Rogers said the school tries to hold the ceremony on the field as much as they can, as long as the weather allows.

“We’ve had weather concerns almost every year we’ve had it outside,” Rogers said. “We were forced inside last year, two of the last three years it’s been inside.”
Rogers said the school did not make the decision to change the date and location lightly and took into account the increased number of graduating students.

“The numbers of graduates are up an additional 40 from where it was last year and now it’s becoming problematic,” Rogers said. “If we had to put it in our facility then we would have families having to make difficult decisions about who could come for graduation.”

While some seniors are making the decision to attend their high-school graduation or attend Wednesday-evening church, SCHS senior Brittani Morris is not.

“I see how some people are mad because they will be missing church,” Morris said. “But in my opinion, everyone has missed church at least once in their life, so I think that it should be understandable for some students to miss one church night for their graduation.”

Rogers said the decisions made by the school are about what’s best for the student body.

“We value tradition, but there’s a time when you can’t continue some things without factoring in the number of growth in students we’ve had,” Rogers said. “We’re figuring out a way to make it work.”