THE PARTY IS OVER

Grad banquets to end

Grace Spooner had started a checklist in her head for this summer before her Grade 12 year of high school. Among the to-do items: buy a dress for next year’s graduation banquet.

Plans have changed for the soonto-be senior at Centennial Collegiate. According to a letter sent Thursday to families and caregivers of grades 9 to 11 students, Saskatoon Public Schools’ collegiates have unanimously decided to discontinue organizing grad banquets.

The annual celebration dating back decades at most public schools will be no more, starting with next year’s Grade 12 class.

“That’s a big part of graduating,” Spooner said Thursday. “It’s kind of sad. It’s taking away a tradition that’s been a part of high school for a long time.”

The letter said the schools based the choice on four main factors:

The cost of attending a banquet has “created a financial hardship for some families in every school,” the letter read, citing costs such as grad pictures, after-grad tickets and the rental of tuxedos or purchase of a formal outfit.

Staff say the events have become “increasingly complex” and timeconsuming. With banquets in some cases seating more than 1,000 people, a team of staff volunteers is needed “to co-ordinate the event that families have come to expect ... ”

The letter also said “not everyone chooses to participate in a safe and respectable manner.”

Some families, meanwhile, “are increasingly looking for a more intimate celebration with loved ones,” as opposed to an evening with an entire graduating class.

Cap-and-gown ceremonies will still take place, with the focus “on the academic achievements” of the students, said Centennial Collegiate principal Cody Hanke.

Letters were not sent Thursday to families of Nutana students or Mount Royal students. A decision had previously been made at Mount Royal to discontinue banquets.

Hanke, serving as a spokesman for public school principals, stressed that while the traditional banquet may be ending, graduation celebrations could remain in place. Schools may choose to have a prom or a dance. Some may have a tea. After-grads that are organized and supervised by parents will continue.

“Sometimes traditions that change are difficult to accept, but progress moves us forward and we move on,” Hanke said, noting that many of the immediate responses he heard were “an emotional reaction and that’s to be expected.”

The idea of ending the banquets was first floated in Saskatoon as a discussion item two or three years ago and was revisited this fall.