By Matthew Kenwright
Assistant Director of Public Relations
Lee’s Summit R-7 School District

The LSR7 Class of 2020 will graduate at Children’s Mercy Park.

The Lee’s Summit R-7 School District will host in-person graduation ceremonies on Sunday, July 26, at Children’s Mercy Park, the home of the Sporting Kansas City soccer club in Kansas City, Kansas, rain or shine.

These in-person graduation ceremonies replace the previous plan for Saturday, July 25 virtual graduations. Representatives from Sporting Kansas City worked with LSR7 leaders to provide a graduation format at Children’s Mercy Park that is in compliance with Kansas public health guidelines.

Because of the size of the Children’s Mercy Park 18,000+ capacity stadium, the park’s comprehensive social distancing plan will allow seniors to graduate on the soccer pitch with 2,500 proud guests in the audience. (That means each student can bring up to four people.)

Venue technology will automatically assign seats for each family group before the ceremony and can ensure that the members of graduates’ party are systemically socially distanced throughout the stadium. Guests will wear masks while entering, exiting and moving around the stadium, but will not be required to wear them at their seats.

Graduates will sit on the park pitch and participate in a traditional ceremony — complete with student speeches and a walk across the stage. The ceremony will be projected on the park’s large video board, utilize in-house sound and will also be live-streamed.

The time of the ceremonies will be as follows:

• Lee’s Summit High School, 3:30 p.m.
• Lee’s Summit North High School, 6 p.m.
• Lee’s Summit West High School, 8:30 p.m.
• Details regarding a Summit Ridge Academy ceremony on July 27 will be forthcoming from SRA leadership.