In-person proms and graduations returning to SLO County. Here’s what they’ll look like
Students across San Luis Obispo County have faced incredible academic and social challenges due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
So San Luis Obispo County schools are rallying to create a better ending to the school year by hosting traditional events — proms and graduation ceremonies — in near-normal settings.
In 2020, many schools canceled proms and graduation ceremonies, while others held drive-through celebrations or parades through local cities.
This year, all local schools will hold in-person graduations that look much like they would in non-pandemic years. Most high schools will also host in-person prom dances for upperclass students.
Students, teachers, administrators and families will be required to wears masks and physically distance from others in order to follow state and local COVID-19 health guidelines.
But seniors will still be able to mark those milestones.
“This is so, so important,” said Leslie O’Connor, principal at San Luis Obispo High School. “Students have gone through a year unlike any other.
“What has to always be in the forefront of our minds is the social-emotional health of our students. There are so many things that we as a society have missed out on and so many things that our students have missed out on.”
“I’m not suggesting that prom is the most important,” O’Connor noted, adding that “when I look around, I see COVID ravaging around the world. But I do think that from a local perspective, any time we can provide an opportunity for our students to be able to decompress and breathe, I think that’s something we should always look at.”
What do local schools have planned for prom?
Most high schools in San Luis Obispo County are planning to move forward with proms this year. Some schools plan to limit attendance to seniors only, while others are allowing both juniors and seniors to attend the formal dances.
The California Department of Public Health has certain guidelines for holding events in counties that are in the orange tier of coronavirus restrictions under the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy. San Luis Obispo County officially made the move to orange from the more restrictive red tier on April 27.
Following these regulations, all of the local schools holding proms will require students to submit negative COVID-19 test results within 48 hours of the events or proof of full vaccination. They’ll also hold proms outdoors.
Schools are allowed to admit up to 300 students to each prom while the county is under the orange tier, according to the state’s guidance.
This will be no problem for small and mid-sized schools such as Shandon High School and Atascadero High School.
But the attendance limit means that bigger schools such as Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo won’t be able to allow all of their seniors to go to prom.
Paso Robles High, which has about 450 seniors in this year’s graduating class, originally planned on splitting its prom into two nights: April 30 and May 1.
But with some creative planning and an expectation that not all students will attend based on the pace of ticket sales, the school was able to condense the event into a single night, set for May 1, Paso Robles High Principal Anthony Overton said.
He noted that attendees will still need to adhere to certain health and safety protocols.
“Students will come in predetermine groups, and then stay with their groups throughout the evening,” Overton said. “That will help reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19, and we’ll follow all of our mitigation measures around wearing masks.”
Overton said each group of six to 10 students will be given an area of the event’s venue — the runway of Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles — and asked to stay in that area.
“There’s a little bit of concern from the students about that,” he said. “But it was really the only way we could do it to make sure that if someone were to test positive (for coronvirus) after the event, it would only affect a smaller group of people.”
San Luis Obispo High School, which has about 350 seniors, hasn’t announced a date or venue for its prom yet, O’Connor said, adding that the event will be held outdoors.
Other schools, such as Templeton High School and Coast Union High School, will not be holding school-sponsored proms this year.
“Normally, in a non-COVID year, we would hold a prom, but we just kind of ran out of time and we just didn’t feel we had the ability to pull something together for the students,” said Josh Aston, principal at Templeton High. “Luckily, though, there’s a really awesome group of parents that’s put something together for our seniors to do, and we really appreciate that.”
Without the pressures of planning a prom, Aston said Templeton High’s graduation is “really on our front burner.”
High school graduations planned in SLO County
All high schools in San Luis Obispo County plan to have in-person commencement ceremonies that will look much like typical graduations.
The California Department of Public Health released guidelines for schools on how to conduct graduation ceremonies safely — focusing on limiting attendance and requiring masks and physical distancing.
The state’s guidance notes that “handshaking and hugs should not occur” during graduation, as would normally happen as a diploma is handed to a student.
Schools must limit graduation attendance to 33% capacity at the venue at which their graduation is being held, according to the state’s guidance. Additionally, out-of-state guests will not be allowed, the guidance says.
Local high schools are requiring graduates to limit the number of guests who attend each ceremony in person in accordance with the state guidelines. That ranges from about four to eight guests per student, depending on the school and how many graduates there are.
Most schools will also livestream their graduation ceremonies to accommodate for guests who are unable to attend.
Mission Prep’s commencement is “going to include a lot of the traditional elements of graduation: graduates walking across the stage and getting their diploma and their families being present in chairs,” said Mike Susank, principal of the San Luis Obispo college preparatory high school.
School administrators said that providing graduation ceremonies for students is incredibly important because they represent the end of school for some — or a celebratory pause before trade school or college begins for others.
Scott Ferguson, principal at Coast Union High School in Cambria, said that his students have made clear how valuable a graduation ceremony is.
“The comments from from a lot of our student leaders on campus is: ‘We’ve worked hard for 13 years to get to this event, to get to this point, and this is really a big deal for us. This is kind of our next step before going into college and career. So we really want to go out with the bang,’ “ Ferguson said.
Administrators said they’re excited to end the school year on a high note.
Though many students struggled academically during distance learning — some fearing they wouldn’t be able to graduate on time — school officials say they’ve worked with all of their students to ensure they get their grades up to graduate on time.
Schools are also putting extra COVID-19 relief funds into summer school programs that will allow students to graduate just a few months behind their peers, as opposed to a full year.
But since local schools have reopened and most students are now attending classes in person, as opposed to fully virtually, administrators said that there has been a notable shift in the attitudes and motivation from students.
Atascadero High School Principal Dan Andrus said that students have risen to the challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presented. He’s seen students turn their grades around, he said, and his school staff is working harder than ever to help those who need it.
Andrus attributed some of this change in students’ attitudes to the end-of-year events the school has planned from them.
“For some of our students, they’re finally getting back some of what they feel like they lost last year,” he said. “I think people need to know that things are getting better, we’re moving through this. We’re noticing how the mental health issues we’ve seen among our students are alleviated when they can start to realize that these things, prom and graduation, are actually going to happen.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
