They’re called superseniors, and it’s not because of their glowing transcripts.
The end of the school year arrives, and they’re short on credits to graduate. So the next fall they’re back again, for a fifth year or a sixth or more.
More than 1,000 superseniors continue high school each year in Snohomish County. They aren’t dropouts, but under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, they also aren’t counted as graduates.
The law will soon sanction schools and districts if they don’t start graduating more students within four years. Dropouts have the biggest effect on those on-time graduation rates, but continuing students also have an effect.
At Everett High School, Jeremiah Nadeau was one of the better-known superseniors. It took Nadeau, 20, 41/2 years at Everett High School, a half-year at Sequoia High School, a summer school session at Cascade High School and another month at Sequoia to finish in fall 2004.
He participated in Sequoia’s commencement June 16.
“In the back of my mind, I said, ‘I got to keep going,’” said Nadeau, who was three credits and a senior project short of graduation by the end of his first senior year in 2003.
Even if he wasn’t wearing blue and gold, Nadeau is happy he graduated. With only 22 graduates at Sequoia this year, each was able to give a speech. In his, Nadeau thanked his parents. Born with a severe cleft palate, he needed 24 surgeries, most before age 3, and speech therapy.
“My parents both gave up a lot just so I could have a roof over my head and get me through my surgeries,” he said.
Still, he cried when he left Everett High School for the alternative program at Sequoia, which better addressed his writing and reading struggles. He considers himself a Seagull to the core.
“It was like leaving my family, my home,” he said.
While at Everett High School, he helped with food drives and leadership projects, played football, joined student clubs and twice ran for the title of Mr. EHS.
A campus fixture, he always inspired smiles with his gregariousness. Even last week, as he walked onto the campus on the last day of school, people called out, “Jay!”
“I’m an Everett man till I die,” he said, borrowing from the school’s fight song.
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