Newton County, Union Public and Newton Municipal school districts had to get creative when it came to holding graduation exercises on campus this year.
Two weeks ago, Newton County honored its senior class with a drive-through graduation, which was recorded and aired on tape delay at 8 p.m. Friday., the time of its normal graduation. School officials also turned on the football stadium lights at that time with a 2020 tribute on the school’s football scoreboard.
Last Thursday, Union High School held a drive-through graduation. Only a handful of each student’s family and friends piled into cars and drove up to the front of the school, where the student exited their vehicle and walked up to the front of the school to receive their diploma from School Superintendent Tyler Hansford.
For those who were unable to attend, the school provided an online streaming option for the event.
At Newton High School, they held a drive-through graduation in front of Newton High School. All but five of the graduates received their diplomas before the rains came, but after a short rain delay, those students walked to graduate.
Hansford said he was proud of the way they were able to honor the Class of 2020.
“We started thinking of options the moment we realized that graduation might be impacted by the pandemic,” Hansford said. “The number one goal was safety for our students, staff, and community. The second goal was to have an event that honored the accomplishments of the graduates. We reached out often for the input of the graduates. Based on the feedback we’ve received, the community was very pleased with the product. I’d specifically like to thank Deanna Rush and Nathan Williams for their work on it. They were instrumental in helping to plan and execute. The district faculty also helped tremendously in the process. In the future, we obviously hope to host traditional graduations, but I think we’ll spend this year thinking about how we can do something with the parade idea going forward. I don’t see the parade type graduation happening, but something like that as an event for students, parents, and the community leading up to graduation day will certainly be on the table.
