CVHS seniors to graduate on own turf

When Crescenta Valley High School seniors walk across the stage to accept their diplomas in June, it will mark the first time the school’s students will attend graduation ceremonies on their own campus.

This year’s ceremony comes 50 years after the school handed out its first diplomas in 1963, three years after the school was established in 1960.

“What we have here is a truly historic event,” said Katherine Fundukian Thorossian, asst. supt. of Glendale Unified.

From 1963 to 2011, Crescenta Valley seniors were graduated at Stengel Field, a park several miles from the school, where the baseball bleachers could accommodate as many family and friends as seniors wanted to invite to the ceremony.

Last year, city officials questioned the structural integrity of the bleachers, so the class of 2012 graduated at Glendale Community College instead.

With this year’s graduation on June 4, the ceremony would have been held during final exam week at the college.

Crescenta Valley staff didn’t think it was appropriate to bring several thousand people onto the college campus during testing, said Lisa Reed, asst. principal at the high school.

The only remaining option was to host the ceremony on the Falcons’ turf.

“I think the kids are thrilled,” Reed said. “They feel like they are going to start a new tradition.”

Crescenta Valley staff will rent bleachers for family and friends, and will set up a stage for the graduates on the school’s track field.

“This is a really big deal for us,” said junior Joy McCreary, who is a student board member this year. “We are so excited.”

--

Follow Kelly Corrigan on Twitter: @kellymcorrigan.