There will be no district or school run graduation prom activities in Anglophone East this year due to COVID-19.
A letter went home to parents of graduating students last week.
Superintendent Gregg Ingersoll says it wasn’t a decision they took lightly, “We can’t wait until deep into the spring to make those decisions. So we’ve made a decision based on what we know today about COVID-19 and alert levels that we will no have any graduation activities outside of the actual graduation ceremony itself. For the schools and for the families, and everyone, we don’t want leave people thinking there is a chance something might happen and then all of a sudden say late in May that we can’t do it. That’s what happened last year.”
Graduation ceremonies where students can receive their diplomas are being planned in the month of June, following all of the Public health guidelines.
“Right now, it doesn’t look like we are going to be out of this pandemic at least during this school year. We certainly understand it is a difficult situation for a graduating students to be in, to have gone through their whole schools career and not be able to have these celebrations that we normally have,” Ingersoll says.
He adds that he meets with Superintendents from other school districts on a regular basis, and they all feel the same way.
Last year, parents of graduating students came up with their own plans. One school did a drive thru with photos at the Moncton Coliseum , while another held a car parade in Riverview.
Ingersoll expects many will do the same this year, “They have to follow all of the protocols that are in place at the time. But certainly groups, that did that last year, they are allowed to do that, but it is not the responsibility of the schools to organize those. The schools will not be spearheading those kind of activities.”
