For many years, homecoming week and the eventual main event, the homecoming dance at OH and surrounding high schools, has been a time of excitement and fun for all.
More importantly though for all the nearby schools, the homecoming dance was on different days. This Oct., students, parents, and teachers experienced a very unusual homecoming phenomenon as the dance for all schools was set to be the date of Oct. 4.
The homecoming dance for OH, OE, and Yorkville High School, have never been scheduled to be the same day in past years. So when the news hit that they were scheduled the same day, many students were met with confusion and frustration as some were forced to choose between schools, whether that be for friends or dates they planned to go with.
“I was confused because they’re on different days for a reason and lots of people go to both so I was upset about it,” said OE senior Sophia Rojas.
“It was hard because either one of us had to miss our own senior hoco or we didn’t get to go together and go on our own,” explained Rojas. “But I didn’t want him to have to miss his because of me, so I decided for us to go to OHS.”
Though all homecomings were on the same day, the themes for each dance differed. OH’s theme was “Enchanted Garden”, Yorkville’s was “A Night in the Bayou,” and Oswego East’s was “Neon Nights.” With such a wide range of themes, it caused some students’ decisions to be swayed by which theme they liked more.
“I think the theme was one of the reasons I chose to go to OH,” explained Rojas, “because it was Enchanted Garden, while OE’s was Neon Nights, which I know not a lot of people were happy with. So personally, I thought the different themes made it easier to choose which school to go to.”
Many students were not impacted by this change in scheduling, but within the community, the decision has an impact.
“I know the dances being on the same day affected other people’s decision but it [did not] affect mine,” said Yorkville High School sophomore Maddie Vartiak. “I wanted to stay at my school with my friends regardless of the other schools.”
Parents made their feelings for the decision known by going to school and district officials. “I actually made a recent report and formal complaint to OH officials which they stated would be taken further up because of the fact so much stress was put onto me and my daughter,” said Yorkville High School parent Kelly Howard. “[There were also] financial issues due to the multiple themes and a personal complications, making us change the homecoming she would attend, [like] buying another ticket because refunds are unavailable,” Howard added.
Complaints and reports being made like these have been submitted by SD308 parents as well.
“When I went to the office to make my personal, ‘report’ I guess you could call it, the office was filled,” OE parent Emily Reese said. “I was super confused [be]cause I was making my complaint this week, [and] I thought it would have died down in there being a couple weeks past hoco, but apparently others either had the same idea,” Reese added.
Given the concerns by parents and students, the aligned date for this dance may be only a one-year situation.
“I really hope this change doesn’t stay,” OH senior Sutton Standherr said. “It made homecoming more of a bitter experience then it needed to be and dampened my experience.”
Hi! My name is Anthony Martel, I am a Senior at Oswego High School and this is my first year being apart of the 42Fifty staff. You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org and putting my name in the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback on our publication!
