GUILDERLAND — End-of-the-year festivities for Guilderland students this spring will be more traditional than last year’s COVID work-arounds or cancelations.

Last June, Guilderland graduates watched pre-recorded commencement speeches on the big screen at the Jericho Drive-In and then received their diplomas at the high school, arriving in separate waves.

The Class of 2021 will gather as one on June 25 at an outdoor event on the Schenectady County Community College campus.

“We’ll be outdoors in a large parking area right on the campus and they’ll be providing a stage and a large projection screen,” Superintendent Marie Wiles told The Enterprise. “We’ll have all the graduates in front of the stage, socially distanced, and then their parents will be able to be kind of behind them and sort of watching over their heads a little bit and they’ll be able to see them on the screen, too.”

While last year’s proms were canceled, this spring Guilderland is having a red-carpet event at the Hall of Springs in Saratoga. 

“The people who are going will be able to get all dressed up and literally walk down a red carpet and have photos taken,” said Wiles. Pre-packaged refreshments will be served at the event.

“They can go off and continue with their evening, whatever they choose to do next,” said Wiles, adding, “The restrictions ... really made it hard to do a typical prom. They want to get dressed up. They want photos. That’s really important.”

All five of the district’s elementary schools are planning fifth-grade moving-up ceremonies. “All of those are going to be in person but they’re all taking a slightly different approach to it,” Wiles said.

Last year, some elementary schools had car parades and another had individual students come in with their parents to see the principal, on stage, hand out a certificate.

Farnsworth Middle School will also hold an in-person moving-up ceremony for eighth-graders. “The plans are in the works,” said Wiles.

“It’s important for the community to know for the larger gatherings that folks are going to need to be vaccinated or have proof of a negative PCR test 72 hours before the ceremony or a rapid test six hours before the ceremony,” Wiles said, “unless guidance changes between now and June 25.”

In order to be considered fully vaccinated, she noted, people have to have waited two weeks after their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or after the single shot of Johnson & Johnson. Starting the series this week would leave just enough time for those using Moderna, since there is a four-week wait between shots; Pfizer vaccination requires three weeks between shots.

Guilderland held a school vaccination clinic with the second round scheduled for Tuesday, May 11. Wiles said discussions are currently underway on whether or not to hold another school clinic. 

“A lot goes into hosting a vaccination clinic,” she said.

She also noted that many pharmacies in Guilderland are offering shots and that the state-run clinic at Crossgates Mall takes walk-ins.

“There’s lots of places to go,” she concluded.