In an email to students, parents, faculty and staff, President Rick Commons announced Friday that the school will delay graduation for the class of 2021 until June 11 of next year and will continue to remain flexible in planning for the fall quarter.

Commons said that the graduation ceremony, which was originally scheduled to be held June 4, will be delayed in order to accommodate any issues that might occur due to scheduling issues or a spike in coronavirus cases.

“One thing about next year is clear: we need to build more time into the calendar to address scheduling challenges as they arise,” Commons said.

The school is also developing several contingency plans in the case that the upper and middle school campuses are unable to reopen at full capacity in the fall due to the coronavirus, Commons said.

“If conditions do not permit bringing the entire student body back to campus, we will be prepared to rotate students through campus in smaller groups on alternating days so that they have opportunities to come together with their friends, peers and teachers to learn, work, visit, talk, play and perform,” Commons said. “In all of our planning, there are two things we are keeping in mind: the health and safety of the [Harvard-Westlake] community, and the quality of the student experience.”

Commons said the school will notify the community of any new developments regarding the new schedule and the reopening of both campuses throughout the summer.