Graduating seniors will walk across the stage set up in the high school’s main gym to accept their diploma over the course of several days before the original graduation date of May 30, Hill said.
“During a selected period of time in early May that will be communicated soon, each senior and up to four family members, parents and/or legal guardians only will have a scheduled time to report to the Springfield High School gymnasium,” said Hill. “The ability to get all 450 seniors through this process, we’ll need to span over several days.”
Hill said family members must remain in their cars until they are notified to enter the building and will be given a phone number to alert personnel they have arrived.
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Other social distancing guidelines will also be followed, including temperature checks of each person that enters the building, masks must be worn and appropriate distancing between families.
“We believe our plan is safe for the current state we are in,” Hill said.
Each senior will also have their photo taken in their cap and gown by a professional photographer, and a video will be recorded of them walking across the stage to get their diploma.
“Those individual videos will be edited together into a full graduation ceremony,” Hill said.
Hill said the video will be aired on a mixture of Facebook, YouTube and Spectrum channel 5 at 10 a.m. on May 30.
The high school has also scheduled a tentative senior celebration for Saturday, July 25, in the stadium.
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“The district is committed to do everything in our power and within the confines of current direction from Gov. DeWine to organize a senior celebration, to take a senior class picture and encourage recent graduates to connect with classmates,” said Hill.
Hill said as details continue to be finalized, they will be released to the community.
Other Clark and Champaign schools will release details and plans as they are finalized, but some others have also announced their graduation dates.
Greenon’s graduation date is for May 22 with a back-up date on July 10.
Tecumseh’s graduation date is scheduled for June 7 with an alternative date on July 12.
Graham’s graduation date is set for Aug. 1 with a rain date scheduled for Aug. 2.
Clark-Shawnee’s graduation date and rain date has yet to be set but will take place in June or July at Dave Long Memorial Stadium at the high school, according to the district’s website.
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