Island School Class of 2011 a big hit despite small size

With a class big on island tradition yet miniscule in numbers, Principal Rosa Ramos decided to expand the Island School graduation program Friday morning with a year-ending ceremony featuring songs, two short plays and a talent show. The standing-room only crowd of roughly 200 at the Boca Grande Community Center Auditorium enjoyed the program but the two-member Class of 2011 still stole the show: Following graduating classmate Tallulah Bell Newlin into her seat before the ceremony, Tyler Joseph Marsden raced to his seat giving a victory sign and cracking up the crowd. “Tyler is Tyler,” said Ramos before completing her fifth graduating class.

“We've gone to school together since daycare,” Newlin said. “Going to a different school next year is just a little bit scary.”

For the first time in their 11-year-old lives, Newlin and Marsden will head to different classrooms next year. She's bound for Charlotte Academy and he'll attend L. A. Ainger Middle School.

“I feel sad and a little happy at the same time,” Marsden said. “Sad, because I have really close friends here I don't want to leave. And happy because the teachers are scary here.”

Marsden said his summer will be filled with outdoor adventures such as white-water rafting in Blue Ridge, Ga., canoeing, fishing, and paintballing.

“ A whole bunch of things,” he said.

Newlin will be even more of a jet-setter with trips planned Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Hampshire and Maine.

It's a short summer for Island School teachers and students. Teachers report back to school Aug. 1 with students returning to class Aug. 8.