By LARRY LANNAN
High school graduation ceremonies for Fishers and Hamilton Southeastern high schools will be held at the Indiana Fairgrounds Coliseum on Saturday, June 5, but each high school will have two sessions in order to lower the number of people at each event.
Superintendent Allen Bourff told HSE School Board members Wednesday night Fishers High School will hold graduation ceremonies at 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., then HSE will have its events at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
There will be no orchestra or choir, but recorded music may be used. There will be no handshakes as graduates accept their diplomas. There will be no procession to begin and end each event. Each graduate will receive four tickets to the ceremony.
The speeches will be reduced to a brief address by the principal and remarks from each valedictorian.
Last year’s graduation was delayed due to the pandemic and held outside.
In other updates from Dr. Bourff at the HSE board meeting:
- The Fishers Health Department is working with school officials to provide COVID vaccinations to students, now that the age of those eligible for the vaccine has lowered. No details have been worked out on how that may work.
- The first three days of school after spring break have resulted in 34 positive COVID tests at HSE Schools, which exceeds the last full week before spring break at 23 cases. However, Dr. Bourff says that this week’s number is lower than had been projected.
Finally, the consent agenda is normally a list of routine items approved by the board at each regular meeting. Wednesday night, board member Brad Boyer voted no on the consent agenda, a rare event. When asked after the meeting why he voted no, Boyer responded that he had asked questions on some items contained in the consent agenda and did not receive “satisfactory answers” to those questions.
The consent agenda consists of board minutes from the previous meeting, financial claims and personnel actions. When asked what specifically on that agenda caused him to vote no, Mr. Boyer declined to answer.