Subject: Graduation ceremony update
Good afternoon, Senior families,
I hope things are going well for you and your student as we start the second semester. Below is an update on our graduation ceremony.
Short version (tl;dr):
We're changing the date of our graduation ceremony. We heard from members of our community that our original plan wouldn't allow all graduates to be included, despite our efforts to ensure everyone could attend. We're sorry for that, and we hope you'll complete a survey being texted to you to help determine a new date for the ceremony.
Long version:
I’m reaching out with an update regarding our graduation ceremony. Over the last week since announcing our ceremony date, we’ve heard feedback that we are not meeting our goal of a ceremony where all students can attend and we can celebrate together as a community. For that, I apologize. No one should ever feel like they aren’t an important and valued member of our Eden Prairie Schools community. As a school district, our job is to bring our community together — it’s the reason we’re all Eagles. And no one should feel left behind.
In a time when nearly everything is hyper-polarized, I believe it’s important to pause, to listen, and to share accurate information. Rather than just giving soundbites, I want to provide a full picture of what we knew as we were making decisions about this year’s ceremony and the ways in which we intentionally worked to gather and respond to community input after last year’s graduation.
This is a lengthy email to provide that full picture, so I want to start with a few key takeaways:
- The graduation ceremony will not be Saturday, June 7. EPHS staff, 12th graders, and 12th grade families will be receiving a short, one-question survey via text message to determine a new date and venue for graduation that will support our goal of celebrating all of our graduates as a community. Please complete the survey by noon Monday, Feb. 3. (More information below.)
- After last year’s ceremony, we developed a graduation action plan to improve the graduation ceremony experience and have been following that plan. A lot of good work has been done, and there is a lot of work left to do to create an exceptional experience for everyone.
- Our graduation survey provided a lot of helpful information about how to prioritize competing wants and needs for graduation. As you can imagine, it is no easy feat to manage different needs among our diverse community while identifying a venue, date and time for a ceremony in a space that can welcome up to 8,000 people.
- Eid al-Adha is a multi-day celebration with a predicted, but not fixed, start date given the lunar calendar. This makes planning large events extremely difficult, especially in an environment where contracts for services require definitive dates.
- Recognizing a potential conflict based on our internal Multi-Faith Religious Calendar, we intentionally engaged leaders in the Eden Prairie Muslim community in the decision-making process before selecting this year’s graduation date. We have heard concern about how that was conducted, and we will incorporate the feedback into our future work.
- Our original decision was not made in isolation, and we consulted with other metro school districts who are hosting graduation on June 6-8 about their plans.
I encourage you to read more below, and if you have any additional questions or feedback for the graduation planning committee, please contact EPHS Principal Dr. Jaysen Anderson.
We appreciate the feedback of our community, and we are excited to celebrate this year’s graduating class together one last time before they pursue the next step in their journey.
Sincerely,
Dr. Josh Swanson, Superintendent
One-question survey on alternate dates/venues
In order to address concerns about all students and families being able to attend graduation, we will be rescheduling the ceremony. We apologize for any disruption this causes. Given the impact this date change will have on those who had already made plans, we want to hear from you about what new date would be most convenient. You will be receiving a one-question survey via text message asking, “Which would be your preference for a rescheduled graduation ceremony?” In order to confirm a new date as quickly as possible, we ask you to complete the survey by noon on Monday, February 3.
The three options of the survey are listed below, with some additional context for each:
- Option 1: Wednesday, June 4, at US Bank Stadium. This would be an evening ceremony. Seniors’ last day of school would be Tuesday, June 3.
- Additional information:
- US Bank Stadium is large enough to accommodate our desired number of guests, and has high-quality audio/visual capabilities, plenty of parking, and strict security procedures.
- US Bank has limited dates available, but also has the capacity to manage a high number of attendees (though we are still planning to make this a ticketed event). Determining the number of tickets per graduate is part of the graduation action plan.
- This would have to be an evening ceremony, which could mean additional traffic for attendees.
