Agawam High School graduation ceremonies will return to Springfield Symphony Hall this June because construction work for the new high school. This photo is from the 2019 graduation ceremony for the class of 2019 — the last AHS seniors to use this site.
Reminder Publishing file photo
AGAWAM — Since 2022, commencement exercises for Agawam High School’s graduating seniors have taken place on the school’s athletic field. But construction of the new high school will prevent the class of 2025 from having an on-campus graduation ceremony in June.
Instead, this year’s graduation will take place at Springfield Symphony Hall. The School Committee voted at its Jan. 14 meeting to change the location for the class of 2025. Graduation is now scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 14.
Construction for the first phase of the new school is scheduled to start in early June and the grounds surrounding the football stadium and field will be used as a staging area for construction equipment and materials. The ongoing construction will impact not only the 2025 graduation ceremonies, but also graduations for the next few years.
The committee had previously voted unanimously at its Dec. 10 meeting to have graduation at Symphony Hall the weekend before — on Sunday, June 8. But following the meeting, Superintendent Sheila Martin and AHS Principal Jim Blain learned that the 2025 Ironman Western Mass competition was set for the same day.
There also was no availability at Symphony Hall for graduation ceremonies on Saturday, June 7.
School Committee policy requires a vote by the committee to approve high school graduation ceremonies. The new date was included in a resolution that the committee passed unanimously as part of its unfinished business.
The 2024 Ironman triathlon event — where athletes swam 1.2 miles in the Connecticut River, biked 56 miles through Agawam and other surrounding communities and ran 13.1 miles before finishing in Springfield — drew thousands of spectators to the city.
Mayor Chistopher Johnson, who serves as chair of the committee, explained to the committee how the Ironman event would affect graduation if it remained on June 8.
“The Ironman competition causes the Memorial Bridge to be closed and finishes up right in front of Symphony Hall — and it would have been finishing up while our graduation was going on,” he said.
Johnson said “it seemed to make sense” to move graduation to the following weekend to avoid any conflict with the Ironman spectators and participants.
“With all the people finishing that race, a lot of the parking downtown would have been used up by participants and family members for that,” he said.
The process to determine a new site for graduation ceremonies began in October when Martin sent out a survey to parents and members of the class of 2025. In November, the School Committee conducted a workshop to discuss alternate sites for graduation.
One alternate site discussed was using the bandshell and field at the town’s School Street Park. However, while the park could be shut down for a few hours in the morning to provide more privacy for the ceremony — and unlimited seating would be available — committee members expressed concerns about the site.
Members felt the park setting is too informal a setting for such a serious occasion — even if the money saved from not having to provide a stage could be used to rent chairs. There were also reservations expressed that some attendees might bring their own lawn chairs and blankets to sit on as they do for concerts at the park.
Another potential issue with School Street Park is that its natural turf grass could be wet and soggy if there was rain in the days before graduation — unlike the artificial turf at the high school football field. There also would be “an immense amount of preparation work” and trips to the site for the high school team because of its distance from the school.
The other alternative site the committee discussed was Springfield Symphony Hall — the site of AHS graduations for more than 30 years before moving to the athletic field. Prior to using Symphony Hall, graduation took place for many years at the Coliseum building on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield.
In the survey, parents were evenly divided between School Street Park and Symphony Hall. But 68% of students said they preferred Symphony Hall. The indoor Springfield site was recommended to the School Committee by both Martin and Blain.
The class of 2019 was the last class to graduate at Symphony Hall. Graduations in 2020 and 2021 were “drive through” ceremonies because of the coronavirus pandemic.
