Parade To Replace Graduation Ceremony For HS Seniors In Fairfield

FAIRFIELD, CT — In Fairfield, the class of 2020 won’t have a graduation ceremony. Instead, they’ll have a parade.

The headmasters of Fairfield Warde and Fairfield Ludlowe high schools on Tuesday told the school board their plans to send off graduating seniors in a way they hoped would recognize the students’ achievements while also complying with protocols made necessary by the new coronavirus outbreak. The virus is associated with the death of more than 3,000 Connecticut residents and has resulted in the closure of school buildings for the duration of the school year while students learn online from home.

Instead of a ceremony, the headmasters proposed a massive caravan with graduates riding up front, their cars decorated as the procession winds through feeder school neighborhoods and residents watch from their yards, cheering for the students. The caravan will also take graduates through their high school campus, where faculty will be lined up outside.

“We see this as a town-wide celebration,” Ludlowe Headmaster Greg Hatzis said at Tuesday's Board of Education meeting, held via teleconference.

School officials are set to meet Friday with fire, police and town services to discuss setting a time and date for the event. In addition to the parade, students will have a chance to take a picture with their cap and gown on campus and the schools will put together a video in which every graduate’s name will be read and their senior portrait will be shown.

While students in a survey said they would have preferred an in-person ceremony later in the summer, Hatzis noted a high school graduation involves more than 2,500 people and said officials didn’t want to risk having to cancel ceremonies.

“Our seniors need some closure,” Warde Headmaster Paul Cavanna said.

Board member Jennifer Maxon-Kennelly asked why the schools couldn’t hold socially distant graduations on the football fields with no family present.

"I'm sad about it," she said. "This is what these kids have waited 13 years for."

Hatzis said the district doesn't know what size gatherings the state will allow throughout the summer and emphasized the need to protect students from the temptation to socialize at a closer distance than 6 feet.

“There’s a potential there of danger,” he said.

Maxon-Kennelly wasn’t the only school board member to express disappointment about the lack of a traditional ceremony.

“I can’t imagine the heartbreak and devastation of our seniors,” board member Jennifer Leeper said.

The district is also considering the potential impact of the virus in the coming school year, Superintendent Mike Cummings told the board, including the possibility of a schedule where students alternate days in school and at home to maintain safe distancing. Such a plan would require teachers to work in a dual learning environment, Cummings said, emphasizing the need for the district to prepare for multiple scenarios.