The lights will shine bright every Friday night from now through May 29 for the graduating Class of 2020.
“This is our way of letting our seniors know that we’re thinking about them,” said Lathrop High Principal Greg Leland on Monday.
He along with the principals and activity directors at Manteca High, East Union High, Sierra High and Weston Ranch High met with Clara Schmiedt – she’s the Senior Director of Secondary Education for the Manteca Unified School District – and decided last Thursday to honor the graduating classes by turning on the stadium scoreboard at 20:20 military time, or 8:20 p.m., with a 20-20 score posted in lights that following day of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other schools from around the country have been doing likewise.
Willie Herrera, who is a teacher and head football coach at East Union, came across the idea on a Twitter feed from a school he follows in Missouri.
“I told my principal (Raul Mora) that we need to do something like this for our seniors,” he said.
East Union and the other comprehensive high schools are doing so at their respective football stadiums as “symbols of strength, commitment, hope, school spirit, and most of all – Community,” according to Proud to be MUSD post on Facebook.
“We’re trying to get our kids as much involved as they can,” Herrera said of distance learning sessions during these unprecedented stay at home times.
He mentioned that Activities Director Jenaia Cano is having students send positive themed selfies and photos for the shared Friday online announcements.
Some seniors are being recognized at home, with school officials using social distancing.
At Manteca High, for example, Principal Frank Gonzales along with Assistant Principal Todd Dunaway, Vice Principal Bill Slikker, and Vice Principal Neil MacDannald stopped by with the medallions and flowers to honor this year’s top academic students in Melissa Poncini (valedictorian) and Mikayla Sarmiento (salutatorian).
Sierra High Principal Steve Clark, Assistant Principal Anthony Chapman, and vice principals Anne Marie Shaw and Andrew Lee also honored their top academic students in similar fashion – traditionally, the valedictorian and salutatorian announcements are made at the Spring Lobo Gold academic assemblies.
“We just held a live event using Microsoft Teams for our seniors,” said Clark, who is in his ninth year as principal at Sierra.
He’s the longest tenured principal of the five MUSD high schools.
Troy Fast at Weston Ranch High is in the process of completing his first full year.
“These are unfortunate circumstances for our seniors,” said Fast, who is looking at other ways to make this year special for members for the Class of 2020.
Back at Lathrop High, Leland noted that his Link Crew students are planning to do a virtual event via social media.
For now, he and the other schools are planning to do virtual senior awards night and other such events.
“This is usually a hectic time for seniors,” Clark added.
