Commencement venue changed following student, community pushback

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On Tuesday, April 10, the school board made a decision to have graduation held in the auditorium with a live stream in the middle school. This caused some members of the senior class to become frustrated with the decision reached at the meeting. While not all seniors were opposed to graduation being held in the auditorium, some decided to rally together to attend the board meeting on April 17 to oppose the school board’s decision.

Besides seniors that chose to attend the school board meeting and speak out, frustrated parents also chose to voice their concerns.

The first person to address the graduation decision was senior Jon Kaercher. He gave a speech to the board stating that he feels seniors did not have a say in the process and offered new ways to be able to have the graduation ceremony between the two schools.

“Could you choose which grandparent or siblings could attend this special moment in your life?” Kaercher asked the school board.

Kaercher also went on to talk about how fire halls, churches and other places would be willing to donate chairs so the school didn’t have to spend the money on the bleachers. They would just have to focus on the stage setup and the graduates’ chairs.

After Kaercher spoke, other topics were brought up from other people addressing matters on different topics.

When the school board opened back up to the public, senior Kitt Jordan’s mom, Shelia Jordan, stood up and addressed the school board. She talked about how she pays for her daughter to go to Freedom and how she deserves to have a graduation everyone in her family will be able to watch. She also mentioned that she could’ve picked other schools for her daughter to attend, but she chose Freedom.

Kaercher’s mom, Melissa Kaercher, followed Kitt Jordan’s mom addressing the school board about tax increases or the fact that it would only be $50 a student to pay for the portable bleachers.

Kitt Jordan was the second senior to approach the school board with a speech on how she felt about the situation. Kitt Jordan talked about how a $1.4 million dollar track was approved, but not $6,000 on the current seniors’ day they have worked so long to get to.

“I asked why he didn’t listen to our voices or our parents over the past six months. I offered to have my graduation party canceled and my mom was going to pay for a new location,” Kitt Jordan said.

Charles Tice’s mom also opposed the graduation conflict. She told the school board that Tice’s dad lives Georgia and had already bought a plane ticket. She is upset because now she has to tell him that he can’t come.

Daniel White addressed the school board at the meeting as well. He mentioned that they would be able to cancel the order for the bleachers two and a half days before the event if weather was not looking good. He said that it would keep us from losing any money in the chance of not being able to have it outside.

“We all worked hard and deserve to graduate in the best way possible,” White stated.

According to superintendent Jeffrey Fuller, the school board was not surprised in the turnout of people attending, but they also weren’t expecting it either.

“We were not surprised, nor were we expecting the turnout we had. We were happy to see that people came out to share their thoughts on the situation,” Fuller said.

Fuller mentions the decision the school board made previously was not just based on one student standing up at a previous meeting sharing their thoughts, and the decision was put through a lot of research through the factors.

“We had to look at alternate locations, how many people, location, cost and size of convention,” Fuller said.

In previous years, graduation was held in the auditorium, also serving as the back-up plan in case of inclement weather every year.

“We have had graduation in the auditorium when the senior class was bigger than 115 and it worked out and the ceremony went well,” Fuller said.

On Friday, April 20, the senior class was called down into the back of the auditorium for the final decision on where graduation would be held. Principal William Deal announced the final decision to the senior class that the commencement ceremony will be held between the high school and the middle school on the middle field.

The stage used on the football field for previous commencement ceremonies will be the same stage used this year. The school is going to either borrow or rent chairs for spectators. Each student will receive 10 tickets to start. If students have extra tickets, they can turn them back in so more tickets are available to students who need them.

In the event that weather does not permit for the original plan, the ceremony will be moved back into the auditorium. One of the 10 tickets given to each student will have a hole punched in it, meaning that the ticket holder has a reserved seat on the balcony. Anyone who has a ticket with an odd number will be seated on the main floor in the auditorium, and those with an even-number ticket will be seated in the middle school to watch the live stream.

The graduation ceremony will be held on Friday, June 1, at 7 p.m. Project graduation will be held later that night at 11 p.m. in the the high school.