The commencement exercise was the final one for the school. Incoming freshman through senior students now will make a 22-mile round trip to attend Indian Creek High School in Shabbona, starting in August.

Voters in DeKalb, LaSalle and Lee counties in and around Paw Paw approved a referendum in November to cease high school operations at the school.

“It’s pretty cool being the last class to graduate from here,” McNally said. “We’ll be the last [class] picture in the hallway, and that’s pretty neat.”

McNally, who also was class president, was among 15 students who bid farewell to the school. Anthony Castaldo was its final valedictorian.

“Paw Paw is not a large town, but the thing that makes it special is the love and care that the community has shown to each and every one of us,” Castaldo said.

For some of the graduates, trying to find a way to keep their yellow flower buds pinned to their purple graduation capes was the last problem they had to figure out inside the high school.

“It’s different, knowing that there will not be a high school next year,” McNally said. “Hopefully the kids will do good next year transitioning to a new school.”

The remaining high school student body will trade their Bulldog purple and gold for Timberwolf red and black. Some Paw Paw students already had become Timberwolves; the school’s athletic department merged with Indian Creek at the beginning of this year.

Graduates Joshua Wiseman and Riley Oros said that as the year wound down to a close, there were plenty of bittersweet moments – not just for the class, but for the high school as a whole.

“It’s a weird feeling knowing that we’re the last ones out of here, after every other class that’s gone through,” Wiseman said.

“It’s cool knowing that we are the last graduating class,” Oros added. “It’s kind of sad at the same time. It’s emotional.”

Ken Cradduck graduated from Paw Paw High 64 years ago today in the Class of 1955. He and 1998 graduate Sue Johnston attended in support of graduate Zachary Clayton.