RICHMOND – Graduation is set to take place May 16 on the Richmond High School football field – not news, typically, as graduation is a normal event. But...

The pandemic interrupted the mid-May graduation last year. An alternative to normal graduation occurred May 29, with a limited, staged graduation, just in case regular graduation could not take place. Actual graduation day arrived Friday, June 26, and got washed out by rain. But sun the next day at last let the students graduate.

Superintendent Greg Darling said he expects graduation to take place on schedule this year.

“We’re starting to look at light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “We’re slowly getting back to normal.”

Visitors may sit on the field, as occurred last year; or in the stands, as has occurred in previous years.

“We’re weighing that option,” Darling said, because some people enjoyed sitting on the field last year. “We had a bunch of people say, ‘We liked this better.’”

With input from the board and others, the exact place where guests may sit will be announced, he said.

But if rain comes into play, nature will move graduation from the football field to the gym.