Next week is graduation week for Mat-Su Borough School District seniors.
One week. Fourteen ceremonies. One thousand graduates. The crew that makes it happen has been working months.
Graduation week is more than a celebration for John Notestine and Brian Mead. It’s a marathon. They want to make sure all 1000 students get their moment in the spotlight. They’ll spend five straight days at the Menard Center. They’ll work from 8 in the morning until 10 p.m. or later each day.
Notestine is the district’s public information officer. Mead handles education technology. They have run graduation production for over ten years.
This is the first year for the three diploma levels: standard, honors, and honors with distinction.
About one in three graduates will cross that stage having earned an honors or honors with distinction diploma and a medal.
The standard diploma requires 25 and a half credits.
The honors diploma requires 27 credits. Three credits are in advanced coursework or 15 college credits. The honors with distinction diploma also requires 27 credits. Eight credits of advanced coursework or 45 college credits.
Mead didn’t wait for anyone to hand him this job. He started recording graduations more than ten years ago at Colony High School. It was a passion project. He just did it. Mead brought his own equipment and borrowed cameras. He recruited students from a media club to help film. They sold the recordings on DVDs.
Coordination between schools on graduations was almost nonexistent. Mead says it was sort of the wild west.
While Mead taught at Colony High School back then, Notestine was at Wasilla High. Both men now work at the central office. Student crews have been replaced by remote controlled cameras. A screen lets families see graduates walk to their seats.
Mead pulled together the first all-schools meeting on graduation at a coffeehouse. No school felt like another school was calling the shots. It was neutral ground. They began sharing costs for flowers, decorations, and pianos.
Everything clicked when Associate Superintendent Reese Everett took on oversight. Mead says the ceremonies now feel like a well-oiled machine. For him, that’s a good place to be.
Fourteen schools have graduations. Nine of those graduation ceremonies happen at the Menard Center. There are two, sometimes three graduations a day.
The remaining five celebrate on their own campuses or at venues of their choosing. They include the smaller and charter schools.
The district owns seven trailers of graduation equipment. This $10,000 to $15,000 investment is expected to last a decade.
The district covers most of the graduation expenses for schools by using the Menard Center. The annual contract with the averages $20,000.
Individual schools spend several thousand dollars on buses, programs, flowers and, of course, cookies.
With 2500 chairs on the floor and more seating on the bleachers, Notestine and Mead expect to see about 12,000 graduates and guests over the week.
Notestine likes watching the soon-to-be- graduates walk through the gauntlet of teachers and administrators. They stop for high fives and hugs on their way to their seats. It slows things down, he says. But it’s worth it.
He says commencements are always positive, no matter how negative the world is outside. The students have earned it.
Mead still doesn’t think of it as a job. “It’s still fun,” he says.
All graduations are live-streamed and can be watched on the District’s Vimeo site or on the Matanuska Susitna Borough School District Facebook page.
Find the schedule of graduations on matsuk12.us under calendars.
Page 2 airs weekdays at 7 a.m., 9 a.m., 11:50 a.m., and 6 p.m.
Tune in at 89.7 in Palmer, 89.5 in Sutton, 88.3 in Chickaloon and Glacier View or online at bigcabbageradio.org.
Please support Page 2 News. Donate today at bigcabbageradio.org.
This Page Two article was reported by Emily Forstner and produced by yours truly, Lee Henrikson. If you have an idea for a Page 2 topic, please email us at page2@radiofreepalmer.org.
That’s it for today and the news on Page Two on Friday May 15, 2026.