High School graduation plans announced

MANCHESTER, N.H. – During the Board of School Committee Meeting on Monday night, Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Goldhardt announced that Manchester School District is planning to hold graduation ceremonies for its four city high schools later this month at the home of the Fisher Cats, Northeast Delta Dental Stadium.

The ceremonies are tentatively scheduled across two days: June 20 and 27. Under the plan, graduations for Memorial High School and Manchester School of Technology would be held on the 20th; graduations for Central High School and West High School would be held on the 27. There is a rain date set aside on June 28.

“After much careful consideration and in consultation with the city Health Department, we’ve chosen Northeast Delta Dental Stadium for our graduations,” Goldhardt said in a prepared statement. “Since we were first forced to close our school buildings to in-person learning, I said that I would make sure our students had an in-person graduation – they’ve earned that. But we needed to ensure that any such ceremony would be safe for all involved.”

Safety protocols will include mandatory face masks, a strict limit on the number of guests per graduate (two each), and temperature checks before admission. All attendees must sign a waiver attesting that they have not tested positive for COVID-19 and have not been in contact with anyone who has within two weeks.

“While we have some details to work out, we feel that this plan balances safety concerns with getting our seniors the moment they’d been planning for all these years,” Goldhardt said. “I’d like to thank the city Health Department and the Emergency Operations Center for their guidance and support in this process, and I’d like to thank our seniors and families for their patience.”

Families will receive further details in the coming days.