Wayne Community Schools Superintendent Previews Saturday Graduation, Masks Now Recommended

WAYNE – As Wayne Community Schools prepares to graduate their 2021 class this weekend, Superintendent Dr. Mark Lenihan will join the ‘View from Wayne America’ Friday.

After last year’s graduating class had to wait until earlier this fall to officially be recognized with an in-person graduation outside, the most current group of high school graduates in Wayne will go back to the original format inside Rice Auditorium on the campus of Wayne State College. Graduation will begin at 2 p.m. and is open to the public on Saturday, May 15.

Dr. Lenihan said Wayne Community Schools has really appreciated the support of the community.

“Especially this year but in all years,” said Dr. Lenihan. “One thing about Wayne Community Schools is we are incredibly supported by our patrons, our parents. That’s evident to me as I just kind of go around to other school systems. I just feel really strongly that that’s a big time strength of our community and our school system.”

The senior’s last day was on Tuesday, May 11 earlier this week.

Dr. Lenihan added community members are welcome to join on Saturday.

“We’ll have our board there,” Dr. Lenihan added. “we’ll honor our retirees that are retiring from our system at the end of the year. There’ll be a talk from a teacher that was chosen by the senior class. We will have some music and award diplomas and about 3 o’clock we’ll be heading out the door.”

For those who can’t make it to the graduation ceremony on Saturday, you can view the link at wayneschools.org.

Also, the Early Learning Center recently honored their graduates which will be the class of 2034.

The final day for kindergarten through 11th grade students will be on Thursday, May 20 being a full day. Friday, May 21 and then Monday, May 24 – Wednesday, May 26 will be teacher work days allowing teachers to finish their grades, clean their rooms and spend some time planning for next year.

Dr. Lenihan mentioned it was very unknown times last spring and administration spent a lot of time over the summer planning and preparing their COVID-19 Response Plan.

“We had talked about it just in general with staff for the last few weeks thinking we weren’t sure how far we were going to be able to make it when we started school last fall,” Dr. Lenihan mentioned. “As the fall went along, we felt pretty confident that we had a good plan in place and things seemed to be working well.”

A concerning uptick in the virus did show an increase of activity from late October to mid-November, but Wayne Community Schools stuck with their plan.

Earlier in the month of May, the Nebraska State Directed Health Measure which changed to individuals do not have to quarantine if they’re exposed to COVID-19 but the school will want students, staff and teachers to self-monitor and wear a mask if they were exposed. For the remainder of the school year, masks will be recommended at Wayne Community Schools.

Wayne Community Schools continues to sanitize often and social distance as much as possible with over 450 kids in each of the elementary and Jr/Sr High School buildings.

Visit wayneschools.org or like Wayne Community Schools on Facebook for more information.

Hear the complete interview with Dr. Lenihan just after 9 a.m. on Big Red Country ‘KTCH’ 104.9 and just after 6 p.m. on The City ‘KCTY’ 98.9/1590 Friday as well as waynedailynews.com.

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