Geneseo High School gives Graduation Processional details

Geneseo High School students and staff were hoping for a “real” graduation ceremony, but that is not allowed to happen as a result of mandates in place as a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The school administration has taken numerous steps to make the GHS Class of 2020 feel special, including planning a Graduation Processional on Sunday, May 24, which is the date the commencement exercises would have been held in the school gym.

The students are invited to take part in a graduation processional and should begin arriving at the Geneseo Fareway Grocery parking lot at 12:30 p.m. on May 24. From 12:30 to 1 p.m., the students will receive their awards, diplomas and a graduation program from staff members. Students are to remain in their vehicles and staff members will present the items through a window. The graduates will then be directed as to where to line up for the processional.

The processional will begin at 1 p.m. and the route will take the students by each of the district’s three elementary school buildings, and by St. Malachy’s School and the Geneseo Middle School before ending at the high school.

GHS Principal Travis Mackey said, “The route to include driving by the other schools was planned as a symbolic representation of their educational career. We ask that each graduate have only one vehicle in the processional and parents or family members can travel in the same car with the graduate. They can drive the graduate if they wish.”

Students may decorate their vehicles.

Mackey added that residents who want to watch the processional remain along the route, but that no one other than the graduates and their family members enter the parking lot at Fareway. He also expressed appreciation to Fareway grocery manager Bill Lanphere for allowing the students and staff to begin the processional in the store parking lot.

“We also ask for social distancing and that everyone wears a mask that is watching the processional,” he said