PHS Senior Week starts June 8

#Middlebury #PHS #Seniors

June is usually a very special month for graduating high school seniors. It’s filled with activities celebrating their accomplishments, and the highlight is walking up to accept the high school diploma that acknowledges all their hard work over the years. This year, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced seniors in the Pomperaug High School (PHS) Class of 2020 to celebrate differently than the classes before them.

In an email to parents May 20, Region 15 Superintendent Joshua Smith and Pomperaug High School Principal Paul Jones said they have come up with novel ways to celebrate the accomplishments of this year’s seniors. The email noted the events won’t make up for everything the seniors have lost, but hopefully they will “provide our seniors with special moments that will become fond memories of how they concluded their years at Pomperaug High School.”

The major events on Senior Week, June 8 to 12, will be as follows:

A Senior Drive Monday, June 8, at 9 a.m. will have seniors meeting at the elementary school they attended or that is in their district. They will line up in their cars and follow routes through Middlebury and Southbury, eventually joining together and proceeding to PHS and passing in front of the school.

Also on Monday, while they are are lined up at their respective elementary schools, staff members will give each of them a bag with their cap and gown, along with any other items they will wear at graduation. They also will be given a ticket for graduation. That ticket must not be lost! It will be required for entry to the graduation event.

Graduation Signs including a photo of each senior will be placed in both towns (unless parents requested otherwise). The Senior Drive will pass by the signs, and at a later date they will be given to the students.

Tuesday, June 9, at 7 p.m. Scholarship/Awards Night will feature a pre-recorded video shown through a social media platform that will give students an opportunity to interact during the event. Students receiving scholarships and awards will be notified and invited to the event. The video will remain available for viewing after the event.

The Graduation Ceremony will be Friday, June 12, at 9 a.m. in the Olymbec Corporate Group parking lot at 199 Benson Road in Middlebury and will go according to a plan developed with local health officials and complying with Connecticut Executive Order 7X. It will be an off-campus drive-in graduation ceremony, but it will follow the traditional graduation ceremony format with speeches and performances.

Guidelines in the email said students will park in numbered parking spots and only one vehicle per student will be allowed. Parking spot numbers will be on the graduation tickets. Only family members with whom they have been living during quarantine may attend with them. Caps won’t be thrown because there will not be an opportunity to retrieve them. Seniors will exit their vehicles when their name is called and go pick up their diploma, which will have been placed on a table.

Further guidelines will be sent to parents detailing the specific ceremony and entry/exit information for the event. Smith and Jones said, “While we know that this is not ideal, we do feel that it is a unique chance to celebrate our Seniors together as one Pomperaug family!”

The event will be live-streamed and recorded, and professional photographers will be taking photos of students as they pick up their diplomas.

There will be no rain date for this event; students will be allowed to use umbrellas and shelter will be provided.

A Welcome Home Block Party is being planned for late fall, provided local and state health regulations allow, so the Class of 2020 can come back together to celebrate. More information on that event will be provided later.

Unfortunately, yearbook delivery has been delayed this year due to the vendor closing for a while because of the pandemic. As a result yearbooks will not be available June 12. Once they arrive, school officials will send out a plan for students or parents to pick up their yearbook.