Board Gives East Windsor High School Administration OK To Change Graduation Site

The East Windsor Board of Education Thursday gave permission for high school administrators to change the venue of graduation if the seniors want to do it.

Principal Liam O’Reilly proposed that the graduation be held at in East Windsor. O’Reilly said although this is his second year at , he understands the tradition of the graduation being on school grounds.

The graduation has always been held either outside on the soccer field behind the school or indoors if there is rain. O’Reilly said school officials have to play a weather game and be prepared to move everything indoors and set up video feeds in different parts of the school because not everyone can fit in the auditorium.

O’Reilly,  Assistant Principal Helen Thomas, Acting Superintendent Carol A. Fox and the graduation coordinator discussed whether changing the venue could be an option. He said he then did a site visit of  La Renaissance, which is north of the school on Route 5.

The main hall of the banquet facility can seat about 1,000 people. The staff of La Renaissance can assist the school in putting on the graduation and formalize the event, he said.

“This is a significant departure,” O’Reilly said. “I understand the tradition.”

The facility provides terraced seating, a place for the students to get ready, aisles for the students to march down, an area for a stage where the students can sit and better accommodations for people with special needs, O’Reilly said.

“It is really more suited to a graduation than a field,” O’Reilly said.

Using the facility would raise the cost about $700 to $4,400, but school staff will not have to rent and set up chairs, or clean up after the ceremony and La Renaissance staff handles parking and traffic control, officials said.

Board members said the decision of where this year’s graduation, which is June  24, is held should be the students.

“I’d really want the class to want this before we do it,” Board Member Catherine Simonelli said.

O’Reilly said he will speak to the class leadership about the proposal and let them ask or survey their classmates. Whatever the class prefers, administrators will do.
 
“The wishes of the class will be heard,” O’Reilly said. “This is their graduation.”

If the students choose not to have the graduation at La Renaissance he will let the board know, he added.

The idea of relocating the graduation had been considered in the past, he said. In this instance, the school would be using a local business that it would love to have a symbiotic relationship with, he added.