Seniors,

I met virtually with the Senior Class President and Vice President this week to brainstorm ideas for a senior celebration once we are allowed to host an event. We had a good discussion and I feel confident that we will be able to offer an event that the seniors will enjoy.

We did receive a response from the tour company regarding the letter we sent about GradBash. The company stated they are a non-essential business and are currently closed. They can discuss a refund with us whenever they re-open.

Cap & gowns are supposed to go in the mail on Monday. Please be on the look-out.

Yearbooks
Yearbooks will not be delivered until May. If we have not returned to school when they arrive, we will develop a plan for pick-up.

Textbooks & Honor Cords
We are waiting to hear if we will be returning to school in May or not. If not, we will develop a plan for textbook return and for students to pick-up their honor cords.

*******************Everything below is from last week.************************************************************

Graduation
  • UNF told Mr. Forson we could not hold graduation in May or at a later date in the summer.
  • Not knowing what is happening with COVID-19, Mr. Forson made the announcement that all schools will hold a virtual graduation.
  • The district has signed a contract with a company that creates virtual graduations for universities, so the video will be professionally created.
  • The video still allows us to customize with our own traditions and graduation speeches.
  • Soon (around a week or so) students will receive an email with directions on uploading a picture for the virtual ceremony. I will definitely let you know when to look for the email, because there will be a deadline for submitting your photo.
  • The virtual graduation will be streamed at our scheduled graduation date and time - Friday, May 22nd at 7pm.

Caps & Gowns
  • We use a rental gown for graduation, so Joston's has ordered a keeper gown for every senior who had placed their order for a cap & gown. The keeper gown, cap & tassel will be mailed to your house the week of April 20th. This will allow you to take a picture in your cap & gown to submit for the virtual graduation.
  • The keeper gown will be yours to keep.

GradBash
  • All of the money that we collect for GradBash goes to Universal Studios and charter buses.
  • Universal requires that we go through a tour company for booking dates, tickets and charter buses.
  • Last week we submitted a letter to Universal and the tour company requesting a refund since we had to cancel due to COVID-19. Ms. Hurst followed up today, but we are waiting on a response.
  • Until the tour company receives a refund from Universal and we receive a refund from the tour company, we (Nease) have no money to refund. We will keep you updated on the status of our request.

Senior Dues
  • The $55 standard graduation fee charged to seniors covers rental of UNF, security, programs, diplomas, diploma covers, etc.
  • The upgraded $75 fee (extra $20) included senior t-shirt, assembly & picnic. (We will refund the assembly & picnic portion of this extra $20 at a future date.)
  • We will have the cost of the virtual graduation, diplomas, diploma covers, programs and our senior celebration whenever it is allowed to happen.
  • Until we know all of our costs, we can't determine a dollar amount to refund.
  • We will provide a partial refund at a later date.

Honor Cords
  • Cords for honor societies and career academies will still be ordered.
  • Not sure about distributing these yet - depends upon if/when we return to school.

Miscellaneous
  • We will still print a program for graduation that will list all names.

If you have questions that I have not answered, please email me and I will start a list for next week's Panther Press.

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL FOR SENIORS IS STILL Tuesday, May 12th.

Please join the Remind group if you have not already done so…text @9bdfbf8 to 81010

Seniors, join the Class of 2020 Schoology group for easy access to senior class information. The Schoology access code is: 3X7B-KCXN-32JZZ