photo credit: Abby Kuilan
The lights, the music and the dancing: homecoming is an annual event that students and staff alike wait for, but more work goes into it than most people know.
The Sophomore Class Cabinet begins homecoming planning before the previous summer even begins. During this time, they pick a theme and begin to plan a layout.
“It is always a challenge to pick a theme. Many people have differing opinions, and it is hard to find a compromise sometimes,” Sophomore Cabinet Adviser Lori Cornett said.
It is a pretty big process, narrowing down a theme that everyone agrees on; it is one of the bigger challenges that the cabinet faces in their planning process. The theme needs to be a common liking of the student majority.
“We put 20 ideas on the board, slowly narrowed to three, and then we voted. We had everything from Disney to an enchanted garden, but we decided on masquerade because we saw it as something the school hasn’t done and something we could be really creative with,” Sophomore Class Cabinet member Abigail Curry said.
Once the theme is decided, the planning really begins to pick up speed. Over the summer, it can be busy for the cabinet to meet due to scheduling issues.
“A lot of people do not want to work over the summer and that was hard because homecoming is so early in the year,” Curry said.
This means that once the school year starts, it’s time to hit the ground running. Class cabinet starts off the school year working hard on the perfect homecoming, but that isn’t to say that the planning process is perfect.
“Some of the struggles we faced in the planning process were related to our lack of dimensional awareness and deciding the decorations for the event,” Sophomore Class Cabinet member Sid Sivakumar said.
Cabinet wasn’t the only group putting their all into these events. Student Council pulled its weight to design and orchestrate new events to get everyone involved during the homecoming week.
“Our new events included a parade and community night and hallway decorating competition,” Student Council Adviser and Social Studies Teacher Rebecca Whitney said.
This school year, both new, old, and renewed events took place. From bringing back powder puff, to a new parade, there was a lot to do this homecoming week.
“I loved this year’s new events. I thought they made the week more celebratory and really created a better build-up for the actual dance. This year was definitely one of my favorite dances. It was also just so fun because of the build-up from the week and the decorations at the dance too,” senior Janhavi Kavedai said.
In the end, all members of the Pioneer community had a way to be part of the festivities; students, staff and parents alike.
“I was overwhelmed by the turnout we had at the parade and community night. We had more people participate than we had anticipated. Students really came through on the hallway decorating as well. I’m thrilled with the success we had during homecoming week,” Whitney said.
Class cabinet members were also proud of all their work and the overall homecoming turnout.
