Eight Students Make Up Sea Isle’s Last Graduating Class

SEA ISLE CITY — Remember these names: Mason Borzick, Samantha Camerlengo, Antimo Ferrilli, Lauren “Faith” Gardner, Matthew Kelly, Joseph Kennedy, Molly Larkin and Joshua Torroni.
So if someone asks you in 20 years, “Who were the last students to graduate from the eighth grade at the Sea Isle City Elementary School?” You’ll know the answer.
Based on a trend of declining enrollment over the last several years, the school district’s board of education decided earlier this year to send the fifth through eighth grades to Ocean City School District, where the district’s high school-aged students have gone for many years.
According to a school board report, there were 25 eighth graders in 2001 and that number has dropped to the eight graduates this year.
At the June 18 graduation ceremony, many teachers and community leaders including Mayor Leonard Desiderio and Councilman Mike McHale offered the graduates words of encouragement as they prepared to depart from their familiar schoolhouse at 4501 Park Road for the last time, but a poem read by Dr. Michael Schreiner, the school’s superintendent pretty much said it all:
“Eighth grade graduation, this evening, is fine,
My thoughts are a poem, I hope you don’t mind.
‘Cause this graduation is not like the rest,
In some special ways, we honor the best.
There’s Mason and Sammi, Antimo and Matt,
To these graduates we tip our hat.
Torroni and Larkin, then Faith and Joe,
To Ocean City our graduates go.
To start in adventure, a new chapter of sorts,
We know we prepared you with tests and reports.
But this class is different, the last of its kind,
‘Cause come next September, no 8th grader you’ll find.
This year has been fateful, big changes abound,
When school starts next year, some won’t be around.
Our school will look different, from Pre-K to 4,
With grades 5-8 heading right out the door.
My message to each is clear as a bell,
Remember Sea Isle and you’ll all do quite well.
‘Cause you’ve got the right stuff, we know it for sure,
The stuff that it takes for you to endure.
Embrace Ocean City and go with a smile,
Just over that bridge, not more than a mile.
But don’t go alone, we’re right by your side,
We’re steady and constant just like the tide.
Remember, however, wherever you roam,
That this Sea Isle School will always be home”.