Editor’s note: This is the final student column for the school year. We thank all the students and the column coordinator Sue Ann Gerhard, Carbon Career & Technical Institute for their dedication.

Carbon Career & Technical Institute

Gracie Heintzelman

Hello from CCTI, We are just about done with the school year!

I would like to start by congratulating the Prom Court that was announced at Prom on May 10: Prom queen, Valerie Kruslicky; prom king, Anthony Muniz; Prom Sovereign, William Trach

CCTI Class of 2024 graduation will be held at the CCTI campus on Friday, May 31 at 5 p.m. Seniors must be at the CCTI bus entrance at 4 p.m. This is a rain-or-shine event. The event will be under cover. In the event of severe weather, there is a rain date set for Monday, June 3, same time and place. All guests must have a ticket to attend, and all graduates will receive six tickets. If your student does not need all six tickets, please have them give extra tickets to a senior who may require more than six tickets. No additional tickets are available. All tickets will be distributed at graduation practice. Graduation practice is Thursday, May 30, 8:30 to 11 a.m.

Practice is mandatory for seniors to walk at graduation.

This event will be livestreamed. You may view the ceremony by going to CCTI’s homepage and clicking on the link. The graduation ceremony is handicapped accessible. Any guest who is wheelchair-bound can be dropped off at the field. Any guest needing to be driven up to the field can take the shuttle. For further questions regarding accessibility to the field, please call the main office at 570-325-3682.

Lehighton High School

Koy Wentz

Judge Honorable Joseph J. Matika spoke to Lehighton Area High School government classes about the judicial branch and the Carbon County Court. Judge Matika spoke to students about how the judicial system works and what goes on in the Carbon County Court system.

Also, students have been busy taking the AP tests and Keystone Exams all week. Students have taken the biology, algebra and English Keystones. Advanced placement exams that have been administered include physics, English, calculus BC, psychology and biology.

Congratulations to junior Lorah Thomas for winning the District 11 3A discus. She threw a 113-2 at districts and will move on to state competition.

Finally, Lehighton Area High School will be hosting a spring cabaret on Thursday, May 30. More details will be released soon.

Jim Thorpe High School

Gabriella Cerra

The end of this year is almost upon us, and with the culmination of Keystone testing last Friday, students still have final testing to look forward to. In addition to the standard end-of-the-year procedures, there is still fun to be had in what is left of this year’s future.

The History Club will meet to prepare the final layout of the Memorial Day Program they will conduct at the high school, Penn Kidder Elementary, and LB Morris Elementary. The Memorial Day Program will also take place sometime this week, likely Friday. History Club will be informing students about the history of Memorial Day, how society is to appropriately celebrate hometown hero AJ Baddick, veteran Nevion Lilly, and Purple Heart Award recipient Elmer Whitesell. Members of History Club and Theater, Isaac Oliver and Kate Newsted, will be performing a Memorial Day-inspired skit. A “Touching Table” with various valuables, including a Purple Heart Award, will be made available to students. This program will also include an impressive performance done by the band.

The Future Business Leaders of America End of the Year Banquet was held Tuesday with a potluck dinner, followed by awards given out based on member participation, among all three of Jim Thorpe Area’s chapters, as well as the announcing of whom is to hold each officer position throughout the next academic year.

FBLA members are also currently selling lottery tickets for the month of June. Anyone interested in buying is encouraged to contact a member of the organization. A remarkable achievement of the LB Morris chapter of FBLA is their success with a shoe drive to benefit the Special Olympics. Members spent hours tediously working to raise over $1,000.

This was included in the May publication of Tomorrow’s Business Leader, the National FBLA Publication, along with personal mention of each LB-FBLA officer Alena Mehnert (eighth-grade president), Caden Davis (eighth-grade president), Layla Searfoss (eighth-grade secretary), Madison Baksalary (eighth-grade treasurer), and Dravyn Pysher (eighth-grade historian).

For the seniors, final testing begins with World Languages and Language Arts on Thursday. Then, the members of the Class of 2024 will be tested on Social Studies and Math on Friday, to be followed by Science and Business on Tuesday, May 28, and make up exams the 29.

Final examinations will follow a different schedule for the underclassmen. Thursday, May 30 will be the testing date for first and second period; Friday, May 31 holds in store the finals for third and fourth period classes; the following Monday will be when fifth and sixth period are tested; and lastly, Tuesday, June 4 will be seventh period testing.

Each day, aside from June 4, which will go by a two-hour delay schedule following seventh period finals, will work by a three-hour delay schedule. PODS will be from 7:45 to 8:15 a.m., as always. Testing session 1 will be from 8:20 to 9:25 a.m., followed by testing session 2 from 9:35 to 10:40 a.m.

The annual end of the year All Star Awards Ceremony will be held on Wednesday, May 29 for select students that have gone above and beyond. Students are awarded for exceptional academic, extracurricular, and athletic performance. Many scholarships will be awarded to high achieving seniors that night as well.

The Flame, Jim Thorpe’s literary and arts magazine, is running a program, which asks participants to submit a literary or artistic piece that expresses what ignites his/her flame or inspires great passion in the individual. The Flame is accepting and looking for submissions until the end of the academic year. Anyone who would like to view submissions or previous works submitted to The Flame can look to the website for all (theflamejtasd.com)

Palmerton High School

Mrs. K. Baumgardt’s Journalism Class

This last week kicked off with the algebra Keystones and later transitioned to the literature Keystones. Biology keystones will be taking place next week.

On Thursday, the Palmerton Senior High and Junior High choruses performed their spring concert. Palmerton Against Animal Cruelty will be going on a trip to Palmerton Cat Project to volunteer.

On Friday, students participated in Spring Day, where they played games, ate food and had fun. For sports, the boys and girls Track and Field teams are preparing for district meets that are held on Tuesday and Wednesday for the athletes that qualified. The girls softball team has a game on Tuesday against Palisades. The high school football team has begun practices.