Photos by Lori Newcomb
Baker High School hosted a parade May 16 for graduating seniors and their families to pick up their caps and gowns, yearbooks and yard signs.
By Phil Blackwell
Ever since the mid-March statewide closure of schools, including those in Baldwinsville as the COVID-19 pandemic brought a premature end to the 2019-20 academic year, an enduring question lingered.
How to honor C.W. Baker High School’s Class of 2020 when so many of the typical May and June rituals, including senior ball and graduation, would get canceled or pushed back?
“We’re having to reinvent things,” said Baker High School principal Kris Denton. “We wanted to recognize how much they (the seniors) are hurting not being together with their classmates and teachers.”
The response began in earnest last week, starting with the village of Baldwinsville okaying the school district putting up a banner on Oswego Street near the school complex saying, “Class of 2020 – Bee Strong!”
Then, on Friday, there were “Light the Night” festivities, both at Pelcher-Arcaro Stadium, where the light towers were turned on, and in the general community, where households put up their own light displays to congratulate the seniors.
A day later, more celebrations took place as the entrance roads to the school campus were decorated with signs and balloons, music blared out and, at the high school parking lot, seniors, as part of a large car parade, picked up their caps and gowns, their yearbooks and lawn signs for their own front yards.
Denton said that, of the approximately 410 members of the senior class, at least 350 showed up on Saturday. He added that such vast participation was a tribute to all the work parents and community members did.
Now attention turns to whether there will be a full-fledged graduation ceremony similar to the one that was scheduled for June 21, Father’s Day, at Onondaga Community College’s SRC Arena.
Large indoor gatherings are likely out of the question as New York State has said they won’t be allowed until “Phase Four” of the state’s multilayered reopening process.
But other possibilities are on the table. Assistant superintendent Joseph DeBarbieri said he and Denton are constantly discussing plans along with seniors through remote chats and virtual meetings.
“We are working and planning with our Class of 2020 – they are the students impacted and we want them to be a part of the solution,” said DeBarbieri.
In addition, a group of area school superintendents met last week with County Executive Ryan McMahon on contingency plans.
During his daily briefings last week, McMahon said that, if the county was further along in the reopening process by late June or July, some graduation ceremonies could take place at either NBT Bank Stadium or the St. Joseph Health Group Amphitheater at Lakeview, both of which are county-owned venues.
“Anything we do, either in conjunction with the county through a venue they have offered to us, or on our own must be reviewed and approved by the Onondaga County Health Department” said DeBarbieri, adding that those talks are still in preliminary stages.
As to a timetable, Denton said the hope is to have some sort of ceremony still take place in late June, whatever the format, whether it’s a traditional one or something more creative.
“We’re going to work hard on this and we’re not rushing into anything,” he said. “But we want to provide closure for our (senior) students.”
