Patrick Brust knows his graduation is going to be unusual. The Bishop Brady senior understands the coronavirus pandemic has affected schools, businesses and governments across the world. He, like so many others in the class of 2020, is trying to make the best of the situation.
“We had a senior class Zoom call a few days ago and we were all talking about what we can do for graduation and prom and pretty much anything that is special for the seniors, and how we can still make it special even though it’s going to different,” Brust said.
That Zoom meeting included principal Andrea Elliot, who was writing down every student suggestion on a white board.
“That makes you feel like you still matter, like it’s not all so distant,” Brust said.
Schools around the state are trying to find ways to make this graduation season meaningful, even if they can’t host large gatherings of seniors hoisting their caps in the air while proud parents look on.
Concord High administration is getting input from its seniors on graduation plans while still trying to hold a version of a ceremony at Memorial Field. At Pembroke Academy, costs for caps and gowns have been waived. In Bow, parents and school officials teamed up to plant signs in front of the homes of Bow High seniors to recognize and congratulate the soon-to-be graduates. At ConVal in Peterborough, administrators asked community members in surrounding towns to decorate the outside of their homes and businesses for a seniors’ graduation celebration drive-by tour. John Stark High School in Weare sent out an email survey to its seniors asking which of these two options they preferred – a ceremony in the near future with each senior and a few family members going into the cafeteria and getting their diploma as individually, or an outside event under a tent later in the summer that could be socially distanced if necessary.
“I like the tent one better just because it can have more people who can see your accomplishment, but honestly, I don’t really like either way. I don’t think those are great ways to celebrate my hard work and my four years of high school,” Stark senior Chelsea Woodsum said.
Fellow Stark senior Brett Patnode has similar feelings.
“It hurts a lot. Who goes to school for, like, 11 ¾ years and doesn’t get to walk? It’s a bummer,” Patnode said.
Their complaints weren’t directed at the John Stark administrators who proposed the alternatives plans, they were directed at the coronavirus situation in general. They understand these are new and challenging circumstances, but that doesn’t make it any easier.
“It just stinks. I don’t really have a firm idea on how to deal with the guidelines for the virus and our graduation, it’s just really hard to hear that those might be our only options,” Woodsum said. “I just wish it was the usual graduation where you can walk up on the stage and everyone who is important to you, family and friends and all the teachers, are all there and they can all cheer you on.”
Concord High is hoping to create a version of its traditional graduation. The school is considering a plan to have multiple ceremonies at Memorial Field so everyone in attendance can be socially distanced.
“Our goal is to offer the kids, in this really disappointing graduation season with prom and all that stuff at stake, as close to an original type of ceremony as we can,” Concord High Principal Mike Reardon said. “We wat to try to get them down to Memorial Field with at least a good number of their peers, certainly not all of them at the same time, but also with their family members, so that this is truly as it should be – a family and a community celebration.”
The exact details are still being worked out.
“If that means we have to do three or five or even six graduations, or maybe even have them over a couple days, we’re willing to do that because we think it’s important enough to do,” Reardon said.
The school would still need to get permission from government officials before it could go forward with that plan, which is scheduled for June 13, the original date of the graduation. If it is acceptable, they will try to make every ceremony identical, right down to the featured speakers, Reardon said.
“We’re going to get input from the kids on who they might want those speakers to be, and if that means someone has to give a speech a number of times, that’s the least problem we have,” Reardon said. “The easy thing would be to just have the kids come up to the stage and get their diplomas and get out of there, but that’s not fair to the kids and that’s not fair to the families.”
Bow High is also hoping to have a ceremony on June 13, which is the originally scheduled graduation date as well. Bow superintendent Dean Cascadden said the working plan is to have a virtual celebration on June 13 that is pre-recorded and honors each senior, and then have an in-person graduation event later in the summer if the restrictions on gatherings and staying at home have been eased.
“It will evolve depending on the orders, so we’re not sure when we’ll actually hand out diplomas, but that’s where our thinking is right now – something now and something later,” Cascadden said.
Brust said the leading ideas at Bishop Brady, are either having a drive-through ceremony where seniors can get their diplomas from a car and then drive to a near-by photo booth for some pictures, or just pushing it back until later in the summer. Whatever happens, he knows what he wants out graduation.
“Just some closure so we can feel like high school is really done and it doesn’t seem like we’ve been doing online classes for the last two months and then we just close our computers and we’re done with high school,” Brust said. “It would be nice to see our friends one more time at least and have that piece of paper handed to you from the principal saying, yeah, we did this.”
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20)