The Knoxville Community School District will host their graduation ceremony for the Class of 2020 tomorrow. The ceremony will be held at the Knoxville Raceway at 5 p.m. Gates will open at 4 p.m. with families asked to sit together and leave four open seats between different households. Attendees will enter through the southside of the grandstand and elevators will be available; however the public restrooms will be closed. Due to limited parking, students will need to be dropped off on the south side of Dyer Hudson Hall no later than 3 p.m. A professional class photo and individual photos will take place from 3 to 4 p.m. with class members and staff only. 

Pleasantville Community School District will also hold their in-person graduation ceremony tomorrow as well. The graduation ceremony for Pleasantville’s Class of 2020 will be held at the football stadium at 2:00 PM and will be the first outdoor graduation ceremony for Pleasantville in school history. Seniors should arrive at the elementary parking lot no later than 1:30 pm and line up 6’ apart along the sidewalk that leads to the elementary school. Seniors will walk single file through the entrance of the high school stadium and walk toward the home bleachers as the “Pomp and Circumstance March” plays over the stadium PA system.

The class of 2020 will be seated in the home bleachers while practicing social distancing 6 feet apart. Blue tape marks have been taped on the bleachers indicating specific spots for the seniors to sit. There are no restrictions on the number of guests who can attend the ceremony.  Each “group” is expected to adhere to the social distancing requirements of remaining 6 feet apart during the ceremony.  Masks are encouraged. 

 

Families and guests will be able to sit anywhere on the football field.  Families and guests will be asked to bring their own chairs to sit in during the ceremony.

 

A microphone will be set up in the center of the front row of the stadium bleachers for our student graduation speakers to give their speeches and to announce the names of the graduates.

 

Seniors will stand in place in the bleachers when their name is called during the ceremony and then sit down after their name is called.  There will be no rose ceremony or graduation slide show this year.

 

Students in the National Honor Society, Silver Cord, Class Salutatorian, Class Valedictorian, and all students who finished high school at or above a 3.0 cumulative GPA will be recognized by having their names read and standing.

 

At the conclusion of the ceremony, students will exit the bleachers while the song “Fanfare and Recessional” plays.

 

Graduates will exit the bleachers and walk to the south end zone of the stadium where they will spread out safely and have the traditional opportunity to throw their graduation caps into the air to culminate their graduation ceremony.

 

Ice cream cones will be available “to-go” for graduates and guests as they exit the stadium.

The district “media banner” that is frequently used for student college signing ceremonies and photo opportunities will be setup in the elementary parking lot area as a nice backdrop for those who would like to have their own photos taken prior to the ceremony. 

 

There will be a live stream of this event on the school’s Facebook account.