Bellevue Details Graduation Plans For Class Of 2021

BELLEVUE, WA — The Bellevue School District on Tuesday released more details about in-person graduation celebrations planned for high-schoolers in June. Each of the city's four high schools will host commencement ceremonies at Seattle's T-Mobile Park on June 25, which the district said will allow more families and friends to attend.

Bellevue's two choice schools will utilize football fields at Sammamish High School and Bellevue High School on Friday, June 18.

Here is the schedule:

T-Mobile Park:

• Bellevue High School graduation will be at 9:00 a.m.
• Sammamish High School graduation will be at 12:30 p.m.
• Interlake High School graduation will be at 4:00 p.m.
• Newport High School graduation will be at 7:30 p.m.

Choice schools:

• Big Picture graduation will be held at Sammamish High School.
• International School graduation will be held at Bellevue High School.

The district has secured professional photographers to help document each ceremony, and tickets for each event will be distributed to families with pod-based seating arrangements. The ceremonies will also be live-streamed or recorded. For the T-Mobile Park events, free parking will be available for up to 2,000 vehicles inside the parking garage.

Here is how each ceremony will work:

• Each in-person ceremony will be approximately 90 minutes.
• At T-Mobile Park and building-based sites, the doors will be opened one hour prior to the start of the ceremony.
• Photographers have been secured for each ceremony. Families will have the opportunity to purchase photos following the ceremony.
• We will live-stream the ceremonies at T-Mobile Park and record the ceremonies at the other graduation locations.
• Following the ceremonies, a link to the recordings from each of the graduations will be posted on this page.
• For the class “Roll Call,” graduates will be called to the stage on the field by assigned seating sections.
• When it is time for graduates to be individually recognized, each will come on stage, pick up a diploma cover from the table, and be verbally congratulated by building administrators positioned on stage.

Here's what Bellevue families should plan for:

• Tickets will be distributed to families of graduates and families will be seated in assigned pods during each of the ceremonies. At T-Mobile Park, graduates will sit with their guests in pods in the stadium to maximize the number of tickets each graduate receives.
• On Wednesday, May 5, a Class of 2021 Graduation Tickets survey was sent to graduating seniors BSD e-mails from our comprehensive high schools and their parents/guardians. The survey asks seniors to indicate if they plan to participate in the in-person ceremony at T-Mobile Park, allows them to request a specific number of tickets and asks them to share any accommodation(s) needed for seating and/or participation.
• Each family is guaranteed up to 4 tickets (1 for the graduate plus 3 guests). However, some additional tickets will be available. The number of additional tickets available will depend upon the number of graduating seniors who choose to participate. A request for additional tickets is included in the survey.
• In order to ensure one response per graduate, the survey is accessible from a BSD account only. Graduating seniors should access the survey when logged in to their BSD account.
• Survey link: Class of 2021- Graduation Tickets Survey

Families can visit the district's website to find the latest updates on graduation plans as the events approach.