Cap and Gown Countdown: Information for the Graduations at FCHS and WHHS

Prepare for a celebration like no other, as wereveal the ins and outs of our upcoming graduation festivities in Franklin County. This Saturday’s ceremonies are not just a rite of passage; they're the culmination of years of dedication from our students. In this special episode of FCS Unscripted, we whisk you behind the scenes to explore the preparations and contingencies in place for our outdoor extravaganzas at Franklin County High School and Western Hills High School. And let's not forget the additional cheers slated for the Academy and William Cofield High School graduates – their achievements deserve just as grand a spotlight.

Grab your ponchos and join us in the excitement, as we share the latest updates and practical tips to make the most of this memorable day. From weather updates via social media to holding areas in case of severe weather, we've got it all covered. Plus, we will guide you on how to stay comfortable and safe while you cheer on our stars of the day. Whether under sunny skies or amidst light showers, we're gearing up to commemorate the hard-earned successes of our graduates. So tune in and get ready for an unforgettable graduation season here in Franklin County.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Welcome to FCS Unscripted, a new podcast for One Team, fcs, where we look at the stories behind every one in Franklin County schools. Hello everyone, this is Superintendent Kopp. I am very excited to bring you this very special episode of FCS Unscripted. It is not so much a normal episode where we interview folks and talk to them about things that are going on in our district. This is more of an information sharing episode. We are just a few days away from graduation and that's obviously the most exciting time of the year for us in education, so I wanted to share with you some information regarding the graduation ceremonies that are going to take place this Saturday, the outdoor ones. Before we mention that, let's also mention on Friday of this week we have graduation at 10 o'clock at Paul Sawyer Library in the River Room for the Academy, so that's our first graduation we will be celebrating. Then, on Friday also again, that's May 24th we have graduation at one o'clock at Bradford Hall at Kentucky State University for our William Cofield High School graduates. So we're very excited about both of those graduations. Both of those are indoors, so we don't really have to talk about weather updates for those, but that's what we need to talk about with our upcoming Saturday outdoor graduations. As you all know, back in 2017, the Civic Center was torn down and that's where we had traditionally had graduation. We don't really have an indoor facility that's large enough to host the number of family members and parents and students that come to graduation, so we've been doing them on the football fields the last few years. They've been wonderful. We've been blessed with great weather knock on wood on each of those last two years, and we're very hopeful for good weather again this year In the event of any particular weather.

Speaker 1: 2:09

I want to talk about some of the things you know, some of the options that we're putting in place, just so everyone understands. So again, on Saturday, may 25th is our graduation date for our two high schools. Franklin County High School will be graduating at 10 am on the football field at Franklin County High School, and Western Hills High School will be graduating at 6 pm on the football field at Western Hills. In the event of light rain, we are proceeding as planned. So, looking at the weather forecast, we do know that we have a rain date for Sunday, may 26th, but, looking at it, sunday actually looks a little worse right now than Saturday does Saturday? There's just a slight chance of some pop-up storms. So we're going to watch very carefully but in the event of if it's just light rain, we're proceeding with graduation as planned at the normal times.

Speaker 1: 3:07

In the event of severe weather, we will look at potentially delaying each of those graduations, depending on if the storm's in the morning or in the afternoon, and we will be communicating that via social media. We'll put out one calls if we need to. As of now, the plan is to move forward, but if a storm looks like it's imminent, we do have two holding areas for each of the locations, one for each of the locations, excuse me, at Franklin County High School, if we have to have temporary shelter, we're going to be using the gym at Franklin County High School as well as the cafeteria. So we would make an announcement that you know we're going to delay until the storm passes and then we're going to proceed. The same thing at Western Hills. Our holding area will be Bondurant Middle School, at the top of the hill above where the football stadium is. Again, we're very hopeful that we won't have to do that, but you know, like I said, we have to be prepared for any potential issues, situation that may occur, what I would encourage you all to do is to bring a poncho, if you can. We would prefer to not have umbrellas just for the simple fact of it's kind of crammed quarters when that many people are trying to put an umbrella up in the stands and it can lead to some unsafe situations. So if you could bring a poncho, just to be on the safe side, we will have bottles of water there for everyone if it's warm.

Speaker 1: 4:40

Right now the forecast looks like it's going to be about 80 degrees and again just a slight chance of rain, of storms potentially, and we're very hopeful that we're going to be smiled upon and we will have good weather that day. But I know there have been some questions. People are asking what are we going to do? The plan is to move forward and have graduation on Saturday. We're going to do everything we can to make sure we get both of those graduations in on Saturday, hopefully on time. We definitely will not be moving either of those up. So, like the 10 am graduation, we will not be starting it earlier than that, because then we run into a situation where you know someone may not get the message. We do not want to leave anyone out. So at Franklin County. It will be 10 o'clock and if anything occurs, we will again communicate with you by every means that we can if we have to delay it for a little bit, and then Western Hills will be at six o'clock. So again, let's hope and pray for good weather and we can't wait to celebrate our students' achievements, to celebrate them graduating from high school and moving on to the next chapter of their lives.

Speaker 1: 5:56

I appreciate everyone's flexibility as we kind of go through this together with the weather, not knowing what it's going to be like, but we have brand new bleachers at both of our high schools. We finally have enough seating for everyone. We couldn't be more excited for the day. Hopefully it's going to be a beautiful day for us while we celebrate our graduates. And with that I want to say thank you for your time and your support in supporting these kids throughout the last 12 years 13 years if you include kindergarten of their educational journey. We appreciate you all so much and we look forward to seeing you on Saturday so much, and we look forward to seeing you on Saturday. Well, that wraps it up for this week's episode of FCS Unscripted. Thank you for listening in and I encourage you to subscribe and follow this weekly podcast where we will share updates, information and interviews with hashtag everyone the wonderful students and staff who make up One Team, fcs. Have a great week everybody.