It's Official: High School Graduations Set for June 20

It will take some creative thinking to rearrange exam schedules, but Fairfield Ludlowe and Fairfield Warde seniors will graduate on Thursday, June 20 -- a week before the scheduled last day of school.

When the Board of Education voted in November to extend the school year by five days to make up for days lost to inclement weather, it was with a stipulation that graduation for high schools seniors would remain on the then-slated last day of school, June 20.

But -- after a February blizzard of historic proportions was thrown into the mix -- administrators felt it would be best to hold graduation on June 27, the projected last day of school at this time.

The high schools' headmasters (Ludlowe's Greg Hatzis and Warde's James Coyne) stated in a joint memo to the school board that keeping seniors in school until June 27 "allows us to maximize instructional time for all classes."

Moving up the date "would have a negative impact on the senior exam schedule," the headmasters since senior exams would have to be scheduled for the week leading up to June 20, a week before the underclassmen tests.

"Availability of proctors and adequate space for senior exams while other students are in regular classes make administering senior exams separately very problematic," the memo states.

Hatzis added while addressing school board member's questions Tuesday that "for practicality purposes, there are a whole lot of organizational issues. Is it impossible? No."

Board member Jennifer Maxon Kennelly, who moved to amend the graduation vote to read "June 20" instead of "June 27," told Hatzis she trusts that anyone who could deal with the reconfiguration of classes after a roof is blown off a school can "figure it out" when it comes to reorganizing senior exams.

She added that if instructional time was such a concern, then those days should have come out of April break -- ahead of Advanced Placement exams -- and not the end of the school year.

Kennelly and other board members like Perry Liu and Jessica Gerber were concerned that a late graduation could cause problems with college orientations -- some of which are scheduled the week of June 27.

Liu said he didn't want a student to miss out on the experience of graduation because of a conflict with orientation.

"I don't want to deprive kids of this very special day," he said.

The board voted 5-4 to set the graduation date for 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 20. Members Tim Kery, Paul Fattibene, Philip Dwyer, and Pamela Iacono opposed.

The last day of school for the rest of the district remains Thursday, June 27. Seniors are "asked" to come to school through June 25 to hit the required 180 days of class, Superintendent of Schools Dr. David Title said. Whether they do so or not is up to the seniors.