SES Graduation Information

Information may be found here soon.

Special SES Senior Tassels are available for $15 each and can be ordered online through the Jostens site for SES Graduates. They will be shipped directly to your house and may not arrive in time for graduation at this point. They are customized for SES and for each one purchased, a tree will be planted.

Details posted in the spring

Details coming soon

Cap and gown pick up happens at each home high school. Information regarding the pick up of cap/gowns will be coming from each home high school soon, if it hasn't already. Please watch for emails and reach out to your home high school if you have questions.

Make sure to take gowns out of the bag and steam or lightly iron it so it isn’t wrinkled for pictures. ISD196 students are not allowed to decorate their caps and must wear only district approved regalia for the ceremony. 

No.

It is district policy that no 196 graduates may decorate their caps. In an effort to provide a formal group ceremony that celebrates our school and district achievements, only approved academic or cultural regalia that is provided to seniors as a result of an honor by participating in a District 196 program can be worn.

All fines and fees need to be paid. Seniors can return unused materials to the library now.  Seniors should not leave school on the day of graduation without clearing all of their fines and fees as it could impact the timeliness of their diploma being released. 

A graduation fee of $40 is charged to all graduates in District 196, even those who come from out of district, to support the costs incurred with graduation. 

The fee is charged through each student’s home high school and is now available on MyPaymentsPlus. In the past many SES graduates have chosen to participate in both the SES graduation ceremony and their home high school ceremony. SES does not charge a separate fee for graduation.

YES!. Graduation practice is REQUIRED for all participants. Practice will be held at the start of the school day on the day of graduation. You do not need to bring your cap and gown to practice. 

The day of graduation is a full day of school for current attending SES seniors. Graduation practice will take place in the morning followed by the senior picnic (buses to park for school-provided lunch, time to sign yearbooks, etc.). After the rehearsal, only current active SES students will be attending the picnic.

The ceremony, whether held indoors or outdoors, will be at 7 p.m.

Our hope is to have the ceremony outdoors at the Minnesota Zoo amphitheater. If weather will not permit this, the ceremony will be moved indoors at SES. An announcement will be made by 10 a.m. on the day of graduation via email and on our website. Please note, a light rain will NOT prohibit us from holding the ceremony outdoors. Please monitor the weather and plan to bring ponchos/raincoats if you feel you may need them. Umbrellas are NOT permitted in the Zoo amphitheater.

Seniors need to arrive at SES and meet in the Gold House by 6 p.m. Do not be late! Bring comfortable shoes for walking over to the Zoo. While it is an SES tradition that many graduates choose not to wear shoes when they walk across the stage at graduation, all students must wear shoes for the walk to and from the Zoo. At 6:30, seniors will walk over to the Zoo along with SES staff members.

• Outdoor ceremony:  not a ticketed event
• Indoor ceremony: two tickets for main floor seating and two for overflow upstairs at SES via livestream
• Tickets will be distributed to seniors at graduation practice.

The outdoor ceremony is held in the amphitheater at the MN Zoo (where the outdoor bird show is located).

If the ceremony is at the Zoo, please park by the main entrance (Dolphin or Gibbon lots). Guests will enter the Zoo through the main entrance. Please do not arrive prior to 6:15 p.m., as you will not be permitted to enter until then. Please know that there is a significant walk from the main entrance to the amphitheater. The Zoo will not have wheelchairs available for our use that evening, so plan accordingly. For patrons with limited mobility there will be a limited number of golf carts for drop off and pick up. Also note, there are no balloons allowed at the Minnesota Zoo as they can be hazardous to animals.

If the ceremony is held indoors at SES, the event WILL be ticketed. At graduation practice students will receive 4 tickets to graduation. These will only be necessary in the case of inclement weather. Two of the tickets will be for seats in the Forum area of SES where the ceremony will take place. The remaining 2 tickets will be for guests to watch via a livestream feed in classrooms upstairs at SES. We will be enforcing a strict limit of 4 tickets per family, no exceptions. 

If the ceremony is at SES, please know we have three possible parking lots available. Our front lot is accessible off of Johnny Cake Ridge Road. Our back lot is accessible only through entering through the Zoo. Additionally, overflow parking is available in the Zoo's Tiger lot. Again, wheelchairs are not available so please plan accordingly.

Yes. Lifetouch will be on site to take official photos of each graduate.

Yes! The Ceremony (whether indoors or outdoors) will be live streamed and available on Youtube. 

Diplomas are picked up at the student’s home high school. Please check their websites and graduation communications for more information. We’ll share more when we know.

At this time no, but we will continue to monitor policies.