Newtown High School’s Class of 2020 is set to be celebrated Wednesday, July 8, with a senior car parade that will start at the school, 12 Berkshire Road, at 10 am.

Newtown High School Principal Dr Kimberly Longobucco shared the parade route on July 1. The car parade will begin at Newtown High School, then turn right out of the parking lot onto Berkshire Road, turn right again onto Wasserman Way, then turn right onto Main Street, with the parade dispersing after the flagpole. All students must have parents driving their vehicles and are asked to arrive at NHS from the Sandy Hook side of Berkshire Road to ease the traffic flow, according to Dr Longobucco.

The senior car parade is part of this year’s graduation ceremony efforts. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the typical graduation ceremony at Western Connecticut State University’s O’Neill Center in Danbury was replaced with seniors graduating over the course of multiple days in mid-June, to allow for spacing and safety, on a stage set up at NHS.

The senior car parade was originally scheduled for June 15, and it was rescheduled after the governor announced allowance of graduation activities after July 6. At the time, Dr Longobucco said the car parade was rescheduled to allow people to gather more safely along the parade route as “we truly want this to be a town event that people can come outside and enjoy.”