STERLING – Sterling High School is trying something new when it comes to deciding the date for students’ graduation next spring – asking students what they want.

A long-standing problem

According to Sterling Public Schools Superintendent Tad Everett, SHS and other schools in the area have held graduation on the Sunday afternoon of the Memorial Day weekend for decades. However, over the last several years, he has received complaints and concerns from parents and other family members regarding the graduation date.

“What transpired out of that was local school districts, including our neighbor, Rock Falls, held their graduations on that same day,” Everett said. “Families with say nieces or grandchildren in different schools were forced to choose which one they would see.”

Rock Falls High School Principal Mike Berentes said his school moved their graduation day to May 18 after receiving similar complaints.

“We were getting feedback that it was interrupting the Memorial Day weekend and limiting travel,” Berentes said. “It became more of an inconvenience than a convenience for people because it took away a three-day weekend.”

Everett said graduation day is the largest attended event for SHS, requiring weeks of advanced planning and work from school staff, most times right up until and through graduation day.

“The staff typically works all day Saturday and Sunday for the event and it got to a point where we were hearing from them about having to give up their entire plans for the holiday weekend,” Everett said. “It started to get difficult to staff the event and so we started talking to people in the community about moving the date.”

The first move

Everett said SHS first tried moving their graduation date the year following the COVID-19 pandemic. The school also decided to kill two birds with one stone by addressing another issue – the weather.

“Weather has always been a hit-and-miss,” Everett said. “Some years we have really hot days in late May and other years it’s rather cold. So, we sought to address all those issues by moving it to Friday night.”

The new graduation date fixed the conflicting scheduling issue with other schools in the district, ensured cooler evening temperatures for the event and gave school staff their holiday weekend back. Everett said this also allowed SHS to keep its graduation outside should the event get rained out on Friday night, allowing them to reserve the following morning as a back-up date.

“We simply don’t have enough seating inside for everyone who wants to attend the event and therefore, we try to keep it outside whenever possible,” Everett said. “Although this solved one problem, it created another by negatively impacting our spring sports athletes.”

The spring sports snag

Spring athletic teams, such as tennis, track, baseball, softball and others who play well enough during their regular season, advance to compete in state finals. The Illinois High School Association’s spring sports schedule for these competitions is typically held during the final weeks of May through the first few weeks of June – the same timeframe most high schools have their graduations.

“If we have student-athletes that advance far enough in those events, and this last year we did, we have a scenario where a significant number of student-athletes have to make a choice,” Everett said.

That choice: Compete for their part of the day, then drive several hours back to Sterling for graduation, and then immediately drive back to continue their competition, and that is only if the IHSA’s schedule for that year provided the window of opportunity.

“We ended up with several of our track students choosing not to participate in graduation,” Everett said. “That was their choice, but still a really tough choice for them and their families, and I completely sympathize with those families.”

Last year, SHS faced poor weather conditions on the Friday evening of graduation, and the girl’s softball team had a game the following morning. Everett said, according to IHSA rules, the hosting school has the authority to choose the dates and times of the games.

“The sectional host said, “We’re not moving the time so that you can hold graduation on Saturday morning,” Everett said. “So, we had bad weather Friday night, and if we had held graduation on Saturday, it would have eliminated our athletes from having any chance to go.”

Everett said that this year, the IHSA decided to move its entire schedule back one week – a move Everett said will negatively impact even more student-athletes.

“Now, it’s not just state meets, it’ll be regional and sectional meets that fall into this conflict, which means we’ll have more students impacted,” Everett said. “It almost forces us to move graduation off the Memorial Day weekend.”

A new approach

Everett said the Sterling Public Schools board began exploring alternative dates for the high school’s 2025 graduation at their last board meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 7. It was at that meeting that Everett proposed a new idea.

“The one thing that we have not done in the last two changes is ask students what they want to do,” Everett said. “Everything we do, the decisions we make, should be for the betterment of our students. What better way to make a decision that is best for our students than by talking with our seniors?”

SHS is doing just that. Once senior class officers have been chosen, Everett and SHS Principal Jason Austin will speak with them about how best to gather student feedback.

The board is considering two to three dates they can present as options. Everett said he hopes to have feedback from senior students and a final decision to present to the public at the school’s next board meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

“No matter what we decide to do, at the end of the day, there is no perfect scenario,” Everett said. “There will always be someone who can’t make that date and time. Thankfully, whatever we decide will be the voice and choice of our senior class. Ultimately, isn’t this supposed to be for them?”