On October 21, 2023, Lightridge High School held their third annual homecoming dance. Although the students only saw a week of festivities, planning had begun even before the first day of school.
On August 11, an officers leadership meeting was held in which a majority of the student council came together to brainstorm themes, eventually deciding on “Haunted Homecoming.” Months later, when the theme was revealed to the Lightridge community, students expressed mixed emotions about the idea.
“We just try to tell them that even though not everyone is gonna like it, we got 80 people in a room to agree on it and to be excited about it,” said SCA President Ava Samson in response to criticism from the student body. “We feel like the diversity within SCA has helped us to get a good enough perspective to make enough people happy.”
Upon the start of school, homecoming preparation kicked into high gear and the council had an extensive to-do list. A major difficulty during this process was the lack of communication within the school.
“We could definitely use more student input ‘cause I feel like last year there was a big disconnect between the student body and our officers and it’s still kind of happening,” said Senior SCA Director of Finances, Annika Kumar.
This disconnect centers around and directly affects funding for programs and celebrations that the student council decides to produce. Officers feel like the student body as a whole doesn’t fully understand where the funding for SCA events come from. Last year, for example, raising money for prom was a struggle because of the lack of willingness from students to participate in fundraisers.
“Many students don’t really want to pay money for events,” said Mannat Kaur, a junior and member of SCA. “They don’t realize that the money (raised by smaller events) is going towards their prom and to make sure that they have fun.”
Click on the gallery below for more pictures from Homecoming week.
The cancellation of last year’s winter formal, which was meant to raise money for prom, was a great learning experience for SCA because it showed the consequences of overlooking the interests of students.
Kaur said, “Our main focus is keeping fundraisers that worked last year, such as our Kokee Tea sales.”
The week leading up to Homecoming was crucial for SCA and they relied on students’ participation in school spirit events to highlight the school’s culture.
“I think it’s interesting,” said senior Charmi Palem of the Homecoming Week activities. “ I think it’s fun to see everyone dress up. I like the football games and the pep rally.”
Freshman Camden Sardool said, “My favorite days were ‘Barbie and Ken Day’ and ‘Costume Day’.”
According to the SCA, over 1150 tickets were sold to Lightridge students, with additional tickets being sold for their guests from other schools.
Student reviews of the dance were positive overall, with the only consistent complaint being the DJ.
Junior Olivia Kim, commented on the dance, saying “The decorations were really nice but the DJ was not,” said Junior Olivia Kim “The family photo setups were really nice.”
Sardool agreed that, “the dance was really nice.”
