The Alliance School Board took action at their meeting on Monday night to postpone the graduation ceremony for the class of 2020 in the wake of limitations on gatherings imposed by Governor Pete Ricketts’ Directed Health Measure to limit the spread of COVID-19.
Initially, the ceremony was set to take place on May 10 at Bulldog Stadium. Superintendent Dr. Troy Unzicker said he has been in contact with parents of the class of 2020 to discuss alternatives.
“I had 76 responses,” said Unzicker. “Basically, 71 percent of the responses were in favor of postponing graduation from the May 10 date in order to have a more traditional graduation.”
Unzicker said his recommendation, based on the responses he received, was to postpone graduation and to wait until the next school board meeting on May 11 to determine a date to host the ceremony.
“I assured senior parents that any student leaving early, whether it be for the military, job or school, before we get around to running the traditional ceremony, we would run a virtual ceremony for them,” Unzicker said.
The spread of the virus in Nebraska is expected to reach its zenith in late April, according to Ricketts. Unzicker believes delaying the decision until May will allow time for more information to come to light.
“I’m hoping by May 11, we’ll at least have an idea what (Ricketts’) plan is, and if everything goes great, and we’re clear, we can set it for early June,” said Unzicker. “If it’s not, we can set it for August.”
The board voted unanimously to postpone setting the date of the ceremony until the May 11 board meeting.