The focus of the Davis Adult School’s graduation ceremony Tuesday evening was on the students who had earned their diplomas, and that was the way retiring Adult School Principal Laurel Clumpner wanted it.

But Clumpner nonetheless came in for a moment of recognition from school board president Sheila Allen, who praised the retiree for her 29 years in the district. Clumper started as a substitute teacher, then went on to serve as a school psychologist, school counselor (at Davis High and Da Vinci Charter Academy), coordinator of the district’s special education services and principal of the Davis Adult and Continuing Education School.

During the past few years, as state funding to local school districts was slashed, many nearby school districts either substantially reduced or eliminated altogether their adult education programs. But as Allen noted, Clumpner launched a creative effort to keep the Davis Adult School financially viable, by converting several popular community-oriented courses into self-supporting tuition-based offerings, while simultaneously preserving academic courses that helped students who hadn’t finished the requirements for their high school diploma when they were teenagers complete that process later in life.

Allen, noting that the Davis Adult School’s 2013 graduates included students who had started high school in Winters, Woodland and other nearby communities, said, “This is now a regional adult school. Other districts threw their hands up (and suspended adult programs) when state funding dried up. But Laurel Clumpner would not let that happen here. She’s got tenacity, too!”

Clumpner, blinking through a tear or two, told the graduates, “I charge you to be lifelong learners, and urge you to take your place in society as productive citizens!”

At a reception following the ceremony, Clumpner said she is “going to do mundane things for a while, like work in the garden” now that she is retiring.

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Teacher Lisa Yamasaki shakes Rachael Tyrvanen’s hand as she begins the commencement processional Tuesday at the Veterans’ Memorial Center. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo

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