Ringgold holds off graduation decision

By KRISTIE LINDEN

klinden@yourmvi.com

Ringgold School District hasn’t decided about its plans for a traditional, in-person graduation ceremony.

Administrators want to wait as long as possible to see if the current guidelines prohibiting gatherings of 250 or more people change in time to pull off a traditional graduation.

According to the original graduation plans organized by faculty, administrators and representatives of the senior class in May, a traditional ceremony was planned for Wednesday with rain dates of Thursday and June 26. 

But parent Jamie Kray said during this week’s school board meeting that it seemed to some parents that scheduling next week’s board meeting for the same night as that first potential graduation date meant the district decided against offering an in-person ceremony.

Kray said it seems half the graduating seniors still want to have the real graduation and half “are just over it because they thought the two-minute drive-by was sufficient.” 

Kray was referring to the day students received their diplomas and were able to take photos in their caps and gowns at the high school as part of the virtual graduation. 

With the first graduation date and the next school board meeting both set for Wednesday, Kray said it seemed like the district had already decided not to have any further ceremony.

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