EASTERN ONTARIO – The Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) has postponed graduation ceremonies this year at all of its secondary school and adult learning centres.
In an announcement made on May 13, the UCDSB assured that this will not keep students who have met their diploma requirements from graduating, even though the graduation ceremonies themselves will be postponed to 2021.
“The decision to postpone graduation ceremonies until June 2021 was not made lightly,” reads a statement from the UCDSB. “Doing so will allow our schools the greatest opportunity to plan and honour our graduates when we can be more certain that school buildings will be fully operational, and the greatest risk of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us. The UCDSB is following the example of other school boards and post-secondary institutions that have already decided to postpone their graduation events.”
The UCDSB said that their schools would work to find alternatives to celebrate their grads until ceremonies can be had.
“Each school’s Graduation Committee will decide how they will honour their graduating class of 2020 at that time, be it a stand-alone ceremony or combined with the graduating class of 2021,” the UCDSB statement goes on to say. “Schools will stay in touch with their students and families to keep them updated about this important event. Several schools have already initiated these conversations around the annual senior prom which – depending on the specific secondary school – may have a link to the annual graduation exercise.”
