Laconia determined to hold high school graduation

LACONIA — Calling it a “rite of passage into adulthood,” School Superintendent Steve Tucker says the district hopes to hold a commencement ceremony for Laconia High School seniors in mid-June.

In his presentation during the School Board meeting Tuesday evening, Tucker said the district is tentatively planning to hold a ceremony on June 12 on LHS’s main athletic field, called the Bank of New Hampshire Stadium.

“It’s one of the biggest community events,” Tucker said of the high school graduation. “It’s important.”

Tucker emphasized that what the ceremony will look like and how it will be conducted depends on what social distancing restrictions are in place in mid-June.

Offering one possible scenario, Tucker mentioned the graduation at the U.S. Air Force Academy last Saturday, when cadets marched 6 feet apart to seats that were spread across a large field in the center of the campus while family members and others watched the ceremony on an internet stream.

He said if it is unfeasible to hold the ceremony in June, it could be moved to July.

Tucker said the district heard of an idea to hold the graduation at the Weirs Beach Drive-In, but the district is not actively considering it at this time.

“We feel that the best place to have graduation would be on the Bank of New Hampshire Stadium field, but we are weighing other options in case that is not an option,” Tucker said Wednesday.

Tucker said that, to his knowledge, no school district in New Hampshire has yet made firm plans for its high school graduation.

Calls to the Gilford, Inter-Lakes, and Shaker school districts to inquire about the status of their high school graduations plans were not immediately returned Wednesday.

“We hope to do these activities in a traditional way, and if not, we will do them in a non-traditional way,” board Chairman Heather Lounsbury said of the various events which mark the end of the school year — not just for graduating seniors, but for other students as well.

The LHS prom, which had been scheduled for May 5, has been canceled.

The Top 10 graduate dinner, scheduled for March 19, had to be canceled when, four days prior, Gov. Chris Sununu ordered all public schools closed. Tucker said he was looking for an alternative way to honor those students.

Lounsbury said she hoped the district would still be able to hold an end-of-the-school year barbecue at each of the city’s three elementary schools for fifth graders who will all start attending Laconia Middle School in the fall. Also, she hoped an event could be held in June to recognize eighth-graders who will be transferring from the middle school to the high school, provided government guidelines allow such a gathering.