Graduation Date Announced

Tisha Ramadhina, PaperClip Staff/Writer

On March 28th, the school board decided to set the date for seniors to receive their high school diplomas. The 2016-2017 graduation is going to be held on June 9th. In the middle of March, before the school board meeting, Mrs. Shanyn Grenier (PHS college counselor) heard a rumor that the graduation would be on June 16th due to too many snow days. Portsmouth High School’s principal, Ms. Mary Lyons, sent a letter to the board suggesting the date for graduation and explained why she chose that date. The school board agreed to Ms. Lyons’ letter and the June 9th date.

Ms. Leslie Stevens, a school board chair said, “Regarding making up snow days, the state of NH allows schools to determine if students have attended enough school for the year by counting hours at school not just days. So even with 4 snow days this year we had enough “student” hours for graduation to be held on June 9th. The rest of the district will finish the year but seniors will not have to do that as they are allowed by the statute to attend 5 days/30 less hours for the year than other high school students.”

Other high schools around New Hampshire also had to decide when the graduation will be after all of the snowdays. They have a different variety of dates. Winnacunnet High School has the same date as PHS. Dover High School will be the day before of PHS graduation, which is on the 8th. Bedford High School will be on June 10th and Concord High School has the latest date compare to other schools, June 17th. Looking at schools in Maine, Marshwood High School graduation is also on June 9th, while Traip Academy and York High School will be on June 16th.