EATON — Graduation – the location for the 2024 ceremony – has been an important topic for the Eaton Community School Board of Education this summer.
Miami University’s Millett Hall may be unavailable due to a construction project, and other facilities researched have not come through either, according to school officials.
“At our special board meeting we talked more about graduation and a couple more suggestions came up with places to look at,” Superintendent Jeff Parker reported during the board’s meeting on Monday, Aug. 14. The Princeton Pike Church down in Middletown — they do not do graduations any longer. They haven’t done any since COVID.”
According to Parker, he and EHS Principal Scott Couch had toured the Christian Life Center in Vandalia, which really hasn’t hosted any high school graduations. “The concern I’m going to share here is there’s only one way in and one way out. They occasionally have concerts and they said it’ll take an hour for people to get out of there,” he added.
“Mr. Couch and I obviously continue to talk about a number of places. But given the circumstances that Miami cannot host us in 2024 due to their geothermal project, we think the best solution is to is to hold it at the high school football field on June 1 at 6:30 p.m. Understanding, inclement weather, may force it to go inside, at which then everybody wouldn’t necessarily physically be able to be in the same room to see the graduates graduate,” he continued. “
Open spaces within the school would then be used for overflow, according to Parker. “I don’t want 100 percent commit to it right now because there will be some details to work out in the high school cafetorium and or the middle school gym. But we do think that we can come very close to most people being in the building if we get inclement weather on that day,” he said.
In other business, board member and Miami Valley Career Technology Center liaison Terry Parks updated the board on the progress at MVCTC’s new facility.
He said he had asked CTC officials about an expected date for a celebration of the new building and was told it should be earlier than previously expected, before October.
“I’ll say very soon,” Parks reported. “The building will be completed, the parking will be taken care, of the landscaping around the building — and next year they’ll be open for business full scale. But I’m telling you as taxpayers in this community, if you if we don’t take advantage of this, I really look for this to be an overflow crowd on the day whenever it happens. This is going to be magnificent. It’s a combination of five years of planning and data and all kinds of different information.
“I mentioned on a couple of occasions that the CTC, before this new building was built, there were 220, maybe 221, doors up there entered into the different buildings. Once this is complete, there will be six. The kids will not have to go outside in the middle of winter to go from one building to the next without having to be covered up and all that. Everything will be right there together. It’s gonna be a heck of a lot better than it has been.
“I mean, it’s still a great place, but it’s going to be great when it’s finally completed,” Parks added. “And I would encourage all of you to go there and see it when it’s completed in the near future.”
The date and time of a celebration of the new MVCTC facility will be announced at a later date, according to Parks.
Also during the meeting, Parker thanked everyone who had a hand in getting everything ready for the new school year.
“We know that a lot of work is done by a good number of people and led by Matt Robbins. So I just want to take a minute and publicly thank these people for everything they’ve done this summer, whether it’s custodians, whether it’s technology assistants, or maintenance, transportation helpers or mechanics,” Parker noted before reading the names of everyone who worked throughout the summer.
Reach Eddie Mowen Jr. at 937-683-4061 and follow on X @emowenjr.
