Reader starts petition regarding DHS 2016 Commencement date

decorahnews.com reader Jackie Wilkie has created a petition asking the local school board to reconsider having the 2016 Commencement on the same day as the one at Luther.

Request to the Decorah School Board to Reconsider Holding the 2016 High School Commencement on the same day as the Luther College Commencement

We the undersigned request that the Decorah Board of Education reconsider its decision to hold the 2016 Decorah High School Commencement on the same day as the Luther College Commencement. We believe that this decision is ill-advised for the following reasons:

1. Two separate commencement dates will maximize the economic benefit for local business of large numbers of visitors.
Given the limitation of space in town it is likely that visitors who might have stayed overnight will as space becomes full choose to spend their money in a surrounding city. Local shops, restaurants, and public venues that might have enjoyed two days of high volume custom will have only one.
 
2. Two separate commencement dates will allow families with members who work at Luther or who have both a Luther and a Decorah High School graduate to give their full attention to both events. Having the High School commencement on the same day as the Luther Commencement will mean that essential personnel at Luther will be unable to attend a child or grandchild's high school graduation and they will be unable to host family celebrations on the weekend of the event.
 
3. Two separate commencement dates will make commencement logistics easier for both the local community and parents of graduates. Separating the ceremonies will cut down on the number of visitors to town on the occasion and will make the presence of visitors more manageable for city workers, the police, the city park system where a significant number of celebrations are held, local business venues where celebrations are held. It will also make it easier for people looking for venues to hold commencement parties to find appropriate locations. If the events are held on the same day, there will be no available venues at Luther for high schools celebrations as there have been in past years.

4. Holding the high school commencement on the Memorial Day weekend as it has been in recent years will give family members who must come from a distance more time to travel. This would allow our graduating seniors to enjoy their accomplishments within a much broader family circle.

The electronic petition is available at http://goo.gl/forms/bIRFe39xKm
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(decorahnews.com covered the recent Decorah Community School Board meeting when the commencement date decision was made.    decorahnews.com notes that the Board was sensitive to most of the points noted in the above petition. However, one not so obvious issue that significantly influenced the Board was that of the well-being and a safety issues for high school seniors when there is a significant gap between their last day of classes and commencement exercises.)