117 to Graduate from GCS

The class of 2010 and the community will be watching the skies Friday as the graduation ceremony has once again been slated for the lawn of the Granville Jr./Sr. High School.
The ceremony starts at 6:30 p.m. regardless of the location.


Superintendent Mark Bessen said the front lawn of the high school will be set up for the ceremony and as a backup the gymnasium will also be ready for the ceremony. Available seating will be considerably less and restricted to ticket holders should the weather go against the graduates.
“If it’s in the gym, it will be ticket holders only,” Bessen said.
Bessen said seniors will receive a limited number of tickets for the seats provided by the school, but relatives and well wishers will have unlimited access to the rest of the lawn.
As long as the weather holds, and early projected forecasts are positive, those outside of the reserved seating area are encouraged to bring a lawn chair as space is practically unlimited.
Bessen said school officials would be watching the forecast as well as hoping for good weather up to and even during the ceremony.
The call of inside or out will be made based on the weather forecast and what the radar shows moving into the area and could change at any time.
Bessen said someone will also be watching the radar during the ceremony and advising school officials with updates.
This year’s scheduled speakers include valedictorian Kathleen Beecher and salutatorian Crysta Cadella as well as Granville Board of Education President Kathy Nelson.
In 2009 the graduates and guests narrowly avoided a storm that held off until just minutes after the conclusion of the graduation ceremony. That outdoor graduation was the first that had taken place at Granville since 2000.
Box: Webcast
‘webcast’ graduation set
The technology department has conducted its final check and pronounced the 2010 graduation webcast ready to go. Web browsers from across the world will once again be focused on Granville on June 25 at 6:30 p.m. as the school’s graduation ceremony goes out over the Internet for the second time in as many years.
The ceremony can be found at: granvillecsd.org. Simply click on the link on the school’s homepage and view the ceremony.
The broadcast will be free, requiring only a high-speed Internet connection for viewing, school technology director Dan Nelson said.
Should anything change with the webcast instructions those changes will be posted at the address, or a link, directing viewers to a location where they can view the video.
Superintendent Mark Bessen said if the district runs into complications and cannot go out live with the broadcast, it will be available for viewing at a later time as a streaming video.
Last year many viewers who logged on early and at nearly the same time created something of a log jam on the district’s server overwhelming it.
Those who did not try back again later missed the webcast although others reported seeing the video ceremony without problems. Nelson said those issues have been overcome.