Copperas Cove holding modified graduation ceremonies starting Friday evening

By LYNETTE SOWELL

Cove Leader-Press 

While some school districts have postponed any type of spring graduation ceremony altogether, CCISD has gone forward with an alternative plan for all its seniors to have a ceremony now.

Friday evening at 6 p.m., graduating students from Crossroads High School will get their chance to cross the stage of Lea Ledger auditorium for their ceremony, using social distancing practices. 

The class is smaller than the Copperas Cove High School class of 2020 and the students from that campus usually graduate on that particular stage. 

CCHS usually holds its graduation ceremony at the Bell County Expo Center in Belton. 

This year, the CCHS class of 2020 will graduate on their home turf. 

Starting on Tuesday, CCHS seniors will have the opportunity to have their moments onstage to receive their diplomas from CCISD superintendent Joe Burns and CCISD board of trustees president Joan Manning. 

The process of graduating approximately 500 students and letting them walk to receive their diplomas while adhering to present social distancing guidelines will take three days, from 9 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. 

Each graduating senior and their family have been given an assigned time slot to arrive on campus, and will remain in their vehicles until they are called to enter the building. 

Once inside, the family members – no more than six – will get the chance to watch their senior walk the stage. After receiving their diplomas, the seniors and their family members must leave immediately for the next student to walk.  

The Leader-Press will have 500 copies of its graduation section available on site, for each student and family to pick up as a keepsake. The front cover is something that the students helped create, by providing copies of the photos of the students’ Senior Wall of Memories which the students added to all year long until the campus was closed for spring break.

Then on Friday, a virtual graduation ceremony will premiere on the district’s YouTube channel, starting at 7:30 p.m. 

Next week’s festivities will round out on Saturday morning, when a parade will take place for the seniors starting at 9 a.m., leaving from Ogletree Gap park.