With renovations at Dietz Stadium likely to be completed in August, the Kingston City School District (KCSD) has just one bit of unfinished business: The Class of 2024 graduation ceremony.
For the first, and what district officials hope will be the last time for a long time to come, the annual commencement pomp and circumstance traditionally held in the cavernous confines of Dietz Stadium will instead take place in a field behind Edward R. Crosby Elementary School in the Town of Ulster.
This is actually the second straight year of planning for a non-Dietz graduation for the KCSD. After identifying the football field at Rondout Valley High School as their best option last year, district officials met with representatives of the Class of 2023 who made it clear they wanted to graduate in Kingston and nowhere else. And so a ceremony was planned for Albert C. Gruner Memorial Field, located in Lake Katrine, just south of the district’s M. Clifford Miller Middle School, with district officials grappling with how to accommodate enough space for family and friends of a graduating class of over 450 students, particularly as KHS commencement ceremonies frequently pack a few thousand people into Dietz.
Ultimately, construction delays meant the Class of 2023 was able to receive their diplomas where they hoped to in the first place: At Dietz Stadium. No such opportunity awaits the Class of 2024.
But instead of reviving the Gruner Field option for the Friday, June 28 ceremony, district officials instead settled on Crosby Elementary for a variety of reasons. Deputy superintendent for teaching and learning Kirk Reinhardt detailed some of the plans during a meeting of the board of education held on Wednesday, May 8.
“We were able to secure 3,500 chairs,” Reinhardt said, comparing the setup to Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), with the stage set up on the west side of the Crosby field, and a hillside where those unable to find district-supplied seating can sit on the grass or their own chairs. With around 430 graduates, overflow is anticipated.
“There will be sections that will be set up in clumps of chairs of about 300,” Reinhardt said. “Every family will get six tickets but the event is not limited, so you can bring as many as you want outside of that area.”
Last week, superintendent Paul Padalino spoke with Hudson Valley One to provide further details, doubling down on the amphitheater theme.
“It’s kind of like going to SPAC or Bethel Woods,” he said. “You get your number of seats and some people are going to bring their own and camp out.”
While there is some parking available at Crosby Elementary and nearby M. Clifford Miller Middle School, a pair of lots suitable for a regular school day are highly unlikely to accommodate the expected turnout for the graduation ceremony.
“We’re working with the Town of Ulster and their police department to try and close the street, and we have kind of an outlet parking understanding with iPark 87,” Padalino said, adding that the district will run shuttle buses to ancillary parking areas.
“We’ve got multiple golf carts for people who have difficulty getting around or handicapped people,” Padalino said.
District officials expect to share a map of the ceremony grounds and parking areas by next week, well ahead of June 28.
Padalino said the Crosby plans should allow for as many as a few thousand spectators to enjoy the ceremony.
“People in the Kingston City School District are used to unlimited everything because of Dietz,” he said. “Most other school districts, there’s a limited number of tickets and entries, but we have never done that. We’re trying to continue to offer that to our community and to our families.”
Suggestions were made for other venues, like Ulster Performing Arts Center, but with a capacity of 1,510 and limited parking, Padalino said that wasn’t a viable option.
“There are very few venues in Ulster County other than maybe SUNY New Paltz that could handle the number of people we’re talking about,” he said. “And SUNY New Paltz is a long way away, and it’s not in our school district.”
Also not in the school district is Rondout Valley High School, which was a home away from home for the Kingston High School varsity football team and other sports during the closure of Dietz.
“The Rondout Valley School District has been so unbelievably cooperative with us,” Padalino said. “And last year we did go down there and they were more than willing to let us use their football stadium for graduation. But our kids were very clear and they didn’t want to graduate at Rondout Valley High School. That’s not where they go. And in some cases, they’re rivals. And I completely get that.”
Should it rain, either on graduation day, or in the week before rendering the Crosby field unusable, the district could pivot to an indoor ceremony at Kate Walton Field House on the KHS campus. That would mean limited seating with just two tickets per graduate rather than six. Anyone planning to attend the graduation ceremony should keep their eyes on the skies, as well as the KCSD website and social media channels.
Join the family! 
