Amarillo ISD will continue hosting graduations at Dick Bivins, per community response
At its Monday meeting, the Amarillo Independent School District (AISD) Board of Trustees approved an outdoor graduation for the upcoming 2024 commencement to be held in May.
As stated by the district, for the last four years, AISD has held its graduation ceremonies outdoors at the Dick Bivins Stadium. Previous to the relocation, the school district held the ceremonies at the Amarillo Civic Center.
"The last time we graduated at the Civic Center was pre-COVID in 2019. After that, we really improvised trying to get that group of students in 2020 a 'normal' graduation, which we finally did in the summer at Dick Bivins, which then has morphed into, because of increased attendance, continuing hosting the ceremony there," David Bishop, Assistant Superintendent of High Schools at AISD, said in the meeting.
Prior to the meeting, the board conducted a district survey, collecting responses from both parents and students. The survey revealed that out of a total of 1,322 parents and of the 1,764 seniors for the upcoming graduating class that participated in the survey from all AISD high schools including North Heights Alternative School, 65.5% preferred the outdoor graduation. Of the 633 students who participated in the survey from each of the graduating schools, 80.7 percent preferred the outdoor location.
The district stated that they understood that inclement weather played a factor over the last few years, and they are working to make adjustments in response to the possibility of rain such as hosting the ceremonies at 7 p.m. rather than 8 p.m. and implementing a "cut off" time where graduations would no longer be delayed in the event that inclement weather occurs. The "cut off" time would announce the graduation be postponed to another day and allow families to continue their planned celebrations.
As stated in the meeting, the hosting of the ceremonies at the outdoor location allows for more seating accommodations, allowing approximately twice as much seating as the coliseum. In the past and should the event be held indoors at the Amarillo Civic Center, seating would be limited to eight tickets per student.
According to the district, at Dick Bivins, students are given a 20-ticket limit, but they can also accommodate for added admission.
"At the Civic Center, seating is about 4,500. ... We are able to seat 2.5 times the Civic Center (at Dick Bivins Stadium). Our smallest graduation last year was Amarillo High with approximately 7,000 in attendance, and our largest was Caprock with approximately 11,000 in attendance," Bishop said.
The district also addressed the rumor circulating on social media that they are "hosting the graduations outside to save money." The district stated that is not the case, and hosting the event outdoors actually costs more than their previously quoted price for the coliseum. Annually, the outdoor commencement ceremonies cost a total of more than $97,000 for the district, whereas the total cost when held at the coliseum was a little over $71,000. AISD said they chose to host the ceremonies at Dick Bivins for added seating and to allow as many attendees to witness the accomplishing day for the students.
"We may risk the weather, but the reward is great because the atmosphere is usually amazing. And being outdoors usually lends itself to a celebratory type of atmosphere, and the response just confirms what we thought," AISD Trustee Jon Mark Beilue said during the meeting.
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo ISD votes for outdoor graduations after survey response
