Madison Klotzko and Pia Morrelli are the co-valedictorians of Keene Central School’s nine-member class of 2024. The two students will both speak at graduation on June 28.

Typically, KCS names a valedictorian and a salutatorian. The honors are given based on the students’ grades in coursework throughout their entire high school career. When it came time to calculate the students’ cumulative high school GPAs and name the val and sal, however, the top two students in the senior class, Klotzko and Morrelli, had identical GPAs: 94.64.

“Based on the criteria that we have for valedictorian, they both came out with the same average, rounding out to the thousandth place,” KCSD Superintendent Dan Mayberry said. “It is very rare, so that’s why we decided to acknowledge (both Klotzko and Morrelli).”

There have never been two co-valedictorians in the school’s history, Mayberry said; Klotzko and Morrelli will be the first two students to share the honor.

Klotzko, the daughter of Dawn Delmont and Eric Klotzko, plans to attend SUNY Oneonta in the fall to study biochemistry. She also wants to go into the medical field in the future. Morrelli, the daughter of Haley and Matthew Morrelli, will go to the University of New Hampshire in the fall to study health sciences. She said she hopes to become a physician’s assistant.

Both students said it was strange to think of leaving KCS — Morrelli has been there since sixth grade and Klotzko since Pre-K.

“I’ve been trying to live in the moment and not think too much ahead,” Klotzko said. “(I’m trying to) just kind of enjoy this while I can because these people are a big part of our lives.”

“It’s definitely sad,” Morrelli said. “I feel like I’m a little bit in denial.”

When asked if there were any faculty members at KCS they wanted to shout out, both students said there are too many to name them all. For Morrelli, art teacher Stacey Van Campen tops the list.

“She does so much to try and help our students and administrators not just coexist but agree and try and help the students be as happy as they can be,” she said. “She’s done so much.”

Klotzko said that KCS school counselor Jatha Johnson has been a “huge, huge help” to her.

“Junior year, for me, was difficult like everyone says it is,” Klotzko said. “I spent countless hours in (Johnson’s) room talking about anything and everything, and she helped me with college applications and my co-valedictorian speech.”

In a small school and an even smaller class, it’s easy to get involved and meet people, Klotzko said. She played soccer, participated in school theater productions and helped organize this year’s Red Cross blood drives.

“Nothing else is like this here,” Klotzko said of KCS. “The teachers that I had and the relationships we were able to have together made the classes so much more enjoyable. … It’s not just your class you’re friends with, it’s the whole high school.”

Morrelli said that, through extracurriculars like sports, she’s been able to make a lot of friendships that transcend grade levels.

“I have a ton of friends in the junior class that I’m leaving and that’s hard. A ton of teachers … they’re the people that help you the entire way through and you never stop seeing them,” she said. “The team sports are so close here, and that’s another way I connected with the younger grades.”

Morrelli participated in soccer, flag football, track and field and Nordic skiing, as well as theater.

“(Our class has) a lot of people that hang out with different people. It’s a lot of personalities, but we all come together,” she said. “We’re super close. We’re like family.”

“We’re all very different, but we still find ways … to come together and be one group and have a good time together,” Klotzko said.

Younger students at KCS should challenge themselves for the sake of personal growth, Klotzko said, not for accolades.

“I wasn’t trying to get (valedictorian) and I didn’t know I was really in the running for this,” she said. “I tried my best and I did what I could do for myself, but I wasn’t trying to do it for a title. I think you should push yourself as much as you want, but do it for yourself.”

Morrelli said she hopes younger students take time to appreciate what they have while they have it.

“Don’t take advantage of time. It goes a lot faster than you think,” she said. “it goes by so fast. Live every moment to the fullest.”