First Baptist Christian School started with a kindergarten class 25 years ago, and this year it has another first.

Emily Hilgar of Concord Township is the first graduate from the school who has attended since kindergarten. She's part of the school's second graduating class: a class of eight.

When Hilgar graduates tonight, she'll be joined by class president Steve Smock of Emlenton, valedictorian Kiara Franko of Butler, and five other classmates in the church sanctuary, adjacent to the school on New Castle Street.

Principal Ken Kistler will watch the first class he taught at the school flip their tassels.

Kistler started at the school six years ago as a junior high teacher. Three years ago he became principal.

He said he's enjoyed watching the students grow as the school added grades.

The students say they've seen the teachers learn, too.

"We get to see the teachers grow as much as they see us grow," Franko said.

"There's a cycle," she said. "The first year, they're lenient. You can get away with pretty much anything. The next year, they really crack down."

Hilgar said she remembers one teacher who had never taught before she started at the school.

The class, which stays together throughout the school day, watched the teacher learn how to transform lesson plans into teaching.

"You definitely have to learn to adapt," she said.

Still, all three said they are glad to be graduating from a small high school.

"You get to know people. It's more like a family than a class," Hilgar said.

For instance, she's been in class with Franko since second grade. Smock joined First Baptist as a junior, but a majority of students in the class have been at the school since ninth grade or before.

Additionally, Hilgar said she's appreciated the one-on-one attention she received.

"It's really been a blessing," she said of going to the same school for 13 years.

Franko said she appreciates the opportunities of the small group.

For instance, when she had Kistler in the seventh/eighth grade combined class, she had a few Bible classes at Cummings Coffee Shop on Main Street.

Kistler said he was trying to use positive reinforcement, so he offered the class a trip to the coffee shop if they made it through the day without making a negative comment. They earned that trip two or three times, he said.

"That's one of the opportunities we have being in town and being smaller," he said.

The coffee shop would be pretty crowded if Butler High's senior class made that trip, Franko pointed out.

The class also afforded Smock an unexpected opportunity: that of top-ranking class officer.

"I wasn't really expecting to be elected at all," he said.

He's taken his duties seriously, though, he said. That included seeing that doughnuts get to the school in time for a morning break.

He and the others also planned a weeklong senior trip last week. The class stayed at a Slippery Rock campground and took day trips each day, including trips to Niagara Falls and Cedar Point. They also included a service day at Grove City College.

That trip, which brought them even closer together, makes it harder to graduate Thursday, Hilgar said.

Franko can count off her classmates on her fingers. She said she'll be sad that after all this time they will be separating from each other, but she said five classmates have plans to attend Butler County Community College.

Franko wants to finish a year of classes at BC3 before transferring to Grove City to study computer information.

Hilgar has already started her classes at the college to be a physical therapy assistant.

Smock is still looking at colleges. But he knows he wants to find a school where he can study mechanics.

"I love working on my car," he said.

Before her future plans begin, however, Franko is trying to think of some "words of wisdom" to tell her classmates in her valedictorian speech.

"I'll figure it out Thursday," she said.