Senior SPREE and graduation planned with new guidelines

Principal clears the air on the updated agendas for the two events

Xander Kim, Staff Reporter
Originally published June 11, 2021

The finale of this exhausting past year is culminating in senior SPREE and graduation for 12th graders, who are lucky to get either of these events when last year’s seniors got neither. Principal Keven Wynkoop clarified the details about the events. 

Senior SPREE is “an all-night party after graduation for the graduating seniors,” Wynkoop said. “It’s something that originally was organized by parents, because there were a lot of problems in the 80s and 90s with teens and dangerous behaviors on the night of graduation. There were actually some students who passed away drunk driving—that’s why it came from parents originally and it’s been around ever since.” 

While SPREE is technically run by parents and is not a school sponsored event, the administration still works with the PTA for the event.

In the past, senior SPREE has always [gone] to two different venues that remain secret until the seniors actually get there. “There could be video games, laser tag—I’ve seen everything over the years. And then after a few hours there, you leave to go to the other [activity], and you head home and get back to school at about 6 a.m.” Wynkoop said. 

In terms of COVID-19 restrictions, because SPREE isn’t a school sponsored event, it is only limited to state regulations which say that a maximum of 200 people for current gatherings. Past attendance has had “somewhere around 150 to 180 seniors,” Wynkoop said. In addition to people opting out this year because of COVID-19, he isn’t worried about them going over. 

Wynkoop presumes that masks will be worn at all times, except for when the seniors eat. But at the end of the day, “people are going to need to make their own decisions about whether they’re ready to be indoors.”

A senior SPREE ticket will cost $180 (If you want to buy one Wynkoop recommends using the link in the PTA Instagram account) and the buses leave from school at 10 p.m. on June 16, after graduation. 

Graduation itself will start at 5 p.m. that same day at Memorial Stadium, and will go until around 7 p.m. 

“Every senior would have up to four guests,” Wynkoop said. “They will have assigned seats and it’s going to be randomized.” 

Usually, the stage faces one set of bleachers and is in the middle of the field, but “this time the stage will be down in the end zone and family members will be on both sides of the stadium,” Wynkoop said. “The seats for the graduates will be all spread out over the entire field, six feet apart in every direction.” 

There will be a graduation rehearsal for seniors, although Wynkoop doesn’t yet know what it will look like. “It might be a massive Teams call or we might even do something on our field to simulate it because at the end of the day, a football field is a football field.” 

Finally, for graduation itself, the seniors are going to have their name called, stand where they are sitting, wave and then sit back down. Graduation will be livestreamed.