LPS High Schools Hold Drive-Thru & Virtual Graduations

(KFOR NEWS June 16, 2020) Lincoln Public Schools plans to hold a special drive-thru graduation ceremony at all six of the high schools on Saturday, July 25. In addition, LPS and local TV station 10/11 are working together to air six virtual graduation ceremonies for each high school on Sunday, July 26 on 10/11’s MeTV Nebraska channel.

LPS Superintendent Steve Joel said, “We were hoping, as I know a lot of families were, that it would be possible to hold the traditional ceremonies in July. After looking at the limited options, not the least of which are the numerous restrictions put into place to help keep everyone safe, it was becoming evident that any in-person graduation ceremony would increase costs, require an entire weekend to execute and not be able to feature the segments that make a graduation special. We feel that this partnership with 10/11 and the drive-thru graduations our staff are planning will be more grand and memorable than any in-person ceremony we could ever plan.”

High schools will announce specific schedules and the traffic patterns in July for the drive-thru ceremonies that will occur between 9 a.m. and noon on Saturday, July 25. Much like a movie premier, students will be able to drive into a designated area with their families wearing their cap and gown, receive their memory box with diploma and DVD copy of the virtual ceremony, and have their picture taken in a designated area. School staff will be on hand to cheer the Class of 2020.

On Sunday, July 26, the community will have an opportunity to watch each school’s virtual ceremony one of the following ways:

Online at LPS.org
Cable LNKTV Education Channel
- ALLO – channel 23
- Spectrum – channel 1303
- Windstream Kinetic Streaming TV channel 31
- Windstream Kinetic IPTV channel 1080
- LPS Facebook page
- LPS YouTube Channel
- High schools’ Facebook pages
10/11’s MeTV Nebraska channel
- Lincoln Spectrum channel 4
- DISH/DIRECTV channel 5
- Over-the-Air channel 10.3/11.3
- Or check your local cable provider
- 10/11’s website: 1011now.com
- 10/11’s phone app

“10/11 is thrilled to be partnering with Lincoln Public Schools to provide this important community programming,” said Shannon Booth, 10/11’s vice president and general manager. “We’re hoping to help shine a bigger spotlight on these graduates who are rising up during these most unusual times.”

The virtual graduations will follow the original graduation schedule:

Northeast High School at 12:00 p.m. (noon)
Southwest High School at 1:30 p.m.
East High School at 3:00 p.m.
North Star High School at 4:30 p.m.
Southeast High School at 6:00 p.m.
Lincoln High School at 7:30 p.m.

In addition, the Lincoln Journal Star has developed special graduation webpages for each high school. LPS graduating seniors and families can submit information to the Lincoln Journal Star’s website: https://journalstar.com/virtual_graduations/submit_profile/. The community can view the graduation pages by going to: https://journalstar.com/virtual_graduations/.

“We appreciate our community media partners stepping up to help us honor our graduating seniors in this big and unique way,” Joel added. “While our seniors missed one of life’s greatest celebration milestones, we hope they feel the community coming together to embrace them and honor their accomplishments.”