Lafayette Superintendent Don Aguillard is meeting with high school principals this afternoon to come up with a plan to move graduation.

This year’s high school graduation – for all the parish’s public high schools except for the Early College Academy – was set for May 18, with rehearsals on May 17.

Aguillard said he heard from the Cajundome this weekend, notifying him that the facility couldn’t host graduation on those days “because of two major concert opportunities.”

Cajundome Director Pam Deville said she couldn’t comment.

As we reported last fall, the Cajundome’s financial situation is not rosy. The income from a concert would be significantly more than that from graduation.

Aguillard said he’s worried that some students already had planned and booked senior trips, plans that might be upset by changing the date of graduation.

“We’re going to meet with the high school principals today and look at our options,” he said.

The Cajundome offered alternative dates of May 11 and May 25. Aguillard said he thinks May 11 would be do-able, but he wants to be sure students received the required number of instructional minutes.

Aguillard said he hopes to have a plan hammered out today and be able to inform the public immediately.

“If we’re moving graduation, we need to tell the public clearly what our plan is,” Aguillard said.

This is a developing story, and we’ll have more later today.