Friday, April 19, 2024
Graduation by schwglr is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Changes brought by COVID-19 to Granbury High School’s graduation ceremony will not be as stark as last year, but the event still will not be completely back to normal.
For parent Brenda Myers, that is just fine. Better, even.
Myers, mom of graduating senior Lily Myers, is happy that commencement will once again be held under a nighttime sky at Pirate Stadium rather than all the way in Cowtown at the Fort Worth Convention Center.
“I don’t know how other parents feel, but I love that we live in a small town and that we’re going to keep that vibe going by having (graduation) in our stadium instead of having it in Fort Worth,” she said.
Myers said that last year, during the worst of the pandemic, she noticed that the congratulatory signs that families traditionally place along the US Hwy. 377 corridor heading toward Fort Worth were instead placed along roadways in town.
In her view, that helped send a message to graduating teens that their entire hometown was behind them.
Another plus for having graduation in Granbury again this year is that families will probably eat at area restaurants, which Myers feels undoubtedly need the business after a pandemic year.
“To me, this is calmer,” she said of plans for the 8 p.m. ceremony on Friday, May 28. “We get to focus on our family and (Lily).”
Granbury ISD Communications Director Jeff Meador said that there will be “some limitations and protocols in place” at commencement due to COVID-19, “but graduation will be much different than last year when we had to follow lengthy guidelines from the Texas Education Agency on outdoor ceremonies.”
Although seating is more limited at Pirate Stadium, each of Granbury’s 400-plus graduating seniors will be given 10 tickets – twice as many as the five per student issued last year when parents and family members were seated in socially distanced sections, Meador noted.
And while there will be some extra spacing among the seniors and those on the stage, the district no longer has a mask protocol, Meador pointed out. Anyone who wants to wear a mask or face covering may do so, but it is not required.
Tolar ISD seniors will graduate on the same night as Granbury’s and procedures will be virtually identical.
Tolar’s ceremony will be held outdoors, too - at Rattler Stadium – but will get underway one hour earlier, at 7 p.m. The district’s 45 graduating seniors will be given 10 tickets and family members will be seated in sections to maintain social distancing.
Lipan ISD Superintendent Ralph Carter told the HCN that the district does not anticipate any COVID-19 restrictions at this year’s graduation ceremony, which will take place in the new gym at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 21.
Thirty seniors are set to graduate, he stated.
