Student survey leads Brentwood board to opt for single unified graduation ceremony
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Summary
A student liaison reported that roughly 71% of student respondents favor a single graduation ceremony; the board cited venue constraints and approved holding one ceremony with two tickets per student and livestreaming options, following an expanded survey of roughly 570 students.
Student voice shaped the Brentwood Union Free School District's decision about graduation format on March 5. Student liaison Jaylene Guevara told the Board of Education that an in-district survey of students showed ‘‘approximately 71%’’ of respondents favored a single, unified graduation ceremony.
Guevara described attending the Long Island Regional Student Forum and said students and parents were surveyed about whether to hold one ceremony or two. She said the first round of the district survey produced fewer than 120 responses out of roughly 1,200 graduates, so the district extended the survey and completed a second push in homeroom that produced about 570 student responses.
Board leaders explained the district faces venue constraints: the football field will be unavailable because of construction and outside venues reviewed did not have sufficient capacity to seat the graduating class and families as the field would. The presiding speaker said the board would ‘‘go with the will of our students’’ and indicated that a single ceremony would likely come with a limit of two tickets per student; the board also said the event would be livestreamed and the district would provide indoor viewing options for those who need them.
The board did not provide a formal recorded roll-call vote on this operational decision in the meeting transcript, but the presiding officer stated that the students’ expressed preference will guide the plan and urged the community to continue providing input via the extended survey.
What happens next: the survey period has been extended to gather additional input; the district will finalize logistics and ticketing in the weeks leading up to graduation.
