Governor Bill Ritter will be the keynote speaker at Telluride High School graduation on Friday, May 30.
“This governor is so pro-education,” says Superintendent Mary Rubadeau, “and he’s so pro-environment.
“He’s a visionary, and he is taking action on everything he put on his Colorado Promise,” the comprehensive 52-page policy agenda blueprint for establishing Colorado as a national leader in education, health care, jobs renewable energy and more.
“I just really appreciate that.”
The high school graduation committee “came up with a short list” of speakers they’d like to invite to commencement, Rubadeau says, and Ritter’s name was at the top.
“I’ll handle that,” she told the committee, and was directed by Ritter’s staff to his website.
“I mentioned that this is a class of real high-achieving kids,” Rubadeau remembers, “and with 67 kids it’s our largest graduating class ever.”
She also mentioned that “Telluride has had exceptional academic achievement, especially over the four years that these kids have been in high school.”
In a follow-up note, she mentioned that “we also have the Colorado Teacher of the Year,” Advanced Placement-Calculus Curriculum Director Seth Berg.
Ritter’s staff told Rubadeau to “stay tuned,” as the governor’s schedule is decided upon a month in advance – and then contacted her just prior to school break to say he was coming.
“It’s such an honor for the class of 2008,” says Rubadeau, who is arranging for a simulcast of the four-hour ceremony to be viewed in the high school gym to take care of overflow crowds.
Telluride High School graduation ceremonies begin Friday, May 30, at 1 p.m., “and it should be over by 5 p.m.,” Rubadeau says. “We moved it up” from the usual start-time of 5:30 p.m., which will, she says, “work out a lot better for such a large class.”
That morning, “we’ll let all the kids out of school and clear the parking lot and get everybody back in by 1 p.m.” As for Ritter: “He’ll speak very early in the program,” she promises.
“It is such an honor,” she adds, “to have a man whom I consider the Education Governor” speak at this year’s THS graduation.
