If you’re wondering why the lights shine for 20 minutes and 20 seconds Friday nights at the Ellsworth Junior-Senior High School tennis courts and football field, think of the Class of 2020.

And their unusual senior year — thanks to a coronavirus pandemic that shut down Kansas schools and forced a stay-at-home order that scrambled plans for sports, graduation and other activities.

This past week, Superintendent Dale Brungardt announced plans for senior recognition, all of which rest on the actions of state and county officials in response to COVID-19. Here are the highlights:

♦ The Friday night lights will shine through May 15. In addition, vinyl posters will be hung on the Ellsworth Elementary School fence starting this week and a senior slideshow will be posted on the district website.

♦ Graduate recognition is planned at 2 p.m. July 12 in the EJSH gymnasium as a traditional ceremony or with only family members in attendance. Plan C calls for a drive-thru graduation ceremony in the high school parking lot.

A decision on which plan to follow is expected by July 3.

Graduation plans remain tentative in the Central Plains School District. As with Ellsworth, students at Wilson and Central Plains High Schools were supposed to walk across the graduation stage early this month.

Instead, recognition has been postponed until July, again depending on pandemic restrictions.

“It is very unfortunate that one of the first lessons you will learn as a graduate is that life in unfair and there are times when it really stings,” Brungardt wrote in a special note to seniors.

“But the second lesson you have learned over and over as a student is one we never officially taught you in a classroom, but we were teaching ‘it’ from the first day of kindergarten and, unfortunately, even now on your last days as a senior. This important lesson is resilience. Resilience is a difficult lesson to learn, but you will need to have that toughness, that courage to carry on when faced with challenges.”