A close majority of Clovis school board members agreed with Superintendent Terry Myers that changing the high school’s graduation date to avoid a conflict with the athletic state championships would not be in the best interest of the majority of students.

CMI Graphic: Philip Hall

After hearing from two parents supporting changing the Clovis High School graduation date and two parents against changing the date, the board voted three to two to leave the graduation date the same.

The CHS graduation is scheduled for May 18, which is also the final day of the big school state track meet and state softball, baseball and tennis championships.

Board members Charles Guthals and Kyle Snider each voted for changing the graduation date. Board members Terry Martin, Paul Cordova and Ken Urban voted against changing the date.

David Pierce, one of the parents who spoke against change, pointed out a downside of changing the date to a Sunday.

“My objections are really based on practicality and principal,” said Pierce, parent of a CHS graduating senior, during the meeting.  “From a practical standpoint it seems to me that it’s going to be nearly impossible with 450 or 500 kids to pick a date that won’t cause some conflict or issue for some families. There are all kinds of issues that could come up. There are even some of us who work on Sunday. The notion that we can just switch this day to a Sunday afternoon and it not impact anyone to me is just false.”

Joel Sievers, the father of a Clovis senior athlete and CHS’ athletic department physician for 11 years, pushed the board once more to make the change at the meeting.

Sievers believes that better administrative planning could have been done earlier in the school year to avoid the problem.

“We’re disappointed in the board’s decision but we’re glad they were at least willing to hear us,” Sievers said after the meeting.

After the vote, the board discussed ways of avoiding scheduling conflicts that involve critical school events such as graduation exams close to spring break.

Board Vice President Terry Martin said he looks forward to establishing a school events schedule that would have the least impact on students.

“We do have a conflict coming up next year,”

“Instead of speculation I would like to get some sound information showing what the students are doing. We could choose a date that would have the less impact.”