The board last night split 9-4 in favor of granting Lahainaluna's request to hold its graduation ceremony June 1, upholding a 75-year tradition of having it on the first Sunday of the month. On a voice vote, the board approved Waipahu High's bid for a June 4 commencement. A Department of Education policy says graduation exercises cannot take place earlier than June 6 this year.
About 40 students and staff from Waipahu and eight from Lahainaluna attended the meeting at Kahuku High & Intermediate.
"When I heard, 'The ayes have it,' I couldn't hold myself in," said Lahainaluna senior Michele Kusuda, 17, wiping away tears.
The schools appealed to the board after state Superintendent Herman Aizawa denied their requests for waivers. The 1991 policy says commencement cannot take place before the Friday preceding the last day of school. The 1996-97 school year ends Monday, June 9.
Lahainaluna students argued their traditionally elaborate ceremony would have been stripped of its spirit if they were forced to hold it on a day other than Sunday or too close to the last day of school.
"Tradition has always been the heart of Lahainaluna," senior class president Matthew Winters, 17, told the board. "People from the community come to watch this ceremony even if they don't know someone graduating."
Waipahu High seniors said they set the date of June 4 in 1993 and made reservations then for the Neil Blaisdell Center. Changing their plans at this point would mean ordering new invitations, forcing mainland relatives to make new travel plans and rescheduling entertainment for the ceremony and the senior class party.
The schools' requests were denied because seniors would lose several instruction days by graduating early, Aizawa said. "For me as a superintendent to grant that kind of exception, that kind of waiver, I really think is not responsible."
Even though they voted to grant the waivers, requested through the School/Community-Based Management Council process, board members Denise Matsumoto and Mike Compton said Aizawa made the right decision.
Aizawa was acting on the board's own request that instructional days be maximized, Compton said.
Board member Lex Brodie opposed the waivers, saying Lahainaluna and Waipahu senior classes should not be let out of school earlier than other graduates around the state.