neighboring districts<\/a>, the Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 has changed its commencement plans to meet the needs of the current COVID-19 landscape. This Thursday evening, graduates will take part in a parade on Seventh Street, followed by a drive-thru graduation ceremony at the high school.<\/p>\n\u201cWhile this graduation is not what we originally envisioned, we are so excited to celebrate our seniors in a memorable way through our drive-thru graduation and parade of graduates,\u201d said Re-1 Superintendent Lori Haukeness in a statement May 8. She also said the Montezuma County Public Health Department had approved the district\u2019s plan.<\/p>\n
The festivities will kick off at 5:30 p.m. with a \u201cParade of Graduates\u201d on Seventh Street, heading eastbound beginning at Madison Street and ending at Sligo Street, where the high school is located.<\/p>\n
Once seniors arrive at the high school, they will participate in a drive-thru graduation ceremony. Spectators will not be allowed to attend this part of the event, as it will be limited to seniors and their immediate family members, with two cars permitted per graduate.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeniors will have the opportunity to exit their cars and pick up their diplomas in a socially distanced manner, and parents and family can take pictures from their cars,\u201d the May 8 statement reads. \u201cParents and family members may not leave their vehicles during the ceremony.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event will also be broadcast live on the KRTZ radio station, with seniors\u2019 names and awards announced. It will also be video-taped, with a virtual \u201cwatch party\u201d hosted by M-CHS on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In order to watch the parade, onlookers are asked to remain in their parked vehicles throughout.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order to keep the focus on honoring our seniors and ensure we have a safe and positive celebration, we are asking that everyone respectfully follow the approved plan and remain in your vehicles throughout the event and parade,\u201d Haukeness said in the statement.<\/p>\n
Paradegoers can enter the parade route from Seventh and Madison streets between 4:30 and 5:20 p.m., and will be able to park on the north side of Seventh Street facing west. Law enforcement will be on hand to make sure the proceedings remain safe and orderly.<\/p>\n
In honor of the graduates, banners for each of the seniors have been posted along the fence at Panther Stadium.<\/p>\n
ealvero@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"will feature parade, radio broadcast, drive-thru ceremony<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[155,13,28,36,216,445],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91172"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}