August 14 is not a day most of us would think of regarding graduation from high school, but for some students, that's just the way it is. For Judith Pulver, longtime head of the Summer School Program in the Pine Bush School District, it's been that way since 1993.

"That first year, we had seven or eight kids. Back then, there were no state testing requirements. There were requirements, of course, but let's just say they were lax about enforcing them. So it wasn't the same as it is today when everything is so test-driven."

Judith Pulver has seen it all, at least where the Pine Bush School District is concerned.

"I've been affiliated with this school for forty-three years. I first came here to attend kindergarten, and I went right through to twelfth grade. When I started, there was only the Crispell building, and I was in the very first freshman class to move into the high school when it was built. That would have been in January, 1970. Back then, of course there were no schools in Circleville. Everything down in Scotchtown was just apple orchards."

Flash forward to August 14, 2008. Thirty young people got their high school diplomas, taking that first absolutely essential step onto the socio-economic ladder in the United States. At the ceremony, the high school cafeteria was filled with people who were generating a powerful atmosphere of congratulations and hope. While the graduates went up to receive their diplomas and shake hands with Interim Superintendant Dr. Bill Bassett and others, cameras flashed en masse. Each name got a chorus of shouts and shrieks from family and friends.

And presiding over it all, Judith Pulver was both satisfied and concerned. On the satisfied side, she said, "I think that these kids face so many hardships that people don't understand. So for me, when they graduate isn't important. It's just that they did graduate.

"I tell them, 'Thirty years from now, you won't even be able to remember graduating in August. All that matters is that you did it.' And you know what? Half of them are going to college."

But on the concerned side? "Last year we had 450 kids in summer school. We saw a big drop this year, down to 371, and a big reason for it was gas prices. Ultimately, the kids who should have been here but weren't will either repeat a year, or they'll be in night classes."

One thing Judith Pulver will not allow them to do is fail. "We will bring tutors in, we will examine each case individually. We will do what we have to do to get them degrees."

From her perch in summer school as well as conducting night classes through the rest of the year, Pulver sees students of all stripes. Several of the graduates this summer did so with Regents diplomas and honors.

"There are many, many reasons why someone doesn't necessarily graduate in June and it's not just that they haven't completed some of the work."

And there are the cases that you wouldn't imagine, looking in from the outside.

"Some of these kids," says Pulver, "do not want to leave school. They know what the world outside is like. Some of them were really upset that they graduated and now they have to go. On the other side of the spectrum, this summer I had a couple of kids who'd quit school without graduating, and they came back to finish up and get their diplomas."

In other words, they've seen what the world is like out there, and realized how important that diploma is. Fortunately for them, they had Summer School and Judith Pulver to come back to.

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