By Maria Riegel, Special Writer
South Brunswick High School’s 2012 commencement ceremony may have gone smoothly inside, but traffic outside the Trenton arena was another matter.
According to Jeff Schumacher, the general manager of the Sun National Bank Center in Trenton, Franklin High School’s commencement ceremony took place at 3 p.m., before SBHS.
That ceremony ran late causing a traffic backup of SBHS graduates and families near the downtown Trenton area according to Mr. Schumacher.
He said the traffic backup happened because SBHS’ families were arriving and the Franklin families’ vehicles were still in Sun National Bank Center’s parking lot.
”We do our best to make sure the schools stick to their timeline,” Mr. Schumacher said. “The schools that are coming will not be allowed in until we have the other graduation out.”
Mr. Schumacher said that construction in the area surrounding their arena parking lot also contributed to the traffic build up.
For the past 10 years, Sun National Bank center has held 14-17 graduations per year according to Mr. Schumacher.
He said every so often, there is a traffic build-up.
Mr. Schumacher said that when scheduling, the center attempts to allow a large enough allotment of time between commencement ceremonies, however, it cannot control if a school exceeds their designated time slot.
”We do our best to spread these schools 9ceremonies) out,” Mr. Schumacher said.
According to an SBHS assistant principal and graduation coordinator, Patricia Abitabilo, SBHS is given a select amount of time slots to choose from when scheduling the commencement ceremony with the center. The district had four choices between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., according to Ms. Abitabilo. She said that she is aware that there are other commencements ahead of SBHS’ when scheduling with the venue.
Ms. Abitabilo said that she booked SBHS’ 2012 commencement ceremony two years in advance and the date was originally set for June 20. However, in July 2011 venue officials contacted the Board of Education and said that they could not grant South Brunswick June 20 for its commencement ceremony. She said that she was notified of the graduation date change by the Superintendent’s office but was not provided with the reason.
Superintendent Dr. Gary McCartney could not be reached for comment.
Ms. Abitabilo said that when she was notified that the enter was not able to accommodate SBHS’ first choice for their commencement ceremony, she began scouting for other venues such as the Prudential Center.
She said that the center charges a few thousand dollars to hold commencement, whereas the other venues she considered were more expensive in the “teen thousands (of dollars).”
According to Ms. Abitabilo, graduates were told to arrive at 6 p.m. at the center.
”Part of that (the traffic) was our own fault,” Ms. Abitabilo said. “We asked our kids to not come before six o’clock.”
However, Ms. Abitabilo said that when she arrived at center around 5:45 p.m., Franklin High School was still inside and she saw approximately 100 South Brunswick students and parents in the parking lot.
”We left early and got there before the other graduation even got out,” graduate Corey Koppel said.
Parents and some of the 740 graduates expressed mixed feelings regarding the traffic.
”We left our house about 4:30 p.m. to get there (Sun National Bank Center) for 6 p.m.,” graduate parent Patty Christian said. “We were so nervous Joey wasn’t going to make graduation in time.”
Graduate Ian Moritz said that while attempting to enter the parking lot, his mother was provided with misleading directions by a police officer directing traffic.
”I know SBHS planned for graduation months in advance, it was disappointing that Trenton did not do the same,” Ian said. “They were clearly not ready for 5,000 people.”
Graduate Shelia Daley said she did not get stuck in traffic, but her parent’s did.
”My parents got stuck in the traffic,” Shelia said. “They had to take a few detours to get around to the main entrance.”
Graduate Aurora Mattern said that she had to walk up the streets of Trenton to get to graduation.
”Getting to graduation was crazy,” Aurora said. “We left at 4:30 and I still had to get out of the car during traffic and walk two blocks to get there in time.”
Junior Brandan Williams attended graduation to support his friends and said he felt uncomfortable in the area of Trenton the traffic was building in.
Ms. Abitabilo said that SBHS has held their commencement ceremonies at Sun National Bank Center for at least eight years and have always been pleased with their services.
She said that she received phone calls from several parents commending the commencement, and that the district would be using the center for the class of 2013’s commencement ceremony.

