District looking at three scenarios
By Greg Seubert
Manawa School District officials are looking at three options for its upcoming graduation ceremony.
Saturday, July 25, has already been set aside as the day for the ceremony, but how Little Wolf Junior/Senior High School’s Class of 2020 will receive their diplomas remains to be seen.
Principal Dan Wolfgram told the Manawa School Board June 24 that he is looking at three scenarios:
• A live, in-person outdoor ceremony in the Manawa Athletic Complex, with a rain option of the Manawa Elementary School gym.
• A live, in-person drive-up ceremony in a parking lot at the junior/senior high school or elementary school.
• An in-person indoor ceremony by appointment over multiple days in late July.
“We’ve identified three potential scenarios for a memorable and safe opportunity for our seniors to experience graduation,” Wolfgram said. “The board certainly needed to see what we were looking at for opportunities. We’ve identified July 25 as our graduation date and we know that any plan that we put forth does need to get approved by the administration, as well as Jed Wohlt of the Waupaca County Health Department, our legal team and insurance liability carriers.”
The in-person ceremony at the athletic complex has the most support of the three options, according to Wolfgram.
“Scenario 1 would be our first choice because that’s what the public wanted as well as our seniors,” he said. “It’s scheduled for 11 a.m. at the football field. I’ve been in touch with (Manawa) Police Chief (Jim) Gorman and he’s indicated that he will provide staffing as needed to assist in supervising the event.”
Wolfgram outlined the specifics of the first scenario.
“We know we have 50 students and we have earmarked 200 guests – four guests per graduate – and an allocation for Manawa administration and board of education,” he said. “Total attendees would be 300.”
Bleachers from the athletic complex and Lindsay Park would be used to provide physical distancing.
“At full capacity, the seven sections of (athletic complex) bleachers would comfortably hold 800 guests, but with the proper physical distancing, about 200 guests could fit comfortably on the bleachers,” Wolfgram said.
“The general expectation for staff, students and guests is that all students would fill out the COVID screening form and staying home if they answered ‘yes’ to any of the questions,” he said.
The district is looking into wrist tickets that include the name of each graduate.
“It would be worn on their wrist,” Wolfgram said. “If they don’t have a wrist tick, no admission because we do have limited amounts of seating.”
Wearing a mask is encouraged and Wolfgram is in the process of gathering information from graduates on family situations.
“We may have two sets of parents that may not want to sit together,” he said. “Based off of CDC guidelines, if they’re from different households, they should not be seated together because they do need to maintain that 6-foot distancing.”
The district will gather information from graduates’ families, including how many tickets they would require and if family members would need to be seated separately.
“Each one of them would have an impact on our seating and how we would arrange that,” Wolfgram said. “It’s planning for multiple situations, but I do need a little bit more data from our families.”