Homecoming: from creation to crowning

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As September passes and October begins, students are hit with the back-to-school blues and are left counting the days until their next break. Amidst the Friday football games, fall play practices and other student activities, students can be found buzzing about Homecoming 2016. Each year, students participate in week-long activities and games leading up to the Homecoming dance. However, what many students do not realize is that the student councils, as well as many faculty members, are the ones behind months of work that go into putting Homecoming Week together.

The planning of the Homecoming dance begins in May of the school year prior to the one that the dance will be held in. At this point, each individual class council creates ideas for a theme that could be used for next year’s Homecoming week.

“I like how we got to use our own ideas,” said Nicole Durso, a representative of the 2015 freshman student council.

The ideas presented are then brought to Mrs. JoAnne Francis, the moderator of the class councils and the Inter-Class council, who work to narrow the ideas down to two options. The Inter-Class council holds a meeting with all of the student council representatives. At this meeting, the representatives vote on which theme they prefer. The theme with the majority of votes the past year was Medieval Times, which became the theme for Homecoming this year.

Later in July, the student council moderators hold a meeting where they discuss what four themes could be used to decorate the class hallways during Homecoming week.

Toward the end of August, the class councils regroup at the annual student council workshop to plan Homecoming week. Each class is assigned a hallway to decorate and an activity to plan. The representatives from each class compile a list of decorations they would like for their hallway, which is given to Mrs. Francis so she can make the purchases. The representatives also work on activities such as creating homeroom games.

“I really liked how everyone was collaborating on finding ideas and how coming up with ideas wasn’t dominated by one person,” said sophomore student council representative Patti Miller. 

A theme for the dance is decided during the August workshop. The Inter-Class council decides what decorations they would like for the Homecoming dance, which Mrs. Francis also purchases. The theme of dance is also given to Mr. William Faltinoski, the chairperson of the fine arts department, who creates the design of the Homecoming ticket.

In September, the theme for Homecoming Week is released along with an order form for the Homecoming t-shirt. Each class has a specific color which is picked out by the senior class council. This year, the shirt colors were chosen to represent the titles which correspond to each class. The seniors, who are kings and queens, were given navy/purple because it is a color associated with royalty. In addition, the student councils are also responsible for the Homecoming t-shirt sales. Student council representatives are assigned a homeroom which they visit daily for one week to collect the money for the shirts and encourage peers to purchase the shirts.

Teachers nominate candidates for the Homecoming court toward the end of September. Each class then votes twice, once before Homecoming week and once during it, for the candidates of their class.

In October, on the Monday of Homecoming week, the student councils get together and decorate the hallways.

“Each class is allowed to demonstrate their own unique views on the Homecoming theme through their decorations as well as having a good time preparing for Homecoming,” said sophomore student council president Marcus Lannie. 

On the Thursday of Homecoming week, the junior student council is responsible for putting on Games Day, which all classes participate in. On the Friday of Homecoming week, the senior student council hosts the pep rally in which two students from each class are crowned as Homecoming king and queen. After school on Friday, the class councils remove the decorations from the hallways.

During the morning of the day of the Homecoming dance, the junior and senior class councils decorate the gym and hallways for the dance. The dance is moderated by teachers who sign up to chaperone.

The morning after the Homecoming dance, the freshman and sophomore student councils clean up the decorations.

“It is the first big event of the school year. It is a boat load of work!” said Mrs. Francis.