‘Congratulations, graduates!’ Coast Union, Leffingwell high schools celebrate Class of 2020
On Friday, June 5, Coast Union High School celebrated, in an unusual way, the accomplishments of 41 graduates who endured a difficult senior year.
As Principal Scott Ferguson said during the ceremony in which the graduates sat in socially distanced chairs 6 feet apart in front of the school’s iconic gymnasium, the building in which most previous graduations were held inside, “This is an unprecedented time.,” he said. “There’s no handbook for this,” for teachers, students or administrators.
“This is unlike any other ceremony that’s taken place at Coast Union,” he said of families “squished” into vehicles and others watching the livestream broadcast. “We’re dealing with honking horns and the wind, waiting for jets to fly over and big trucks with rocks driving by. We’ll roll with it.” he said at the start of the outdoor ceremony held a few car lengths away from Santa Rosa Creek Road.
“This isn’t the graduation you expected,” Ferguson said later in his welcoming speech, “but you’ve persevered through all this. You can do just about anything. You’ve kept your composure, kept fighting. You didn’t give up.”
The graduates in the Class of 2020 spent about a third of their school year taking online classes as a result of coronavirus stay-at-home orders and the COVID-19 pandemic They missed out on the prom, sports events and other activities.
The students were forced to go without a traditional graduation ceremony to salute their successes. What they got was different, but speakers said they were glad to have it.
With the exception of the graduating students, all attendees were required to remain in their vehicles, Smith said, and maintain social distancing during the event, although a few parents did pop out for photo ops.
The only hug shared during the socially distanced ceremony was between the principal and his son Trent Ferguson, who will attend Westmont College.
The ceremony was broadcast live by John FitzRandolph and KTEA Radio, and streamed live on YouTube.
Banners bearing the photos of the 41 grads were hung along Main Street in the last week of May, “thanks to our partners at the Community Services District,” who did the heavy lifting of posting the banners, Superintendent Scott Smith said.
Other partners, the Coast Union Boosters’ Club and Sober Graduation parents provided the banners and surprise gifts for the grads, which included miniature versions of each student’s banner.
“Coast Unified School District is proud to celebrate the success of our graduating senior class at Coast Union High School,” Smith said. “Thanks all for helping make this happen and congratulations, graduates!”
Coast Union High School graduates
Elizabeth Kennedy was this year’s Coast Union High School valedictorian with a 4.19 GPA. As all the senior speakers did during the ceremony, she focused on memories and the unprecedented end to their senior year.
“We’ve already overcome so much,” she said. “Now we just have to get through a global pandemic.” She described the grads as being part of a “very tight-knit class.”
According to Mary Stenbeck, who specializes in guidance and counseling at Coast Union, Kennedy was accepted to 10 universities and picked UCLA.
Nathan Markham, who was accepted to eight universities and will attend Cal Poly, was the salutatorian with a 4.18 GPA.
In his speech, he reflected on “all the things we’d looked forward to” and realized that what he really missed during the pandemic closure were “the small things,” like the “ride to the games, rather than the games themselves ... I wish I would have embraced more the small things about Coast Union.” However, “we are so grateful to not have graduated online.”
In Angelique Gutierrez’s farewell speech, she focused on 12 years of memories, from first grade through 12th, highlighting memories as diverse as toaster waffles and field trips, “all of us getting carsick on the way to Yosemite” and “hikes that were much longer than expected.” She said the class was making a donation toward chairs for the gym. She also will attend Cal Poly.
After graduation, 13 Coast Union grads will be going on to four-year universities, while 24 will attend Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo — some before transferring to a four-year college. Five have selected technical or trade careers, two will join the military and one is taking a gap year to study abroad before going to college.
As Ferguson noted, “we have 41 seniors and 41 graduates.” And of those, nearly half, or 18 of them, earned a weighted GPA average of 3.5 or higher.
The grads accumulated “more than 7,100 hours of community service while they were at Coast Union, the highest ever,” the proud principal said of a class that racked up lots of “outstanding achievements in the classroom, athletics, in the community.”
As of May 29, Coast Union grads from the Class of 2020 were to receive more than 35 local scholarships totaling more than $110,000, donated by more than 40 community members and groups.
Ferguson said he was proud of how this year’s graduates overcame the adversity that upended their senior year and forced them to complete their classes at home.
“Over the past four years, it has been an honor and a blessing to work with these students,” he said a week before the ceremony, adding that 39 of the 41 graduates are going to either a community college or four-year college next year. Two of our graduates will be enrolling in the Marines and the Army, serving our country.” And one is taking a “gap year” to serve in Bosnia.
Ferguson said the grads’ “extracurricular accomplishments, whether in FFA, sports, drama, cybersecurity, mock trial or other involvements, have been outstanding. This amazing class has set the bar extremely high for other classes to follow.”
“With all of that said, this unimaginable end to the 2019-20 school year was not what they had planned, but their resilience stood out. I am so proud of them and am honored to be their principal. Way to go, Coast Union High School Broncos!” Ferguson said. “You are remarkable and I wish you the best in your future.”
Here’s a complete list of the graduates from Coast Union High School’s Class of 2020, including plans after graduation for some of them, according to details that Stenbeck submitted. Some students haven’t yet finalized their plans:
Leffingwell High School
The small school adjacent to Coast Union graduated SLO County’s most diminutive Class of 2020 this year.
Two Leffingwell High School students, Luis Mercado and Ruby Villers, graduated Thursday in an invitation-only, off-campus ceremony.
Leffingwell High instructional aide Nina Margo said that “we are so excited to put a little bit of special back into this day for these students. … They are amazing students who have overcome an insurmountable amount of hardship” in what has been a difficult year for any senior and all students.
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 5:55 PM.
