Manatee County seniors prepare to graduate

Seniors at Manatee County’s seven high schools are preparing to graduate next week, and the county School Board has compiled a statistical memento of their class as a graduation gift.

The “Class of 2026 Senior Stats and Accolades” list cites the most popular names in the class as Jacob and Isabella, unchanged from last year.

This year’s seniors were born in 48 states (none from Montana or Wyoming) and 57 countries or territories (none from Madagascar or Greenland), and speak 44 languages.

More than half the seniors (2,202) started kindergarten in Manatee County in 2013 and have been in school more than 2,100 days since kindergarten began. Since then, they have weathered 10 hurricanes or tropical storms that disrupted their schooling.

It took 67-68 teachers to help each senior reach their graduation day.

The Class of ’26 has an average GPA of 3.02 — the highest ever in the county — and they have contributed 125,000 community service hours, more than 5,225 days.

The county’s seniors earned more than $8.2 million in scholarships from Bright Futures.

Three seniors received service academy appointments — to the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy.

The county’s 3,300 graduates, including those among the 277 early graduates who will participate in ceremonies, will collectively participate in 29,500 handshakes at graduation.