MONTAGUE — Franklin County Technical School’s graduation ceremony is still happening as originally planned, on June 5, at 4 p.m., but has been reorganized so family and friends can still attend while abiding by social distancing guidelines.
The ceremony itself will be on the field outside the school, as usual. Family and friends will watch from their vehicles, and will tune into an FM radio frequency to hear the ceremony. Everything will also be livestreamed online, for people who aren’t able to attend.
Franklin Tech Principal Brian Spadafino said this arrangement was seen as the best way to maintain as much of the traditional graduation ceremony as possible, while accounting for the social distancing necessities of the COVID-19 crisis.
“We’re trying to keep it as ideal as possible, even though it’s not,” he said. “We’re trying to keep some sense of normalcy, and I think we can kind of do that pretty well with a plan like this.”
The graduating students will be seated on the field, as usual, but will be spaced much farther apart, Spadafino said. They will have to wear masks while seated, but will be allowed to take them off while they cross the stage to take their diplomas.
Franklin Tech’s graduation ceremony is organized according to the school’s 12 shop classes. Students are called to walk the stage in order of their shop classes: all students from one shop walk, then the next shop is called.
The rows of vehicles will be organized the same way, in 12 groups to match each shop class. Once a whole class has walked, that row of vehicles will leave, and the next one will come forward.
Administrators ask that family and friends arrive in one vehicle per student if possible, Spadafino said. But they also recognize that different family situations may not allow for that, he said, so they will allow two vehicles per student at most.
“We’re hoping people are respectful enough to know that we’ll run out of space if we’re providing two for each student,” he said.
Spadafino mentioned that school administrators had considered other options, but found problems with them. Delaying the ceremony until later in the summer was discussed, but administrators decided the public health situation would not necessarily be any better by then. They had also talked about breaking graduation into three smaller ceremonies of four shops each, but found that students strongly preferred to all graduate together.
By comparison, this solution is more personal and more traditional, he said.
“Students really wanted to see all of their classmates,” he said. “So all the kids will get to see each other graduate, and all the parents will get to see their students graduate.”
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.