The Alberni District Secondary School grad parade and ceremony will not be held on the same night this year.
Instead, the car parade and prom will be held Saturday, June 8 and a cap-and-gown graduation ceremony will be held Friday, June 28.
The former Dry Grad is now known as the prom, ADSS vice principal Ron Behnke said.
The grad committee made the decision to split the event, he added.
Port Alberni city council approved a grad parade committee’s request to close the streets along the parade route on Saturday, June 8, from 5:45–7 p.m.
In previous years the grad parade used to start from the old high school and weave its way to the AV Multiplex, where students disembarked from their vehicles—everything from classic cruisers to sports cars, tractors and horses and buggies—and strolled into the building for the grad ceremony.
This year however, the parade is being held on June 8.
The route will be along Anderson Avenue, West on Burde Street, North on 10th Avenue and east along Roger Street to the multiplex, councillors were told.
The parade is subject to the provision of $2 million in liability insurance in the city’s name, correspondence noted.
Grad committee spokesperson Anita Wilson wasn’t available for comment.
The actual grad ceremony is being held on Friday, June. 28, again at the AV Multiplex.
Students will gather at the high school where they will don their caps and gowns then parade to the multiplex, Behnke said.
The move to split the events has to do with a change in the logistics of the ceremony.
This will be the first year that ADSS grads will be donning a cap and gown, Hartwell said.
In a previous interview with the News, ADSS principal Mike Ruttan said the move to a cap and gown was being done for a few reasons.
“We wanted to do something to set the new high school apart from the old one on Burde Street,” Ruttan said.
And two, ADSS is one of the last schools on the Island not to use a cap and gown.