UPDATE: RCS to host graduation June 18

Editor’s note: The Franklin County Times had gone to press prior to the announcement of RHS’ graduation plans, so the print version of this story does not contain graduation details.

The class of 2020 has experienced several non-traditional firsts at the end of their high school career, and the future of one monumental milestone has been up in the air for students at Russellville High School: graduation. By Tuesday afternoon, however, those plans appeared to have been finalized.

Although high school seniors are officially considered graduates now, Russellville City Schools was still looking at ways to honor students and their achievements.

Franklin County Schools will have graduation ceremonies May 21, but according to the announcement posted to the RHS Twitter Tuesday afternoon, RCS will be holding off almost a month longer.

RHS Graduation and Honors Night will be June 18 at 7:30 p.m. at Golden Tiger Stadium. According to the announcement, all social distancing guidelines will be followed.

As late as Tuesday morning, Russellville City Schools Superintendent Heath Grimes said RCS was still workshopping a plan to keep graduation as traditional as possible, instead of turning to a drive-through or virtual graduation, as some schools have.

“We have several ideas for how we could do graduation, but right now none of the alternatives sound as good as holding a traditional graduation,” Grimes said.

Grimes said graduation is an important milestone in students’ lives, and they should have as much of a chance as possible to celebrate it in the same way as previous students have.

“Maybe it is just the fact that it is traditional, but we really just want to give these students the opportunity at a traditional ceremony that probably every other class in history has had,” Grimes said.

The initial announcement does not note whether attendance will limited to a certain number of friends and family members. More details will likely become available in the coming days and weeks as RCS finalizes commencement plans.