High School Announces Graduation Plans

This letter was emailed on May 1, 2020, to Southeast Polk Seniors and Families from Steve Pettit, Principal, Southeast Polk High School. 

Due to the pandemic, Southeast Polk High School will not be having our traditional graduation ceremony at Drake University on Sunday, May 24.  We are committed to conducting a ceremony which most resembles our traditional in-person event, but we have continued to develop contingency plans reflective of the social distancing restrictions which may be in place. While this is surely disappointing and not what any of us could have predicted, the Southeast Polk administration has worked to reconfigure some of our annual events to honor our graduating seniors.

Southeast Polk Scholarship Night

• Date: Wednesday, May 13 – announce scholarship recipients via email and on Facebook.  All recipients will receive their scholarship certificates in the mail as well.  Information will also be posted on the SEP district website.
• Location: Virtual

Southeast Polk Senior Honors Assembly 

• Date: Thursday, May 21 – electronic notification followed by a posting on the SEP district website.
• Location: Virtual

Graduation Announcement 

• Date: Sunday, May 24 – At 4:30pm, Southeast Polk High School will share a celebratory announcement to confirm the graduation of students in the class of 2020.  The students in the class of 2020 will be considered graduates of Southeast Polk High School at the conclusion of this announcement. 
• Location: Virtual

Graduation Practice (Required) – cap/gowns/senior awards will be distributed 

• Date: Thursday, July 16
• Location: TBD Southeast Polk facility
• Time: 9:00am

Southeast Polk High School Commencement 

• Date: Saturday, July 18 (Rain Date – Sunday, July 19)
• Location: TBD according to social distancing (Drake University, SEP Stadium/Gymnasium/Auditorium)
• Time: TBD according to location
• Details regarding the location/time of our commencement ceremony will be finalized by Monday, July 13.

If social distancing regulations do not allow an in-person ceremony on July 18, then Southeast Polk High School will have a virtual commencement ceremony.  We would encourage all seniors to continue to submit their senior pictures and post-graduation information to the Southeast Polk High School Student Council. Currently, our student council is creating senior spotlight images and sharing these on both Facebook and Instagram.  We will utilize these senior spotlight images for our virtual graduation ceremony if social distancing does not allow an in-person ceremony.

We are all extremely proud of the class of 2020.  While nothing we can do will be as good as our traditional graduation events, we are striving to celebrate our seniors as they transition into the next phases of their lives.  We will continue to provide updates to our students and families as new or additional information becomes available.