PARIS — Eight years ago, a group of fourth-graders took a field trip to Augusta, where they posed on the Blaine House steps with then-Maine Gov. Angus King.

Now seniors at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in Paris, the students want a new date with King – as speaker at their graduation.

The former independent governor tells the Sun Journal of Lewiston that their invitation was a no-brainer once he got a picture of the class taken in 2003. King’s reaction: “How could you say no to that?”

Oxford high senior class president Justin St. John, one of the former Harrison Elementary School students who met King on the 2003 field trip, says “it’s a thrill” to have King as commencement speaker June 12.