Number of Neelyville graduation tickets up in air

NEELYVILLE — With graduation in two weeks, the Neelyville R-IV school district is considering changes to the guidelines.

These guidelines include a limit of six guests per graduate, a staggered entrance and a hold-harmless form for attendees and graduates to sign.

School administration wrote the guidelines, Superintendent Debra Parish said, and the health department and district lawyer approved them.

Parish explained the way the admin see it, they will put a group of six chairs together and then some distance before another group of six chairs for guests. This way, each family has distance between each other.

They would split graduates into smaller groups and wait in classrooms with an adult before walking into the gymnasium for the ceremony.

Board member Jill McGruder, who has a graduating senior, brought up concern about the guest limit and proposed increasing it to at least 10.

“We are a family of five, so that already puts grandparents out or a sibling can’t go to the graduation type of a situation,” she said. “Is there a way that children who may only have two people coming ... can somebody else use their tickets?”

McGruder said her daughter and other students already are discussing ways to share tickets or divvy them up with friends.

She asked if a student will not use all six tickets, whether there could be a certain date to return those tickets, so other students can use them.

Board member Shane Eaker voiced concern with the idea by asking whether some would get upset if one family received more tickets than another.

High School Principal Justin Dobbins said the issue he would worry about is how to decide where those spare tickets go.

“The only way to me it would be feasible is if every kid gets six tickets, you have a total number,” he said. “It would almost be first-come, first-serve. The kid doesn’t decide who gets their tickets ... There will be an issue if you do it.”

Parish said between the admin and teachers required to be in attendance to run graduation, the graduates themselves and six tickets per student, the district was right at the number of people it could have in attendance based on average capacity.

Parish said admin estimated the gym can hold about 500 people and under current recommendations, they were shooting for 250 for the ceremony.

The 2020 graduating class includes 30 students. If all 30 students brought their six guests, that’s 210 people.

Multiple board members addressed that these are guidelines and recommendations, not a law.

“It’s just a recommendation,” board member Jim Hover said. “I’m not afraid to sit in a gym with any of them; I don’t care how full it is. A lot of people might disagree with that.

“That’s a lot of what’s wrong. Everybody keeps hearing these recommendations and ‘Oh, we have to do this.’ No, we do not have to do this.”

McGruder and Hover brought up the waiver for attendees to sign, taking temperatures at the door and providing hand sanitizer, whether that would be enough.

Eaker pointed out the difference between the school district and places of business when it comes to these regulations is that the district receives federal funding, and “that’s something they could cut if we did something.”

Dobbins said his priority is the graduates and giving them the best graduation possible given the situation.

“We’re not going to make everybody happy no matter what,” McGruder said. “That’s a give-in ... If we want to continue to limit it, I think 10 is a lot better than six.”

Parish is in discussion with officials, including the Butler County Health Department, to address the board’s concerns and consider changes to the guidelines in order to reflect those.