High school graduations won’t take place in a traditional sense this spring, but Cranston’s graduating seniors will still get to cross the stage.
During an online work session Monday, Cranston Public Schools Superintendent Jeannine Nota-Masse told the School Committee that graduation plans have been developed for Cranston High School East, Cranston High School West and the NEL/CPS Construction & Career Academy.
“We’re trying really hard to make this as close to the real thing as possible … We really need to consider some things that we’ve never considered in a graduation,” Nota-Masse said.
She added: “Our students spoke loud and clear that somehow having the opportunity to walk across a stage was really, really important to them.”
In a nutshell, the plans involve cap-and-gown-clad students crossing the auditorium stages at their respective schools one by one, accompanied by up to two guests, and receiving their diploma jacket. Each student’s walk will be recorded and included in a video replicating the full graduation ceremony.
The walks will be scheduled by appointment, and only five people – the graduate, their two guests, someone to announce their name and another to manage the process – will be in the auditorium at a time.
Speeches from administrators, the valedictorian, the salutatorian, the class president and others – “all of the people who would normally give a speech,” Nota-Masse said – would be prerecorded for inclusion in the video.
Graduations for East and West had been scheduled for June 6, while the NEL/CPS Construction & Career Academy’s graduation was initially planned for June 5. The superintendent said plans call for the East and West diploma walks to be recorded over a few days in early June, while the Construction & Career Academy – which has about 40 graduates – has a more manageable task in compiling its virtual ceremony.
The videos – which will include music, as well as the name of each student on screen as they cross the stage – will take five to seven days to edit once the recording process is complete, Nota-Masse said. Once ready, they will be distributed.
Nota-Masse said the graduation plans were developed through the work of a panel that involved a “variety of constituencies,” including parents, graduating seniors, school and district administrators, class advisers, and members of the School Committee.
“We met and discussed the things that the students find very important to them … They were very clear to us what some of their desires were, and we really tried to work around that,” the superintendent said.
While other venues were considered, Nota-Masse said the students’ high school auditoriums were chosen because of the abrupt manner in which their time in the buildings ended.
It was a Friday, March 13, when it was announced that a student at Cranston West had tested positive for COVID-19, becoming one of the earliest confirmed cases in the state. That day, Gov. Gina Raimondo announced the state was moving up April vacation week to March 16-20, a move designed to buy time for planning as the crisis escalated locally. Subsequently, the state instituted a distance learning approach – one that will remain in place through the end of the current academic year.
“It was important for [the seniors] to be able to go back to their school … They didn’t realize that March 13 was the last day at their school,” Nota-Masse said.
The stages will be decorated in the same way as they are typically adorned at the Providence Performing Arts Center, which traditionally hosts the East and West ceremonies. A podium will be set up for the prerecorded speeches.
Additionally, traditional program books will be prepared and distributed by mail, providing a physical keepsake for students and families. The programs will include recognition for students in Cranston Area Career & Technical Center programs, since they will be unable to take part in the usual certificate ceremony this year.
“We’re going to make a very strong effort that the things that normally accompany graduation are there for the students,” the superintendent said.
She added: “In talking to other superintendents this is very similar to what other districts have done, if they’re not going completely virtual.”
There will be key differences, however. Nota-Masse said logistical concerns will preclude the students from receiving their actual diploma when the cross the stage, and they will instead pick up only the diploma jacket. The actual diplomas will instead be distributed after the fact, she said, to ensure each student receives the correct document.
“Getting kids in alphabetical order over the course of three or four days might be very tricky … We would rather make sure that every student gets their appropriate diploma,” the superintendent said.
A separate location away from the stage will be set up for pictures, Nota-Masse said, and there will be no handshakes or exchanges of items based on guidance from state officials.
“Nothing should be exchanged … There should be no hand-offs of any items,” she said.
Nota-Masse said the district has received three bids – ranging from roughly $5,550 to $7,500 – from production companies for the creation of the East and West graduation videos. The $7,500 bidder, she said, offers a “very complete package” with additional capabilities not offered by the others. She also noted that the Construction & Career Academy has already made arrangements for the recording of its virtual ceremony though the Laborers’ organization, which typically records each year’s graduation.
Joseph Balducci, the district’s chief financial officer, said based on his preliminary analysis, there will be no negative financial impact from that expense. He also said the agreement could be approved on an emergency basis with the signatures of himself, Nota-Masse and School Committee Chairman Daniel Wall.
The district’s graduation plans drew a positive response from members of the committee during Monday’s meeting, which was held using the Zoom video conferencing platform.
“The kids have worked their butts off. I’m hearing a lot of positive feedback for what we’ve been doing,” Ward 5 representative David Alden Sears said.
“Obviously, it’s not what [the students] would imagine for a graduation, but they were pleased,” said Wall, who was a part of the graduation planning panel.
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