Mother Nature took a hand in the lives of 525 Live Oak High
seniors who were planning on graduating, as previous classes had,
at Richert Field.
Mother Nature took a hand in the lives of 525 Live Oak High seniors who were planning on graduating, as previous classes had, at Richert Field.
Days of rain throughout April prevented workers from getting the new grass, which was part of renovations including a new all-weather track, put down on the field before the May 1 “drop dead” date.
The Class of 2003 will be graduating on the baseball field instead.
“What happened is that Mother Nature intervened,” Live Oak Principal Nancy Serigstad said Thursday. “We had a drop-dead date of May 1 to get the sod in so the roots would take hold and the field to be ready in time for the graduation. But the ground was just too saturated. To put chairs on it, it would just be mush.”
Except for the location, the ceremony on June 13 will be exactly the same as in previous years, Serigstad said. There will still be unlimited seating, so students may invite as many people as they like, and they will still make the traditional processional entrance.
Chairs and bleachers will be brought in, and attendees can also sit in the baseball bleachers behind the dugout. Serigstad said she talked to the people in charge of the sound system, and there will be no problem with the microphones or music.
There may even be an upside to the change in venue.
“This environment is more intimate,” said Serigstad. “Families will be able to see their graduates better. On the football field, people who sit across the way, that’s such a long distance, and they can’t see them as well.”
Most of the seniors have taken the news well, she said.
“I initially announced it to the leadership group,” she said. “At first, there were a few disappointed faces, but nobody has come in to whine or complain. Soon I’ll be talking to all of them about the ceremony and the set up. I’ll go to all the senior classes and let them know how practice will go, where they will sit. They’ll pick a theme, we’ll just go over the whole thing together.”
Although he would agree with Serigstad that many of the seniors aren’t bothered by the news, senior James “Jimbo” Konijn said he and others were disappointed.
“We won’t be able to make the traditional lap around the field, we’ll be the only graduating class to graduate outside of the field,” he said. “It seems like they (school officials) and the district are just taking the easy way out.”
Senior Kim Clayton also thinks there might be an alternative.
“I understand that they couldn’t do anything about the weather,” she said. “I just think they could have looked into more possibilities. For one thing, they’re spending thousands of dollars to bring in those bleachers. Why couldn’t they let us be on the field and replace the grass afterward, if it was destroyed? They could spend the money they would spend on the bleachers on the grass instead.”
Senior Lindsay Maples agreed there could be other options.
“Why don’t we go to the Grass Farm and ask about a donation,” she asked. “Maybe we could get grass to put down temporarily, and, if we mess it up, it’s donated.”
The change in graduation location is just another disappointment for the seniors, Maples said.
“Since the Class of 2003 has been at Live Oak, we really haven’t had the benefit of the full high school experience,” she said. “We have been put in portables instead of regular buildings, there’s been almost constant construction. I know it will be nice for other students, but now, this is just one more thing.”
Classroom buildings on the campus have been renovated, along with the pool and the field, and a new library and practic\e gym opened this fall. Some classes are still in the “portable village” on campus because in renovating the classroom buildings, the individual rooms were enlarged to standard, resulting in fewer rooms.
Clayton said the seniors shouldn’t have the letdown of a graduation that is a departure from years of tradition.
“We have put up with so much already,” she said. “When Jenny (Moody, student School Board representative) told us they were going to do the field, she said they absolutely promised it was going to be done. Now, we’re facing this. And a ceremony there just seems uneventful. They’re telling us how it’ll be great, there with the ivy, but it still doesn’t sound as good. It sounds very unappealing.”
Maples said one positive thing she could see about the change in location is the benefit to families.
“I think it will be nice for them because they can see better,” she said.
Senior Class President Ashley Garcia said seniors have adjusted to the construction inconveniences and will adjust to the location change.
“We’ve coped pretty well with everything,” she said. “But it’s been this way since we were sophomores, so we don’t know any different. This is our high school. I think you just have to say, ‘Oh well, we have to go with the flow.’”
In the long run, things will be improved for future seniors, Garcia said.
“Sure I’m a little disappointed, just because it’s somewhat traditional,” she said. “But it is more important to me to get field ready for other students. Of course there will be disappointment all around, because of the tradition, but the fact that Mrs. Serigstad and Mr. Knapp (Rich, former Live Oak principal, now transitional principal for Sobrato High) have spent so much time trying to do this the right way to make it nice for us adds a little comfort.”
