By Ray King

Arkansas schools who want to have a graduation ceremony for their seniors are being told to wait until after July 1.

Arkansas Secretary of Education Johnny Key said Saturday that traditional graduation ceremonies which in past years drew hundreds it not thousands of people and were one of the most well attended events in some communities would not be possible because of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Key was speaking at Governor Asa Hutchinson’s daily update and said his department will be accepting proposals from school districts who want to have a non-traditional ceremony using video or other technology and those will be evaluated by not only his department but also by the state health department.

“I encourage them to wait until after July 1,” Key said, adding that the education department will be sending out information to the state’s school districts on how to submit those proposals.

In his daily update, the Governor said an additional 89 people tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the state’s total to 2,830. Of the 89 new cases, 47 of them came from Cummins prison. Three additional deaths were reported, bringing the state’s total to 49 and 104 people are hospitalized.

State Health Officer Dr. Nate Smith said that currently, 826 inmates at Cummins have tested positive and health officials are “almost finished testing the inmates.” A total of 33 staff members have tested positive and Smith said 200 other staff members have been tested but those results have not been posted yet so the number of staff testing positive could increase.

Both Key and the Governor talked about the next school year with Key said his department is already working on planning for the fall semester and has created several teams of educators, teachers, principals and administrators to look at various things.

Hutchinson said it was important for students to have class time and based on the numbers so far, believes that a traditional school year beginning in the fall is possible but that call will be made later and the Heath Department will have the most input.

The Governor was also asked about an announcement from the Department of Corrections that they have identified more than 1,600 people who could be released early. He had asked prison officials to compile a list and said Saturday one of the reasons was so that if a COVID-19 outbreak was reported at another of the state’s prisons, space would be available to isolate prisoners.

Regarding those people identified by the Department of Corrections as being eligible for early release, Hutchinson said they are all within six months of their parole eligibility date and must have an approve parole plan. They will also be screened for COVID-19 to ensure that they don’t test positive.