Salmon River planning drive through grad ceremony on June 26

By Andy Gardner

Salmon River Central is planning a drive-through June 26 graduation ceremony.

Salmon River will have the graduates and family members arriving at specific times. It will be June 26 at the main campus in front of the high school by door 9. They plan to start at 10 am until all graduates have walked across the stage to receive their diploma, Salmon River Superintendent Dr. Stanley Harper said.

“Also important to know is each individual (graduate) will receive a video of the entire graduation. A team of teachers will film each student walking across the stage for their diploma and each traditional speech made will be filmed separately. The film team will carefully craft these individual films of the speeches by the valedictorian and salutatorian, principal, Board of Education president and superintendent and each senior together into a beautiful video for each graduate,” Harper said.

He said they wanted to make sure the seniors could have a proper ceremony, having lost things like prom, senior trip and athletics due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“With that said, we felt it was important to survey the seniors to let their voices speak loud with the date for graduation. The majority of seniors from the survey responses wanted to hold graduation on June 26, 2020, which was the original date set at the beginning of the school year,” Harper said. “All school districts in NYS ended the school year earlier than normal due to pandemic impact and the Governor’s Executive Orders, which directed schools to remain open over vacation periods (we stayed to the 180-school day calendar). Therefore, we first thought that we could hold graduation on June 19, 2020, as we have always held graduation during the last week of school, but as you see the seniors wanted it on the original date of June 26, 2020, and I felt it was important to comply with their wishes.”

Harper said the school district has “a long tradition and process for the senior graduation” and the goal is to preserve that as much they safely can.

“Our goal was to keep the tradition as close as possible under the new condition and guidelines for safety and social distancing that we must adhere to. Our graduation committee worked on the format and process as well as to incorporate all the safety and social guidelines set forth by the Franklin County Department of Health, the governor’s executive orders and the New York State Education Department,” SRC the superintendent said. “We will follow all the Governor’s Executive Orders and the guidelines from the New York State Department of Health.”

He said their plans are fluid, in case guidance from public health authorities and state government changes.

“We would hold and look to reschedule the date to meet the health and safety guidelines set by the Governor or State Health Department,” he said.