- Option 2: Wednesday, June 11, at Mariucci Arena. There would be no time restriction on this ceremony. Seniors’ last day would be Friday, June 6.
- Additional information:
- This could be a daytime ceremony to address concerns about traffic. The exact time would be determined in partnership with our students and families.
- Mariucci has capacity to accommodate a high number of attendees.
- After last year’s graduation, we contacted Mariucci about our concerns with sound and security. At this time, they have not made any substantial updates or commitments.
- Option 3: Wednesday, June 11, at Eden Prairie High School. There would be no time restriction on this ceremony. Seniors’ last day would be Friday, June 6, and each graduate would be limited to two tickets for family/friends.
- Additional information:
- This option responds to community preference for a nearby venue and offers high-quality audio/visual capabilities.
- In order to have a guaranteed date and location, the graduation would need to take place indoors to avoid weather complications. The largest indoor spaces would be the Main Gym or Activities Center.
- Due to capacity in the Main Gym/Activities Center and the number of graduates and staff who will be in attendance, we will only be able to guarantee two tickets per graduate.
EP Online Principal Dr. Nick Kremer will be hosting the Eden Prairie Schools virtual graduation on Tuesday, June 10. The timing of the event has historically been around noon, but will be finalized in partnership with students and families. If you would like to participate in that ceremony, please contact Dr. Kremer.
Graduation action plan
After hearing concerns about last year’s graduation, we hosted a listening session in June and received feedback from about 35 people who attended, reviewed more than 300 feedback forms submitted online by students, families and staff, read every email sent by members of our community, and conducted an after-action review with district and EPHS leaders. The primary areas of concern were safety, communication, program structure, venue, and behavior.
Based on this, we developed a graduation action plan to move forward, which included:
- Develop a detailed timeline and deadlines for each action step* (Summer 2024)
*Timeline subject to change based on unforeseen circumstances
- Explore alternate venues (Summer-Fall 2024)
- Implement ticketing and explore limiting attendees (Fall-Winter 2024)
- Review program structure (Winter-Spring 2025)
- Define and communicate expectations (Ongoing)
- Develop a graduation toolkit for future planning (Summer-Winter 2024)
This was not an exhaustive list of all the concerns or actions planned to take to improve the experience at graduation, and each step included intentional work with students, families, and staff to gather feedback. I believe this plan provided a strong foundation for our graduation planning team to use in creating an exceptional experience for everyone.
Graduation survey
One of the ways we gathered feedback from our community was through a comprehensive survey sent in September. As with any large event, people’s needs and wants for the event vary, and our hope was to gather feedback that could help us design a meaningful, welcoming, and memorable event. The survey helped us prioritize competing wants and begin to explore venues that could accommodate all of our needs. We shared an update with the survey results in November, and those are also now available on our website.
One of the concerns raised recently was about translations offered with the survey. When the survey was sent in September, it was not translated into Somali. Our district has invested significantly in growing our number of cultural liaisons over the years because of their knowledge, expertise, and ability to serve as cultural bridges across communities. Our communications department works closely with them to understand best practices regarding interpretation and translation and how to most meaningfully engage with our students, families, and community. The goal is to provide a personalized and meaningful experience for each person — and this has led to positive results, such as offering live interpretation at the graduation ceremony and large events, offering food at more community events, and adopting tools that translate into even more languages spoken by our families.
In this case, because Somali is primarily an oral language, the team decided against a written translation of the survey. Instead, cultural liaisons shared information across their networks and communities and worked with students and families to complete the survey. However, we have heard the feedback, and we will continue to review our practices regarding interpretation and translation moving forward.
Date of Eid al-Adha
We continuously work to understand and meet the needs of our diverse community. One of the ways we do that is through our f, which notes major holidays for Eden Prairie’s most common religions and offers guidance on accommodations. This calendar is reviewed and updated annually, and it is shared with staff multiple times throughout the year to aid in planning events and activities.
