County schools plan ‘virtual graduations’

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on high school seniors, who have had proms and other activities canceled this year. Now, with school out for the remainder of the year, local principals are making sure seniors are able to participate in a graduation ceremony.

High school Principals Bob Priest (Van Wert), Dave Bowen (Crestview), and Brad Mendenhall (Lincolnview) joined with Vantage Career Center Director Mike Knott on Friday to talk about plans to provide plans to create a virtual graduation experience for their seniors.

“It’s hurtful; it’s emotional,” said Priest of seniors losing much of their final year of high school. “We’ve all got great kids; they’re all going to work through it. We’ve got great families with great support that are going to help them, but it still hurts. I feel for them. I really do.”

“We wanted to put something special together for our seniors to honor them and their achievements,” added Knott, whose school doesn’t have a graduation ceremony, but will create a virtual senior awards ceremony for its seniors.

To ease the pain as much as possible, each school will be creating a video graduation ceremony featuring its seniors, speakers, music, selected members of their family, and school officials and board members. 

“We’re trying to make this as much of a traditional ceremony as possible,” Priest noted, adding that videos will feature most of the accouterments of a traditional graduation ceremony, including having seniors switch tassels from one side of their mortarboards to the other. 

Each district plans to air its video presentations on social media, starting the day of that school’s scheduled graduation. In the case of Vantage, which doesn’t have a graduation ceremony, its traditional senior awards ceremony will be moved back to May 22, when a video presentation will be shared on social media.

Lincolnview’s Mendenhall said he and his staff have been moving forward quickly on its graduation video since Lincolnview is the first school to graduate on Sunday, May 17, at 2 p.m.

“We are one or two weeks ahead of our county counterparts,” Mendenhall said. “We really felt like we needed to get moving on this right away.”

Mendenhall stressed that the virtual graduation idea was something the schools have worked on together, although each ceremony will be a bit different, depending on what they normally include in their commencement events.

“We’re trying to look out for what’s best for not only our own schools, but for each other and our community, and keeping everybody safe,” he added.

Priest said VWHS is working quickly to get its seniors and family members scheduled in to create its virtual graduation presentation, since its graduation date is just a week later than Lincolnview, at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 24.

In addition, because of the state-mandated limit of 10 people for gatherings, it will likely take some time to get all 164 VWHS seniors — nearly twice the number of the other two county schools — shot and the video presentation put together. Priest estimated the school will need at least 20 hours to create what will end up being an approximately 1½-hour ceremony when completed.

Bowen said Crestview will air its graduation video on the evening of Saturday, May 30: its regularly scheduled graduation date.

In addition to the videos, a couple of the schools also plan to give thumb drives containing the graduation ceremony to their seniors.

Bowen said school officials first considered an in-person ceremony with some type of social distancing. With the local schools initially getting a mixed message from the Ohio Department of Education on what they should do, school officials met with Van Wert County General Health District officials via Zoom to explore what was possible. Unfortunately, they came to the conclusion that an in-person ceremony just wouldn’t work.

The ODE then sent out information to districts suggesting they consider virtual ceremonies. Local school officials then talked to each other, as well as schools in neighboring counties, and within their athletic conferences to come up with viable ideas for a virtual graduation ceremony.

“This is a decision that has not come about lightly in any way, shape, or form,” Bowen said.

Priest said that, in addition to the traditional music and other graduation staples, students will also be recognized for scholarships and other senior awards during the video. 

However, because of the 10-person limit, seniors will be limited to having four family members involved in graduation, although family members will be able to view the video, no matter where they live.

Meanwhile, the schools are busy scheduling seniors and their families, as well as videographers and school officials, for video sessions needed to complete each school virtual graduation ceremony.

“We have worked diligently and collectively to try to give our seniors the best opportunity to experience graduation in a way that we hope that they can remember as a positive … at the end of their careers,” Bowen said.