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Graduation at high school returns to East, Chaney
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
For the first time in many years, city high school commencements will take place at the schools.
While many suburban Mahoning County high schools routinely stage their graduation ceremonies in their stadiums, gymnasiums or auditoriums, the city school commencements have been at Stambaugh Auditorium.
This year, the respective school principals selected the venue, day and time.
Chaney High School’s will be at 10 a.m. June 1 and East High’s will be at 3 p.m. June 3, each at the school.
“I think the last school to have commencement at the school was North High School,” said Lock P. Beachum Sr., school board president. That was in 1980.
Holly Seimetz, principal at East High School, told school board members this week that students approached her, wanting commencement at the school.
Kerrisha Liebert, East’s senior class president, said having the ceremony at the school is more convenient with more time to see friends and family.
“At Stambaugh there’s a rush to get us out after,” she said.
The rush is because of the need to prepare for the next commencement.
Justice Robinson, vice president of EHS seniors, said she proposed the idea for graduation at the school.
Her sister graduated from Boardman High School, and she attended commencement at that school. It was nice, she said.
There was time to see family and friends and no one was rushed out, Justice said.
Other students said they wanted to start a new tradition of having graduation at school.
Janae Ward, Chaney’s student representative on the school board, said students at her school see it differently: They wanted to have commencement at Stambaugh.
“With all of the changes at Chaney, we wanted to have that last bit of tradition,” Janae said.
Beachum believes that commencements have been at Stambaugh because class sizes were too large to be accommodated at school buildings. The 1980 graduating class from North was a small class, said Beachum, who was that school’s principal at the time. Classes graduating from the other city high schools were much larger, he said.