CULLMAN, Ala. – On Thursday, which would have been their last day in class for the 2019-20 school year, the faculty and staff of Sacred Heart School (SHS) lined up along the street down the north side of the campus to bid their students farewell in a drive-thru parade.
Right on cue, carloads of kids began rolling by the school at noon, and continued almost unbroken for more than half an hour, with some families circling the block to come back for a little more face-to-face time with their children’s favorite teachers. Students and faculty held up signs, waved, shouted greetings and paused for pictures with each other along the way, and some students even brought flowers and gifts to share. Cars continued coming through sporadically, almost to the scheduled end of the parade at 1 p.m.
SHS Principal Shawna Norman told The Tribune, “Being our last day, we’re doing a little celebration for the kids. Even though the teachers have been sending out videos weekly, and, of course, corresponding with their kids through the technology, we want to do a last goodbye to wish them a great summer and wish them well, and so everybody can see everybody’s faces, because this is definitely not how we wanted to end the school year. Being an elementary school, that contact with teachers is so important. We want to let them know that we love them and we wish them the best over the summer, and we’ll see them next year!”
Sacred Heart of Jesus Church Pastor Fr. Patrick Egan bragged on his educational staff, saying, “Even with the coronavirus, we have probably had the best year since I’ve been pastor. We’ve got a fantastic faculty, wonderful staff. We’ve had our normal school issues, and it wasn’t a blip on the screen. We just had a fantastic year. Even with the coronavirus, the teachers surmounted all the difficulty of teaching online, and it was, again, just fantastic. We thank the Lord for the whole year. Amen!”
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