Graduation experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want the quaint, idylic graduation ceremony on the 50 yard line like a 1980s California high school movie, move out to the sticks. You're in MoCo, the high schools are huge, they cannot accommodate everyone, that's why they're at larger venues. Get ready for a much worse experience at a collegiate graduation.

Our elementary school graduation was lovely. It was in the theater of our local high school and the speakers were relevant and funny. High school was horrible. College for dc1 was amazing. There are plenty of facilities within moco that could handle the requirements. They just don't want to pay. And if there aren't, that speaks to the leadership of the county planners.

Please list the facilities in MOCO that would fit graduation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a morning slot of UMBC and the grads had to leave our house by 6:30 to get there, so it was a little exhausting. They were told they couldn't use the bathrooms between 7:30 and when it finished at noon, which I thought was ridiculous, but may not have been fully enforced (I did see 1-2 sneak out). It wasn't great and I agree that the crowd control coming out was not great, but I didn't see anyone getting body-checked. Agree it's a little bit of a bummer that there's not someplace nice to gather as we came out. The next HS was already coming in as we were leaving, so it really was crowded and no place to really gather/celebrate (small grassy area to the left of the entrance, but it was pretty crowded). File this all under "MCPS is an enormous system with HSs that are way too big so there are some issues that flow from that."

Also, do they have to let the BOE people speak? That was the worst part. No one wanted to hear her, and her speech was bad. I would say the high points for us were the orchestra, chorus and the principal's speech. The orchestra really did very well.

Everyone complaining about the BOE member speak, were you at RM's graduation with Lynn Harris? My husband is still complaining about her speech. Just way too long and by now, I can't remember a single word she said.

As for graduation, I thought it was a lovely event. I do think having the morning slot helps. It was nice to have comfortable seats in an air-conditioned building. Much better for us all - especially grandparents. No one wanted to sit on the bleachers in that humid weather.

We found plenty of space to get good pictures after.

Traffic was what it was. Would traffic have been better at any other location?

[Anonymous]

Blair's was on their football field. I wonder what the inclement weather plan was?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blair's was on their football field. I wonder what the inclement weather plan was?

They had rain dates of later that evening or the following morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Blair's was on their football field. I wonder what the inclement weather plan was?

How many tickets per grad for that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair's was on their football field. I wonder what the inclement weather plan was?

How many tickets per grad for that?

Five

[Anonymous]

Would all high schools be able to give out 5 tickets/student if held at their school's field?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wondering if others had a horrible experience with graduation?
Elderly relatives jammed in backseat, some feeling car sick for the 1 hour drive to get to our local hs graduation.
. It took an hour to get there since traffic was at a crawl beginning at the exit all the way to the parking lot.
Inside, certain groups of people spoke to each other or were on their phones throughout the entire ceremony. People brought their toddlers and babies and didn't get up and exit when those children were crying and or screaming.
The grads were made to sit in a hallway without a/c for nearly 2 hours.

The crowd all exited through the same door and people were literally body checking each other to get through the crowd. Not once or a couple. Alot.

There was no area for pics so we had 5 minutes to greet the other grads and take pics before the rain started pouring down.
We lucked out and were able to get right on the highway (and into rush hour traffic) but heard others took 45 minutes to get out of the parking lot.

It was such a miserable experience all around.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1208217.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would all high schools be able to give out 5 tickets/student if held at their school's field?

You are all asking the wrong questions. The question shpuld be, why are property taxes so high but my child is packed in a school with 700 other seniors. Surely they aren't getting any personalized attention at school! Is this why Darla doesn't understand basic spelling rules? If this county has such a large budget why can't my sga speakers compose a meaningful graduation speech? Am I an idiot for voting for the same bs every 2-4 years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would all high schools be able to give out 5 tickets/student if held at their school's field?

I doubt WJ could. The bleachers can fill up at a regular football game. But I don’t know what the capacity is. I doubt it’s close to the roughly 3,400 needed. But anyone know? Graduation was there a few years ago, although I don’t know if they did capacity given the pandemic. I would guess 2 or 3 tix per grad.

[Anonymous]

Parent of a wj freshman so I’m curious…how is the graduation location decided each year? I know the class sizes are huge but is it ever an option to have them graduate at school and set up classrooms/auditorium for livestreams?
Or should we just plan to get a hotel near UMBC the night before? 🤣

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a wj freshman so I’m curious…how is the graduation location decided each year? I know the class sizes are huge but is it ever an option to have them graduate at school and set up classrooms/auditorium for livestreams?
Or should we just plan to get a hotel near UMBC the night before? 🤣

Yes, it is an option for them to graduate at school. However, it is an option that has a lot of problems, including (but not limited to) cost (ironically).

My advice is to talk to a real, live person who attended the WJ graduation at UMBC. Don't listen to the snowflake-y complainers on DCUM. If graduation is at UMBC when you go, it will be fine, and you will not need a hotel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WJ? The traffic at Umbc campus was horrible both coming and going. The rain had everyone trying to depart at once, too. At arrival, grads were jumping out of jammed up cars to walk because they were threatened they would not be allowed to enter after 12:30. But at 12:30 and later, the grads still hadn’t even been allowed in. They were left outside and then eventually let in to stand in hot hallways for a very long time without water. There were annoyances as parents, which we anticipated and accepted, but it was the treatment of the grads that needs improvement. At least access to water needs to be addressed.
But the venue itself inside was spacious and fine. I’d prefer DAR but WJ is large. Is UMD too expensive?

The graduation held there earlier in the morning ran over which impacted traffic and the time WJ seniors could enter.

[Anonymous]

We were at UMBC last week and none of this was a problem. Yes, the drive took 15 minutes longer than expected due to traffic. Who cares. The audience was very well behaved-- I saw nothing out of the ordinary (besides eating popcorn since the concessions were open... but no objection here). It was a bit of a zoo finding the kids afterward. i could imagine people wanting a more special time afterward to take photos, but after such a long ceremony, I was happy to get straight to the car!

My older one had a football stadium graduation a few years ago. I liked this much more-- climate controlled!

[Anonymous]

Graduations need to be moved to April/early May. The heat in the crowd is unbearable . Heat strokes and exhaustion happen often to the grads in caps and gowns and I feel bad for the elderly folks and toddlers in those outdoor venues in the sweltering heat