Second-graders at John Quincy Adams and May Moore marked their transition to intermediate school with a pair of rousing moving up ceremonies. Joined by proud parents and families, each class at both schools was presented and recognized and Superintendent of Schools Eva Demyen handed out achievement and attendance certificates.

At May Moore, the ceremony moved outdoors this year to the school field, resulting in a sunny celebration. With an American flag flying above their heads, music teacher Kristen Lombardo led the 147 children in songs including “America,” “The May Moore Song,” “Onward,” “All We’re Meant to Be” and “You Know We’re Moving.”

“Continue to make us proud,” said May Moore Principal Alicia Konecny, before introducing essay winners Katie Busch, Mikhail Clarke, Kelsey Rotzman and Jason Turner, who read aloud the letters they composed to new May Moore students.

“I am sad to leave,” Clarke said in his essay, but that quickly turned to happiness. At the end of the June 11 ceremony, the students, joined by Konecny and Lombardo, danced their way down the aisle in a joyous procession to the sounds of Mark Ronson’s “UpTown Funk!”

At JQA’s June 16 event, festooned with bright balloons, the 132 little graduates sang a variety of songs including Imagine Dragons’ “On Top of the World” and Jack Hartmann’s “One Small Voice.” The principal, Dr. Christine Criscione, presented a video montage of the year’s highlights before the classes walked out for the last time to Pharrell’s “Happy.”

Representatives from John F. Kennedy Intermediate, where all the students will attend third grade in the fall, were on hand to offer words of encouragement.

Celeste Archer, associate principal at JFK, told the JQA grads, “You enter JFK with a fresh start, and we have many exciting things planned for you.”

“I encourage you all to aim high and dream big,” her fellow JFK associate principal, Shaun McLeod, said to the May Moore students. “I am officially welcoming you to the JFK family.”

JQA Moving Up

May Moore Moving Up