Desperate times call for a graduation parade in Port

Desperate times call for creative measures, and creative is exactly what a Port Washington High School graduation held during a pandemic will be. 

The school, which had toyed with a host of ideas including a drive-in ceremony at the marina, is now planning a graduate parade through downtown Port Washington on graduation day, Sunday, June 7, Principal Eric Burke said Tuesday.

As it stands now, the plan calls for seniors, each in their own cars — 180 or so if all graduates participate — to stage at the high school and possibly on Holden Street, then drive through downtown where family and friends will be able to cheer the Class of 2020.

Think of it as a homecoming parade with social distancing rules.

The plan, Burke said, has been blessed by the police department and Washington Ozaukee Public Health Department, and squad cars and fire trucks would escort the graduates through the city.

Instead of gathering after the parade, graduates would go home and stream a graduation video that features speeches from administrators, a commencement address delivered by the valedictorian and the class farewell. Graduates will be introduced as their photos are shown.

Students began this week going individually to the Port High Performing Arts Center to have their photos taken with Burke, diploma covers in hand.

The graduation video will also include a message from Burke’s classmate and fellow 1986 Port High graduate Mike Hess, a NASA manager who oversees commercial space missions.

“Mike texted me and asked if there was anything he could do to help,” Burke said. “I thought that was pretty cool.”

A parade is no substitute for a traditional ceremony, the highlight of which is the triumphant walk graduates take across the stage in front of hundreds of people to receive their diplomas, but it’s perhaps the best that can be done during a time when the coronavirus has shuttered schools and canceled mass gatherings, Burke said. 

“A parade on graduation day will offer a little closure for seniors,” he said. “It’s not perfect, but it will certainly be memorable.”

Celebrating graduation during a pandemic has vexed schools throughout the country, but as challenging as it is to publicly acknowledge seniors this year, Port Washington-Saukville School District administrators said it must be done in some way, a conviction echoed by the results of a recent survey of seniors and their parents.

“Overwhelmingly, people want some sort of ceremony,” Burke said. “About 70% wanted to postpone the ceremony until we have some clarification about when it will be safe to gather.”

The school still wants to host a ceremony at some point if and when it’s permissible, but if that’s all it planned and summer comes and goes and gatherings are still not safe, it will have done nothing to mark the milestones in the lives of its seniors, Burke said. 

“Every school district is wrestling with this,” he said. “If schools are going to have actual ceremonies, when is that going to be possible? The problem is, we just don’t know.

“I had one student tell me she was happy we’re going to have a parade but sad because she thinks that means we won’t have a ceremony. I didn’t want to give her false hope. We want to have something where we can all come together and celebrate, but we just don’t know if that will be possible.”