Several small graduation ceremonies will be held June 6 and 7 at Noble Field behind Whitcomb Middle School.
MARLBOROUGH – High school seniors will have the opportunity to walk across the stage to receive their diplomas next month.
District administrators plans to hold several small graduation ceremonies at Noble Field behind Whitcomb Middle School the weekend of June 6-7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., to celebrate the Class of 2020. Rain dates are scheduled for June 13-14.
Dan Riley, Marlborough High School principal, said school officials worked with the Class of 2020 student leadership team to develop the graduation plans.
“It was really a team effort,” Riley said while presenting the plans to School Committee members this week.
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Twenty-two students will participate in each ceremony and each student will be allowed to bring up to six family members. Family members will be seated together, but will be spaced apart from other families, said Riley.
Students are able to submit the names of three students they would like to graduate with, said Riley.
All participants must wear a mask. The city cannot provide masks for everyone, so district leaders are asking participants and families to bring their own.
Professional photographers will photograph students as they cross the stage and receive their diplomas to prevent crowds near the stage. There will also be photo opportunities in the middle of the field and in front of the panther statue at the entrance to the field, said Superintendent Michael Bergeron.
“The one thing that we just can’t have is we can’t have a cluster of folks getting together at the front of the stadium taking pictures together,” he said.
Maintaining safety is of the utmost importance and Bergeron requested families limit attendance to six or fewer people and not have other family members view the ceremony from outside the gates of the field. Bergeron feels strongly that the graduation plan is safe.
“Obviously, graduation is very important to all our students who are walking across that stage,” said Bergeron. “We see it as a right of adulthood for our young men and young women in the community and we obviously want to respect that. We want to respect the work these students have put in for the past 12 years in their academic careers and be able to recognize that. We also recognize that our job is to protect public safety as well. … We have to maintain the safety at all times.”
The district will make alternative plans for any student who does not want to attend the ceremonies. Students are submitting feedback through a survey on their intentions to attend or not. District leaders plan to contact families of students who do not respond to the survey to make sure they do not want to attend the ceremony.
Jeff Malachowski can be reached at 508-490-7466 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JmalachowskiMW.
