'A full circle moment': Ormond, Daytona elementary schools host annual Senior Clap Out events

Teachers and students congratulated graduating seniors as they walked the hallways of their former elementary schools.

  • By Michele Meyers
  • | 9:00 a.m. May 26, 2026
  • Ormond Beach Observer
  • Neighbors
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Faculty, staff, and students of local elementary schools welcomed graduating seniors to annual Senior Clap Out events on Wednesday, May 20. 

Locally, the seniors were invited to attend the celebrations at Ormond Beach, Tomoka, Pine Trail, Pathways, Beachside and Champion Elementary, where they paraded through the hallways of their former schools to the sounds of teachers and students cheering amid an array of congratulatory signs. 

As seniors cruised the halls where many had their first formal educational experiences, there was a pervasive sense of nostalgia. Seabreeze senior Tahla Bibik and fellow graduates Lindsey Krallinger and Landon Cozier agreed. All three attended Ormond Beach Elementary.

“I’d say it’s a very nostalgic feeling being back in a place that you used to be with all these people,” Bibik said. “It’s kind of sad. The place feels so much smaller, too. It’s a very bittersweet feeling — like I’m going to graduate, and this is it. I feel like, in a way, it’s giving closure.”

Ormond Beach Elementary School principal Shannon Hay said the importance of hosting the event is that it reflects their end goal — graduation. 

I’d say it’s a very nostalgic feeling being back in a place that you used to be with all these people. It’s kind of sad ... It’s a very bittersweet feeling — like I’m going to graduate, and this is it. I feel like, in a way, it’s giving closure." — TAHLA BIBIK, Seabreeze High School senior

“It’s not only a great experience for our students to come back and see their teachers, and it’s a full circle moment for us, because we’re inspired by that, but it also motivates our current students to know where they’re headed and what to do,” Hay said. “Our school has a long tradition of history, and we actually have grandparents here that graduated from here 50 years ago, so it’s really nice to have our families together celebrating this big moment and milestone in their lives.”

This year was Tomoka Elementary School principal Julie Roseboom’s last Senior Clap Out. After 40 years of teaching in Volusia County, Roseboom is retiring. Twenty-four of those years were in the role of principal; eight of those were at Tomoka. She is also a product of Volusia County Schools, having attended Westside Elementary, Campbell Middle School and graduated from Mainland High School.

“The students who came this year were with me my first year at Tomoka as fifth graders,” she said. “It’s so exciting to see them come back. I am so proud of them. They’ve been sharing what they’re going to do next, including which college they’ll attend. Some of them are talking about what they’re majoring in. They’re just precious.”

Over 30 seniors arrived at the Tomoka “clap out” for celebratory refreshments and a walk down memory lane. Roseboom remembered Seabreeze senior Leena Harman as the first student whose name she remembered when she became Tomoka’s principal. Also in attendance were the fifth-grade spelling bee winner, Logan Compton, and runner-up Mackenzie Mancuso. Compton will be attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Aviation Maintenance Science, and Mancuso will be attending the University of South Florida.

Pine Trail Elementary School uses the acronym P.R.I.D.E. to teach core life skills to the students — Patience, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, and Empathy. Principal Charles Bynum highlighted a few for the seniors during the Pioneers’ Senior Clap Out.

“You’re not going to know everything tomorrow, just because you walk across the stage, have some patience with yourself,” he said. “... Have respect for yourself. Do things that are going to make you proud of yourself, and hang out with people that you respect … The last letter in pride is 'E', and I think it’s one of the things that we have failed to do over the last few years. This is just my personal opinion, but it’s empathy … Have empathy and try to understand where people come from. We don’t all come from the same place; we come from all walks of life, and all have baggage we carry. Be empathetic.”

For seniors who went to Champion Elementary School, the Senior Clap Out brought them together after three years of middle school and four years of high school.

“Just hearing their memories, that’s what it is about,” Champion principal Steffan Mallory said. “To hear them reminiscing back on what they did when they were here, that’s what it’s all about, right here. It’s all about when they can think back to what they did, those little kindergarten through fifth-grade kids, and they still think back to when they did certain things, certain activities here at the school, that’s what it’s all about.”

 

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