Priest River, Idaho — Graduates of Priest River Lamanna High School received a straightforward message at their commencement Saturday: the struggles they endured matter far less than the strength they showed in getting through them.
The ceremony took place in the PRLHS gymnasium, decorated in the school’s orange and black colors, as the Class of 2026 marked the end of a high school journey that included navigating a global pandemic alongside one another.
A Math Teacher’s Unconventional Send-Off
Math teacher Terry Martin served as the commencement speaker and made sure his remarks stood out from the typical graduation address. Before taking the podium, Martin researched the 20 most commonly used clichés in graduation keynote speeches — and then set out to avoid them entirely.
Rather than filling the auditorium with familiar platitudes, Martin handed each graduate a single dollar bill. His point was concrete: that one dollar, properly invested in an ETF, could grow to roughly $3,000 over 30 years — a practical illustration of patience, discipline, and the value of small, consistent decisions made early in life.
Martin also addressed the inevitability of failure, framing it not as something to chase or romanticize but as something to study. “Learn from failure, don’t embrace it,” he told the graduates. “There are a lot of people in this world who will make mistakes. Watch them, learn from their mistakes.”
The advice carried weight coming from a classroom educator who works daily with young people navigating academic pressure and setbacks. His message aligned with a broader theme woven throughout the ceremony — that resilience and honest self-assessment will carry graduates further than any single achievement or stumble.
Valedictorian’s Honest Reflection
Lucas Matthews, named valedictorian for the Class of 2026, offered his classmates an unusually candid look at his own academic path. Matthews acknowledged that his freshman year was rocky — he earned four Cs during that first year of high school — a detail he chose to share openly rather than conceal behind the polished image often associated with top-ranked graduates.
His trajectory from a struggling freshman to class valedictorian underscored the graduation ceremony’s central theme: that the starting point does not determine the finish line, and that consistent effort over time produces results that early struggles may not predict.
Principal Vanessa Haggett also addressed the graduating class during the ceremony. Senior class president Niki Porinchok reflected on the bonds formed across four years spent together, a stretch that included the disruption and uncertainty of a global pandemic during the students’ formative years.
“We supported one another, laughed together, and this sense of community we built is something that is truly special among us,” Porinchok said in remarks to her fellow graduates.
Her words pointed to something the Class of 2026 shares that few other graduating cohorts will fully understand — the experience of completing high school after beginning it under the cloud of COVID-19, with all the disruption that brought to schedules, relationships, and expectations.
What Comes Next
With Saturday’s ceremony complete, the Priest River Lamanna Class of 2026 moves into the next chapter — whether that means college, workforce entry, military service, or trades. The messages delivered at commencement — invest wisely, learn from others’ mistakes, and let your response to difficulty define you — are designed to travel with them beyond the gymnasium walls.
North Idaho continues to celebrate strong local school communities like the one at PRLHS. Across the region, schools are navigating both student achievement and broader systemic questions. State officials have recently launched a push to rethink how Idaho funds its public schools — a conversation that could affect districts like Priest River for years to come. For more on that effort, see the Idaho school funding overhaul discussion being tracked across the state.
For those watching North Idaho student athletes heading into the next chapter, local standouts are also making their mark on the field. Ridgeline’s Caden Andreas recently shone at the Eastern Washington All-State Feeder Game, a reminder of the talent emerging from Panhandle schools each graduating class.