Beaufort County schools graduations are this week. When and how many can attend?
After a year and a half of school in a pandemic, Beaufort County School District’s Class of 2021 is graduating this week.
Students can bring up to six guests with them to the in-person graduation ceremonies, which will be subject to COVID-19 and physical distancing protocols.
Graduations are being held in each high school’s football stadium, and there are rain dates available if the weather doesn’t cooperate.
“When you look at what many other school districts are doing, they’re doing four (tickets) or less,” district superintendent Frank Rodriguez said in April. “We believe we can do six.”
Even without a ticket, there’s still a way to view the ceremonies. The Beaufort County Channel will stream every graduation on its YouTube page, district spokesperson Candace Bruder said Monday.
More than 1,400 seniors are graduating.
When will graduation be held?
The school board unanimously approved a change to graduation dates in February, which district officials recommended due to summer school and referendum construction project schedules.
Here’s when each high school’s ceremony will be held:
- Beaufort High School: June 14, 7 p.m.
- May River High School: June 15, 7 p.m.
- Whale Branch Early College High School: June 16, 7 p.m.
- Hilton Head Island High School: June 17, 7 p.m.
- Bluffton High School: June 18, 10 a.m.
- Battery Creek High School: June 18, 7 p.m.
If the ceremonies are rained out or delayed, the makeup dates are as follows:
June 23 is reserved as a makeup day if other makeup ceremonies are delayed.
This year’s valedictorians and salutatorians are:
- Battery Creek High: The class valedictorian is Dallin Jensen Morgan, and the salutatorian is Luke Taylor Sanders (155 graduates).
- Beaufort High: The class valedictorian is Caleb Ernest Henry, and the salutatorian is Zoe Faith Pejsa (256 graduates).
- Bluffton High: The class valedictorian is Penelope Roman Gomez, and the salutatorian is Adeline Ann Rios (270 graduates).
- Hilton Head Island High: The class valedictorian is Julia Kubec, and the salutatorian is Thomas Hughson (291 graduates).
- May River High School: The class valedictorian is Madison Nunez, and the salutatorian is Lucy Raisch (343 graduates).
- Whale Branch Early College High School: The class valedictorian is Kevona Young, and the salutatorian is Genisis Pratt (101 graduates).
What happened last year?
Last year’s graduation plan drew major backlash from seniors and parents alike.
The district opted to hold ceremonies online, streaming the ceremonies on the day of graduation.
Seniors had the option to go into school ahead of the ceremonies to film socially distanced, masked walks across the stage, with up to four guests present.
Their walks were filmed and edited into the graduation footage, which included prerecorded speeches from Superintendent Frank Rodriguez, as well as the school principal, class valedictorian and salutatorian.
The number of guests was bumped from two to four after community complaints, including a petition to reconsider graduation with input from students that garnered more than 1,800 signatures, a Beaufort protest and a meeting between Rodriguez and student leaders.
This story was originally published June 14, 2021 at 2:25 PM.