Dear Palos 118 8th Grade Families,
As we are getting closer to the date of our first ever Graduation Parade, we wanted to send out specific information regarding entrance onto the property in addition to locations of specific events during the parade.
South Street Entrance Attachment: While looking at the attachment titled 'South Street Attachment', you will see the entrance into Palos South for the parade. All traffic heading into the parade must enter from 133rd Street. The path to Palos South would be to head south on Windward Trail from 131st Street. Take a left on 133rd Street, which will lead to the south parking lot of Palos South. Here, there will be two lanes entering into the parade. As these lanes get closer to the school, they will converge into one lane.
Palos South Lot Graduation: While looking at the attachment titled 'Palos South Lot Graduation', you will see the two lanes converge into one lane, followed by a box titled 'Photo 1'. With the direction of staff to assist, a car with a graduate will pull to the first balloon archway. At this point, the car should stop and remain stopped until signaled ahead after the graduate's name has been called. The graduate will get out of the car at this location. There will be tape on the ground that the graduate will follow to the stage set up in the front of the building. The graduate will stand in the marked location on the ground found on the stage and look at the photographer for a picture. The student's name will be announced from building administrators as the picture is taken. At this time, the car of family members is required to stay in the car, but they may roll down the window to take a quick picture of the graduate on stage. As the graduate begins to step down from the stage, the car may pull up to pick up the child at the edge of the sidewalk.
The car will then continue along the parade and come to a stop at the second balloon archway located at 'Photo 2'. Here a second photographer will take a picture of the car decorated with the graduate in the front seat. At this stop, no members of any family are permitted to leave their car for a photograph. After the final picture, at the archway, the family will continue to 131st Street to conclude the parade.
The week following graduation, families of 8th grade students will be returning student devices, chargers, and bags to the school. At this point, families will receive three items from the school. One will be the actual diploma from graduation in an envelope. Each family will also receive one photograph already printed from the graduation parade. This picture will be paid for by the PFA. Additionally, families will receive a link where they can view the pictures taken from the two photographers during the graduation parade to purchase additional pictures if they would like.
Hosting an event like this takes time and careful planning. I want to thank each family for your patience and understanding with the altered celebration. Our hope is to acknowledge the hard work of our graduates, while adhering to social distancing practices. This is only possible with your support during the parade.
Important Information during the event:
- We can run an event like this and allow the graduate out of the car to celebrate their graduation, because we know the community is very respectful and will abide by the requests of the building administrators. Photographers have been directed to not take pictures of any graduate if any additional members of the family leave the car during the Photo areas.
- Only the graduate is allowed out of the car at the Photo 1 area. No one is allowed out of the car at the Photo 2 area.
- The graduate should be in attendance dressed in their cap, gown, graduation medal, tassel, and any cords received. The student should also bring their diploma cover for use in the Photo 1 area. All of these items were distributed during Supply Pick Up.
- For consistency, the cap should have one of the corners pointing away from the nose of the graduate. Additionally, all graduates should have the tassel on the left side of their cap for the picture as their name is called. This is generally done at the conclusion of the ceremony, but as the name being called notes their graduation, it will make for a nice picture.
- Staff members will be in attendance with masks on and practicing social distancing while cheering on the graduates as they proceed through the parade.
Additional reminders:
- The link to the ceremony is www.palos118.org/south/graduation. The ceremony will be live online at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 28th. If you cannot watch the ceremony live, the link will stay active after the live streaming of the ceremony.
- The parade will be streamed live on Facebook on May 28th. If you are not yet following us, please do so at www.facebook.com/Palos118FullPotential so that you or additional family members can view the graduation parade or watch your family friends graduate remotely.
- We ask that each family use the large name tag that was placed in the bag from Supply Pick Up for the day of graduation. This name would be placed in the front windshield of the car during the graduation parade for the announcement of the graduates and to recognize cars during the Photo 2 area. If by chance you did not receive a name tag, we ask that you write in bold letters the first and last name of the graduate and place that in the front windshield during the parade.
The operation of the parade will begin at 3 p.m. and conclude at 6 p.m. To prevent excessively long lines during the parade, we have outlined times divided by last name to help spread out the parade for a steady flow through the lot. We ask that you adhere to the schedule based on your last name.
Families with last name A-C .........3:00 to 3:30 p.m.
Families with last name D-H .........3:30 to 4:00 p.m.
Families with last name J-Maz ......4:00 to 4:30 p.m.
Families with last name McC-R ....4:30 to 5:00 p.m.
Families with last name S-Z .........5:00 to 5:30 p.m.
Families that could not make their arranged time above......5:30 to 6:00 p.m.
Looking forward to a wonderful graduation!
Mr. Wrzesinski & Ms. Doornbos