With the year’s end quickly approaching and California COVID regulations beginning to lift, Selma High seniors can look forward to a graduation ceremony that’s as close to tradition as possible.

Planning around guidelines for such an important event has been difficult, says Selma High’s activities director, Michael Pallesi.

“With all of the [COVID] tiers constantly changing, we never knew what we could do or couldn’t do for sure,” Pallesi reports. 

While students wished to have a graduation similar to years prior, the volume of people in attendance would need to be regulated. However, those planning the event were committed to giving students a safe and memorable ceremony, and presented a compromised plan which addressed both concerns.

To do this, graduation has been split up into two nights: one on Thursday, June 3, and another on Friday the 4th. Additionally, students will be receiving up to six tickets to give to immediate family members who wish to attend. Because this ensured only 20% of the stadium would be filled, Selma Unified’s superintendent approved of the graduation plans.

However, many preparations are still under way, and the final picture for graduation isn’t quite ready yet. 

“We are still trying to figure out all of the ramifications on how we are going to make this look,” Pallesi says. “But we are trying to do the best we can to give the seniors the best graduation we can under the circumstances.”

Practices will be taking place on the mornings of the 2nd and 3rd, where students will practice being handed their diplomas. However, other than a split ceremony, graduation will precede exactly as it has before, including speeches from the superintendent, principal, senior class officers, and valedictorians.

As Selma High prepares to celebrate the success of all of the seniors this year, graduation is set to be quite a memorable event.