Venue change leaves some CMS families scrambling for high school graduation tickets
Jennifer Black isn’t sure which members of her family will get to watch her child graduate this year.
With four parents and several siblings in a blended household, the seven tickets each graduating Ardrey Kell High School senior receives won’t cover everyone.
The Black family is among those at two of Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s largest high schools, Ardrey Kell and Myers Park, facing tight guest limits at graduation ceremonies this year due to a venue change from the Spectrum Center to the smaller Bojangles Coliseum. Unlike last year, Ardrey Kell administrators will not help redistribute extra tickets from smaller families to larger ones. Black said the lack of support creates an equity issue that leaves some loved ones shut out of the important milestone.
“It makes me sad that, as a family, we have to navigate who gets a ticket versus who doesn’t,” she said. “I think it’s kind of a slap in the face to large families, and it kind of makes me feel that our families are maybe devalued by CMS in some manner.”
A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spokesperson told The Charlotte Observer Ardrey Kell students get seven tickets each, and Myers Park High School students will receive eight. Other CMS high schools have no limit on the amount of guests each student can bring; they typically have graduations at smaller venues including Ovens Auditorium and UNC Charlotte’s Halton Arena.
The change for Ardrey Kell and Myers Park is due to the ongoing renovation of the Spectrum Center, where the Charlotte Hornets play. The renovation will add 1,400 seats to the arena, along with new dining options and renovated suites. It’s expected to wrap up in October in time for the arena’s 20th anniversary.
CMS graduation ticket changes
The renovation is moving CMS graduations for the second year in a row from the roughly 17,000-seat basketball arena to the Bojangles Coliseum, which has 10,000 seats.
Last year, Black said, Ardrey Kell administrators helped larger families navigate the ticket cap by coordinating swaps between families who needed fewer than seven tickets and those who needed more, she said. This year, parents received a message via the ParentSquare app letting them know they would be on their own.
“We understand that this may present a challenge for some families, and we appreciate your understanding as we work to accommodate everyone within the limitations of our venue,” the May 5 message states. “We encourage you to begin communicating with other families early if you anticipate needing additional tickets.”
A district spokesperson wrote in an email to the Observer that administrative staff sometimes help with ticket sharing among families, but it is not their job.
This year, graduation comes during a tumultuous time for Ardrey Kell, and Black said she wonders whether the principal shakeup affected the school’s decision to leave ticket swaps up to individuals. The school’s principal Jamie Brooks announced her plans to retire last week after she was suspended with pay. It remains unclear why Brooks was suspended and why she retired, but parents and teachers protested on Monday, calling for explanations and her reinstatement, WCNC reported.
“Why did they change how they handled it when they went into it knowing that it was two years of having this problem and you successfully managed it the first year?” Black told the Observer. “Why wouldn’t you have done it the same way the second year?”
While tickets will not be released to families until a week before graduation, Black said concerned parents have already taken to the Ardrey Kell Parents Facebook page to ask for more — from as few as one extra ticket to six or more.
Black, who had a child graduate at the Bojangles Coliseum last year, said she hopes other families, the school or the district will help find a solution.
“I feel like they owe their students something better than this,” she said. “It just seems kind of crazy that they’re not willing to do something to be a little more helpful to some of their students’ biggest day.”
2025 CMS graduation schedule
Thursday, June 12 at Bojangles Coliseum
- 12:30 p.m. William A. Hough High School
- 4 p.m. Independence High School
- 7:30 p.m. Harding University High School
Thursday, June 12 at Ovens Auditorium
- 8 a.m. Charlotte Mecklenburg Virtual High, Elbert Edwin Wadell, PACE, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Academy
- 11:30 a.m. Northwest School of Arts
Friday, June 13 at Bojangles Coliseum
- 8:30 a.m. South Mecklenburg High School
- 12 p.m. Palisades High School
- 3:30 p.m. Mallard Creek High School
- 7 p.m. Garinger High School
Saturday, June 14 at Bojangles Coliseum
- 8:30 a.m. West Charlotte High School
- 12 p.m. East Mecklenburg High School
- 3:30 p.m. Olympic High School
- 7 p.m. West Mecklenburg High School
Saturday, June 14 at UNC Charlotte Halton Arena
- 8:30 a.m. Rocky River High School
- 12 p.m. Hopewell High School
- 3:30 p.m. North Mecklenburg High School
Monday, June 16 at Bojangles Coliseum Center
- 8:30 a.m. Julius L. Chambers High School
- 12 p.m. Providence High School
- 3:30 p.m. David W. Butler High School
- 7 p.m. Phillip O. Berry High School
Monday, June 16 at Ovens Auditorium
- 8:30 a.m. iMeck Academy
- 12 p.m. John Taylor Williams Secondary Montessori
- 3:30 p.m. Hawthorne Academy of Health Sciences
Tuesday, June 17 at Bojangles Coliseum
- 8:30 a.m. Myers Park High School
- 12 p.m. Ardrey Kell High School
Watch ceremony live streams on the district’s YouTube page.
This story was originally published June 3, 2025 at 12:51 PM.
