Exclusive: Prince William schools to allow in-person graduation ceremonies

Seniors at Prince William County high schools that were supposed to walk across the graduation stage this spring will have their chance after all.

The county School Board will announce during an emergency evening meeting on Wednesday, May 6, 2020, that all 12 high schools will hold an in-person graduation ceremony during the first full week of August. The division plans to allow each school to hold a graduation ceremony inside its football stadium.

The county is taking its cues from the Air Force Academy which, on April 18, graduated 1,000 classmates during a scaled-down graduation ceremony that excluded audience members, and required graduates to remain at last six-feet apart from each other during and after the ceremony.

Public schools across Virginia have been closed for the remainder of the academic year since March 13 due to the coronavirus outbreak, leaving many students in the Class of 2020 wondering if they would ever get a graduation ceremony.

Locally, Potomac Local News was first to report that Manassas City Public Schools would hold a graduation ceremony on July 18 for students of Osbourn High School, at the school’s football stadium.

Stafford County Public Schools followed suit, noting it would hold a graduation ceremony for seniors at the county’s five high schools on August 1.

Prince William County Public Schools is the second-largest school division in Virginia, boasting 92,000 students.

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the school division authorized to spend $6.4 million on 15,500 new laptops that will be distributed to 27,000 high school students for the purpose of remote learning. The coronavirus led to the school division speeding up a $10 million plan to place computers in the hands of all students over the next four years.