According to Kiki Christensen, assistant principal Kari Schwietering’s secretary, graduation will be held 7:30 p.m. May 25 and seating outdoors is open to anyone.

“(Graduation is) at the football field here at 7:30 and if it rains, it will be held indoors,” Christensen said.

Christensen said if weather is bad, the ceremony will be held in the old gym with overflow seating in the auditorium.

“(Seniors) will get ten tickets all together,”Christensen said. “Six for the gym and four for the auditorium.” 

Senior Anna Zirkes said meetings held as a senior class this year helped prepare for graduation.

“We had a few (meetings). From what we had, it was a lot of information that was helpful,” Zirkes said.

According to Christensen, seniors Jayne Stevenson, Aaron Councilman, Sam Orloff, Jesse Schwartz and Matthew Meyer are the five valedictorians and they will speak at the ceremony.

Principal Scott Meyers said each valedictorian will give a short speech relating to a central theme.

“Sometimes there’s been a similar theme, each student gets to say something,” Meyers said. “Overall, I think it’s under ten minutes. Some people say a lot, some people say something very distinct that’s powerful to them. It’s a collective speech.” 

According to senior counselor Kelsey Milne, Patricia Gordon will be the distinguished alumni speaker.

“She is the distinguished alumni. I believe there is a board that decides that,” Milne said.

Nancy Lapakko, the chair of the committee tasked with selecting a distinguished alumni speaker, said Gordon was recently nominated and will accept the distinguished alumni award at graduation.

According to Milne, there are currently 330 students in the senior class, but the exact number of those graduating is not yet known.

“The exact number that graduate sometimes we don’t know that up until kind of the couple days before,”Milne said. “Some people are making up credits, so it will be around 330. That’s how many seniors we have, but I don’t know the exact number.”

Senior Carter Schmelzle said he is excited to graduate, but will miss the routines of being a student at the high school.

“I’m happy to leave this school,” Schmelzle said. “I’m going to miss the patterns.”

Schmelzle said he has been to a graduation ceremony at Park in the past.

“(The ceremony) is pretty exciting. It takes a fairly long amount of time from what I remember,” Schmelzle said.

Graduation will be held at 7:30 p.m. May 25 on the football field. If weather does not permit, the ceremony will be held indoors with limited seating in the old gym and overflow seating in the auditorium.