With Amador and Foothill high schools both scheduled to hold their graduation ceremonies at the Alameda County Fairgrounds next week, students and parents are getting ready to celebrate the big day. But with growing numbers of students, getting a ticket to the event gets harder each year. Each student gets five tickets to the graduation ceremony, and some families think that’s just not enough.
Jane Rosell’s son is graduating from Foothill this year, and this will be the family’s fifth Foothill graduation ceremony. Rosell’s other children graduated in 1991, ’92, ’94 and ’95, and she has another child who will graduate next year in 2007. She would like to have all her son’s siblings, as well as their spouses in some cases, attend the ceremony, but five tickets are not enough for that. Although the school does offer families the opportunity to ask for one extra ticket, even that one is not enough to cover Rosell’s family.
“I’m just trying to get in my immediate family, but I can’t get enough tickets,” she said. “These are people that sit around my dining room table, people who have helped with Eagle Scout projects, been Confirmation sponsors, gone to football games, watched band reviews, and now they can’t watch graduation.”
The schools impose the five-ticket limit because of the Fire Marshal’s regulations that stipulate the facility can hold a capacity of 3,000 people, said Foothill Principal Kevin Johnson.
“If you take a look at it, there are roughly about 500 seniors, and they all count as one even though they don’t have a ticket because they take up a seat,” explained Amador Vice Principal Greg Giglio. “We give each of them five tickets, and that’s 2,500 seats. That’s 3,000 people with just graduates and guests alone, and that doesn’t include teachers, because they’re involved in the procession, and it also doesn’t include the choir, band and honored guests.”
“I don’t know why everyone is saying it’s the Fire Marshal’s fault,” Rosell said. “Why do we have to hold it there? Why are we still holding (graduation) at the same place it was held in 91?”
Some parents have suggested holding the graduation ceremonies at each school’s individual football field instead of the Fairgrounds so the families could be allocated more tickets.
“I completely understand that they can only allow so many people, but there are other options they can think about,” said Jennifer Amar, who has two students graduating from Foothill this year. “We have a beautiful field at Foothill, and I’m sure it’s strong enough to hold folding chairs.”
Johnson said one of the main reasons for holding the ceremony at the Fairgrounds is because of the tradition.
“(The Fairgrounds) is a place where you can hold a classy event, and it’s something that has happened in our system for many years. It’s traditional, and the kids like it there, so it works out well,” Johnson said. “We’ve looked at holding it at different facilities, such as the football field, and actually you don’t get more seating. You could get more if you sit in lawn chairs on the field, but we don’t like that idea because it doesn’t give the proper tone to the event.”
Other concerns are a lack of shade for the students who would be seated on the field and finding enough parking at the school sites, Giglio said.
“It’s hard to change policy when it’s something they’ve been doing years and years, but as the years go by, each class will be larger, and that means less tickets all around for the parents and families,” Amar said.
Neither school has a formalized system for students who do not need all five tickets to give them back and then re-allocate them to students who need more. However, the schools do encourage students to turn back tickets they do not need, and it is not uncommon for families to share tickets or ask around for more, Giglio said. Last year, the schools tried a new program where they had people without tickets wait at the entrance and then right before the ceremony, they let in people to fill extra space. The schools will do it again this year.
Giglio is also looking into getting a closed- circuit broadcast set up at a different facility so people who do not have tickets can still watch the graduation, but it is up in the air whether it will be ready for this year’s ceremony.
For the time being, the five-ticket limit stands and families will have to work around it. Amar said her family is hosting a barbecue after the graduation so everyone can celebrate, even if they were unable to attend the actual ceremony. Rosell is still unsure of what she’s going to do, but one thing for sure is that her daughter and son-in-law traveling from the East Coast for the graduation will definitely get tickets.
