Since 2011, LHS has held the tradition of having its graduation on the second Friday of June. But this year, that tradition is about to be broken. According to Superintendent Dan Black, the administration has decided to change the date to Thursday, June 12.
The date was changed so Principal Barnes could see his own son graduate at Timberlane HS and still allow him to see the LHS senior class graduate.
In a recent interview with Barnes, he spoke about how much graduation means to him as a principal.
“Graduation is my favorite event of the year, and it is an honor and a privilege to contribute to this memorable and special day,” Barnes said.
We can appreciate how difficult it was for the administration to make this decision, but we just wish it had been handled differently.
Graduating high school is one of the most important transitions in someone’s life. The success of graduation contributes to how seniors feel as they go into the real world. Seniors want to celebrate their success with all of their loved ones.
Although it might seem like the new graduation date wouldn’t impact this, it does.
Some students have family members who live farther away and have to fly or drive long distances to attend. With graduation being on Thursday now, those family members would most likely have to take two days off of work instead of just one, which may be a hardship for some families. When a family member can’t be there because the ceremony is on a Thursday, it matters.
Another thing that matters? Tradition.
Graduation has taken place on the same day for years, so we’ve come to expect that. It’s become a tradition, and that is something that we Lancers take to heart. It binds us to the past and future generations of Lancers, and such breaks in tradition are things that should not be handled with a top-down approach by the administration. Deviations from such long-held traditions surrounding a big event as graduation are things that need involvement and input from the community and the senior students that it affects.
One of our Lancer mottos states, “Tradition never graduates,” but now it feels like maybe it did at the Friday graduation last year.
We do appreciate that admin let the community know about the change in September giving people time to plan. According to Barnes, “planning a graduation is a massive task involving many staff and vendors, starting in December and continuing nonstop until the event.”
However, if preparations for graduation begin in December, then doesn’t that mean that as of September there were still at least two months that could have been spent in discussions with the community and with seniors on how best to handle this situation? It seems like they had time to include the input of students and their families and simply chose not to.
Admin should have informed the senior class that this change was on the table, so they could have had a say in the decision. They could have sent an email to all seniors and their families explaining the situation and then distributed a voluntary poll to get feedback from the seniors and their families.
There are several options that could have been offered and discussed.
For example, Barnes could have created a video to be shown at graduation where he could congratulate the seniors and explain how he wished he could be there but he wanted to be there for his son. No one would dispute how important it is for a father to be at his own son’s graduation. Community members and seniors would have understood.
Another option could be to move the graduation to the high school. Since other schools had already booked the SNHU arena for that Saturday, we could have moved our graduation to LHS on Saturday instead. Having graduation on a weekend would be more convenient to families who may not be able to take that extra day off work to get to a Thursday graduation.
After all, we used to have graduation at the school before we moved it to the SNHU Arena, and more recently we held it at LHS in 2020 and 2021 during Covid. Having it at the school on that Saturday would mean not only could Barnes attend, but it would also be more convenient for families.
We do appreciate that the administration recognizes this decision might be challenging for families, and that, according to Barnes, “the event [will be] live-streamed for those who are unable to attend in person.”
But seniors needed to have a say in these decisions.
Graduation is a day for seniors. Having one person’s scheduling conflicts affect the whole day is unfair, regardless of prior notice.
Families and loved ones want to be there in person to celebrate their graduate. For some students it is one of the most important days of their lives; not having everyone they want there is something that can never be replaced by a livestream.
If seniors would have had a say in this decision, the outcome of this would have been different. Whether the date was changed or not, giving them the opportunity to think about solutions would have been the right thing to do.
