BEND, OR -- Caldera High School holds its first ever commencement in a few weeks.
Principal Chris Boyd has been with this graduating class since the beginning, when the Bend school opened in 2021. “I met some of our soon to be graduates when they were just ninth graders and they were at other high schools thinking about, ‘what's this new high school going to become? And, what's my role in this new school?’”. He tells KBND News they have accomplished a lot in that time, “To see them sort of grow into leadership and grow into roles where they really were truly our seniors for three years, they helped us create a climate and a culture. They built every program in the school.”
He says the Seniors had to act as leaders when they came in as Sophomores, “By the time that group of students became Juniors, they had kind of figured out, ‘hey, if I don't fill this void, no one else is. So it's time to step up’, and students really did in lots of different ways. And we created lots of opportunities for students to use their voices to say, ‘hey, these are the things that we want in our new high school’.”
The Seniors put a lot of work into planning this first commencement.
“We're going to have 13 students all participate in different ways in the ceremony from giving speeches to emcee, helping us with our national anthem, signing the national anthem,” Boyd says, adding the class looks forward to leaving a legacy, “We have a little treat at the end of the graduation for our students to walk out and be recognized. So, I'm excited for a little twist in the end of the graduation ceremony.”
The ceremony for the Wolfpack class of 2024 is at Caldera on Saturday, June 8th at 6 pm. Also, that day, Summit hosts its graduation at 10 am and Mountain View's is 2 pm. Bend High’s commencement is June 6th at 7 pm. La Pine is June 7th at 7 pm. Bend Tech is June 10th at 7 pm. Realms rounds out the district’s celebrations on June 11th at 7 pm.