CAPTION: The Fall 2024 Hutchinson High School Homecoming parade route, set to take place Oct. 4. CREDIT USD 308
By Michael Glenn
Director of Communications for USD 308 Stacy Goss provided a homecoming parade update, set to take place Oct. 4, to the Hutchinson USD 308 Board of Education Monday evening at its regular meeting.
“The parade is going to be quite a bit different than it has in years in the past,” Goss said. “The student organizations will line up at Graber and then they will come down on 15th street,” Goss said. “These streets will be closed and monitored by our school resource officers and HPD.”
Traffic will be closed on Cleveland Street south of 17th Avenue and should not affect parent traffic from Graber Elementary School.
Goss said the parade is slightly longer than the traditional route that ran through downtown Hutchinson on Main Street and will end at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
“The booster club is donating candy and we have tote bags to hand out, so hopefully the sidewalks are packed and lots of kiddos get candy,” Goss said.
Following the parade, a DJ will be present north of Gowans Stadium at the Hutchinson Community College Pavilion.
“A DJ volunteered to play some music while parents and students hang out with each other,” Goss said.
Goss said all homecoming activities will stay the same, but the parade will just be on another street.
In other business, Superintendent Dr. Dawn Johnson said she met with City of Hutchinson officials to discuss multiple issues, including turning Cleveland Street into a two-lane traffic street and a water retention pond near the Salthawk Sports Complex, located west of 23rd Avenue and Severance St.
“They want to go two-way on Cleveland near Graber,” Johnson said. “It’s expensive because they have to put the right traffic lights, and that electricity costs money. I don’t know if that part will go forward this year, but we had a discussion about it.”
Johnson added the pond will help flooding on the south side of Hutchinson during severe weather. She said Faris Elementary School was flooded the day before the first day of school due to rain, and Lincoln-McCandless also suffered some flooding.
“We are working with the engineers and the City of Hutch and with architects, because if the bond passes that’s where we want to build the middle school, those entities are working together to get to the right place,” Johnson said.
