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The Jessamine County Board of Education voted 3-2 Monday night to leave this spring’s graduations at their scheduled times instead of changing them to accommodate student-athletes who might compete in a state meet.

Both county high schools have graduations scheduled at Southland Christian Church on Friday, June 4 — the same day as the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s state track-and-field meet. Some concerned parents contacted officials recently and suggested that the graduation ceremonies be moved from the afternoon and evening to the morning to allow senior student-athletes who qualify for the meet to make it to Louisville in time to compete.

After the administration confirmed with Southland that it could accommodate morning graduations, Superintendent Lu Young brought the board a recommendation Monday that the graduations be moved from 4 p.m. (West High) and 7:30 p.m. (East High) to 9 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. The board debated the matter for nearly all of its hour-long work session and then voted down the measure in its meeting. Board Chairman Karl Smith and Vice Chairperson Pamela Seales voted for the change; board members Amy Day, Eugene Peel and JoAnn Rohrback voted against it.

Jessamine County has held its high school graduations on the first Friday in June for the past five years. Young and Deputy Superintendent Owens Saylor said the ceremonies have coincided with state track meets before but it has never been brought to the board’s attention.

Parents who were opposed to moving the graduation date contacted board members and administrators prior to the meeting and had two main objections: that they would have to take time off work and that family members who traveled long distances would have to stay overnight Thursday. Young told the board she thought 15 weeks was ample time to make work arrangements and that family members who had to travel would probably have to stay overnight either way.

“I wouldn’t be making the recommendation of the change in time except for two reasons,” she said. “Number one is, it seems to me that our focus should be on making sure that every student in the graduating classes of 2010 of East Jessamine and West Jessamine High ought to have a chance to participate in their graduations if we can make that happen, and secondly, because we’re making this so far in advance and can notify folks of the change.”

Each board member voiced his or her opinions on the matter during the work session. Day said a time change would create financial difficulties for family members who had to take time off work; Seales said not making the change would contradict previous decisions between school and athletics, citing last March, when the whole district was dismissed so students and staff could attend West Jessamine’s daytime basketball game in the Sweet Sixteen.

Rohrback said she wouldn’t change graduation for any sporting event.

“I’m always for graduation,” she said. “If it’s been set and that’s when it needs to be, I wouldn’t change it for any — any — athletic event. I just wouldn’t. I love athletics; I just wouldn’t change graduation for it. To me, that’s the most important thing.”

Two members of the public in attendance spoke to the board about the subject at the beginning of the meeting.

Steve Sholar, whose daughter attends West High, urged the board not to change the graduation time, citing many of the same reasons other parents gave Young. Gary Overstreet, East High’s track coach, asked the board to do all it could to prevent such a decision from having to be made in the future. Smith asked the rest of the 15-member crowd if they generally agreed with the statements made by Sholar and Overstreet; they did.

When the voting item came up on the agenda, Seales spoke to those in attendance before making her motion to change the date.

“I really appreciate all of you coming tonight, but I’ve had a lot of phone calls in my house, as well, and actually, a lot have been for changing the date, and one thing was that we wanted both schools to participate in both things, and I wouldn’t want kids to have to choose, because I want to promote education and all that they’ve accomplished in school but also celebrate their state accomplishments, as well,” she said.

Smith seconded the motion and offered his reasoning, saying the importance of students attending graduation outweighed inconveniences in arrangements.

“What I try to do in these situations is try to weigh what the taxpayers and the people in my district feel,” he said, “and if I don’t get a clear indication, which I have not in this case, then I’m always going to try to err on the side of the children.”

Peel, who has sat on the board for 26 years, offered his point of view before the vote, highlighting the novelty of the decision.

“We have never gone as far as to change a graduation (for athletics),” he said. “It’s always went as planned; we’ve had kids go across in track uniforms and baseball uniforms. I see just such a hardship on the rest (of the students).”

The crowd applauded after the 3-2 vote that left graduations at the scheduled afternoon and evening times on June 4.

Although the board was divided about the decision to move the graduations, the members were united in disapproval of KHSAA’s calendar.

Peel said the board was taking the blame for an issue caused by the athletic association scheduling events too late in the school year.

“To force them to be put in that situation — that goes against everything that we stand for and what an education stands for,” he said.

Rohrback suggested the administration lobby KHSAA to change its calendar in the future so similar conflicts don’t occur.

“We just can’t keep trying to work around it,” she said. “It just angers too many people.”

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