Dunsmore: WCPS will hold graduations this summer

It might be a drive-in event or a social distance-minded, student-only ceremony that is live-streamed for families and friends.

Photographs might be taken in front of green screens that allow school officials to be digitally inserted next to students to avoid unnecessary contact.

But Wayne County Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore said the local school district will hold graduations this summer.

“We are going to do something,” he told members of the school board Monday evening. “Hopefully, things will ease up a little bit as we get into June … but there will be some form of graduation.”

A special edition of the New Old North’s sister publication, “Eastbound & Downtown,” is set to publish this summer and will honor the Class of 2020 with sections devoted to every school in Wayne County, public and private. For more information about this once-in-a-lifetime publication click here or email newoldnorth@gmail.com to advertise.

Dunsmore’s comments came after WCPS communications and public relations director Ken Derksen told the board that he serves on a state committee that has discussed high school graduations at length.

He said given Gov. Roy Cooper’s recent closure of schools for the remainder of the academic year, just what graduation ceremonies would look like remains unclear. In the meantime, all eyes have shifted to other states and how they handle upcoming ceremonies — and whether or not the example they set will prompt Cooper to offer guidelines on how local school districts can proceed.

“We’re looking at strategies that are currently being put into place in other states,” Derksen said. “We’re going to do the best we can … and we want our families to know that graduations will happen.”