Tuesday was Clermont Middle School Day within the Lake County School District. The proclamation and accompanying ceremony signaled the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.

The ceremonies started at 8:30 am in the Middle School auditorium and ended outside at the flagpole. Principal Scott Voytko was Master of Ceremony.

The Clermont Middle band and chorus gave their first and only performance of the year. The South Lake High Navy Junior ROTC provided the color guard and (later) the flag-folding. Superintendent Diane Kornegay read the Middle School proclamation. A trio of dignitaries: County Commissioner Sean Parks, Clermont Mayor Tim Murry, and School Board Member Marc Dodd gave their remarks.

Out at the flagpole, the Florida and United States flags, in that order, were taken down and ceremonially folded, then presented to school principal Voytko. Voytko reports the flags will be placed in storage, then they will be framed and put on display in the new school.

The new K-8 Aurelia M. Cole Academy is planned to open in 2023 on the site of the soon-to-be-demolished Clermont Middle School. Aurelia Cole died in 2018. She was a veteran educator, former dean of students at Clermont High, assistant principal of Clermont Middle, and achieved groundbreaker status when she became the first African-American high school principal in Lake County, post-integration when she became principal of East Ridge High. Her connection to Clermont High and Clermont Middle are particularly appropriate to the new school name, as the Clermont Middle campus was formerly the home of Clermont High.

The history of Clermont Middle dates back to 1969. The history of Clermont High dates back to 1915. And the speakers all reflected on the history of the school and campus.

Commissioner Parks speculated as to “how many good future citizens  emerged from Clermont Middle, how many scientists, builders, business owners, tradesmen and women, doctors, police, firemen, engineers, teachers.” He answered his own question, saying that “judging by the people I know, and the people I see, I can say with great confidence, Clermont Middle School was a true gem for our community.”

Mayor Murry is a graduate of Clermont High, and described Tuesday’s ceremonies as “bitter-sweet.” In a tribute to Cole, Murry remarked that “as one that knew and grew up with Aurelia, the school board’s decision to name the new K-8 campus Aurelia M. Cole Academy placed high expectations and goals on the school and students before it’s built. I am very confident that those expectations and goals will be achieved as the Academy prepares our future leaders.

Marc Dodd spoke of citizens reaching out to him and giving him a true understanding of just how much the old Clermont High (and by extension, Clermont Middle) has meant to so many in the community, and he assured listeners that there will be pieces of the old school(s) to hold on to, even on the new campus.

Former Clermont mayor Hal Turville was one of several citizens whose remarks on the school closing were presented as part of a tribute video. He said, in part, that “I consider myself blessed to have been a part of small-town Clermont, both while I was a student and afterward. It takes a village! The school system was the clear center of activity.”

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