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LCSS grad commencement will now be held in school commons area

Four separate ceremonies will see 50 students individually cross the stage to receive diplomas
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Lake City Secondary School principal Craig Munroe said the latest plan for grad commencement will see students come down the stairs into the commons area and walk across the stage as their family watches from the floor. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)

Graduation ceremonies in Williams Lake continue to be finalized in an effort to make the experience better for students while still adhering to COVID-19 restrictions.

Lake City Secondary School principal Craig Munroe said after receiving feedback on the first proposal where students would receive their diplomas outside in front of the school, plans have been adapted to use the commons area where the grads will walk across the stage.

“We realized trying to beautify the outdoor area was much more vast than we had anticipated and was going to present a challenge,” Munroe said Thursday.

“Other things started coming to light when we started getting rain and we realized that if we get rain it’s really going to dampen everything.”

By moving inside to do the walk-through, it will also make it easier to decorate. The commons is a contained area with a natural backdrop and curtains already.

Read more: Graduates invited to participate in free, mini photo shoots May 27-28

There will still be four separate commencement ceremonies encompassing 50 students and their families.

They will take place on Thursday, June 18 from 12 to 2 p.m. or 4 to 6 p.m. and Friday, June 19 from 12 to 2 p.m. or 4 to 6 p.m.

Students will be asked to arrive with their family. They will wait outside of the school inside a tent, and when it is their turn they will be called into the school.

“They will wait inside the school and when we call their name they will go down the stairs,” Munroe said. “The grad will go in behind and cross the stage and the parents and all the family members will go into the open common area where they can take photographs and view the grad procession.”

Afterwards the grad will meet the parents and family members and proceed out the doors that lead onto the sports field and exit the school.

This plan will keep everything flowing, with no allowance for people to gather, and everyone will have to disperse, Munroe added.

“There was a huge response from them not being able to do what was more akin to what they were anticipating so we tried to factor that in as much as we could,” Munroe said, noting there has been lots of positive feedback whereas there was lots of push back to the original proposal.

Outside of the school the area will be beautified as it is anticipated there will be people wanting to take photographs there as well.

Read more: LETTER: Williams Lake Dry Grad Committee officially cancels traditional festivities for 2020



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Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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