HOMECOMING DANCE ON A FRIDAY?

Why Homecoming was almost held on a Friday instead of a Saturday

Autumn Morgan, Social Media Editor|September 21, 2019

Autumn Morgan

Homecoming was originally supposed to be on a Friday, but was moved to Saturday.

Rushing to the high school directly after the Homecoming football game, ready to dance the night away with the class of 1995 is a fond memory of new principal David Miles.

It is an experience he desired to share with the current student body. Moving the dance from a Saturday to Friday, Oct. 4, was one of his first big decisions as principal.

“As someone who is from SHS coming back to the school I just thought we should bring back some of the tradition and try something new,” said Miles, who worked at Boundary County Middle School in Bonners Ferry before returning to Sandpoint.

The move to a Friday night dance was not popular among students, however.

When first hearing of the change, senior Elise Gregory said she was concerned if there was enough time on Friday for both events.

“We would have no time on Friday to get ready for the dance, so I felt really annoyed if it were to be on a Friday,” Gregory said. “Realistically if it was on a Friday, I would have gone to the football game and not the dance.”

Taking these points and more into consideration, Gabrielle Hicks and Savannah Morgan took to action. The Student Council members scheduled a meeting with the administration where they presented their argument for keeping the dance on Saturday.

“Over the years we have created our own tradition where it’s a lot bigger of a deal and people like getting dressed up and going to dinner … doing all those pre-dance things,” Hicks said.

Other points included some students not being able to attend both the dance and the football game, and the difficulties in planning and preparing for Student Council. They also shared a social media poll where 73 percent of the 208 respondents voted to have the dance on Saturday.

After all these critical elements were brought to attention, Miles decided to move the dance back to a Saturday, Oct. 5.

Ultimately, as principal, Miles conveys that as a whole, the SHS staff is continuously trying to increase attendance at every event. So, by listening to the students, and keeping the Homecoming Dance on a Saturday as done in previous years, the hope is that more students will attend and have an overall better Homecoming Week experience.