High schools planning to pull off ‘normal’ graduations

Social distancing rules will cap how many can attend each ceremony

Hurtling toward the end of a hectic year, most K-12 and high school districts in California are intensely focused on reopening campuses and giving the Class of 2021 a final send-off to remember in June.

The operating assumption, many district administrators say, is they can do an in-person graduation, where seniors can walk across a stage with their families present.

That’s the way it always had been until last year, when, in the first throes of COVID-19, all but small districts did remote graduations — livestreamed and video recorded — or did a drive-thru diploma pickup.

Now, students say they want, and administrators agree they deserve, a typical graduation after a most atypical year of distance learning apart from friends.

“The District recognizes that high school graduations are a once in a lifetime event and a cherished memory for our graduating seniors and their families,” Chris Funk, superintendent of the East Side Union High School District in San Jose, wrote in a letter to seniors.

All of the districts EdSource contacted are planning for graduation ceremonies outdoors, with livestreaming for families that cannot or choose not to attend.

Pulling off a graduation, though, will require the same painstaking attention to safety and health precautions and social distancing as a reopening of school — for an event attended by hundreds. On March 26, the California Department of Public Health issued guidance for commencement and graduation ceremonies beyond the extensive requirements issued the same day covering all outdoor seating events and performances.

Among the requirements, districts must:

• Follow the capacity limits determined by a county’s color tier, tied to infection rates.

• Preregister those attending and limit attendance to those signed up.

• Monitor attendance.

• Require that all those attending self-screen for signs of CO

VID-19 before leaving the house.

• Leave 2 hours between events to ensure those attending separate events won’t mix.

• Ensure everyone wears masks.

A further complication is that some epidemiologists are predicting a fourth wave of the virus by mid-May. As a result, many districts have been building contingency plans.

“We have been working on graduation plans since January, because we realized we could be in the purple, red or orange tier at the time of the event,” with each tier setting different limits on attendance, said John Malloy, first-year superintendent of the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.

East Side Union High School District is among the many districts that have sent the same message to the public: It’s premature to be more specific than to say graduations will be in person, but the number of people allowed to attend the events will depend on current health conditions and restrictions in place at the time.

“By the time May rolls around, whatever you have put in print may be outdated,” Funk said.

Beyond the California Department of Public Health guidance, the state’s 58 county public health directors can set their own rules, including event capacity. Funk said he’s planning conservatively, using the county’s current 400-person limit for outdoor events.

The number would translate to only 100 to 125 students, plus staff and two family members per student for each of the school’s three to five ceremonies.

If the county increases the capacity, there will be larger and fewer ceremonies, Funk said. The alternative is what East Side did last year: a video, with a photo of each graduate and a drive-thru graduation, in which each student gets out of the car and walks across a stage to receive a diploma.

Graduation ceremonies are most memorable when they’re personal, reflecting the experiences of the graduates and the values of a community. In a state as big and diverse as California, the feel can be very different.

The 700-student Trinity Alps Unified in historic Weaverville, west of Redding, and 74,000-student Fresno Unified, the state’s third-largest district, will offer a small-town and bigcity contrast.

At Fresno’s graduations, there will be confetti, fireworks, laser lights and a swag bag of items with school logos and a surprise gift, although the biggest reward for students will be seeing their classmates face to face for the first time in a year.

The Fresno graduations will include one extra event. Fulfilling a promise to the Class of 2020 that Superintendent Bob Nelson made last year, those graduates from all schools can walk the stage — in cap and gown and have their individual photo taken — at an event reserved for them.

Richard Romero, a senior at Fresno High, said that after a year of a pandemic that took lives in many families in Fresno, classmates who “worked their butts off to get good grades” are ready to make their parents proud. Others, he said, are looking forward to “strutting on stage.”

Worried about contracting COVID-19, he and his family probably won’t go. “I’m OK without a graduation,” he said, “but I know a lot of seniors will enjoy it and feel like they’ve been working up to something big.”

Trinity High expects to hold a graduation ceremony on June 11 for its 65 to 70 graduates as it did last year, on its football field. Seniors will be in the bleachers and families will be seated in 10-by-10-foot squares separated 6 feet from each other.

There’ll be no fireworks, although there will be some singing. It’ll be a low-key affair in a small town whose families know each other well.