Officials say middle school promotions celebrate next step
Gilroy – When thousands of middle schoolers gather at Christmas Hill Park in June, decked out in gowns of their school colors, walk up to the podium to receive a certificates, don’t dare refer to the ceremony as a graduation.
Make that mistake and expect to hear a salty correction, immediately.
“What we want to do is we want to communicate to all parents and students that it really isn’t a graduation and that the important ceremony is high school,” said district Superintendent Edwin Diaz. “I think it’s good to officially promote them to a new environment where their academics are going to count and also to have the high school principal receive them. It’s an official welcome and it’s also a recognition of some of the students.”
That’s why school officials across the county stress that the awards ceremony, certification of completion and post-commencement dance, is about celebrating student accomplishments and recognizing them before they move onto the next level.
In Gilroy, students wear gowns – no caps or tassels – and will meet Gilroy High School Principal James Maxwell. They’ll head to the podium when their names are called and pick up a certificate indicating their middle school career is complete.
But they won’t be graduating.
“I think some parents view it as ‘oh they’ve graduated,’ ” said South Valley Middle School Principal John Perales. “It’s not a graduation, it’s a promotion, it’s a steeping stone.
That new attitude is quite a shift from the past. Perales said they still referred to the ceremonies as graduation when he finished middle school in Gilroy.
And Diaz, also a Gilroy native, said the promotions definitely used to reveal commencement.
“In the past they’ve been more elaborate and they appeared to be more of a graduation,” he said.
Sal Tomasello thinks they’re still a bit too fancy. The Ascencion Solorsano Middle School teacher said it was getting out of hand, that students were showing up in gowns and some were even dropped off in limousines.
The district decided to replace dresses and slacks with graduation gowns to eliminate the couture competition and keep the ceremonies simple. But because none of the middle school facilities are capable of hosting such a large event, the ceremonies have been staged at Gavilan College, GHS and now Christmas Hill Park.
“Personally I would like to do a very simple ceremony in our gym and wish them well,” Tomasello said. “I think that parents make it too big of a deal.”
Switching from formal wear to gowns has helped tone down the ceremony somewhat but Tomasello still thinks the whole event gets overblown.
Middle school promotions aren’t unique to the Garlic Capitol. All of the middle schools in the San Jose and Morgan Hill unified school districts host similar events.
Karen Fuqua, spokeswoman for SJUSD, said she doesn’t think anyone considers the ceremony a graduation. The school district ensures that all the students at its six middle schools and one K-8 have been exposed to the idea of going to college, she said.
The San Jose students don’t wear gowns and school officials have had some issues with students coming overdressed. The district has really tried to downplay the emphasis on fashion.
“They’ve just asked them to dress appropriately and dress nicely,” Fuqua said, adding that since the students uniforms it’s a privilege for them to have the chance to dress up in their own attire for the promotion ceremony.
At Martin Murphy Middle School, which has a San Jose address but is actually a part of the MHUSD, the principal said she hears the ceremony referred to as “graduations,” and “promotions.”
“I think that for many families they use the two words interchangeably and they’re not thinking about the philosophical statement behind the words,” said Barbara Nakasone. “But I think it’s always the issue of making sure students know that this is the beginning.”
