Graduation Celebration

A huge thank you to the Rotary Club of Folsom for partnering with Vista del Lago to financially sponsor Folsom TV coverage of the senior celebration on May 29! Thanks to Adam Frick and Folsom TV, Friday Night Grad Lights will be available via livestream. Now we can share this special event with more of our seniors' family and friends!

Please share the link below with family and friends. If you have Apple TV, you can also connect to your home TV.

http://folsom.tv/videos/

https://www.facebook.com/FolsomTV/

Click here to read article in the E-edition (pages A-3 and A-6).

1. Have you filled out your name and time slot on the invitation that was included in your Senior Swag Bag? Remember, this must be placed on your dashboard for the drive-thru.

2. Enter the event at the entrance closest to the baseball fields. See attached map. Please arrive at your assigned time. Administrators will be making sure that all graduates adhere to the schedule. Once you have traveled the route and exited, you may not re-enter.

3. Photos will be taken of seniors from outside your vehicle after he/she receives the diploma cover. These photos will be posted in a photo gallery and families can download images at no cost. You will receive an email with a link to the photo gallery sometime next week.

4. Folsom TV will be live streaming the event at https://www.facebook.com/FolsomTV/ so that family members who cannot attend can watch from anywhere.

​5. You will see 2020 graduate signs with your photo along the route. These are yours to take AFTER Friday night. Please do not exit the vehicle to retrieve your sign.

6. Please re-read the instructions for families. Limos, RVs, trailers, party buses or larger than normal vehicles will be turned away and not allowed to enter campus. One graduate per vehicle, with the exception of graduating siblings. People may NOT ride in the back of trucks or outside of vehicles. Graduates and families may not exit their vehicle at any time during the celebration. When you see your best friend or favorite staff member, we are only allowing air hugs and kiss blowing only.

Dear Senior Families:

We are extremely excited about our upcoming Friday Night Grad Lights Celebration on May 29th! We have been busy working to combine the atmosphere of Senior Ball with excitement of a graduation ceremony, all within COVID-19 guidelines. Our ultimate goal is to create a unique and unforgettable experience for our 2020 graduates.

In order to prevent traffic issues on Broadstone Parkway on May 29th, graduates must sign up for an arrival time through this link. During cap and gown pick-up next week, seniors will receive an invitation that must be placed on the dashboard of your vehicle before entry into the Friday night celebration.

BELOW please find a promotional flyer and instructions + guidelines that should be reviewed with your student in order to prepare for the event.

We are saddened by the cancellation of so many senior traditions, but we still plan to provide our graduates and their families with a fun and memorable experience.

We love our Eagles, and we can't wait to celebrate the amazing class of 2020!

Go Eagles!

Please contact Ms. Schultz or Ms. Emmington with any concerns or questions.

Friday Night Grad Lights Flier (1).pdf

Friday Night Grad Lights Instructions for Families (1).pdf

Dear Senior Parents:

Because of all our seniors have been through and lost lately, we are creating a special Class of 2020 Video that will include individual senior photos of each graduate, special photos of fun school events and memorable milestones, graduation messages from selected valedictorians and our ASB and Senior Class presidents, and fond farewells from teachers and administrators.

The video is meant to be a unique keepsake for seniors and families and will take several weeks for our team to assemble and edit. When complete, the video will be uploaded to a district YouTube channel so that families can access and download the video.

Within the next week or so, Vista Senior families will be receiving instructions on how to select and upload the best senior portrait of their grad. We are waiting until caps and gowns are distributed in case families want to use a cap and gown shot for the video. More information to come.

In the meantime, we need permission to include your child in Vista's Class of 2020 video.

Please click on this link and complete the short form by May 22, 2020. We do not need a photo now, but we do need your permission. If you do not complete this form by May 22nd, your student’s photos and name will be excluded from the Class of 2020 video.

Please watch your email for more information!

Vista del Lago High School

Our high school senior Class of 2020 deserves to be celebrated and we have plans for doing that now! We listened to our seniors, who expressed their desire to wear a cap and gown, receive a diploma cover, celebrate with their friends, see their classmates and teachers, and go back to campus.

In order to accomplish this, under the current COVID-19 situation, our school closures, and the stay-at-home orders we are creating a multi-pronged approach to senior graduation and celebrations. There will not be one event, but many opportunities for seniors to be honored and to participate, depending on their time and availability, and the environmental situation of the pandemic.

We know that right now, we can do a couple of things:

1) Celebration Drive-ups to Campus: Each campus is planning Celebration Drive-throughs where teachers and staff can cheer on and celebrate the class of 2020.

