Rye Lake Middle-High's honors ceremony a growing success

New parent honors awarded as event moves to a larger space

Alexandria and Steven Mann were eager to surprise their son, Jayshaun, by arranging their schedules to attend a midday Academic Awards ceremony at Rye Lake Campus MS/HS.

They were in for something of a surprise themselves, though. Having never attended one of these ceremonies before, they hadn't seen all that the school puts into celebrating academic achievement.

“My son, before he came here, he didn’t talk about college,” Mrs. Mann said. “Now he’s always saying, ‘When I get to college.’”

“He’s having a great experience,” she added.

Jayshaun, a freshman, was one of 29 students, honored for their third-quarter academi c performance. Last school year, Principal Eric Ford and his team took what had been a routine event and amplified it by inviting families and making it a proper celebration.

The goal was to incentivize academic excellence. That goal has been reached with such success that the event could no longer be held in an upstairs conference room and had to be moved to the school's gymnasium to accommodate all the students being honored.

“These students worked hard to get to this point,” Principal Eric Ford said in his opening address. “It was a goal of theirs.”

  School Counselor Cristina Tompkins expressed pride in her students’ ambition and accomplishment. In addition, parents David Tucker and Fatmira Hoxhaj were recognized with a new Parent Partnership Award for their outstanding collaboration with the school on their children’s behalf.

“Today is a celebration of the partnership between school and home that makes it possible for these students to succeed,” Ms. Tompkins said.

As usual, the awards were punctuated with colorful balloons and decor, many hugs and photographs, not to mention the requisite pizza party.

“It’s encouraging and uplifting, and it gives them motivation to set goals,” said Mary Ann Garrant of Yonkers, whose grandson, Jace Thomas, was named the most improved among 14 middle school students who were honored.

Jeremy Baez earned that honor among the 15 high school students present.

“It’s a win-win for everyone,” Ms Garrant said of the honors ceremony, “for the kids, for the school, and for the parents too.”

High School honorees

NAME	GRADE	AVERAGE	HONOR
Mynor Arriaza	9	81	Honor Roll
Madeleine Capuano	11	82	Honor Roll
Osias Perez Monegro	9	82	Honor Roll
Avery Thompson	12	82	Honor Roll
Lyasyan Almuratova	10	83	Honor Roll
Samantha Fernandes	12	83	Honor Roll
Keshaun Phillips	12	83	Honor Roll
Jayshaun Mann	9	84	Honor Roll
Imara Mateo	11	86	Honor Roll
Olivia Corona	12	87	Honor Roll
Justin Garcia Tzi	9	88	Honor Roll
"Linda" Hoxhaj	12	88	Honor Roll
Ethan Auli	10	90	Principal Honor Roll
Connor Boyle	12	90	Principal Honor Roll
Jeremy Baez	9		Most Improved

Middle School honorees

NAME	GRADE	AVERAGE	HONOR
Christopher Condon	8	80
Xavier Tucker	7	80
Gianni Valdez	7	80
Ayanna Barber	7	84
Denum Abreu	7	84
Shanice Thomas	6	85
Miles DiMasi	8	86
Anthony Franco	6	86
Kara Pecora	8	87
Vincent Fata	5	88
Eli Hazan	5	88
Jeremiah Jones	8	88
Jason Weinstein	7	89
Jace Thomas	8		Most Improved