarrassment.

My comments were largely based on my personal belief that even the best of graduation ceremonies is one of the most tedious exercises imaginable. Coming from that perspective, I heartily recommend cutting anything and everything that is not absolutely necessary. And IMO 15 minutes of remarks by school board members was eminently cuttable.

Apparently your appreciation of various aspects of such ceremonies (as well as your tolerance for sitting on bleachers) exceeds mine.

As long as I'm ragging on the graduation ceremony, am I the only one who is extremely opposed to the coerced "gift" of a dollar by every student?
Apparently it is a GBW tradition for each graduating student to hand the principal a buck, with the total being donated to a particular cause.
I don't care how good the cause is, or how small the payment is, the public manner in which the donation is made renders it far from voluntary.

C'mon Dins...it probably goes to a really good cause like the Principal's Supplemental Retirement Fund. What could it be $450-500 bucks??? Or perhaps to pay the board speakers for their contribution to the ceromony.

Ante up ...it's for the kids in a very round about way!

It was announced that it would go to a fund in memory of a local resident who recently died of cancer.
I'm sure it is a very worthy cause.
But I really hate that type of coerced giving.

East also had two board members speak at graduation. I am with Dinsdale on this one. The ceremony is way too long to begin with, cut the fat. It is nice that the 2 members who spoke at West had kids in the class but that was not the case at East (no Board member would send their kid to the ghetto). There were 680 graduates, we needed to cut half the speeches. I think the school could cut one of the student speeches as well as performances by the band and choir, minus pomp and circumstance of course. Anyway, I also agree that being a school board member is a thankless job but they knew that going in, what does speaking at graduation have to do with it? Keep the ceremonies short and sweet. By the time they got around to actually handing out the diplomas nobody was paying attention and everyone's butt hurt!

South also had two board members speak; same deal, accept the gift and certify the class. While I don't remember a word they said, their remarks were short and sweet. I thought the whole ceremony was well done, and moved right along. Kudos to GBS admin.

The past few years, for the most part, it has worked out that the board member (one) who spoke had a graduate in the class (including this year). They still spoke for less than 5 minutes and my favorite one was the one who talked about how no one really wants to hear from a board member!

Yes, the job is pretty thankless, I will admit that and don't have any problem with them speaking per se. But keep it short... the ceremony is about the students who are graduating.

Much easier to keep Glenbard South's ceremony short and sweet, how many graduates? 325? I am sure I will never know as my son will probably never make it to the ceremony. However, when the graduating class approaches 700, such as East's, the ceremony is long enough with just the reading of the names.