Anonymous wrote:A petition will do nothing. Talk to your high school.

Did high schools even make the decisions this year? We heard nothing about it beforehand this year, but last year there was a fair amount of discussion at our high school, and a poll sent out to senior parents and students.

Any school successful in moving graduation away from near the white house to a place in MD (UMBC or HS field etc.)?

A petition will do nothing. Talk to your high school.

Can a petition get the venue to change for the 2025 graduation season, or is a petition for '26+?

If MCPS-TV can be able to stream the graduations at UMBC with high quality video and audio, it’ll make streams better for the HS graduations at UMBC.

Anonymous wrote:You have to rent the equipment - stage, chairs etc. In 2023, we were told it would cost $30,000. MCPS only provided about $5000. The school and senior fees had to make up the rest.

Wait! I thought the principals pocketed those fees.

You have to rent the equipment - stage, chairs etc. In 2023, we were told it would cost $30,000. MCPS only provided about $5000. The school and senior fees had to make up the rest.

Anonymous wrote:I’d take the school field over DAR or UMBC by any day. - Mother of a Blair student.

I remember Blair had their graduations at DAR before, but to be completley honest with you, they should be the next to move to UMBC. At this rate almost all the MCPS high schools are going to graduate at UMBC.

Anonymous wrote:I’d take the school field over DAR or UMBC by any day. - Mother of a Blair student.

I've attended a school field graduation and a UMBC graduation, and they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The issue with home field graduations is the cost to the school. And the weather risk

No need to worry about weather risks, despite how it might rain during graduation day, they can always postpone the graduation day despite having the grass to be all dirty from the rain.

I’d imagine rescheduling to another day would be tough. For one thing, it’s a pain for family members who travel to attend, but I guess that can’t be helped.

But each individual high schools has a day off on their individual graduation day, to allow staff to attend. Could you make kids to go to school the next day if the graduation was postponed the night before? Not sure how much advance notice they’d need to scramble the buses, get staff on site, etc. Likely the 9th-11th grade students would just end up losing two instructional days if graduation was postponed.

I’m curious whether there are recent examples of weather postponements at schools like Blair that graduate at the school’s stadium.

Anonymous wrote:DAR is horrible for parking. MC campus is not a bad idea.

The max you can seat at MC theater is 500.

They do their graduations outside on the athletic field

Anonymous wrote:The issue with home field graduations is the cost to the school. And the weather risk

No need to worry about weather risks, despite how it might rain during graduation day, they can always postpone the graduation day despite having the grass to be all dirty from the rain.

The issue with home field graduations is the cost to the school. And the weather risk

I’d take the school field over DAR or UMBC by any day. - Mother of a Blair student.

Anonymous wrote:UMBC was a great location for my kid’s school!! Beautiful space, enough parking.. I will happily never go to DAR!

+2 UMBC was the best out of the three I've been to, including a field graduation at the school.