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ELLAVILLE – For all graduating high school seniors across America, 2020 will be a year none of them will ever forget, but perhaps for the wrong reasons. Due to the social distancing guidelines that were brought about as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic, America’s 2020 high school graduating class will not get to enjoy the “normal” graduation ceremony that so many countless classes before them got to enjoy.

However, Schley County High School, with help from the Schley County Board of Education and the city of Ellaville, will be conducting a highly unique series of events that will make this 2020 graduation one to remember for years to come.

According to Schley County High School Principal Harley Calhoun, the festivities will start with a virtual graduation to be held Friday, May 22, at 9 a.m. However, there will also be a graduation celebration on Saturday, May 23, at 9 a.m.

According to Calhoun, the virtual graduation ceremony on Friday morning will be accessible through the school’s facebook site. At that virtual graduation, Calhoun, along with Schley County School Superintendent Brian Hall, will be speaking.

Those that tune in will also get to hear the speeches of SCHS Valedictorian Josh Lin and Salutatorian Sydney Granados. This virtual graduation will also show the senior portraits of all 83 SCHS graduating seniors.

“On Saturday, We’re actually starting at 9 a.m. from the high school and we’re going to have a parade through Ellaville, where each senior will have their vehicle driven by a family member,” said Calhoun. “They’ll decorate their vehicle any way they want. They can have posters, glass chalk, whatever they want to do. We’re going to have a parade to honor the class of 2020 and their family members will be at different markers to celebrate their graduate. That would allow grandparents, uncles and aunts and so on to be able to attend and see their graduate on the day of the graduation.”

However, that’s not all. According to Calhoun, once the parade through Ellaville has concluded, everyone will come back to the high school football stadium. “We’re going to let cars come into the stadium, come around the track and we’ll have the stage set up,” said Calhoun. “One car at a time, the family members and the graduate will get out and the graduate will be able to come on stage, hear their name called to Pomp and Circumstance and me, the Superintendent and the board members will be on the stage and they’ll be able to take pictures. Then that graduate and their family will get back in the car and go out of the stadium.” Calhoun went on to say that this sequence will repeat itself until all 83 graduates have been recognized in such fashion.

While the Schley County graduates won’t have a “normal” graduation this year, Schley County High School and the community of Ellaville is definitely making sure that the Schley County High School Class of 2020 will have perhaps the most memorable graduation ever.