With a pair of special events, East Syracuse Minoa High School will honor its Class of 2020 while still adhering to the unique and challenging circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
First, the school will tape a graduation ceremony that will air June 25 on WSTQ (CW6). Then the district intends to have an outdoor in-person ceremony in July or August, if New York State and Onondaga County guidelines allow it.
“The ESM High School administration, class advisors and staff have focused on health and safety while planning meaningful moments that our seniors and their family members can cherish,” said ESM superintendent Dr. Donna DeSiato.
Ever since schools across Central New York closed in mid-March, districts across the area have extensively discussed how to have their graduation events.
In ESM’s case, it involved feedback from the high school to students and parents, along with plenty of discussions and input from class student officers and parents.
“We wanted to understand what was most important to our seniors and their families,” said ESM High School principal Grenardo Avellino. “Their priorities helped to shape our plans for their commencement exercises.”
Whatever was chosen had to remain within guidelines put out by the New York State Department of Health that, as of the first week of June, still limited gatherings of any kind to 10 people or less.
The result of those discussions and surveys settled on the two-part approach, with only the first part of it guaranteed to take place.
In the next couple of weeks, ESM seniors will travel to Spartan Stadium in their caps and gowns, accompanied by their families, where they will be filmed walking across a stage to receive their diplomas. Also, speeches from the class valedictorian and salutatorian, along with school officials, will get recorded.
Then the video will get edited together and, on June 25 from 6 to 7:30 p.m., WSTQ will broadcast the video.
Whether an in-person graduation ceremony can happen later in the summer, at an undetermined date, will depend on where the state and county stands in regards to its phased re-openings.
However it all turns out in the summer, DeSiato said that each of the ESM seniors will draw upon what they have gone through and the adversity they overcame to graduate.
“Taking the lessons of their high school experience with them and, in particular, this year’s lessons of patience, adaptability and resilience, we are confident our graduates are prepared for success in the 21st century,” she said.
