The guidance councillor and grad coordinator at HJ Cody, Jas Payne, wants to make the ceremony as normal as possible for the graduates.
“At this point we are working on several scenarios,” said Payne.
The ceremony will be outside and will take place on the upper field of the high school. Social distancing will be practiced, and a limited audience may be able to attend.
“The ceremony will be live-streamed, and we know that we want to make it as normal a year as possible.”
At the moment, the school is unsure whether or not they will have to split the class or be able to have an audience on site.
“Those are questions left to answer with Alberta Health Services,” said Payne.
A banquet for the grads is something that is also in the works.
“While we cannot have an indoor banquet, we are working to make something special out of what we can do. Kjeryn from Bukz, Bukwildz and Doe(s) and Dave from Fireside are working to have a banquet for our grads, similar to what was done last year.”
Even with the limits, the school wants to try and make the experience as memorable as possible, said Payne.
“There is much we can do that is safe and responsible and we are working to make those possibilities come to fruition.”
Many of last year’s grad class felt the pandemic stole their grad, and the graduates from this year’s class want to feel like things are more normal again, said Payne.
“Last year although many people came together to do what was safe and responsible, many feel it was not enough. We want to do all that we can this year to give these amazing young people as good a send-off as they deserve.”
AHS restrictions and provincial regulations have made the planning very difficult this year in regard to having an audience.
“We cannot know until we get closer what the numbers will be. We will live-stream the ceremony and work to have things be as normal as possible, but normal looks a lot different these days.”
All events for the high school’s 135 grads will take place on June 26th.