JEWELL It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, said Larry Lockett, quoting the beginning of Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities and encapsulating the experience this year of Jewell School District.

He came out of a six-month retirement from Astoria High School and has served as interim principal and superintendent since winter term.

Grads sail into adulthood after the best of times at Jewell

In the best of times, Jewell School students enjoy a sprawling 80-acre campus and 6-year-old school, more than twice the state average in spending per student, smaller class sizes and a boundlessly supportive community.

In the worst, theyve endured scandal, fraud and a continually rotating cast of top administrators.

The students, the school and the community persevered, though, and graduated 100 percent of the senior class all 16 of them.

We started this school year in troubled seas, but weve grown together as a school and as a community, and we are now on the path to greater things, said Lockett, who just last year sent off 127 graduates of AHS. The success this year rests on the shoulders of these seniors, who kept all of us focused on our target. When we were at our worst, you were at your best.

Valedictorian Randi Harhart, a freshly minted OSAA state champion in the high jump who will attend Portland State University, and salutatorian Dalton Blanchard, a budding engineer moving to Colorado to study at Arapahoe Community College, spoke for this years graduating class.

We want to thank everyone who believed in us, said Harhart. Without you, we wouldnt be here today, because you have pushed us to do our best and achieve what you see here today.

The two ran through thanks to parents, activities directors, office and janitorial staff, counselors and their teachers.

For each one of the graduates up here, there must have been at least a dozen different people providing support in at least (a) dozen different ways, said Blanchard.

At least seven of Jewells graduates Tabitha Kutzen, Maxwell Maggio, Michael Porter, Anthony Reel, Luke Swearingen, Donald Tate and David Turner will attend Portland Community College. Two Christopher Hauer and Lucas Thompson will directly enter the workforce.

Sophie Hoyt will attend Southern Oregon University; Maddie Engbretson will attend Central Oregon Community College; and Rebecca Wolff will start at the Le Cordon Bleu Chef School in Portland. Blake Ellis will work and enter the military.

In Turners Pvt. Turners, that is near future could be Afghanistan. The Jewell graduate finished basic training as a 17-year-old and is a private with the Oregon Army National Guard 234th Engineer Company at Camp Rilea. He leaves soon for a little more than two months advanced training in Gulfport, Miss. There is a high probability, he added, that the unit could be deployed to Afghanistan thereafter.

It was more of a family tradition, said Turner, whose father, grandfather and uncle were in the military.

Another longstanding tradition is the Jewell School and Memorial scholarships, and each were awarded to six students. In all, six graduates were awarded at least $3,000.

The district will be back on the map if it continues the way that it is, said Turner about Jewell, which had three superintendent-principal interims this year, including Lockett.

Jewell recently hired Alice Hunsaker of Lake County as its permanent, part-time superintendent and is in the final stages of hiring a separate principal.

Turner said the students didnt get to be around Lockett as much, but then came the senior trip. Lockett, an experienced raft guide, often took the top AHS?grads on a Deschutes River trip, a tradition he extended to Jewell. Seniors spent last week rafting and staying at the Sunriver Resort.

Rescued by Jewell

Lleona Smalley, the only graduate attending Clatsop Community College, had never gone rafting before. But she was with Lockett, his sons and other skilled guides and felt confident jumping into the Deschutes for a life vest ride down the rapids.

I was feeling daring, said Smalley. I went last, got the best waves.

Swimming for a pebble bar on the rivers western shore, she missed the rope thrown out by Lockett to take her in. Next stop was 15-foot Sherars Falls.

First to reach Smalley was Greg Hamann, current president of Linn-Benton Community College, previous CCC president and friend of Locketts, who jumped in after her. Next came Locket and his son Greg in a rescue raft, eventually getting her and Hamann off the river. They saved Smalley that day on the river, but she said coming to Jewell saved her.

I fell through the cracks, said Smalley, who moved from Knappa to Astoria in the seventh grade and transferred again to Jewell as a sophomore. I dont blame anyone.

She stayed with the parents of her best friend Alexa Armstrong, a Jewell student soon ending her exchange program in Hamburg, Germany. At Jewell, she grew close to her adopted family and the small student body and found herself giving them as much support as they gave her.

I think it opened my eyes, said Smalley, who will work at KOA?campgrounds this summer and attend CCC to study dental hygiene. It made me mature very fast.

She joined the choir program, excelled and even wrote the song for the school called Light, played during graduation. The band program at Jewell has taken off under Cory Pederson, who was chosen by students this year to speak for the faculty, along with senior class advisor and science teacher Lynique Oveson.

Follow your heart and your instincts, as those are the only things you know, said Pederson, charting his own journey from high school, past dreams of playing baseball and to his destination as a music teacher. Today youll walk off the stage into your adult lives.

In a final nod to childhood, Jewells Class of 2013 broke out into a Harlem Shake, the viral Internet dance routine, tossed their mortarboards and left the stage and began the next chapter of their lives.