Hillsborough’s Last Day of School Marked in a Memorable Way (VIDEO)

The last day of school is the last time to be together as one student body, as children move on and teachers stay behind in anticipation of the next group of students who will grace their classrooms.

But first, a grand farewell, to mark the time that was, and such was the case in a grand way for the fifth-graders of Walter S. Yates Elementary School, who on June 9 celebrated a last dance together at the Brandon Community Center on East Sadie Street.

The dance was held the day before the last day of school for the Hillsborough County School District, the nation’s eighth-largest school district. Yates in 2004 celebrated its 50th anniversary as Brandon’s first standalone elementary school.

Hundreds of Yates fifth-graders donned decorative sunglasses donated by Michael Hess of Hess Orthodontics in Riverview, who also gave each kid a drawstring backpack, as gear to use for the summer days ahead.

“I cried before they even came in here,” said fifth-grade teacher Jacque Gipson, at the Brandon Community Center. “They come to us at the beginning of the school year as children and they leave us as young adults. It’s amazing to see.”

The hardest word to say, she added, is “goodbye.”

“They’ve been like our family, so it’s really hard to say goodbye, knowing you may never see or speak to them again. You become very attached.”

Parent Renee Jones kept busy in the kitchen, working hard to hold back her tears.

“I just want to go inside and hug her and not let her go,” Jones said, about her fifth-grade daughter, who was busy dancing inside the multipurpose room. “I just wrote her a letter, going through what she went through from preschool to here. I have so many emotions. I can remember each and every grade.”

Principal Richard Shields had a wide smile when asked to relay his emotions of letting go of another class of fifth-graders.

“Oh man, it’s fabulous,” he said. “I look forward to seeing them go on.”

He noted that 15 fifth-graders are moving on to choice or magnet schools. About 8 percent of the class is going to McLane Middle School. The remaining students are set to enter the ninth grade at Mann Middle School.

“We’ve seen these kids grow, sometimes from two-years to three-years-old,” Shields said. “It’s nice to release them and see them in the community later on.”

Hunter Hammond is moving on.

“It’s a sensation to be here with all my friends,” he said. “I love to hang out with them because they’re really nice. I just wish we all stayed at one school.”

“It feels good,” Joseph Harvill said about ending his elementary school career, “I spent six years in elementary school and now I’m going on to middle school."

“It is the best thing ever,” said Yamilette Justiniano, “because I’m going up to the sixth grade and I have lots of things I want to do when I get up to college."

Her goal is to go to Georgia Tech.

“I want to be a policeman,” she said.

As for the last day of school, Shields didn’t skip a beat.

“It’s not a sad time,” he said. “It’s a celebratory time.”