High school seniors expecting to graduate from Greenwood and Leflore County public schools in May can pencil in dates for in-person commencement ceremonies.
But nothing’s official — yet. The district is expecting to announce more detailed plans Friday.
“Right now, we are planning to provide our students with a graduation ceremony,” Dr. Mary Brown, superintendent of the Greenwood Leflore Consolidated School District, told its board during a work session Wednesday.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all campuses within the district have been closed since spring break in mid-March and will not be reopened for classes by the end of the school year, May 26.
Brown told the board that the Leflore County Civic Center has been reserved for the ceremonies. Leflore County High’s commencement is planned for Tuesday, May 26, followed by Amanda Elzy High’s on Wednesday, May 27. Two days were scheduled for Greenwood High’s graduation, May 28 and 29, because GHS has more soon-to-be graduates than the other schools.
“We are going to follow social distancing guidelines,” Margaret Dean, the school district’s communications director, said after the session.
Currently, the district expects to graduate approximately 150 seniors from Greenwood High, 85 from Elzy High and 40 from Leflore.
Brown said the district, at this point, intends to allow five guests per graduate. Others will be invited to watch the ceremonies online and “have the same experience as our families and the students who are actually in the arena will be experiencing,” Brown said.
Gatherings in the Civic Center’s parking lot will not be allowed.
Dean said the message to graduates is “You actually will get to walk and be handed your diploma.” She noted that seniors have felt that “something was taken away from them” because of pandemic restrictions.
While the district’s administrators are in charge of organizing graduations, the school board must approve the dates, Dean said. Its next regular meeting will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the board during the work session looked at other plans for the district. Brown said Dr. Carey Wright, state superintendent of education, says social distancing will be enforced if classes meet on campus when school starts in August. This would be likely to present challenges involving campus facilities.
For example, Brown said, if a third-grade classroom normally would have 26 students, “that number may be narrowed down to 10 or 15 students (placed) 6 feet apart” — and the rest of the students would have to be placed elsewhere.
Considering that scenario, administrators and principals are looking ahead, considering how to maximize the use of buildings, Brown said. Perhaps “on one day we may have a school that is in session and on another day, that school will not be in session,” she ventured.
The board’s assistance is important, Brown said
“We are going to ask for your feedback, your suggestions,” she said. “It really is going to take all of us to guide and shape this process because it is new.”
In other business, Dr. Kenneth Pulley described the district’s intention to offer two new courses to eighth-grade students, Mississippi history and introduction to geography.
These previously have been offered to those in higher grades. Each course lasts a semester, not all year.
The intention is to provide “a more realistic sequence of learning” and open up the opportunity for students in grade 10 to take a course “that will allow them to be a lot more successful in U.S. history,” Pulley said.
“We need to start earlier and do something differently than we have done in the past,” he said.
•Contact Susan Montgomery at 581-7241 or smontgomery@gwcommonwealth.com.
