GILROY
– Four years of efforts culminate Friday for about 430
graduating Gilroy High School students.
GILROY – Four years of efforts culminate Friday for about 430 graduating Gilroy High School students.
A two-hour ceremony, starting at 6 p.m. Friday at the school’s stadium, will mark their achievement. Attendance is expected to be about 2,000, according to Assistant Principal Joni Madalora.
“They’re ready to move on,” Madalora said of the 2004 class. “They’ll do well wherever they go. … In the two years that I’ve seen them, they’ve done well.”
Josh Arribere was named valedictorian and Catherine Wilson is salutatorian. Their GPAs going into Spring semester are 4.29 and 4.25 respectively.
The keynote speaker is Kurt Meeker, the drama teacher at the center of a controversial Gilroy High theater production earlier this year. Meeker was not re-hired for next year.
“It’s the seniors that do the voting,” Madalora said. “We give them the opportunity to do the vote, and we are honoring their choice.”
Arribere graduates after only three years of high school, having been reclassified as a sophomore during his freshman year.
“It feels like all my work and effort and time finally paid off,” Arribere said. “As much as part of me misses high school, I realize it’s good to move on.”
The 16-year-old Arribere took AP calculus while a freshman at GHS and took statistics at Gavilan College when he was 12. He also played alto saxophone in the Gilroy High Wind Ensemble. The band placed first out of 23 at the Heritage Festival in Southern California in May.
“I’m proud as can be,” said his mother, Alene Arribere, about his appointment as valedictorian. “He set this goal for himself a long time ago.”
Putting in 100 percent has been Arribere’s motto.
“Always be in competition with your best self,” he said. “I try do the best that I can possibly do, and hopefully I’ll be able to use that to help others.”
Arribere’s speech will address the lessons, academic and otherwise, learned at GHS. He will attend UC-Berkeley as a math major this fall.
Many seniors are blowing off steam in Disneyland today and will return tonight, giving them just enough time to get ready for their big day. After the ceremonies, several hundred seniors will gather in the gym for Grad Nite, the theme of which is “California Dreamin.’ ”
No tickets are required for the graduation ceremony, though children must be accompanied by an adult. Parking is available off 10th and Princevalle street. On-site construction blocks off 20 to 30 parking spaces, but street parking also is available, said Janie Gillespie, the principal’s secretary.
