EPHS 2025 graduation date announced, but conflicts with major religious holiday

Eden Prairie Schools announced this week that the Class of 2025 graduation ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Some members of the school community have expressed dismay at the date choice, as it coincides with Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday.

The district had been working for several months to find a graduation location and time to best accommodate Eden Prairie High School’s (EPHS) diverse student body and their families. After receiving hundreds of comments about last year’s graduation ceremony, the district requested community input last fall as it researched options.

To find an optimal date and location, the district invited the school community to rank the factors most important to them, and 869 people responded. Most said they preferred graduation to be on a Friday or Saturday afternoon and within a week of the final day of school for seniors, which this year is Thursday, June 5.

In a message this week to the Class of 2025, EPHS Principal Jaysen Anderson announced the finalized date and time.

“There will never be a perfect time, date, or location that fits the wishes and needs of every one of our families,” he said. “We are confident though, that this plan fairly reflects community input and meets the needs of many.”

Anderson noted that U.S. Bank Stadium is large enough to accommodate the desired number of guests, features high-quality audio/visual capabilities, is accessible via public transit, and offers ample parking. As an indoor venue, it prevents date and time changes due to weather and has strict security procedures. He added this will be a ticketed event. 

In addition, Anderson said an early afternoon ceremony would reduce traffic concerns and encourage “a more focused and respectful atmosphere,” which many community members had previously noted was a concern to them after last year’s ceremony. He said holding the event on a weekend also allows for easier travel for out-of-town family members. 

The Senior Party, a popular all-night lock-in event for graduates, is traditionally held at the high school after the ceremony and is scheduled for the evening of June 7.

However, several Muslim and non-Muslim students and parents expressed frustration that the date and time conflict with Eid al-Adha. “This day is the biggest Muslim holiday, just like Christmas and Jewish holidays, and to ask the families to be at the graduation ceremony on this day is wrong instead of respecting the day,” said Fadumo Hassan, an EP Schools parent and former district employee, in a social media post also shared with Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN).

Hassan said the decision was culturally insensitive and that Muslim families will now have to choose between celebrating their faith and attending an important educational milestone.

Hassan said she was scheduled to meet with Anderson on Jan. 24 to propose moving the ceremony date and time. She said several other EPHS families would also attend to share their concerns.

Anderson: ‘We did our best to be understanding and inclusive’

Dirk Tedmon, the district’s executive director of marketing and communications, shared a message from Anderson on social media, in which Anderson said that he understood and respected the concerns of students and families about the scheduled date.

Throughout the graduation planning process, Anderson said, “we did our best to be understanding and inclusive of a major and very important part of our student body and their families.”

Anderson said that having looked at the interfaith calendar, the district had been aware of a possible conflict with Eid al-Adha, which follows the lunar calendar and is not on a fixed date each year. He said they consulted the high school’s cultural liaisons about the suitability of the date and time, and the liaisons said they “felt confident that a daytime graduation ceremony would not be a major conflict for our observing students and families.”

Anderson said that he, the superintendent, and other district administrators then met with several local religious leaders, including imams of some of the larger Muslim communities in Eden Prairie. He added these religious leaders also shared that a daytime ceremony on June 7 “should not interfere with family or religious obligations.”

He said that, given this, the district felt that holding the ceremony on this date and time “would allow our observing families a chance to celebrate their student’s graduation, as well as attend to the religious and family obligations that come from this important holiday.”

Hassan and Francesca Pagan-Umar, a former Eden Prairie School Board member and parent of a graduating senior, said they wished the school had directly consulted Muslim students and families instead of relying on cultural liaisons and faith leaders.

Pagan-Umar said in the same social media post that it was also important to note that the school district’s Somali cultural liaisons represent just one ethnic group. “Muslims are not a monolith,” she said, adding that the school’s Muslim students also come from other ethnic communities, including Latinos, Arabs, Indians, White Americans, African Americans, West Africans, and East Africans.

As a result, she said, “The (high school cultural) liaisons cannot speak for all of our families and neither could two imams. The (imams) spoken to represent one small masjid that serves a fraction of the EP Muslim community.”

Pagan-Umar noted that a couple of years ago, the district moved the first day of school once they realized it fell on Rosh Hashanah. “The district did the right thing then, and I hope they do the right thing now,” she said.