After a spring of unprecedented circumstance for the seniors of Morgantown High, University High and Clay-Battelle, some pomp is finally set to commence this summer.
Small-scale graduation ceremonies are scheduled for all three campuses on June 25, Monongalia County Schools announced.
The exercises will each be at 6 p.m. that day, which is a Thursday, on the football field at each school.
Rain days have also been slotted in for that Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Assistant Superintendent Donna Talerico said.
“We wanted to honor our seniors,” she said.
“We wanted to make it special for them.”
That’s because their year has been special, she said.
Just in all the wrong ways.
As the COVID-19 pandemic began making its presence here, students were sent home, as a preventive measure.
It was supposed to be temporary.
However, as diagnosed cases and deaths from the coronavirus began to mount, students from across the state were eventually told they wouldn’t be coming back at all this school year.
Which sent it all reeling and roiling for the seniors.
Needed testing for college, canceled.
Spring sports, canceled.
Prom, canceled.
Band concerts, canceled.
Everything else, for that matter, canceled.
The big homework assignment for the district, Talerico said, was in trying to set it up so commencement, could, well, commence.
June 25 won’t be 100% perfect, because it won’t be 100% public, she said.
“It’ll be different,” she said.
And that’s because the Monongalia County Health Department wrote the syllabus.
The audience, as said, will be limited, with participating seniors receiving two tickets apiece, for family and friends.
That 6-foot social-distancing statute will be in place — for both spectators and the cap-and-gown contingent.
Ceremonies, though, will be live-streamed, so others near and far can at least look in, on a tablet or smartphone.
A certain assistant superintendent is cheering early.
“I want to commend the Class of 2020,” Talerico said.
“I want to applaud them. They’ve been understanding and resilient through all of this.”
Some 60% of those seniors, she said, indicated they would have been happy with a viritual commencement, given the pandemic.
That’s according to a survey last month which asked the Class of 2020 to consider options from a drive-by diploma-grab to a principal personally delivering the document to their house for a ceremony outside.
Jade Mayle was holding out for a public event, in whatever way the tassel turned.
“I want a traditional graduation,” the University High senior told The Dominion Post two weeks ago.
“One where I can walk across the stage, throw my cap in the air and celebrate.”
The enterprise is still up in the air, given the unpredictability of a pandemic.
Even with the ongoing bacterial slog of COVID-19, most of the country is still rushing to reopen.
And that’s leaving many to worry about a resurgence.
What if that is the circumstance of June 25?
“I couldn’t even begin to speculate on that,” Talerico said.
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