Croswell-Lexington Community Schools held a historic graduation ceremony to honor the Class of 2020! Graduates from Croswell-Lexington High School and Pioneer High School participated along with their guests. This event was the culmination of extensive planning in order to respect the requests of the 2020 Student Executive Board who shared with administrators three fundamental wishes for their graduation ceremony:
- Students wanted to be together as a whole class one last time.
- Students wanted to walk across the stage to receive their diplomas.
- Students wanted to have the ceremony early in the summer rather than later so more of their classmates could participate.
The event to honor their requests took place on June 13, 2020, at Pioneer Stadium. The Class of 2020 was celebrated using traditional commencement ceremony details as well as new, original features. Superintendent Gilbertson said, “This is a historic event. We have never held a graduation ceremony at Pioneer Stadium…and we’ve never held a graduation ceremony wearing face masks!” Students and guests were all given commemorative face masks upon entering the stadium and were instructed to social distance per CDC guidelines. Markings were placed around the track to help guide proper social distancing.
Ceremonial elements included the graduates in caps and gowns walking across the stage in front of their classmates, as well as those family members attending the event. The ceremony also included speeches from principal, Kyle Wood, and superintendent, Daniel Gilbertson, a “Pomp and Circumstance” procession, the roll call, and a slideshow of the participating graduates displayed on the scoreboard.
Given the guest limit per student, the district live streamed the ceremony for the community to view and recorded the event. The video is available at https://bit.ly/cl2020grad Nearly 300 people watched the event live on either YouTube or Facebook on Sunday afternoon. The posted video has been viewed over 2500 times.