This year, grade twelve graduation will look much different than anyone can previously remember. Restrictions around public gatherings have forced school divisions to look for alternate ways of celebrating students; success. During all this, graduates waited to hear what the verdict would be regarding the way of celebrating their accomplishments.
Staff of the Four-Town Journal reached out to graduates of Esterhazy High School to get their perspective about the dynamics shaping their graduation in the year of COVID-19.
Casey Carriere mentioned that she “…felt really disappointed that we wouldn’t be having a grad ceremony in June. I’ve been looking forward to grad since I started school. Looking at all the beautiful dresses and suits from previous grads always made me excited for when my grad day would come.”
Kaitlyn Nordal felt a mix of sadness and confusion. She said, “I remember sitting in Chemistry class and someone reading Scott Moe’s tweet about school shutting down ‘indefinitely’ and at this point there was still hope. Of course, as time went on I lost hope for going back to school and I lost hope of having a grad. When I heard that our graduation ceremony was to be postponed this sparked a bit of joy because personally that was what I wanted to happen! I am very disappointed about grad having to change as well as very understanding due to the circumstances. I am just thankful that we have a closely connected grade and that we will make sure we all feel fulfilled!”
Mackenzie Degenhardt said she was devastated, “I couldn’t believe that I had worked so hard for this milestone and it was just taken away. I understand that it was no one’s fault but I feel like my fellow graduates and I were robbed of something so important to many of us. It’s so hard to think about all the memories we will never get to make with our friends during our senior year.”
Dylan Shire talked about how “…all seniors dream of their graduation day. where they can be showcased alongside their classmates and be congratulated for their accomplishments throughout high school. When I heard that my class would not have our graduation ceremony in June as planned I, as well as everyone else, was very disappointed and worrisome of whether or not we would end up with the celebration we all dreamed of. Personally, as a co-president of the school’s graduation committee, I was also very let down because all of the time and planning that our committee had done to make our graduation what we wanted had gone to waste.
Quinton Robertson, Director of Good Spirit School Division mentioned careful planning went into the balance of trying to meet provincial restriction guidelines as well as ensure graduates felt honoured for their years of effort.
Talking about the process, Robertson said, “We wanted to be able to determine what the overall favour was, the support of the community, the staff, the grads, the parents. Then we were able to filter out different aspects according to who said what. We provided each school a comprehensive report based on what people said. It was very comprehensive. We used a product called Thought Exchange which received 18,147 ratings and 697 thoughts involving 959 participants.”
When asked about his thoughts on the process, he said, “My only thought in all of this was ‘how do we honour our grads’? The division did not push anything on the communities, on the graduates, on the participants at all and overwhelmingly the response was to hold the event later.
He mentioned that “Each town was given the opportunity to participate, each of our 11 communities with graduating classes. We also opened it up to schools with other celebratory events (grade 8 grad, award ceremonies) each school that has grads met with our graduating committee (their admin and grad advisors) three times and went over information with them, went over what came from the government as of the 6th of may and the additional information that came from the 22nd in relation to having car grads or drive-in grads. We went over that with the grad committees as well. We’ve been completely transparent, not trying to point anyone in any direction. Each school, for example EHS, was able to take their own graduates’ information and make that decision on their own to hold the event.
It was not an easy decision to make, but the input from multiple sources helped. Quintin said, “We decided through consensus with our grad committees that this is the will of the graduates and the community. We’re going to hold some type of event this spring to celebrate the grads, some sort of distance/virtual, some sort of opportunity to get congratulations out immediately this spring and plan for a face-to-face graduation sometime next year. The dates depend on what the government says. On the 22nd after the in-car grad piece, I know that communities are planning parades or other events and that is up to the community.”
There was a survey sent out that helped determine the course of action. When asked about the survey, EHS graduates had mixed emotions.
Mackenzie said, “I knew that a survey was going to take place at some point in time, however I wasn’t aware of when. I noticed the message on Facebook later and quickly realized that I needed to take part in the survey as this may have been my only opportunity to voice my opinion. I thought the survey was good for getting ideas, however I would have really appreciated having an additional survey solely for the graduates and their families based on those ideas. That way we would be responsible for our own outcomes for grad.
Dylan stated, “I was asked to partake in the Thought Share survey sent out by the Good Spirit School Division and it was a very good idea in theory; however, the survey was not school specific and instead was the same throughout the entire division. This made it difficult to judge the ideas shared because some ideas would work well in one town or city but not in another.”
All graduates interviewed mentioned they were aware of the Thought Share survey organized to figure out a plan for the graduation ceremony. It was offered to students, parents, staff, trustees and members of the school community council.
The hope is to hold a celebratory event later in the year.
Each community will have to adhere to the guidelines given by the chief medical officer and schools will report what they are doing to their superintendent to ensure everyone is mindful of the parameters put into place.
To plan this, Robertson said, “If it is a school sponsored event, the school would work in collaboration with the parents. If it is a school sponsored grad event, at the end of August for example, The administrators will need to work with their superintendent to make sure that we are mindful of the rules put forward. If it meets the requirements by the chief medical officer then we would go ahead. Every community, as long as we’re all playing within the sandbox that’s been put in front of us, we will support it.”
Some schools developed a plan for their graduation ceremony that is not a school-sponsored event. Regarding these, the director said, “If a community decides to go out and do an event, it is not a school-sponsored event. We would hope the community would be responsible and aware of social distancing, but that would not be under the umbrella of the school division.”
When the graduates were asked if they would return for a ceremony, there was a variety of opinions.
“I would try to”, said Casey Carriere. “I know some places still might be going forward with post secondary school in the fall. It would all depend on when it would be happening.
Kaitlyn Nordal said she would return. She said, “I am happy with graduation being postponed as I was looking forward to wearing my dress and enjoying that day with my friends.”
Mackenzie Degenhardt explained, “I would try my best, but it all depends on when; because, while grad is very important to me, I also can’t put a hold on my “present life” in order to go back and celebrate. In the fall, I will be going to/doing university classes so that would be my main priority. If the date was good then of course I would want to celebrate, but I can’t miss new opportunities to go back to an old one.”
To allow some sort of celebration in the present, some schools were able to put celebratory events into place and they are occurring from now until the end of June. Quinton Robertson said, “My daughter is graduating from YRHS and she is the valedictorian. So they are taping her valedictorian address in the Anne Portnuff Theatre and it is being broadcast. They are recording other addresses and live streaming a grad ceremony in June on the 27th. They’re then planning on a face-to-face in the fall or winter.”
To recognize the students in the division, Robertson said they will be taping a video message to all of the graduating classes with a general message. He mentioned, “Any school that is requesting a specific message, I will tape that as well.”
He left a message for the graduates.
“I certainly recognize these are tumultuous times and our graduates should be proud. They have a right to feel disappointed. They have a right to feel that this isn’t the grad that they had hoped for. I’m hoping with some perseverance that all of us can get something in place that acknowledges the tremendous work that they’ve done and the contributions they’ve made to their schools and communities.” He wanted to mention, “A lot of thought went into coming up with the notions and that the communities overwhelmingly responded that they wanted to hold a grad but they were willing to wait. They wanted to hold something face to face in a traditional sense. We’ll move heaven-and-earth in the winter or fall to make that happen for our grads.”