SHIFT: The district’s new schedule clashes with Poly’s long-standing graduation practices.
By Chloe Vega, Staff Editor
Over the past year, Riverside Unified School District (RUSD) and Poly High School implemented many changes to school schedules. Now, students start earlier, take finals earlier, and get out earlier. But, for the senior class of 2019, this poses some possible problems.
Every year, Poly’s senior class spends its last few weeks of school preparing for graduation. Due to Poly’s lack of a complete football stadium, graduation arrangements are made for Ramona High School instead. However, because RUSD’s scheduled school year concludes the week of Memorial Day, and Arlington High School also depends on Ramona’s field, a wrench was thrown into the gears and alternate plans needed to be made.
Associated Student Body (ASB) supervisor Vanessa Douty saw two options: hold graduation on the Friday before Memorial day at Ramona, or on the Thursday after, at King High School instead. For Douty, planning graduation at Ramona would have been preferred. “We have a great deal of experience running graduation at Ramona; logistics of students and guest are all worked out,” Douty said. Unfortunately, the school district felt that holding graduation on the Friday before a three-day weekend would upset parents, thus moving graduation to King instead.
Graduating at King instead of Ramona poses several challenges for Poly students and their families. Although King might be a closer venue for students living in the Woodcrest area, getting there will present challenges. The high school is right off of a busy street, with alternative routes few and far between. “Guests need to also need to plan to arrive early. They will likely be parking in adjacent streets and the trip to the stadium will be a distance,” Douty recommended.
Parking also provides a challenge. King’s parking lot is significantly smaller than Ramona’s, and the nearby residential streets that could provide parking for families are bound to be lined with cars well before 4:30, when the gates are expected to open. Douty recommends that seniors take an Uber or Lyft to the school beforehand, as they need to be at the field by 4:30, or make a plan with their parents to drop them off and then go look for parking.
Fortunately, there are also some upsides to these venue changes. “There is dedicated handicapped seating on the field for needed guest and a companion. There is also a much larger meeting area outside of the stadium for guests to meet up with their graduates after the ceremony,” Douty explained. Though there are several other minor differences that come with the venue change, such as stadium quality and size of the stands, these criteria mainly affect the family and friends of graduates. Regardless of how long it might take to walk to King from wherever they parked, Poly seniors are still eager to graduate and looking forward to spring 2019.