After receiving complaints from parents of Vicksburg High School graduates-to-be, the superintendent of the Vicksburg Warren School District has moved up by 30 minutes a Rosa A. Temple High School reunion ceremony slated to take place immediately prior to the graduation.

The Temple ceremony has been rescheduled for 5:30 p.m. May 24. The VHS class of 2012 graduation will begin at 7 p.m.

The Rosa A. Temple High School opened in 1958, serving black students during the era of segregation. The class of 1962 was the first graduating class that had attended Temple for four years, and was given permission earlier this year to hold a 50th reunion ceremony on the VHS stadium field the same day as graduation. The event had initially been set for 6 p.m.

“Parents expressed concerns regarding possible overlap of ceremonies to (VHS principal) Mr. (Derrick) Reed,” Dr. Elizabeth Swinford said Friday. “They further said that changing it to 5 p.m. would be a good compromise. I contacted the class of ’62 and they agreed to 5:30 p.m. (and to) being off the field by 6:15 p.m.”

Some members of the VHS class of 2012 and their parents had signed and submitted a petition to the superintendent when they heard about the Temple event.

Deborah Cooper, the mother of a VHS senior, said parents opposed the scheduling and location of it, not the ceremony.

“We were not asking them to cancel it, we were asking them to move it,” said Cooper. She questioned why the graduates of Temple High School, which is now the site of Vicksburg Junior High School, did not want to have their celebration there.

VHS students felt the event would take away from what should be the 2012 graduates’ special day.

Seniors also said they were concerned about parking and the possibility of older family members having to wait in the heat if the ceremony is delayed.

Swinford said off-site parking will be arranged near the City Pool and at the Ameristar Hotel parking lot on Washington Street, with buses available to shuttle people to and from the stadium.

Temple High School, named for longtime Warren County educator Rosa A. Temple, served black students in Vicksburg from 1958 to 1971, when segregation of black and white students was ended.