Red Hook High School graduation plan set; updates on building remediation, school celebrations and Regents testing
Red Hook High School’s commencement exercises Saturday would be held at Rhinebeck High School’s performing arts center in the event inclement weather forces plans for an outdoor ceremony to change. 
School leadership chose its alternate location after consulting with the senior class officers and considering generous offers from several of our northern Dutchess County neighbors. We are grateful to Rhinebeck for offering its space, which would allow the ceremony to be held as nearby to our families as possible.
As long as weather cooperates, the ceremony will be held as originally planned on the lawn in front of Linden Avenue Middle School, beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 20.
There would be no limit on how many people could come watch the outdoor ceremony; attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets on which to sit. If the ceremony is held at Rhinebeck, each graduate would be limited to three tickets.
The celebrations for the Class of 2026 kicked off Tuesday with the annual Senior Walk Through and barbecue. Read more about that here, and watch a video tour of the day above.
The celebrations for Red Hook High School, in general, will continue beyond graduation, as will the process of remediating the building itself. Read more on those and other topics below:
End-of-Year BBQ Celebration Rescheduled
While the weather for Saturday looks beautiful, Monday’s forecast shows the strong possibility of rain. As a result, we are rescheduling this party to Wednesday afternoon.
The logistics of coordinating food trucks and other vendors made it necessary for us to make this change in advance rather than waiting to see what the weather brings.
The event will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. at the Town Recreation Park.
All students attending the event must ride school buses from the high school – no students are permitted to drive to the event and no families may drop students off at the park.
Students attending should arrive to the high school no later than 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. They will check in at a table and then be told what bus to board.
Junior and senior students may drive to the high school and park in their normal spots before boarding buses.
Separate bussing will be provided for any students still participating in the 7:45 a.m. Chemistry Regents exam that morning.
Students who are unable to secure rides to the school at 11:30 a.m. can be picked up by a bus at 10:30 a.m., but only if the below virtual form is completed:
School-Wide BBQ Celebration Morning Bus Sign Up – Fill out form
Families who require mid-morning bussing for students must complete this form by 2 p.m. on Monday or else students will be required to take the 7 a.m. bus to LAMS.
When the event ends at 1:45 p.m., the buses will return to the high school and students may either take their normal bus route home, or leave via their normal options.
Thanks and Acknowledgements
On behalf of our school and our students we would like to thank the following groups for their support of the End-of-Year BBQ Celebration:
- The Red Hook Secondary PTSA
- The Red Hook Education Foundation
- The Raider Sports Club
- Board President Kelly Borrelle
- The Town of Red Hook and Town of Red Hook Recreation Department
- All those who have donated to support this event for our students
- More thanks will follow in the future!
Remediation update
We’re continuing to make progress remediating the high school building itself, with important strides made this week. Our cleaning partners, Advanced Disaster Recovery, notified the district this morning that all hallway ceiling tiles have been replaced. Other recleaning on the first floor, which could not happen until those ceiling tiles were replaced, is also underway.
The company has been working on cleaning the impacted hallway bathrooms, and expects that cleaning to be complete Wednesday.
Item retrieval
Individuals who had items left in the building that have been deemed ready for pickup can expect to receive direct communication imminently.
Some items have been ruled unsalvageable. This includes, but is not limited to, most backpacks and fabric items that were in lockers at the time of the fire. The district will be reimbursing individuals for the loss of those items, and those impacted will be contacted directly with instructions on how to begin that process.
The evaluation or cleaning of some items is still ongoing.
Regents testing resumes Wednesday
As a reminder, all Regents exams for the majority of Red Hook High School students will be held at St. Christopher’s School at 30 Benner Road. A small number of students with specific testing accommodations may be scheduled to test at Linden Avenue Middle School or Mill Road Elementary School; those students and families will be contacted directly by their counselor or teacher.
Morning examinations will begin at 7:45 a.m., and afternoon examinations will begin at 11:45 a.m. Students should arrive approximately 15 minutes prior to the start of their exam. Regular morning and afternoon bus transportation will be provided to St. Christopher’s, and breakfast and lunch will be available.
In order to ensure all students could participate in the BBQ Celebration, we are moving the World Language Checkpoint Exams to Monday at St. Christopher’s School.
The schedule includes:
Wednesday, June 17
- Algebra I — 7:45 a.m.
- French 3/Spanish 3 Checkpoint Examination — 7:45 a.m.
- Global History & Geography II — 11:45 a.m.
- Living Environment/Biology — 7:45 a.m.
- Earth and Space Science — 11:45 a.m.
- U.S. History & Government — 7:45 a.m.
- DutchessCommunity College Precalculus — 7:45 a.m.
- Geometry — 11:45 a.m.
- Chemistry — 7:45 a.m.
- Physics — 7:45 a.m.
Jazz Festival Wednesday
The district Jazz Festival, rescheduled from earlier this month, will be held on LAMS’ front lawn at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 17. We encourage the community to bring their lawn chairs and relax in the grass while listening to music from the Mill Road Jazz Club, LAMS Jazz Band, high school Vocal Jazz Ensemble and high school Instrumental Jazz Ensemble.
As a reminder, LAMS’ Eighth Grade Moving Up Ceremony, which was scheduled for June 25 at the high school’s Performing Arts Center, will also be held at the middle school instead, at 5 p.m. The ceremony will be held on the middle school’s front lawn in the style of the high school commencement if weather allows; otherwise, it will be held in the cafeteria.
We’re planning on having an amazing final 10 days of the school year despite all that has happened in the past month. We are incredibly thankful for the ongoing support from the community, which was evident at today’s Senior Walk procession, as well as the PTSA’s efforts to build onto our June 24 party, and will surely be an overarching theme of our year-end celebrations.