This school year is almost over, and the class of 2024 is graduating this week. After a long journey, Park seniors are spreading their wings and flying off to their adult lives. One of the things important to graduation is the cap and gown, which show the graduates’ accomplishments. Both the school and students have been involved in the distribution.
According to assistant principal Alyssa Gardner, the process for getting the caps and gowns has been a long and involved one, starting with the process of getting them.
“The caps and gowns are sourced from Jostin’s. Earlier in the year we pushed out all of the order information to families and we opened the ordering. There was about a two month window where they could order, and the cap and gown itself with the tassel is all a free package through Jostin’s. The school covered the costs of the cap and gown and tassel,” Gardner said.
As one might expect, the cap and gown isn’t just given to everyone — there are expectations you must meet to be eligible. According to senior Ellie Sharon, there are requirements to be met for the cap and gown.
“For the cap and gown, you had to have a 2.0 or above. If you had a D plus or below as one of your current grades you need a teacher to sign,” Sharon said.
The process of distribution was long and involved, and the seniors needed to learn what their part in it was. According to Gardner, the seniors learned what to do in Park Connections.
“A week ago we held our final senior meeting of the year in Park Connections and all seniors got what’s called the graduation permit at that time,” Gardner said. “On the permit are any kinds of things they need to take care of like final grades, credit recovery, fines and fees and then once all of that is checked off and signed off, they could go today, submit their permit and get signed off on by the counselor.”
There was a specific procedure in order to get a cap and gown once the permit was signed. According to Sharon, once a senior got their permit signed, they’d go to the pick up spot and trade it in for the cap and gown.
“You would show the permit to a desk that you walked up to at the school. It’s right outside connected to one of the doors and they would give you the cap and gown,” Sharon said.
According to senior Erik Lindell, some students were not available the day grad permits were being distributed or still needed to return something to the school. However seniors still had the opportunity to get their permit, have it signed and get their cap and gown.
“I had to turn a calculator in and get a sheet of paper signed by the librarian or the library staff. Once I got that signed, I brought the sheet of paper to the Student Services office to get it signed by one of the administrators,” Lindell said. “The next day I got an email that said that the permit was ready to get picked up, so I went back down to Student Services, picked it up, took it to the front office, and then they gave me the cap and gown.”
According to Sharon, the school had difficulties communicating with PSEO students and it caused problems with coordination.
“I’m a PSEO student, so I got the email the morning that I had to go into school to get the permit. Other than that, there were no complications with the process, and I think it went well,” Sharon said.
