Annika Khurana and Ava Fonss
@akhuranacourant, @afonsscourant
The underclassmen Spring Fling dance, sponsored by the senior StuCo class, will take place on Friday, March 4th from 7 to 10 pm in the cafeteria. This will be the first in-person school dance since 2019.
According to Math Teacher and StuCo Advisor Anthony Bloss, the senior class decided to sponsor the dance in order to raise money for the senior prom and provide underclassmen with an opportunity to experience their first school dance, as eighth-grade dances were canceled for both the freshman and sophomore classes. “In the past, the homecoming dance served as a fundraiser for the senior prom, and we didn’t have homecoming this year,” Mr. Bloss said. “The seniors are also aware that the junior and senior prom are coming up, so the upperclassmen are going to have that as an opportunity for a dance.”
Other limitations also factored into the decision to make the event exclusive to underclassmen. “We’re limited in the number of kids we’re allowed to have in the cafeteria,” Mr. Bloss said. “Once we knew that, the seniors and the juniors felt that freshmen and sophomores deserve an opportunity to experience a dance. Given that the ninth and tenth graders have not had any dance experience, it made perfect sense.”
Students should ultimately see the dance as an opportunity to come together in a social environment for the first time post-pandemic. “In the past two years, we haven’t really had a lot of chances to allow kids to socially interact,” Mr. Bloss said. “Hopefully this will be the beginning of an opportunity for them to do that.”
From an entertainment standpoint, students should also expect a DJ, refreshments, and snacks. “In the past, we would have some sort of food, either ice cream or pizza,” Math Teacher and StuCo Advisor Sean Killelea said. “Obviously, due to the pandemic, we can’t have that this year, so it’s going to be more limited in terms of refreshments.”
“It’s probably going to be water and more pre-packaged snacks,” Mr. Killelea added.
With circumstances changing on a day-to-day basis, the senior class has had to be flexible throughout their planning process. “This pandemic has caused a lot of cancellations and a lot of changes on the fly,” Mr. Bloss said. “Fortunately, we’ve looked at this stuff well in advance to the point where it’s not a last-minute change.”
According to Mr. Killelea, the senior class was originally planning a homecoming dance, however, it didn’t work out to be a possibility in October. “It got pushed and then we were looking at making it happen in December, and then it got pushed to January, but again, following the holidays, it didn’t seem like the right time,” he said. “In April, there’s the junior prom and in May there’s the senior prom, so we figured March was a good opportunity.”
As things are slowly shifting back to a state of relative normalcy, students will see increased opportunities to socialize both in and out of school. “We’re doing this to give kids a chance to experience something they haven’t,” Mr. Bloss said.
