Good Afternoon WHS Seniors and Families,
We have received updated guidelines from the Massachusetts Board of Health and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education regarding High School graduations during this time of COVID-19. This guidance is attached to this email for your review.
While it has remained our hope to honor our students with a “traditional” ceremony, a review of this guidance will quickly allow anyone to see that what is allowed is simply nothing close to our traditional ceremony and simply prevents such from being possible within the constraints we have to follow. This includes prohibiting any indoor ceremony, that inability to hold any social gathering before or after the ceremony along with the need to address numerous other logistical factors.
As a result, we have made the decision to modify our graduation plans and hold two events for our graduating 2020 seniors with our commitment to not exclude any of our students while maintaining our overarching commitment to health and safety during this ongoing health crisis.
June 7, 2020 - this will be a ceremony in partnership with WCTV that will be broadcast live and will include a car procession, announcing the name of each graduate and then allowing them to walk across a stage . Please see the attached for additional information around this plan.
July 26, 2020 - a more traditional ceremony planned according to state guidelines and details will be communicated with families by early July for those that are able to make this date. Please note that this is a contingent plan as the larger health situation at the time may require delaying this event.
Other events have also been planned and details for those events including the schedule pick-up and drop-off of students' belongings are also attached to this message.
In closing, please know that we have taken all ideas and suggestions into consideration in making plans for our seniors. We know that this is a situation that has created immense challenges for any normalcy of our regular events and activities that is impacting not only our students and their families but also our staff and administration. As you can imagine, planning two ceremonies with all of the logistics will be difficult but allows us to both uphold our obligation to follow the guidelines and Governor Baker's Executive Order here in Massachusetts while also trying our best to honor our graduates.
Thank you for your understanding and support during these immensely difficult times.
Sincerely,
Linda Peters Glenn Brand
WHS Principal Superintendent of Schools
High School Graduation Guidelines
Graduation 2020
Senior Events