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Last bell rings for 53,000 Boston students

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 26, 2009 03:28 PM

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

In Caroline Hanlon's third-grade class at the Lee Elementary School in Dorchester, the school year ended and summer vacation began at about 1:10 p.m. today not with a bell and a raucous cheer, but with a poem, a hug – and some tears.

The seven students who came in for the last half-day of school sat quietly on the floor as Hanlon read the Dr. Seuss story "Oh, The Places You'll Go!"

She then read another poem, telling the kids, "I will always think of you/ As through the years you go/ Try hard to do the best you can/ There is so much to know." She hugged the kids, and took them down to the cafeteria where they were to wait for their buses, which had begun lining up in front of the school.

It was a scene being acted out in some way in all 143 schools across the city today. The year ended for high school seniors earlier this month. But for the 53,000 remaining students, today was the day they crossed the threshold into summer.

Peter Lewis, 9, said he was "kind of sad" because he had learned a lot this year in Hanlon's class (which normally has 20 students in it) and wanted to "learn more things."

Mickela Archer, 11, said, "I feel a mixture. I feel sad because I'm going to miss the school and all my teachers and friends." On the other hand, she said, "I'm happy because school's out."

"Everyone loves the idea of summer vacation, but I think they really look forward to the routine [of school], knowing what to expect and what is expected from them," said Hanlon. "I'm a little sad, too. We worked together so closely for 10 months you become kind of a family. It's a happy day but it's also a bittersweet day for me and the kids."