Lakeville's Graduations Moved To Roy Wilkins Auditorium

The Lakeville School Board approved a proposal Tuesday night to hold this year's North and South high school graduation ceremonies at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul. The proposal was a late entry into the graduation location debate that has been going on for more than a year. Administrators have grappled with what was effectively a mandate by the board to bring graduation ceremonies back to Lakeville after holding them at Target Center in Minneapolis since 1992. Ultimately, it was an enterprising parent that stepped in with the solution.

The move was prompted by an effort to save money as well as a sense that graduation was a community event and should be held in the community. But a plan by administrators to hold the ceremonies in the respective high school gymnasiums was met with stiff resistance by students that felt the limited space would preclude many family members from attending. Approximately half of the two high school’s graduating seniors signed a petition in opposition to that proposal.

The initial plan presented to the board allowed Lakeville North students only two tickets for family members while Lakeville South students would have received three. Additional seating would have been provided in auditoriums where family members would have been able to watch via closed circuit television. Holding ceremonies outdoors at the football field had all but been ruled out due to logistical reasons and duplicity in planning in the event of inclement weather, leaving administrators with no real options if the event was to be held in Lakeville.

Chris Falk, a Lakeville North parent, stepped in and suggested Roy Wilkins as a viable alternative to the dilemma after initiating research on the issue. Falk then contacted administrators and school board members with the suggestion. Falk’s plan was unanimously approved as the best solution.

Board member Bob Erickson praised Falk publically in comments prior to the vote. “I’ve never met the Falks,” he said, “but the most meaningful email in my file was written by the Falks on Dec. 29. This person did this on their own. They spent countless hours scouring for other venues. They did the work on this and also saved us some dollars.”

Board member Kathy Lewis agreed. “I really applaud this,” she said. “I think this is a great alternative.”

Details of the plan include:

• Graduating seniors will each receive two free tickets for the ceremonies to be held Friday, June 10 at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul.
• Each student will be allowed to purchase up to eight additional tickets at a cost of $4.00 each. Students had said they would be willing to pay $5 per ticket.
• Allotted tickets that are not purchased by students will go back into a pool to allow families needing more than 10 tickets a chance to purchase additional tickets.
• Buses will provide transportation options for those not wanting to drive for an additional nominal fee.
• Ceremonies will take place 2 ½ hours apart. Starting times are yet to be determined but have typically been at 5:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. in the past. Administrators may look to move those times up slightly.

“What I really like about this is that it fits with our activity fee process that we just went through where individuals have to step forward to make things cost neutral,” said Erickson. “This outcome will do just that.”

Currently, Roy Wilkins is home to graduation ceremonies for St. Paul Como, Highland Park, Humboldt, Central and Harding high schools.

The new plan would appear to solve many issues on either side of the debate:

Space: The Roy Wilkins Auditorium can seat 1,500 people on the main floor in a typical setup with additional seating of 3,650 in the balcony. Students will have the opportunity for up to 10 tickets a piece initially and possibly more. The gymnasiums would have limited family attendance to two or three.

Cost: The estimated cost for holding the ceremonies at Roy Wilkins is $11,000. That figure includes lighting, staging and production services. Holding the ceremonies in the high schools was estimated to have cost roughly $15,000 due to the need to supply production equipment and other costs. Last year’s ceremony at Target Center was estimated to have run more than $33,000.

Production: Ceremonies at Roy Wilkins will include large video screens on either side of the stage to provide audience members with better views. The facility is also providing professional lighting capabilities as well as video recording services. DVDs of the ceremonies will be made available. Ceremonies will also be broadcast live on the School District’s television channel as well as streamed live over the internet. Those capabilities are a marked upgrade over the high schools’ capabilities. Original estimates on upgrades to the facilities to provide those capabilities ranged from $120,000 to $140,000 to purchase the necessary equipment. Rental of the equipment contributed to the $15,000 gymnasium option estimate.

Parking/Travel: There had been many past complaints about the accessibility of Target Center with respect to ease of travel and parking in downtown Minneapolis. Roy Wilkins in downtown St. Paul should help alleviate some of those concerns.

Of course, all of this means that the event still will not be held within the community of Lakeville, one of the main objectives in the decision to move from Target Center in the first place. But after analyzing all of the available options and hearing an extremely vocal response from students and parents following the first proposal, it became clear that the ability to have many family members attend was more important that holding the ceremonies locally.

 “If you really want a community ceremony where you are going to bring the people to cheer, you have to be able to allow them to attend,” said Lewis of the decision. “It makes very little sense to have a community ceremony in the community if no one can attend it.”

The school board will hold their next regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday March 8. They are expected to announce finalized plans on the closure of an elementary school at that time. A community discussion is planned for March 3 at Lakeville South High School to receive feedback on that action.