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06/02/2020 12:00 AMThe Morgan School class of 2020 will have a graduation ceremony, albeit a very different one due to the coronavirus concerns. The ceremony will take place starting around 9 a.m. on Wednesday, June 10 and will be live streamed for the public.
According to Board of Education Chair Erica Gelven, the day will start with pre-taped speeches being broadcast around 9 a.m. At 10 a.m., the graduates and their immediate family members will start arriving on campus.
The ceremony will take place throughout the day according to Gelven, and at press time the district is working out a way to live steam the event so that friends and family members beyond the graduate’s immediate family can view the ceremony.
Each student will be given a specific time slot to show up and begin going different drive-through stations—dubbed Morgan Way—on campus.
“Clinton has a rich history of other community stakeholders being involved in graduation,” said Gelven.
Gelven said the students will go through stations as a way for the seniors to capture some of the of the usual elements of graduation. For example, one station will have gift bag from the alumni association, while another will be in front of a banner containing handprints of the entire graduating class.
“New groups will arrive every 30 minutes, and will continue throughout the day until early evening and all graduates have received their diplomas,” said Superintendent of Schools Maryann O’Donnell.
After the stations, each graduate will get a chance to walk across a modified stage and collect his or her diploma, which Gelven said is something students indicated was important to them when asked what they wanted out of a graduation ceremony.
“It really stood out as the big thing and a sign of their accomplishment,” Gelven.
O’Donnell said that a professional photographer will be on hand to photograph the moment for the seniors.
In order to observe all social distancing guidelines, all of the ceremony components will be done contact free and only immediate family members will be allowed with the seniors. Area health district personnel were consulted on the plan as well, according to Gelven.
“They were on board that we could do that safely and we can give the kids that moment,” said Gelven.
The 2019-’20 school year has been a difficult and strange one. Students have not been in the building since mid-March when the COVID-19 outbreak hit the region. Since then the students have been taking online classes, while staples of high school life such as sports, prom, and just simply being in school with classmates were all nixed.
There are still no clear signs on whether or not students will be allowed back into the school in the fall.
While holding a modified graduation service doesn’t fix what has been taken from the kids, Gelven said she is glad the seniors will be honored in some way.
“I do believe it will honor what our kids have achieved,” said Gelven.