End of an era: Palm Beach Day Academy graduates final class of ninth-grade students

Palm Beach Day Academy marked the end of an era Friday during its annual commencement ceremony.

Eleven of the 57 students who received their diplomas from Headmaster Fanning Hearon represented the final ninth-grade class at the 102-year-old school.

Citing the dwindling number of ninth-graders at the school and the need to improve the academic experience for students on the upper campus, Palm Beach Day no longer will offer an academic program for students in the ninth grade.

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Hearon noted in a letter to the community last winter that the school has averaged only 11 ninth-grade students a year since 2005, with just six students enrolled in the program last year. In 2003-2004, 35 ninth-graders attended Palm Beach Day.

"As a school that has seen tremendous growth these past three years, we have been forced to have honest conversations about the future of our school, our curricular needs, and the amount of resources it takes to deliver on our mission of academic excellence to 575 students on a daily basis," Hearon said.

"As we contemplate a growing upper campus in the years ahead, we feel that the time is right to focus our efforts more keenly on improving the academic experience for the students in grades four to eight on Seaview Avenue, while also enhancing the number of experiential learning opportunities for our graduating eighth-graders."

Though Palm Beach Day has experienced a surge in enrollment during the past several years, the school's ninth grade class has not contributed to it.

Maintaining a program for such a small group of students had put an extra burden on teachers and strained resources at the school, said Brent Gallagher, the school's director of marketing and communications.

The 2023-24 school year will be the first in 56 years that will not include a ninth-grade program, Hearon told guests at Friday's ceremony.

Sharing a bit of trivia with those gathered inside the Vicki and Peter Halmos Family Activities Center, he noted that the school honored its last graduating class of high school seniors in spring 1967.

That fall, Palm Beach Day School — as it was known then — welcomed its first group of ninth-grade students.

"In the fall of 1967, the ninth-grade program officially started with 19 students," Hearon said. "The good news? We're ending the ninth-grade program on a very high note. I'm honored to be handing out diplomas to such an outstanding final group of graduates. I'm not supposed to have favorites, but this ninth grade group is very special."

During Friday's commencement ceremony, 11 ninth-graders and 46 eighth-graders received their diplomas.

The ceremony also included student and teacher awards, student speeches, and a presentation to the 'lifers' — Palm Beach Day students who had attended the school since they were pre-primary students.

Palm Beach Day Academy operates two campuses — an upper school campus on Seaview Avenue for grades four through nine, and a lower school campus at 1901 S. Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach for students ages 2 through third grade.

"There is a feeling about the school," Gallagher said. "It gets into your bones, and it gets into your blood. A lot of people are very sad to go. It's a place where they've grown up. It's their comfort zone. They've known the faculty and staff since they were 5. They've known their classmates since they were little. We do have such small class sizes that everybody gets to know each other very well."

Most of Palm Beach Day's graduating students will attend high school locally, though a handful will go to schools out of state.

Hearon wished all of them well Friday, quoting several lines from Taylor Swift's "You’re on Your Own, Kid" to close a list of 10 things they should know as they prepare to leave the school:

"So make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it ... You've got no reason to be afraid. You're on your own, kid. Yeah, you can face this."

Palm Beach Day's final ninth-grade class includes: Gabriel Dattels, Leo Diament, Thaddeus Huainigg, Harriet Leventhal, Colton McMackin, Dylan McNamara, Gavin Norton, Ryan Petcove, Christopher Ramos, Andrew Stambaugh, Calvin Wolff.

Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Palm Beach Day Academy graduates final class of ninth-grade students.