Coronavirus canceled the school year, so Belleville seniors will graduate online instead
Belleville high school seniors will be celebrating their graduation online this year.
Belleville High School District 201 informed the families of graduates Friday that this year’s graduation will be held virtually due to COVID-19 concerns with a possible in-person ceremony later in the summer.
Seniors from both Belleville East and West will receive their virtual diplomas sometime around the originally scheduled ceremonies which were set, respecively, on May 19 and 20.
“We know how special ceremonies like graduation are to students and their parents so we’re going to do some type of virtual ceremony,” said Superintendent Jeff Dosier.
He said while plans aren’t final for the ceremony, the school district will try to carry out the virtual ceremony as close as possible to a traditional commencement, with students being named individually. He said speeches will be planned and the district is working on ways to collect photos of students for the ceremony.
Dosier added that an in-person ceremony is “tentatively” planned for late August, due to an “overwhelming amount of demand.”
“We felt like there was enough feedback from students and parents that if it becomes possible to have some type of event later this summer we’ll do that,” he said. “We’re not going to put anyone at risk nor will we require anyone to be there but we’re leaving that open as a possibility.”
He stressed that the in-person ceremony was a “big maybe,” since there’s no way of predicting when Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will lift stay-at-home order, which was extended Thursday through the end of May.
“It’s hard to tell as we all know, the information changes rapidly, weekly, about what type of events are allowed,” he said. “If we’re able to have an in-person event we’ll do that at the appropriate time.”
Pritzker ordered all schools to close for the remainder of the year last week to stem the continued spread of the novel coronavirus.
In the coming days, the district is expected to release more information on cap and gown pickup, submission instructions for the virtual ceremony, textbook collection for senior and yearbook distribution for seniors, Dosier said.
This story was originally published April 24, 2020 at 4:38 PM.