TAKE TWO: COVID STILL AFFECTS 2021 GRADS
Outdoor prom, staggered commencements planned in rebuilt stadium
LANSDALE >> The end of a second school year with COVID-19 is rapidly approaching, and North Penn’s class of 2021 looks likely to have a very different final few days than last year’s graduates, but also different than in all the years pre-pandemic.
District staff have announced a timeline of the district’s end-of-year celebrations, including an outdoor prom and three outdoor graduation ceremonies instead of the dozens of drive-through ones held last year.
“As much as we focus on the class of 2020 and what they missed, I think the class of 2021 has a solid argument, they missed out on at least as much, if not more,” said school board member Christian Fusco.
When schools were shuttered and switched to allvirtual instruction in spring 2020, no proms were held that spring, and graduating
students received their diplomas in a series of small group processions through the high school’s Crawford Stadium, as families drove
through and cheered.
“For the class of 2020, we had 43 graduations. We have three this year. It will be all day long, but it will look an awful lot like the graduation of 2019, and previous years,” Assistant Superintendent Todd Bauer said.
Current plans call for students to sign up beforehand for any of three available time slots, at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. or 6 p.m. on June 12, for mass ceremonies to be held at Crawford. About five tickets will be available for families and friends per graduate, and the ceremonies will all be streamed live via the district’s NPTV channel.
“Somewhere around 300 to 350 graduates at each graduation, they will be able to have family members attend, and we can do so safely,” Bauer said.
“And this will be the first class to graduate in the
newly renovated Crawford Stadium,” he said, referring to ongoing renovations at the high school stadium that are on schedule to be done just in time.
District officials formally announced a timeline of events for the graduating class in late March, detailing how each will meet all applicable COVID-19 precautions and guidelines issued by state and county authorities.
Returning this year after a one-year hiatus will be a senior prom, to be held outdoors at the high school, using the campus’s front parking lot, tennis courts, and turf field adjacent to Crawford. Seniors will be able to wear prom apparel, except for high heels on the turf field, and all who attend must participate in district-offered rapid antigen assurance testing within 24 hours of the prom; those who test positive will be unable to attend, but will have their tickets refunded.
“We are doing the antigen testing the day of the prom, and optional testing two weeks before. Anyone attending the prom, if they were to get tested two weeks before, and test positive, they still have two weeks where they could quarantine, and still attend their prom safely,” Bauer said.
“There is no doubt about it, some students will test positive the day of the prom. We have millions and millions of data points to point to the fact that some people will test positive,” he said.
With an estimated 800 to 1,000 students attending, county officials have indicated that the outdoor gathering can be held in compliance with county Office of Public Health COVID protocols, Bauer told the school board’s ECI committee on Tuesday night.
Masks will be mandatory, and group photos can be taken in brief gatherings, with professional photographers overseeing the pictures. The prom is scheduled for May 22, with a rain date of May 23, from 6:30 to 10 p.m. at the high school, and senior class student liaison Ifradur Khan said he and his classmates are already looking forward to it.
“Everyone’s excited that we will still have something, we will still have a prom, even though we have some complications in the way,” he said.
Bauer added that he was glad to see the rapid pace of vaccinations and easing of COVID restrictions mean the gatherings could be allowed for a class enduring its second pandemic school year.
“This class didn’t have a junior prom last year, so for them to have a senior prom is — just two or three months ago, it didn’t seem possible, so we’re excited for you guys,” he said.
Other events scheduled for the senior class will include an in-person senior awards ceremony at 6 p.m. June 2, with roughly 250 attendees in person at the high school auditorium and the rest streaming online. The annual senior class “Reflections” ceremony looking back on the students’ dozen years in local schools will also be in-person with limited attendance, at 7 p.m. on June 11 also at the high school.
“Being able to also have those other events, having COVID protocol procedures in place, but similar to what it was before, still being able to have inperson limited attendance, kind of brings that preCOVID feeling a little bit,” said senior Adityasai Palaparthi.
“I think the student body is appreciative of the administration doing their best to kind of bring some sort of normality,” he said.
Details of the planned ceremonies have been sent via email to all high school families, and a Q-and-A with high school staff has been posted on the NPTV YouTube channel.
Bauer added that, since an update on the Crawford Stadium construction was given at the board’s facilities committee meeting on March 29, another major milestone has been reached.
“If you have not driven past Crawford Stadium in the last few days, breaking news: It’s green. There is turf down. If you drive past, that is a new addition — this morning, I was pleased to see the turf,” he said, and Khan added that he could also see it from the nearby North Montco Technical Career Center.