West Ada announced graduation plans. Unhappy students prompted a change
The West Ada School District announced its high school graduation locations April 15, and many students didn’t like what they saw. Their displeasure caused new times and locations for the ceremonies of two of the district’s larger high schools.
After holding mostly virtual, abbreviated graduations last year, the school district will be holding in-person graduations at different venues later this spring. Graduations for the district’s smaller or alternative high schools, such as Rebound and the Idaho Fine Arts Academy, will be held on different days at the Centennial Performing Arts Complex, which is part of Centennial High School. Those graduations will be held during the second week of June.
West Ada’s larger high schools were given a variety of locations. Eagle, Centennial and Mountain View high schools will have ceremonies at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa on June 19. Renaissance High, Meridian High and Rocky Mountain High were set to graduate June 12, with Meridian and Rocky Mountain to hold ceremonies in their own gymnasiums. Those senior classes were told to attend the ceremonies in two groups: one for last names A-K, a second for L-Z.
“Normally we would have graduations at the ExtraMile Arena (at Boise State),” Char Jackson, a spokeswoman for the school district, told the Idaho Statesman by phone on April 21. “But with BSU’s health protocols, it would only have allowed (graduates) to bring one or two guests.”
When the school district learned that, Jackson said organizers looked for other venues and booked space at the Idaho Center for June 19. But on June 12, an indoor pro football team already had the venue booked, and Jackson said the district was reluctant to change dates that had been announced in December.
“If we changed (the date), it causes a lot of heartache for parents who have made travel arrangements for that date, which we promised back in December we would not do,” she said last week.
As a result, the ceremonies for Meridian and Rocky Mountain were scheduled for the gyms. Some students and parents were unhappy about that.
“This has been a whole year of missed opportunities,” Angela Arentz told the Statesman on April 21. She is a parent of a senior at Rocky Mountain and an elementary school teacher at Prospect Elementary, which is part of the West Ada School District.
Arentz said her son’s lacrosse season was canceled last year, as were homecoming and prom dances.
“The graduation is just one thing that (the students) just don’t want to give up,” she said.
Arentz said her son, Ian, wrote a letter to Rocky Mountain’s principal, the district superintendent and the board of trustees asking for the district to come up with other alternatives — such as holding graduation outside, or on a different date — so that the whole class can walk together.
“We have been separated from our friends and classmates for the majority of the school year, which is understandable based on COVID regulations,” reads the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Statesman. “However, this is the last time we will all be able to be together, and our graduation is an important event. Many of us have gone through elementary, middle and now high school together, and it would feel wrong to graduate without each other.”
At first, 120 Rocky Mountain students signed the letter that was sent on April 20. Another 45 students added their names afterward. There are 573 students in the graduating class, according to Jackson.
On Monday, after receiving feedback, the school district sent out a survey to Rocky Mountain with three graduation options: an all-school ceremony at the Idaho Center on June 11, an all-school ceremony on the school’s football field on June 12, or the original plan, inside the school’s gym in two separate groups, according to Arentz.
On Wednesday evening, school administrators announced that Rocky Mountain’s graduation has been moved to 6 p.m. June 11 at the Idaho Center, after that option received an “overwhelming amount of votes,” read an email sent to the senior class and obtained by the Statesman.
A separate survey also went out to Meridian High, and that school’s graduation also has been rescheduled to the Idaho Center at 2 p.m. June 11.
Students at both schools will be allowed to bring eight guests to the ceremonies.
“We heard a lot of feedback from students who weren’t happy about their options, so we wanted to reach out to them and try to accommodate them,” Jackson said Wednesday.
Said Arentz: “We are so happy for our kids and their voices in this matter as well as the (West Ada School District) for listening to them.”
The Boise School District announced that it will hold graduation ceremonies for its large high schools at ExtraMile Arena, according to a Wednesday press release. Students will be allowed to bring up to four guests to the socially distanced ceremonies, all of which will be held in late May.
Frank Church High, a smaller alternative school, will hold its ceremony at the high school.
For events larger than 50 people, organizers are required to submit COVID-19 safety proposals to the city of Boise and Central District Health for review.
