It’s not often our wonderful community gets. mentioned in National news but when thousands of students find out their graduation is cancelled due to a global pandemic, it’s up to the county to get creative. It’s an understatement to say Flagler County Schools knocked this one out of the park. On May 31st, students will get to rev engines and circle the historic Daytona International Speedway.
One question that lingers, considering the uniqueness of the event is how did the Volusia district miss out on this? Nonetheless, here is the featured portion to Time Magazine’s feature, “High School Seniors Are ‘Making Lemonade out of Lemons’ With Graduations Online, at Drive-Ins and on Racetracks” featuring James Tager and High School senior, Isabella Scarcella.
In Florida, about 1,050 high school seniors from the Flagler County School District will graduate at the Daytona International Speedway on May 31, seated in their cars with their families. After speeches from a couple of students and school officials, graduates will be told to start their engines and drive to the finish line, where a principal wearing a mask and gloves will hand them their diplomas before letting each grad take a victory lap around the race track.
“This will be one for the books,” says Flagler Schools Superintendent James Tager. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal.”
Isabella Scarcella, the student body president of Flagler Palm Coast High School, will be one of the graduates. And after a “weird and unsettling” end to her senior year, the 17-year-old is looking forward to the event, even if it’s not the graduation ceremony she had been expecting. “I know it’s going to be very different doing it on the speedway,” she says. “But at least we’re still literally and metaphorically crossing a finish line.”
