Ending high school at Baxter Arena

As the weather warms up and it becomes grad party season, students and staff alike begin to realize that summer is quickly approaching. However, for the seniors, this time of year also marks the end of their four years at MN. While graduation is an annual event that isn’t a new concept, commencement will a bit different this year due to the change in location.

In the past, commencement has always been at the Civic Auditorium. However, because the auditorium closed two years ago, the location had to be moved last year. Commencement was held at the CenturyLink Center for the spring of 2015, and will be held on May 28th at Baxter Arena for the celebration this year.

“I don’t think it will be too different. While parking will be a little bit of an issue, as far as the actual ceremony, it won’t be too different,” Assistant Principal Casey Lundgren said.

This year, commencement for the three Millard high schools will be one after another. The order for the ceremony will be South, West, and finally, North. In order to combat the issue of parking, West will be required to park a street over while South and North will be allowed to park in the Baxter Arena parking lot.

However, the location change isn’t the only difference for the graduation ceremony this year. The date for commencement has been pushed further back as well.

“Typically, seniors go to school right up until rehearsal and graduation, but this year, they will have been off for about a week after their last day of school,” Lundgren said.

Although the senior’s last day is May 19th, rehearsal will be held on the 27th while the actual ceremony will be on the 28th.

Despite the changes, commencement will surely be a celebration to remember. As the seniors walk across the stage and officially close their high school years, graduation will mark an ending as well as a beginning.

“Graduation is a lot of fun. It’s a celebration of four years of hard work from the seniors,” Lundgren said.