Rockdale County Public Schools announced its high school graduation ceremonies will be held at the Georgia International Horse Park this year as the three high school stadiums have their grass replaced with artificial turf.

The dates and times will be as follows:
Heritage High School - Thursday, May 21, 2015, 6 p.m.
Rockdale County High School / Rockdale Magnet School for Science and Tech. - Friday, May 22, 2015, 6 p.m.
Salem High School - Saturday, May 23, 2015, 8 a.m.

The artificial turf projects at each high school will begin before graduation and continue throughout the summer to prepare for the upcoming school yea

"We are thankful to have such a prestigious venue in Rockdale County as the Georgia International Horse Park so that we did not have to research others that many schools use in downtown Atlanta to accommodate large crowds," says Superintendent Richard Autry. We look forward to having more seating and parking available for family and friends and will certainly strive to make these graduations a memorable and cherished time for all who attend."

Last month each high school principal spoke to the respective senior classes and explained the need to move graduation ceremonies to an alternate location. RCPS spokesperson Cindy Ball said a sheet of paper with a link to a survey had been given out to seniors and a phone message had gone out to parents and seniors. The survey was open online Nov. 3-10. About 128 people replied and about 80.5 percent gave a positive response to finding an alternate location. There are about 1,000 high school seniors in the school system.

Superintendent Richard Autry said previously the main concern expressed in the survey was the amount of seating and number of tickets available for relatives and the amount of parking available.