The good news is construction on the much-anticipated $13 million Mission Bay High School (MBHS) athletic complex is under way.
\nThe bad news is construction on that new sports complex will impact MBHS\u2019s graduating class of 2014, which now is forced to find a new venue for graduation ceremonies.
\nAnd, to the consternation of some, that venue most likely will be Clairemont High School.
\n“They finally broke ground at Mission Bay for the new sports complex, which is great news, unless you\u2019re a graduating senior,” said Tom Norton, the parent of a graduating senior. “Not only did they [students] not get to use the new sports complex while at MBHS, but now they have no location for graduation.
\n” … High school graduation is one of the biggest milestones in their lives that they will remember forever. \u00a0This year, the Mission Bay seniors will have to hold their commencement ceremony at a rival high school in Clairemont.”
\nMBHS principal Fred Hilgers, however, said his graduating students are largely fine with the Clairemont High option and countered that Clairemont is the best alternative, given the circumstances.
\n“Clairemont is not our rival,” said Hilgers. “We don\u2019t play them in our sports.”
\nWhen it became clear the new sports complex construction would impact this spring\u2019s senior graduation ceremony, Hilgers said an all-out effort was made to find viable alternative graduation venues.
\nHe said he and a group of parents have sought alternatives for an alternative graduation venue. All possibilities proved to be either too expensive or inconvenient.
\n“We could have gone in with a couple of other schools and rented the Civic Center downtown, but PB parents decided they didn\u2019t want that,” Hilgers said. “Viejas (amphitheater) at San Diego State was too expensive, as was the Jenny Craig Pavilion at University of San Diego. The costs were very prohibitive \u2014 in the tens of thousands of dollars.”
\nHilgers said MBHS typically spends $8,000 to $10,000 on its graduation ceremony, adding the San Diego Unified School District at present provides a $2,000 graduation subsidy to the school\u2019s senior class.
\nHilgers said Clairemont High\u2019s field is a beautiful venue, the price was right and that the school\u2019s field was available on Friday, June 13 \u2014 the last day of this school year.
\nPam Dietz of the MBHS Alumni Association, who joined the graduation venue search, agreed Clairemont is the best available alterative.
\n“We tried to get Liberty Station, but it was just so much money that the kids would have had to do fundraisers to get it,” Dietz said. “They\u2019d rather spend that money on the prom and other things for the graduating class.”
\nJerrilyn Goldberg, Mission Bay High\u2019s 2014 senior class president, said Clairemont High School “is a perfectly acceptable location for us. It\u2019s close enough to our school that we can easily transport decorations and students \u2026 The stadium seats significantly more people than our old bleachers, so we can allow students to purchase as many tickets as they need. \u2026 This location will allow graduation to be a community celebration available to more who may want to attend.”
\nGoldberg said, “After the initial confusion over where we would be graduating, everyone I’ve spoken to has agreed that spending on our other senior activities \u2014 prom and brunch specifically \u2014 is much more valuable than an expensive graduation ceremony location.”
\n“Even so, we will be decorating the field to better represent our school,” Goldberg added.
\nHilgers said he and others are still open to other viable alternatives.
\n“Hey, if somebody can come up with an affordable money package, we\u2019ll do the logistics to move it,” he said. “But it will have to happen soon, as parents will be sending out announcements for their kids\u2019 graduations.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The good news is construction on the much-anticipated $13 million Mission Bay High School (MBHS) athletic complex is under way. The bad news is construction on that new sports complex will impact MBHS\u2019s graduating class of 2014, which now is forced to find a new venue for graduation ceremonies. And, to the consternation of some, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"2014 MBHS seniors won\u2019t graduate on home turf","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551,11593],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news","category-no-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=298309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}