Crowds packed the stands at Christian County High School’s Lyle Dunbar Gym to celebrate the school’s 2026 graduating class at Friday’s commencement ceremony.
CCHS opened its doors in 1959, and after this school year, the campus will house alternative learning programs such as Bluegrass Learning Academy and the student body will move to the consolidated Christian County High School, which will open in August.
Before students received their diplomas, Principal Megan Kem spotlighted some of the school’s history. She says that five rural high schools consolidated to establish CCHS, and the inaugural student body included around 500 students. “The Kentucky New Era” published an article about the school’s opening, and Kem says it included the caption, “All for one,” and that phrase became the school’s heartbeat of that generation of colonels.
In the 67 years that followed, Kem says CCHS built a legacy like none other, and she called the class of 2026 the final chapter of it.
Kem then spotlighted the class’s top 10 graduates and named Andrew Mayes and Gage Montes as co-salutatorians and Lacey Paige as the valedictorian. Paige introduced the ceremony’s keynote speaker, CCHS Assistant Principal Robert Burnham.
Burnham gave the graduates three challenges: When things get tough, don’t quit, be proud of the school you graduated from and let graduating be a stepping stone to other achievements and reasons to celebrate.
To finish his speech, Burnham took a selfie with the class of 2026. Seniors then received their diplomas, and the ceremony ended with Superintendent Chris Bentzel announcing them as graduates and instructed them to cross the tassels on their cap.