Victory lap

CLOVIS - When New Mexico canceled school for three weeks to fight the spread of COVID-19, Adriana Jones rationalized it as her Clovis High School spring break starting a week earlier and finishing a week later than planned.

"And we never came back," Jones said Wednesday, a CHS graduate standing in front of its A Building. Just 10 minutes before, Jones was in the parking lot as a CHS senior.

Jones and more than 400 of her classmates journeyed through a portion of CHS to replace the traditional ceremony at the Curry County Events Center. The News randomly selected a half-hour block to document the process that stretched over four days, and Jones was the first student to arrive in that block.

To limit virus spread, the state banned gatherings of more than five in mid-March, and Human Services Secretary David Scrase said Thursday until there's a COVID-19 vaccine or treatment, "it's unlikely we're going to have very large gatherings."

Most CHS commencements fit that category, with around 500 people involved before a single spectator is considered.

Jones was one of 335 seniors who had met graduation requirements as of Wednesday. Principal Jay Brady said another 95 were still working to meet the Public Education Department June 19 deadline, and he expects late finishers will push the graduating class above 400.

Students in each half-hour block were individually called from the parking lot for a self-guided lap around the A Building with five stops manned by staffers wearing protective masks.

Stop one featured diplomas and a commemorative program/ticket. The second stop had graduation cords packed in plastic bags with the student's name in Sharpie ink.

Third came the courtyard, with a camera aimed at a stage and Assistant Principal Alicia Spearman holding a microphone.

With Jones standing on the edge of the stage and Spearman about 15 feet away, both unmasked - Jones for the camera and Spearman for the mic.

"Adriana Erin Jones," Spearman said with a pause as Jones walked to a masking tape X, "with honors."

Class officers and staff filmed additional segments and four seniors gave speeches - Skyler Segura on the class' past, Kunal Puppala on its present, Yasmine Larrea on its future and Alixiana Pena with a challenge to the 2020 class. Brady said CHS doesn't traditionally do valedictorian or salutatorian speeches, and class ranks will be determined after June 19.

Brady offered encouraging words to each graduate, but his purple mask couldn't hide extra pride for the subsets of kids he first met as principal at Sandia Elementary and/or Marshall Middle School.

Students haven't been inside CHS since the closure, and this week marked their second time on campus. The first was a senior checkout day that replaced the standard weeklong process with seven drive-through stations to turn in school property, receive left-behind items and fill out paperwork.

The checkout day efficiency gave staff optimism for graduation, and after walkthroughs Spearman felt 10 minutes was doable while following COVID-19 protocols.

"Staying safe, that was important to district leadership," Spearman said. "We wanted to be sure we stay safe, no matter what was going on around us."

The fourth stop featured a yard sign and a partial scholarship to Clovis Community College for each new graduate. Jones plans to study law at Texas Tech, but the yard sign appeared destined for use.

"Ooh," Jones lit up as instructional coach Annette Hadley presented the sign. "I actually like this photo."

As Jones turned the literal corner at CHS and the figurative corner on a Clovis education that started at Sandia Elementary and continued through Gattis Middle School and CHS Freshman Academy, she asked if she was doing this interviewing thing OK. With high school now down to the final sidewalk, she said her graduation and the events that changed it were unforgettable.

"It was definitely something unique," Jones said while navigating the sidewalk contours in her heels. "Of course, we all wanted a normal graduation. But we are in the middle of a pandemic, and we are fortunate to get anything at all."

The endpoint was the A Building front entrance, a pickup point if students bought pictures and/or yearbooks. Jones went past the 10-minute mark due to a yearbook order mishap, but soon left with a Plainsman in hand.

The graduation will go on YouTube on or soon after June 19, and each graduate will receive a physical copy. School Superintendent Renee Russ said additional viewing plans are pending, and felt the district would do a disservice to seniors if it uploaded a video and called it a day.

"We want our seniors to feel as though their graduation was an event," Russ said, "and we are refining and finalizing multiple ideas at this time to allow that to happen to the extent possible under current health orders."

Although all seniors were invited to be filmed with their diploma, non-graduates will be cut from the final edit. Brady didn't notice any drop in participation among kids on the bubble, and was optimistic the filming would motivate them to push through.

Russ said it isn't uncommon for a senior to finalize requirements on the eve of graduation and be cleared to walk. This year, the difference is the June 19 extension.

The district normally spends about $20,000 on a CHS commencement, with facility rental and food for the rehearsal its largest expenses. Still, Russ and Brady expect the district will expend a few thousand dollars by the time everything's a wrap.