OCPS plans for in-person graduations

In 2020 high school seniors in the Orange County Public Schools system were forced to miss in-person graduation ceremonies due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this year things are looking up for those in the 2021 class.

During OCPS' school board meeting Tuesday, Feb. 23, Superintendent Barbara Jenkins announced that the county plans on holding in-person graduations at the Amway Center this spring.

"I want to stress that all of our plans are tentative, because we continue to consult with FDOH, the state could have some issues in the future or the county could have some issues in the future," Jenkins said. "I've talked with Dr. (Raul) Pino — in fact, recently today — and right now things look fairly positive, so we are quite encouraged that we can have all of our graduations in-person with social distancing and with face masks at Amway."

Originally the plan was to split schools between the Amway and Addition Financial Arena on the campus of the University of Central Florida, before the decision was made to host all of the graduations at the Amyway, as the county has permission to use the facility — which also has the capacity for better holding socially-distanced events such as a graduation.

As of right now no dates — or times — have been announced as to when the graduations will be held.