Based on our community’s preference for the graduation ceremony to be on a Friday or Saturday and within one week of the last day of school, we reviewed the calendar and saw a possible conflict with Eid al-Adha. (The Friday/Saturday after the last day of school was also a possibility, but we have students who immediately begin post-secondary plans after the last day of school — such as basic training for graduates joining the military.) The guidance from our multi-faith calendar says:
Recommended Accommodations: Avoid scheduling important academic deadlines, events, and activities on the first day. If planning an evening event, provide food accommodations if requested (Islamic dietary restrictions apply). Date details: Lunar calendars vary based on region and practice.
Most online sources say that Eid al-Adha is predicted to begin the evening of Friday, June 6, so that date was immediately removed from consideration given the guidance to avoid important events on the first day of the holiday. However, we also understand this holiday can move based on the lunar calendar, which is why we took steps to better understand the impact of a graduation ceremony being held during Eid when the exact date may still not be determined as close as 10 days before the holiday.
A June 2023 Star Tribune article entitled, “Who determines when Eid al-Adha arrives, and why can the date change?” shares some helpful information about this:
Eid al-Adha was anticipated as being observed during the day Thursday — but not guaranteed to actually fall then.
Unlike Christian or Jewish holidays, some Muslim holidays don't have a date certain known well in advance — for some Muslims. Eid is one of them. For some followers of Islam, the date for Eid is based on the sighting — by human eyes — of a new crescent moon rising above the horizon. And yes, cloud cover can play a role in that.
Astronomical calculations of the lunar cycles can pick an exact date — and other Muslims follow that measure. That's also the basis for websites, governments and calendar-makers around the globe to mark the holiday. This year, that calculation meant the four-day holiday would begin Wednesday evening, making Thursday a day of celebration.
...
"But the overwhelming majority of Minnesotans follow the moon sighting," said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), noting the custom of many Muslims from East Africa who have settled here. "Most of the times the calculation version is the same, but sometimes it's different by a day."
External engagement
Knowing this potential conflict with Eid, the graduation planning team intentionally engaged leaders in the Eden Prairie Muslim community in the decision-making process before selecting this year’s graduation date. We prioritized outreach to Muslim leaders with whom it is possible to make a connection, including our cultural liaisons and local Imams. (Our district does not gather or maintain data on students’ or families’ religious beliefs or preferences, which makes it difficult to gather representative feedback directly from those who practice Islam.)
In those meetings, we explained the survey feedback we had received, the dates available at venues that could accommodate our needs, and our primary goal to host a graduation ceremony that did not exclude anyone. We made clear no decision was made — some venues wouldn’t even confirm dates until January — and hearing their perspective was an important part of how we would move forward. During those conversations, several things were clear:
- People practice Islam and celebrate Eid in many different ways.
- The exact date of Eid was still not certain.
- An afternoon ceremony on June 7 seemed reasonable and would allow observers to honor Eid in the morning and attend the ceremony in the afternoon.
Out of those conversations, the planning team felt comfortable moving forward with June 7 as a viable option given venue availability. However, we have heard the concern from our community about how we engaged members of the Muslim community and will continue working to do better in the future.
Additional steps taken
In addition to the steps outlined above, the planning team also:
- Gathered information from other metro districts about where and how they plan graduation ceremonies, which graduation dates they had selected, and what feedback they had received from their community about chosen dates.
- Explored many venues in the Twin Cities that might be able to accommodate graduation based on the feedback received from the community, including:
- Aerie Stadium
- EPHS Main Gym
- EPHS Activities Center
- Grace Church
- Mariucci Arena
- Minneapolis Convention Center
- Roy Wilkins Auditorium
- Target Center
- US Bank Stadium
- Xcel Energy Center
- Waited to determine a graduation ceremony date and sign a contract until after receiving community feedback and conducting engagement. (Contract signed January 16, 2025; email to families about ceremony venue/date on January 22.)
- Continued work on other areas of the graduation action plan, including planning for upcoming engagement with students, staff and families around program structure, and ceremony expectations.
