As June 24 nears, ASB, administration, and guidance prepare for the first graduation in Stallion Stadium. A lottery for parking spaces will award lucky winners additional spots on campus and families who are unable to get to the school can park at Ladera Ranch and ride a school bus to the event.

Of course, a stadium graduation has nostalgic components. The class of 2014 will be leaving the campus where they began, not in an sports arena in Irvine. And it’s never been done before, so it will be another first for the school.

However, major complications abound, including lack of sufficient parking. It is a smaller, newer school that simply isn’t made to host 400 seniors, their families, and all their vehicles.

“There are about 700 parking spaces, give or take, to where this campus is full. That’s use of blacktop, and that’s use of just about every spot I can get to where it’s not violating fire and safety codes,” said Assistant Principal, Darrin Jindra.

The idea of using one of the two lanes going up to the landfill as parking was discussed but it involved a county permit, and could not be obtained for safety reasons.

“The senior class is about 400; so that leaves one parking pass per family with an additional 200-300 spots left over that will be given out in a lottery to fill the lot,” said Jindra.

Everyone will have to clear the parking lots after school, according to Jindra. You won’t be able to just stay in your spot. Then, event staff, which could include teachers, will reload the lots, filling every available spot.

“It will be just like Disneyland,” Jindra said.

In addition to the 700 parking spots, SJHHS is planning to provide “shuttle buses” from the Ladera Ranch Middle School parking lot to the SJHHS campus.

“There are going to be options outside of parking on campus that if you can’t get here, there is a place to go,” said Jindra.

But that option will involve parking far away from campus and boarding a school bus with grandma and grandpa to get to graduation. How’s that for nostalgia?

There will be about 4,000 seats available at graduation whereas there were 4,800 seats available at the Bren Center.

“To accommodate as many people as we can, we did hire a company to bring in bleachers. They are bringing in bleachers to fit an additional 1,200 guests,” said Brooke Valderrama, Activities Director.

As done in the past, every senior will have the opportunity to buy more tickets in rounds of five so that every student gets an equal opportunity to the extra tickets.

“Every senior gets five tickets to graduation for free, and then if they need to get more beyond that, they can purchase them at ASB,” said Valderrama.

SJHHS has pulled many ideas from other high schools such as Aliso Hills and Dana Hills who also do stadium graduations.

Another potential obstacle is the weather.

“The weather is the biggest piece. June 24 could be drizzling or 105 degrees, so we’re hoping for a middle ground there,” said Valderrama.

Overall the ceremony will take place just as it has in prior years and the seniors will enjoy a well-planned, and certainly memorable graduation.

“We’re going to put on a nice ceremony. So once everyone is in, it will be happy and it will be a good celebration,” said Valderrama.