When Marysville High Schools’ 412 graduates walk across the stage Saturday, June 2, principal Matt Chrispin and his staff will say goodbye to an exceptional class.

“This class is incredibly bright,” Chrispin said.

Nearly 25 percent of the graduates will leave with a GPA of 3.5 or higher, with three National Merit Finalists in the graduating class: two of the 11 co-valedictorians, Brooke Brown and Isabel Cooke, and Lydia Browne. The National Merit Scholarship Program is a prestigious program that recognizes the highest scholarship achievement in secondary education. Each year more 1.5 million students take the PSAT/NMSQT at high schools across the country. The test annually serves as an initial screen of entrants who also must meet published program entry/participation requirements. Since 1974, Marysville High School has had 36 finalists for the National Merit Scholarship Program. The class of 2012 is only the third class to have three or more finalists from MHS.

Sixteen students are graduating summa cum laude, 20 magna cum laude and 56 cum laude.

The class has 11 valedictorians; Brooke Brown, Aaron Gonzales, Michael Reed, Robert Balsiger, Bryan Langlois, Joanne Hyun, Meredith MacDonald, Cooke, Whitney Knox, Ellie Prinster and Anne Sabol.

Joseph Boyd, class president, will speak, as well as two of the valedictorians.

Chrispin said the class of 2012 has been a terrific model and provided great leadership for other students, resulting in some big accomplishments during the 2011-12 school year. Those include 8,223 hours of community service performed by MHS students; 22.8 is the highest composite average score on the ACT in MHS history; the Marysville chapter of the FFA was named No. 1 in the state out of 360 chapters in the area of Student Development; 359 AP tests were taken, which is a record for MHS; 20 tons of paper were recycled by the ProTerraNova student club; 33 business certificates were earned by seniors; and $5,000 was donated to local charities.

“There’s an old coaching adage that states, ‘You’re team is only as good as your senior class.’ The same can be applied to a high school,” Chrispin said. “If you have an outstanding senior class, it’s going to be a great year.”

The graduation ceremony is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, June 2, at the Marysville High School Stadium, 800 Amrine Mill Road.