MORGANTOWN – If Tuesday’s meeting of the Monongalia County Board of Education had been a weather report, the forecast would have called for downpours.
Of criticism.
A number of parents whose sons and daughters graduated high school this past Friday chided the BOE and Superintendent Eddie Campbell Jr. for going with outdoor ceremonies at Morgantown and University high schools – despite heavy rains that drenched the region.
“My daughter graduated and it was miserable,” Amanda Randolph said.
“I don’t know if I could think of a more miserable situation,” the MHS parent continued. “How in the world is there not a backup plan for weather?”
Call it a perfect storm that began brewing with the pandemic six years ago, Campbell said.
Until then, Morgantown’s two public high schools graduated at West Virginia University’s Coliseum.
Two ceremonies – one in the morning, one in the afternoon – and always on a Saturday at the sports arena in Evansdale.
COVID quarantines beginning in 2020, though, put an end to that, the superintendent reminded the audience.
“We weren’t allowed in,” he said.
At the end, the principals of MHS, UHS and Clay-Battelle in western Mon lobbied for socially distanced exercises on the football fields of their respective schools as the contagion waned – which, Campbell said, seniors loved.
Administrators at all three schools, in fact, voted in February 2025 to do the same for the Class of 2026.
With heavy rains last Friday, and more of the same forecast that following day which had been set as a makeup, the decision was made to proceed.
Clay-Battelle was able to move its commencement indoors to the gym, but that wasn’t possible for MHS or UHS, given the sizes of the graduating classes, Campbell said.
The only real choice, the superintendent said, was the let it ride while hoping for a break from the rain.
MHS Principal Paul Mihalko praised the seniors at his school and said commencement was a matter of respect – no matter the meteorology.
“The weather could be better,” he said as he too stood in the rain, “but we’re going to give them what they earned.”
What their counterparts at UHS got, however, was the same rain, coupled by lashing winds.
Campbell, in fact, physically held the canopy at the height of the storm, so it wouldn’t blow off the stage in the elements on Bakers Ridge.
There is a silver lining, though.
WVU President Michael T. Benson called Campbell on Friday before the start of the exercises and offered the use of the Coliseum, or another suitable facility, for next year – and free of charge.
“West Virginia University recognizes that commencement and graduation ceremonies are among life’s most meaningful milestones,” the university followed, in a statement Tuesday.
“In that spirit, WVU extends an offer to collaborate with Monongalia County Schools and local officials to provide an alternative location going forward at no cost,” the school continued. “We want to be a partner and resource to those we serve.”
Randolph appreciated that, she said, but she wanted one more overture from Mon Schools to the Class of 2026.
“I really, honestly think they all deserve an apology.”
