Joel Barlow Graduation Planning Thrill Ride Is Nearly Over

REDDING, CT — If you thought that the roller coaster that was 2020 graduation planning at Joel Barlow High School had hit its final loop-de-loop with the School Board's approval last week, hold onto your hat.

The commencement exercise has shifted from this Thursday to Friday, based upon the latest weather forecast. As if enough Fates and Furies hadn't already aligned against the class of 2020, it's now Mother Nature's turn to get her shot in.

It's only the difference of 24 hours, but the change is particularly noteworthy because ensuring the graduation stayed on the day it was originally scheduled at the start of the school year was one of the primary criteria students gave Barlow administrators for guidance. Plans to drive diplomas to students' homes, and every manner of sheepskin-dispensing scheme was considered in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, but what mattered to the students was that it happen on the 11th, according to assistant superintendent/head of school for Joel Barlow and Region 9, Gina-Marie Pin.

The rest of the plan remains intact, however, and that should be a relief for everybody involved — and make no mistake, everybody was involved.

"Hundreds and hundreds of hours of planning" went into the final scheme, according to Pin, and included input from many community members and faculty, as well as students and school administrators. Eventually all the interested parties coalesced into a committee that met with health officials to determine what could be done safely, and hit upon the car caravan plan.

Students will come to the school "in waves" every fifteen minutes, Pin said. They will be directed through a series of stations where they will pick up various keepsakes including programs, letters and bags of schwag. Final stop is the end of their high school career.

"We got permission for one student to get out of each car, they will pick up their diploma, they'll walk up on that stage, and we have volunteer professional photographers that will take their pictures," Pin said.

That last curveball came when the school's regular graduation photographer, Lifetouch, pulled out after they had "furloughed all of their people," in the wake of the pandemic, according to Pin.

The caravan is only one prong of the attack Barlow's graduation planning committee hatched in their war room, which has been bustling since March, managed by Jennifer Desmarais, the vice principal for the Class of 2020.

Annie Gregory, vice president of the class of 2020 ("a rock star, in my opinion," Pin said. "Oh my goodness, the kid is amazing!") has not only coordinated collecting pictures and multimedia clips from her classmates, but will be editing everything together to create the multimedia version of the commencement exercises. She's also organized the car decorating festivities, as she did for Homecoming.

The rest of the virtual bits of the graduation have been coming together in the past week, as students and administration have been recorded, in their caps and gowns, making the speeches they would have been making live to proud friends and family. These, too, will get edited into a keepsake video program for distribution later in the summer.

It's not the graduation the class of 2020 imagined, but it's surely one they'll never forget.