ELIZABETHTOWN — Students and parents who rejected the Bladen County Schools graduation plan will get two new options.
Superintendent Dr. Robert Taylor, in a Thursday interview with the Bladen Journal, said principals of West Bladen and East Bladen high schools will be developing the new commencement program that adheres to concerns with the coronavirus pandemic. One option will build upon a proposal from Jennifer Potter, the mother of an East Bladen graduate.
“It will include some type of gathering including a drive-in graduation,” Taylor said.
The superintendent, Potter, West Bladen parent Angela Brisson, principals Dr. Peggy Hester of West Bladen and Dr. Jason Wray of East Bladen, school spokeswoman Valerie Newton and Bladen County Health Department Director Dr. Terri Duncan met Thursday after lunch. The meeting lasted just under 90 minutes.
“I left the meeting with the understanding that Dr. Wray, Dr. Taylor and Dr. Hester were going to try to put together a plan that was a good compromise,” Potter said.
She feels a lot of details have been accounted for in her plan, and that as written is still the best option.
But she assured, “I’m grateful they’re considering anything other than what they said Friday.”
Potter said she made some adjustments to the plan she shared Monday with Taylor during the day and with the Board of Education that evening. Taylor said the principals have agreed to compromise “with what they think will be a workable plan.”
Though a final version is not complete, Taylor’s description indicates there will be an option for two kinds of ceremonies available, one intimate inside and one viewable by others outside; masks or face coverings will be a requirement of both, as recommended by the CDC; social distancing will be practiced at both; and the outdoor ceremony will take place during daylight hours.
He said there is a possibility the dates will be moved to a Saturday and Sunday, June 13-14; they were originally scheduled June 12 at both schools, moved to June 1, and are now ticketed for June 11 and 12.
Taylor gave Potter credit where due.
“I told her that her plan is better from a health perspective,” he said. “But there are some other things that need to be done.”
Specifically in that credit, he said, the district’s plan would have put graduates and their families in proximity, and possibly exposed, to 10 people — that includes not only participants in the library but a photographer, a school resource officer, people at the door upon entering and leaving, etc. The principals and school personnel, he said, “would have been in contact with about 600 or more people.”
Potter said Duncan agreed, after further review, that the outdoor plan was better for health safety.
“What I expressed to them,” Taylor said, “is even if the principals have compromised and moved toward their plan, there are still going to be people that are upset with whatever that comes out of this. I told them, ‘You need to be prepared for that.’”
Taylor said both principals had fielded calls on each side, some being willing to go with the original plan, others wanting something outdoors. A petition circulated this week, signed by seniors graduating and junior marshals declaring they would not go to the ceremony if it remains the district’s plan released last week.
“What we wanted people to recognize is that there’s not going to be a traditional ceremony, and that’s what is the most unfortunate part,” Taylor said. “Our responsibility is to make sure everyone is safe.”
The ninth-year superintendent said Wray and Hester would be collaborating over the next few days; he’s hopeful for something to be shared in the first half of next week.
East Bladen is expected to graduate about 170 students, and West Bladen about 150, Taylor said.
The superintendent said the school system is not involved in any element of the day that includes a parade off campus.
“If they have a parade, that has nothing to do with the schools,” Taylor said. “That’s beyond our purview. I assume they will work with Elizabethtown or Bladenboro, but we’re not going to be involved with that.”
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