2011 Graduation to Remain at ELAC

ALAN TAM
News Editor
The AHS class of 2011 will continue to have their graduation ceremony at the East Los Angeles College (ELAC) Weingart Stadium, according to the Alhambra Unified School District (AUSD).
AUSD had previously announced that the ceremony was to be relocated to San Gabriel High School’s (SGHS) stadium due to budget constraints.
One concern the student body had was the limited seating available at SGHS. Weingart Stadium has seating capacity of over twenty thousand while SGHS’ stadium can only seat 3500. The number of tickets available to relatives and well-wishers would be lower than previous years.
However, negative community reaction prompted the district to hold the event at ELAC.
School Board President Adele Andrade-Stadler heard of the relocation and wanted to do her part to keep the ceremony at ELAC. Andrade-Stadler contacted AUSD and received permission to fundraise to pay for the stadium rental costs. She organized the community and managed to raise money for the effort. Bob Wondries Toyota and AHS alumni contributed funds to make the graduation at Weingart Stadium a reality. Although the ELAC graduation ceremony is assured, Executive is also doing their part to raise funds for the ceremony.
“I’m excited to hear that we won’t be breaking the tradition of graduating at ELAC,” said senior Samantha Uy. “It was sad to hear that we could have been graduating at San Gabriel.”
Although students have responded positively to the relocation, some feel that the change was understandable, in light of the state’s budget crisis.
“I understand that finances the reason why we could have relocated,” said senior Kevin Wu. “I would have been fine with the change if it had saved money for the district.”