District reinstates 8th grade graduation ceremonies
BY CHRISTINE BEDELL AND JEFF NACHTIGAL, Californian staff writers cbedell@bakersfield.com, jnachtigal@bakersfield.com
Eighth-grade graduations are back on in the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District -- at least less expensive and grandiose ones.
After parents protested the canceled ceremonies -- cut to save money -- the district board and staff came up with a new plan.
Simultaneous graduations will be held at each school gym May 28, said Assistant Superintendent Gerrie Kincaid.
"It won't be on such a grand scale but it will be dignified and honor these students," she said.
Each student will receive two guest tickets.
Kincaid said she didn't know how much the new graduations will cost but "it won't cost $20,000 for the facility."
And the district won't have to pay for insurance and transporting choir and band kids to the ceremony. Seventh graders usually sing and play for the eighth graders, she said.
Windy Haverstock has never won the lottery, but said it felt like that when she heard that her daughter Courtney's graduation at Tevis Junior High was back on.
"The main course has been served," said Haverstock, who planned a parent meeting to figure out how to put on graduation if the district wasn't able to.
She wants to help with any details left to be worked out.
"A thousand thank yous to Ms. Kincaid," said Haverstock.
Deborah Corley was pleased that her son Patrick will have a formal graduation from Thompson Junior High this May.
Corley, who spoke out when the district canceled graduation last month, was glad the "district decided to do the right thing."
"They made an unfavorable decision,and they listened, and that says something about the district," Corley said.
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