June holds a variety of milestones for this year’s 2023 graduates, including prom, held on June 3, 2023, at 7 p.m. at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.

“We started selecting the venue and DJ in May 2022, while the music, food, theme, etc. take place in February to June 2023,” said class sponsor and AP human geography teacher Stasia LaRoche. “We [had] to consider the school academic and activity calendar to select a date. Selecting a venue has many decisions to be made as well: cost, availability, location and parking.”

Seniors’ busiest day is June 9, 2023.

“June 9 will be for the awards ceremony, senior picnic and the first graduation practice,” said student coordinator Eric Blackmore.

It starts with graduation practice, then goes into the awards ceremony, then senior picnic.

“We start planning June 9 at the beginning of the year,” said assistant principal James Imbriale.

One of the events on June 9 is the senior picnic.

“We find a vendor usually like box sandwiches or in years past like barbecue to grill out. Then we see how many seniors we have and we start planning accordingly,” said Imbriale.

All events lead to graduation, held on June 17, 2023 at 9 a.m. at the Virginia Beach Convention Center.

“Believe it or not, for a school of our size and the amount of graduates we have, we usually keep our ceremony at about 90 minutes, which is a crazy time that we can fit everything into,” said Imbriale.

With heavy decisions during the graduation ceremony, administrators have to make important decisions.

“Leah Nelson [assistant principal] and I split it up saying the graduates’ names. Dr. Leblanc wants the administration to share it,” said Imbriale.

Seniors will cherish this moment forever, but administration will as well. 

“There’s an electricity when I walk into the graduation ceremony, and you can feel the energy in the Convention Center. I get excited that I’ve been chosen to perform some of the names for the dolphin community,” said Imbriale.