Lamont to allow small, in-person high school graduations in July

FARMINGTON — While high school graduation plans involving car parades and virtual speeches are well underway, Commissioner of Education Miguel Cardona announced Wednesday that in-person graduation ceremonies for up to 150 students will be allowed beginning July 6.

With Gov. Ned Lamont and several educators and students by his side outside of Farmington High School, Cardona said health guidelines — depending on a continued slide of COVID-19 numbers in the state — are there to keep things safe and that schools need to keep flexible.

“This may not be the graduation you expected but it will be one you will never forget,” Lamont said. “We are going to

make it memorable.”

He called it the best of a complicated situation.

The yet-to-be-released executive order will allow small graduating classes, such as Derby’s 74-member class to sit together, socially distanced and outside on the school football field for their ceremony.

Derby Schools Superintendent Matt Conway called it a game changer.

“We owe it to them to deliver as great a graduation ceremony as possible that can best resemble what they dreamed about since kindergarten,” Conway said.

It remains unclear where families and friends can watch the Derby ceremony.

Also uncertain is how many high school graduating classes are small enough to hold in-person cermonies.

Farmington High, which this year has close to 300 seniors, plans to stick to plans that will have graduates and their families drive to the Farmington Polo Grounds and watch a ceremony as they would a drive-in movie from designated spots.

There will be live speeches projected from a large screen, so all can see and hear. When graduate names are called, students and their families will drive up to collect their diploma.

Other high schools are planning campus car parades where, rather than cross a stage, graduates drive up to a podium in a car with their families, pop out to collect their diploma and snap a picture or two.

There will be no hugs. No handshakes.

In Bridgeport, where there are seven district high school graduations to stage, plans are set for virtual ceremonies followed by separate drive-by diploma distributions at each school during the third week of June. Central High, because of its size, will break its ceremony into three days.

In each case students can get out of their cars briefly and snap a picture in front of their school.

In Westport, a car parade for Staples High School graduates is planned for June 11 from Long Lots School to Staples. Norwalk, Shelton, Trumbull, New Haven and other districts are planning similar events, all in consultation with local health officials.

In Greenwich, Schools Superintendent Toni Jones told parents in a letter graduates would get to walk across a stage at staggered times starting at 9 a.m. on June 9 and going to 3 p.m. A virtual ceremony will follow.

In Stamford, seniors, dressed in full cap and gown, accompanied by up to two guests, will likely get to individually collect a diploma and be photographed. Footage of all of the individual graduations would then be edited together and released to the community.

Bethel, like Farmington, is going the drive-in movie route.

Cardona said in many cases, drive-through graduations probably remain the best options.

The press conference backdrop was an athletic field that normally would have tons of students on it. Instead, it has been virtually empty since the COVID-19

pandemic shut down in-school lessons for all in mid-March.

For the Class of 2020, that has meant no proms, no class banquets and at best, virtual award nights.

Lamont warned even though there is cause for celebration, social distance guidelines that call for people to wear masks and stand 6 feet apart remain in effect regardless of the ceremony style.

In many parts of the country where high school graduations are already underway, customized face masks with school logos have been added to cap and gown regalia. Some graduates call it their “corona gear.”

Many districts have gotten signs that graduates can stick in their lawns or apartment windows, acknowledging their completion of high school.

Lamont said the 150person limit, as of July 6, may be extended to other kinds of gatherings.

Schools that opt for drive-in ceremonies recommend car windows stay closed and cars park 6 feet apart.

Cassandra Day / Hearst Connecticut Media Mercy High School in Middletown holds a drive-thru senior appreciation day for members of the Class of 2020 graduates during a drive-through senior appreciation day, when students collected commencement gowns and caps and other items.