The Hammond High School Class of 2020 has much to celebrate! Please be sure to mark these events on your calendar and to congratulate our graduates for their hard work and achievement. For the virtual events, links to virtual awards programs and virtual graduation will be shared on the Hammond High School website, Hammond High School Twitter, Eschool messaging, and through Canvas.
Thursday, May 28, 7:00pm Senior Community and Scholarly Awards
Friday, May 29, 7:00pm Senior School Awards
Monday, June 1, 2:00pm-6:00pm Diploma Distribution
Monday, June 8, 3:00pm Virtual Graduation Ceremony
TBA In-person Celebration
Beginning Thursday, June 4, 2020, every Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) high school and the Cedar Lane School will hold a virtual graduation. Understanding that no celebration can replicate a traditional, in-person celebration, HCPSS and high school principals wanted to find a way to recognize and celebrate each one of our 2020 graduating seniors. In-person celebrations will be planned by schools at a later date.
Virtual graduations will be pre-recorded but closely aligned to the programs that were already planned to include student speeches, student performances, commencement remarks by the county executive, recognition of the graduates by the superintendent, awarding of diplomas by a Board member, and the turning of tassels. Virtual graduations will be pre-recorded due to concerns with online connection stability, to prevent unwelcome interruptions by people looking to digitally interrupt the special celebration, and to eliminate the risk of inappropriate words or actions being broadcast live.
To highlight individual graduates during the awarding of the diplomas segment of the program, each senior is encouraged to create a short video (5-10 seconds) and submit it based on instructions that will be provided by schools. Students should wear their caps and gowns during this recording. If a student does not provide a video, their graduation picture will be shown instead. Each student's video (no audio) or picture will be featured on the screen as their name is announced by a staff member.
Virtual graduations will be streamed on a staggered schedule during the graduation window of June 4-9 so that students, families, and community members can view multiple ceremonies as they are presented if they wish to do so while also taking into consideration that there are families with seniors in more than one school. Additionally, graduations will be able to be viewed on the HCPSS television channels (Verizon 42 & Comcast 95 in Howard County) based on a schedule that will be provided closer to the graduation dates.
Information on virtual graduations can be found online, and is listed below:
June 4
10 am - Mt. Hebron High School
2 pm - River Hill High School
6 pm - Centennial High School
June 5
9 am - Oakland Mills High School
12 pm - Wilde Lake High School
3 pm - Marriotts Ridge High School
June 8
9 am - Cedar Lane School
12 pm - Reservoir High School
3 pm - Hammond High School
6 pm - Atholton High School
June 9
10 am - Glenelg High School
2 pm - Long Reach High School
6 pm - Howard High School
Online at www.hcpss.org, no more than 10 minutes prior to each scheduled date/time
Verizon channel 42
Comcast channel 95
Archived videos will be available soon after each graduation's end online at https://www.hcpss.org/commencements. While DVD services were discontinued last year, all virtual graduations will remain online for the foreseeable future.
For each high school graduation, HCPSS will feature a video stream and a live textual transcript.
In addition, HCPSS will provide real-time virtual interpreting of each pre-recorded graduation during the scheduled time for that school's program. Interpreting will only be available during the scheduled time and will not be recorded for future viewing. Anyone requiring access to a virtual interpreter should email the school principal as soon as possible.