With the increase of size of the student population that is only growing and growing, the environment at graduation is becoming a problem. From being squished between strangers due to limited seats, to struggling to find a place to park cars to even having longer ceremonies. Even though we cannot fix the latter issue, the former can be. The sacrifice though would have to be a new location, one that the school needs to undertake.

The problems have become horrendous, one problem facing graduation at Perry is the parking situation. Imagine the dreadful experience that is trying to leave the school parking lot. Take this experience, then multiple the pain by 2016.

Another issue is the seating. The graduations are held at John Wrenn Stadium every year. This was first decided when the school was built back in 2008, when Perry still had generally small graduating classes. The stadium is built to hold 6,000 at graduation with the additional bleachers and the 1,300 foldable seats brought in. The other option is the auditorium, for those who do not want to bare the sun’s rays. The auditorium holds up to 550 people. As this year’s Class of 2016 has 701 students, to be able to have their families and everyone else that wants to go to see their graduation, something about it needs to change.

There are answers, however these answers would require Perry to change its location altogether. A possibility that many high schools across the valley do is have their graduation hosted at  Arizona State University. According to Principal Dan Serrano, “ ASU hosts two graduations in a day all throughout the given time” The downside to this is the high demand. Schools wanting to use ASU as a possible graduation venue requires more planning time to figure out when they can have it there. However, this small downside would still be a better situation than using John Wrenn.

Despite this, it would still be a better solution than keeping it at John Wrenn. The bigger location for graduation prevents the size of the graduating class to be a problem.  Also the air conditioned location provides a better environment so families do not have to embrace the heat to watch these special times. With the cool A.C., families or the graduation class don’t have to worry about the heat to be an issue.

Things have to change with graduation, and a new location seems like the best solution. Whether we like it or not, we have to say goodbye to John Wrenn Stadium eventually if the class sizes continue to increase. Nevertheless, the current issues with the John Wrenn Stadium only promote other ideas like hosting it at ASU to become an option.