This year’s homecoming dance was held on Saturday, Sept. 7 from 8 to 10:30 p.m.
The planning process, as usual, started early.
Student Activities Coordinator Craig Alexander oversees homecoming and advises the Student Council Executive Board and dance committee, consisting of Rachel Kantarovich, Allie Rindsberg, Taia Menefee, Ellen Hawkins, Eva Zheng, Maria Harris, Ethan Dong, Tony Zheng, Saige McNeal, Joshua Korah and Antoni Hinczewski.
“My role in the planning process for the homecoming dance is to make all the internal reservations within the district…I like to have homecoming done for next year by Nov. 1, from a reservations perspective,” Alexander said.
The dance committee selected ‘Red Carpet’ for this year’s theme and decorated the space to establish a glittery, glamorous feel for the evening. The theme was completed with a red carpet in front of the doors to the community room, and with celebrity cutouts in the hallways.
“[The] dance committee chose the theme and decorations… and had two meetings with the executive board to finalize everything,” Student Council Executive Board Vice President Ida Chang said. “Mr. A helped us to create a backdrop with life-size celebrities on it and gave us great advice throughout the preparation process.”
“If there weren’t such cooperative and great student council members and Mr. A., this year’s homecoming wouldn’t [have been] this successful,” she added.
Another change this year was a new DJ, a crucial part of creating the perfect atmosphere for the dance.
“Everyone seemed to love this year’s DJ,” Alexander said. “I mean, students and administration…getting a good DJ is hard, and especially one the students like.”
“A cheap DJ is easy, but a good DJ is hard,” he added. “And we haven’t had a good DJ, in my opinion, since the pandemic. The student response to this DJ was very [positive].”
Senior Eden Bergman also enjoyed this year’s DJ.
“The DJ this year was pretty good and definitely a lot better than last year,” she said. “People seemed to like the music and were dancing to it.”
As usual, a photo booth was set up with props for students to enjoy. Another change included an option to send the photos to a phone number, instead of having them printed.
“I think the photobooth was okay, but it would have been better if it could print out pictures,” Chang said. “Some people didn’t like the fact that the photo booth couldn’t print the picture and thought it was inconvenient to type phone numbers and go through an extra process just to send a picture to their phone.”
The dance was held in the high school community room.
“There seems to be a student push for the gym,” Alexander said. “I’m not a fan of the gym because you can’t get it dark enough. And…it’s a hard room to get sound into because it’s so expansive, [making it] hard to create a good dancing environment.”
Safety is a huge concern for high school events because it’s hard to secure due to the number of doors.
“[This setup] allows students to be in close proximity to the music,” Alexander said. “If they hear a song they like, they can rush to the community room. In the gym, there’s no [other] hangout area… the whole place is semi dim, and there’s no real sit and talk area.”
For refreshments, free smoothies were brought back, and dollar concessions were added as well.
“Concessions were basic, and I am glad most of the people liked it,” Chang said. “They loved the free smoothies, and chips were sold out pretty soon too.”
“If there weren’t such a cooperative and great student council members and Mr. A, this year’s homecoming wouldn’t be this successful,” Chang said. “Thank you to Mr.Chase, Ms. Erkins, Officier Pekarski and all the other staff and advisors who kept us safe during the homecoming.”