New Horizons celebrates its first Class of 2024 graduate
Aug. 30—Now in its eighth school year, a proud Greenville ISD tradition continues with the celebration of New Horizons High School's first Class of 2024 graduate — Valeria Burciagoa Rubio.
As a non-traditional, self-paced high school, ringing a large antique bell while students who have just completed their graduation requirements walk proudly through the hallway dressed in their caps and gowns has become a major part of the campus' culture.
While Valeria is New Horizons' first graduate of this school year, the school celebrated at least 50 similar "mini-graduations" last year, before those students joined the Greenville High School senior class at the official commencement ceremony in May.
The 600-pound antique bell that is rung in their honor has a bit of a mysterious history but bits of its past are known.
The bell was relocated from Greenville High School (where it was only occasionally used for decoration and never rung) to New Horizons in spring 2017 at the request of Greenville native and active resident Pud Kearns, who is the niece of the man who originally donated the bell to GISD in the 1940s.
"My uncle, Jack Horton, was a scrounger from the time he was a child," Kearns said. "There are unique characteristics that come with being a Horton — hoarding — wait, let's call it collecting odd things and turning them into interesting things."
Horton eventually donated the bell to Greenville High School. Over the intervening decades, the bell traveled around the high school campus, from the metal shop to a display case, then it was covered in tinsel to be used as a Christmas decoration and then decorated in school colors for homecoming. But it never rang.
Years later, while serving on the New Horizons advisory committee, Kearns thought of the bell when then-principal Chip Gregory recalled the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life," and the well known line, "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings," and thought it would be a nice gesture to mark the graduations of NHHS students in a similar way. After that epiphany, the bell was relocated to New Horizons.
In the years since receiving the bell, it has become a major part of the campus' culture of community spirit and cooperation, as they seek to support students and families who choose the school for a variety of reasons.
For example, New Horizons' smaller class sizes can be beneficial for high school-aged students who are new to Greenville ISD and who are just beginning to learn English.
Similarly, the smaller student-to-teacher ratio can work well for students in need of credit recovery, who have, for whatever reason, fallen behind in satisfying their graduation requirements and need to catch up.
The more self-paced aspect of New Horizons has also attracted a few students who wish to graduate early.