2) Video tributes: Each school is producing a customized, video tribute to its Class of 2020 seniors. These videos are meant to be keepsakes for seniors and their families.

Each High School has a plan for a drive-up grad celebration and for a video tribute. Expect your principals to share information on these opportunities very soon!

SUMMER OF 2020

We, like many school districts in our area, are watching closely to see if public health recommends gathering in large groups this summer. If that happens, we will look into the possibilities of postponed, formal ceremonies for the summer. This is our hope but it is not a promise. Please keep in mind that some members of our student body and our community are more at risk than others. Our goal is to guarantee the health and safety of our students, our families, and our community.

If this summer does not allow us to hold large group ceremonies, we would like to invite the 2020 graduating class to be celebrated during the spring of 2021 in a formalized ceremony.

In between the spring of 2020 and the spring of 2021, we want our Class of 2020 to join us at every opportunity possible, such as Homecoming football games where there would be a special tribute just for the Class of 2020. We are looking into ways the Class of 2020 can come back to their campus to see friends and teachers throughout the next school year as well.

We realize this may not be what you want to hear, and we do not have all the answers for the future, but we give you our promise to do everything we can in the upcoming months to make the Class of 2020 feel special.

There are two major guiding principles we want you to know as we made our decisions and make our future plans.

• We want you and your family and our staff to be safe

• We are proud of you and want you to be celebrated

All of our graduates over the years are dear to us, but the Class of 2020 will hold a special place in history and our hearts. You will never be forgotten.

Senior Parents:

I can only imagine how frustrating it has been to wait for specifics from us about how we will be celebrating our 2020 graduates. District principals and activity directors have been meeting regularly with district officials, using senior survey results to drive our efforts and create a plan. Our seniors were clear that they did not want a virtual graduation, and so we have been working to develop another fun and memorable strategy to honor and celebrate our graduates while maintaining the social distancing necessary. This plan has been submitted to district office for board approval. Once we have approval, we can share with families and get the ball rolling!

I appreciate your patience and hope we can share more details within the next few days. We are excited to celebrate these amazing young people who have contributed so much to the special and unique culture of Vista del Lago.

Go Eagles! Lori Emmington, Principal

We know our senior students and their families are eager to hear how the District plans to honor and celebrate the Class of 2020.

In order to make plans that meet the wishes of our seniors, we reached out first to ask them what aspects of their senior year and graduation traditions were most important to them. Nearly 1100 seniors responded to the survey. The students, overwhelmingly, do not want a virtual graduation and would prefer a postponed ceremony. They let us know that receiving the diploma cover and wearing the cap and gown were the most important aspects of the graduation ceremony. Additionally, they are sad to miss out on social functions, such as senior ball, spirit week, sober grad night, senior survivor week; the events that usually take place during spring. They want to celebrate with their friends and classmates.

Using this information, principals and district leadership are working closely with student and parent representatives along with community support, to formulate plans for honoring our students’ wishes in ways that are safe and timely.

We are watching closely our Governor’s orders, as well as directives from public health agencies for when we can gather in large groups. As of today, we know that there is no date given, for when it will be safe to hold traditional graduation ceremonies.

What we do know, is that we have resources to honor our seniors and graduates in the short term, and are planning a video celebration for the class of 2020. We will be sending details about how students and families can participate in the upcoming days. A video celebration is not the only way we intend to celebrate our seniors nor is it a replacement for graduation. We are looking at multiple, ceremonial opportunities for our graduates and will be sharing those with you as soon as possible.

We have created a website: www.fcusd.org/Classof2020 to post this statement and as a place to share future information, and updates as we are able to confirm plans.

Thank you for your understanding, during this unprecedented time of a global pandemic. We have over 1500 seniors and we are proud of each one and recognize the hard work they have done since kindergarten. We will do everything we can to let them know how special they are to us.

Survey results are pending!

Background: FCUSD's student advisory board member Scarlett Kniznik created a survey to gather her peers' thoughts on graduation priorities -- given the challenges of school closures and our governor’s orders that we do not congregate in large groups due to the COVID-19 situation. Before FCUSD can make plans for graduation celebrations, it wanted to hear from seniors, who are the most impacted by this situation.

View letter - signed by nearly 210 Vista families - to principal Emmington and FCUSD regarding a traditional graduation ceremony.

Per the Senior FAQs: Karl Hanf with Herff Jones will handle announcement, cap and gown distribution. He should be reaching out to families soon.