WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — The class of 2020 from the Wausau School District will have the opportunity to be apart of a unique graduation ceremony.
At their regular monthly meeting, the Wausau School Board of Education heard a plan from district administration about alternative graduation options. The district originally rescheduled its traditional graduation ceremony from June to the first week of August.
But with the COVID-19 pandemic still affecting most events, the district is looking at other options to celebrate the class of 2020. The alternate graduation options presented by Superintendent Keith Hilts include a small student ceremony in the gymnasium of the two main high schools and a socially distanced option for families at Granite Peak.
Hilts describes the Granite Peak option which would include the use of the park’s ski lifts. “What it would look like is that students and maybe four or five family members maximum could be together. They could ride the lift. We could announce their names.
“We could have staff or others underneath kind of cheering them, again from a distance. And then they would come back around. The idea obviously is to engage the family in that important ceremony.”
The plan would be to have the two ceremonies on the same day. The ceremony at Granite Peak with family would be during the day, while the student only ceremony at the school gymnasiums would be in the evening. Both ceremonies would be optional if students wanted to opt-out for any reason.
Some board members had concerns about the ceremony at Granite Peak being conducted on ski lifts. When asked if the event would require masks, Hilts said they likely wouldn’t be needed. “We didn’t think they’d be needed because there would space between each chair.
“That’s roughly 50 feet in between chairs if we leave one in between. When we spoke to Granite Peak they said that cleaning the seats in between families is not difficult. And that would be Granite Peak staff, they said they have adequate staff to do that.”
No action was taken by the board on the potential alternative graduation ceremonies. A straw poll was conducted at the meeting and board members were in favor of the alternative ceremonies 6 to 3. District administration is now working on the plan to get the ceremony details and dates pinned down.
