The 103 graduates of the Perry High School Class of 2023 received diplomas in commencement exercises Sunday afternoon in the PHS gymnasium.
The graduates were edified by addresses from Perry Community School District Superintendent of Schools Clark Wicks, Bluejay Congress President Lydia Olejniczak and Senior Class President Jefry Gonzalez.
Thirty-two students graduating with honors were recognized by Perry High School Principal Dan Marburger and Perry Community School District Board of Directors President Linda Andorf.
Diplomas were presented to the graduates by Wicks, Andorf and PCSD School Board Directors Kenia Alarcon and Jim Lutmer.
The Perry High School Concert Choir, directed by Jenn Nelson, sang Jacob Narverud’s arrangement of the John Lennon and Paul McCartney classic, “Yesterday.”
Family, friends and well wishers repeatedly erupted in cheers for the graduating seniors, who aptly embody the quotation in the high school foyer that stands like an epigraph to the seniors’ story: “The public school is the greatest institution for the encouragement of real democracy existing. Its policy is to place all people on an equal basis.”