School planning virtual and in-person graduation ceremonies

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By Matthew Saari

Granville Central School is planning both a virtual graduation as well as a traditional in-person ceremony.

The virtual graduation will take place on Thursday, June 25 and will be aired on WRGB at 7:30 p.m.

“This is a 26-minute video on television,” said high school principal Lisa Meade.

School superintendent Tom McGurl explained that this ceremony was made possible through the donations of eight community members, with the funds being used to purchase the air time, and will feature the traditional graduation speeches of the guest speaker, school administrators and the Class of 2020 valedictorian and salutatorian.

On Sunday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced schools can now host in-person graduation ceremonies of up to 150 people, with the earliest possible date of June 26.

Preparations for in-person ceremonies are in the works, McGurl said, but given how Cuomo’s announcement came, nothing has been finalized as yet.

“Nothing has been decided yet,” said McGurl. “As soon as we know we will let people know.”

Given this is a ceremony to commemorate the graduating seniors’ accomplishments, school administrators are polling the seniors, to gauge how best to go about it.

The students are being given a binary choice, with the first option to have an in-person ceremony in June under the current restrictive guidelines limiting participation to 150 persons. With a graduating class of 68 students, this likely means only one guest per students will be allowed.

The second option is to roll the proverbial dice and have a potentially larger ceremony in July.

“Basically one month later,” McGurl said, noting this option is based upon the hope that as the year goes on, the state restrictions loosen even further.

However, McGurl noted, if there is a surge of COVID-19 cases in the meanwhile, the state will likely clamp back down.

“It is a gamble,” he said. “It could go in the other direction and be a smaller graduation.”

Graduation ceremonies have been a hot topic for students and parents both locally and regionally in recent weeks. During a livestream of the Black Lives Matter rally in Glens Falls, courtesy of the North Country FreePress, many viewers wondered how rallies and protests, sometimes with thousands of participants as was the case in Glens Falls, are allowed but graduation ceremonies are not.

“Why don’t you protest the fact that senior students can’t have a graduation ceremony,” wrote Colin Bouchard.

“My daughter wasn’t allowed to have a graduation ceremony this year…it’s funny how politics work,” Aaron Fonseca wrote.

The Lakes Region FreePress coverage of a similar rally in Rutland, Vermont was met with similar remarks.

“We can have protests of more than 10 why can’t we social distance for all the students that are graduating this year?” asked Linda Anderson.