News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Graduating seniors in Putnam County are about to get their long-awaited day in the spotlight.
High School graduations for Putnam County Schools begin Friday night at 6 p.m. for Upperman, followed on Saturday by Cookeville’s at 10 a.m. and Monterey at 4 p.m. All the graduations will take place at Tucker Stadium on Tennessee Tech’s campus.
Putnam County’s Curriculum Supervisor for Grades 9 – 12 Dr. Sharon Anderson said it was important to parents and students to have a traditional ceremony.
“We did a survey during the closure,” Anderson said. “We asked what are your feelings about this? Do you want to go ahead and do a virtual ceremony at the normal time? Do you want to do a drive-thru ceremony? And, overwhelmingly, the majority said it doesn’t matter when it is, we want to do an in-person ceremony.”
Anderson said planning for the graduations has went well considering the challenges in place. She said teachers and administrators at each school came together to organize the events.
“We have a great plan in place,” Anderson said. “We think it’s a great plan. We have thought through very carefully all the restrictions that have been in place. The guidelines that have been published online are designed to make sure it’s a safe event, as well as a great celebration for our graduates.”
For the first time, Putnam County officials have had to limit the number of people that can attend graduations. Anderson said she understands the difficulty that has created for families.
“That has been a little contentious for some people in the community,” Anderson said. “But it came down to a choice of either we could limit the number of guests we have per graduate or we wouldn’t be able to do an in-person ceremony. We are limiting all of our graduates. For all three schools, they are allowed to invite four guests.”
Despite the limitations, Anderson said the school system will be streaming the graduation in multiple formats. She said that has eased some of the tension of the guest restrictions.
“We will be live streaming on Facebook for all three ceremonies in real-time,” Anderson said. “We are also trying to finalize some details with WCTE to also broadcast the ceremonies. As soon as we have those finalized, we will publish that.”
The biggest unknown for an outdoor graduation is the weather. Anderson said the forecast looks promising for this weekend.
“It may be a little bit warm,” Anderson said. “But it’s not going to be horribly hot. The forecast right now calls for clear skies and sunshine, and we’re hoping that it holds.”
Anderson said that students will park in the parking lot across from the Bryan Fine Arts Building at Tech and enter through Gate 7. Guests will park in the large parking lot next to the West Stadium and enter through Gates 2 and 4.
