Dear LPS Parents and Guardians:

Last night, the LPS Board of Education approved a revised school year calendar for the 2018-2019 school year that reflects a change in graduation dates for May, 2019. The previous calendar showed Heritage graduation May 22, 2019, Arapahoe graduation May 23, 2019 and Littleton graduation May 24, 2019. The revised calendar shows the change in graduation date for Heritage, Arapahoe and Littleton to Saturday, May 25, 2019.

LPS is pleased to announce that beginning with the Class of 2019, Arapahoe, Heritage and Littleton high schools will hold separate graduation ceremonies at different times on the same Saturday at the Ritchie Center on the University of Denver Campus.

The decision to move to a Saturday graduation indoors follows a year of conversation and inquiry. Many school districts choose to hold graduation ceremonies indoors on a Saturday because they share similar concerns. These concerns in LPS include annual worries that rain and lightning would force graduation to move inside a high school gym and severely limit the number of family members who could attend, the lack of adequate parking at the LPS Stadium, over-capacity crowds and safety.

Moving graduation to a large, indoor venue on a Saturday offers many benefits to families:

• alleviates concerns about heat, lightning, rain or snow;
• high schools will not have to limit the number of attendees due to limited seating;
• ample parking is available for all attendees;
• fewer athletic schedule conflicts and national testing day conflicts for our graduates;
• more convenient for out-of-town family members to travel to attend a Saturday ceremony.

We understand this is a change in tradition for LPS. Therefore, it is important to give families of the Class of 2019 more than a year’s notice of the changes. More details, including times of individual high school graduation ceremonies on May 25, 2019, will be available on the district website before the end of the current school year. Each high school will provide details for its Class of 2019 as they become available.

Please note that this change DOES NOT affect the upcoming graduation ceremonies for the Class of 2018.

Thank you for your continued support of our high school graduates!

Sincerely,

Brian Ewert
Superintendent