With closure looming, Elgin Academy alumni, faculty and families celebrate its legacy
More than 800 Elgin Academy alumni, current and past faculty and family members will gather Saturday on the campus to say hello to old friends and goodbye to the school on the eve of its closure after 185 years.
Elgin Academy’s Legacy Celebration will honor the school’s impact and history a week before they hold their final spring graduation ceremony.
“I hope it’s going to be fun, I hope everybody’s not crying,” said Laura Anderson, a member of the board of trustees. “Hopefully, everybody can just celebrate the great education they got and the friends they made.”
The school’s trustees and leadership announced in November that the 2023-24 school year would be its last due to dwindling enrollment that had seen the number of students fall by about 50% in the last 10 years, causing a budget shortfall of $4 million last school year.
The invitation-only event will start with a program in front of historic Sears Hall honoring the academy's unique history and legacy.
After that, attendees can wander and reminisce, visit well-remembered campus spots and “decade tables” to find Hilltoppers spanning from the 1940s through 2023.
A recently installed permanent history exhibit in Old Main will be open as well as a student-curated exhibit in Sears Gallery.
Graduates from as far back as the class of 1948 will attend, with many planning after-parties around town following the event.
Twenty seniors will graduate during the school’s final spring commencement ceremony on June 1.
An additional 11 juniors will attend summer school classes to fulfill their requirements to graduate early, Anderson said. They will get a special graduation ceremony on Aug. 2 that will mark the official closing of the school.
Anderson said that even though the school community has known the end was coming since November, it is still hard to fathom.
“I can’t even believe it. You know what I mean?” she said.” It’s going to be hard, it is. But hopefully, we’ll be able to celebrate the wonderful experience everybody had at Elgin Academy, and it will be a joyous day.”