One of the highest honors that a student can attain in high school is being given the opportunity to give the commencement speech at graduation. As it happens every year, all interested seniors are able to submit a speech to the administration, and, later, an audition to a panel of judges.

Two speeches will be given by students at graduation. One will be given in English and one will be given in Spanish.

The deadline to submit speech scripts to Assistant Principal Joni McGinnis is April 17. The auditions were held on April 30 at 3:15 p.m. in room N104. The students who present the graduation speeches will be announced on May 5.

The Tracy Unified School District’s Visual and Performing Arts Coordinator Tom Renner is in charge of the administrative side of the graduation speech applications.

“I collect forms, collect and tabulate votes, and disseminate information,” Renner said. “I am not involved the judging process.”

Graduation speeches must be between two and three minutes long. However, students are allowed a 30 second grace period for mistakes and delays.

The speeches also have specific content requirements. McGinnis and the administration are responsible for making sure that speeches are appropriate.

“The speech should make sure to give respect to the accomplishments of the students who are graduating,” Renner said. “It should also be motivational, but it needs to be appropriate for the event.”

The selection process for the speech is determined by a spoken audition given to a panel of five teachers and two students. The judges will individually rank the applicants and the student with the best cumulative ranking will be the speaker at graduation.

“The judges have very specific criteria,” Renner said. “I think that they look for somebody that is also capable of delivering the speech well.”

Some people question why the valedictorian and salutatorian do not give graduation speeches, as is customary at some other high schools.

“I would put that question back in the students’ hands,” Renner said. “That is not the tradition here. If someone would like to bring that up with the administration, I would tell them to be pleasant and respectful of the traditions that exist here.”

Something that is new this year is that there are no longer auditions being held for students that would like to sing a song at the graduation ceremony. Madrigals, the highest level choir course, will now be responsible for singing.

“Usually roles are performed by the people that are the most qualified,” Renner said. “We expect the Tracy High band to perform ‘Pomp and Circumstance’. While I’m sure that there are many individuals who are qualified to perform a song at graduation, we want to honor the students who have been training in singing throughout all of high school, and that is the Madrigals.”

The Tracy High class of 2014 will graduate at the Wayne Schneider Stadium on May 31 at 9 a.m.