Alberta high schools are ironing out grad plans in the final month of classes.

Like last year, traditional ceremonies are prohibited due to current rules around gatherings, so schools are having to adapt.

Principal of Holy Trinity Academy, Carmen Ostafichuk, says they had to work within a set of AHS guidelines.

"The guidelines for schools K-12 were really specific for grads, what could happen, so I would expect most schools to be doing something very similar."

HTA was able to innovate within those guidelines though.

Ostafichuk says they devised a way to provide the traditional "walk the stage" experience within the school's atrium.

"When it's time for them to actually cross their stage, they're going to process, in their cohorts, through the atrium and we're going to have a stage set up where they walk across and get their diploma as their mission statement is read, so they still get to cross the stage in this environment."

She says spirits have been high as of late, with students having returned to class after a few weeks of at-home learning.

"A lot of the kids said being at home was more difficult for the teachers than it was for them because they're fully comfortable at home, but they all say it's so much easier to focus in class and not be distracted. We're happy to have them back and I think they're really good at looking at the pros and cons and being happy to be back. They just hope they're not going to be sent home again."

Ostafichuk says it's been a wild ride for these students, and they're hoping to provide the best grad experience possible, given the circumstances.

"When they go, one day, to be interviewed for a job or, heck, to ask someone to marry them, they should say 'I was in grade 12 in the year 2020-21, so you should hire me, you should marry me, you should be my friend forever because I am adaptable and I am compassionate, and I didn't have the same experience as everyone else!' I just think this grade 12 class is just phenomenal."

She says they've set a date for prom in late June, but given the nature of the province's Open for Summer plan, there's no telling what it will look like just yet.

 

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