OHS graduation is Saturday, for real!

ODESSA — Odessa High School’s official graduation and awarding of diplomas will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, July 18, on Finney Field.

The graduates will be allowed one car each on the track for their family members or one golf cart on the field or one car in the overflow area near the restrooms/tennis courts. Members of the public will be allowed to park only outside the fence surrounding the football field.

The music for the processional and recessional will be prerecorded, so there will be no participation by band members. School Superintendent Dan Read will welcome the participants and the spectators in their cars, and Principal Jamie Nelson will give opening remarks and present special awards. Valedictorian Ireland Luiten and Salutatorian Ryan Moffet will present speeches they have written for the occasion. Guidance counselor Kimberly Ryan will then announce the scholarships going to various graduates. Members of the school board will present the diplomas, after which the graduates will make their way around the track to greet and be acknowledged by family members.

The final act in the longest, drawn-out graduation celebration in Odessa High School history will thus be completed. Home-based parties may follow for some of the 2020 graduates, with social distancing still practiced for everyone’s protection.