Possible Plans for Winter Formal Frozen Due to Lack of Time
Despite the inability to have another dance this year, students are still excited for the possibility.
By Maddie McMahon
Despite the inability to have another dance this year, students are still excited for the possibility.
By Maddie McMahon
During the first semester, the idea of a winter formal was introduced on the Pioneer Mustangs Instagram with a poll asking if people would be interested in having one. Currently the school holds two dances, Homecoming, which is geared towards the whole school and prom which is more for the upperclassmen.
Leadership has been trying to have a winter formal, but it will not be happening this school year. On Jan. 11 they even sent out an email looking for possible chaperones, but unfortunately other obstacles arose leading to the decision of not having another dance for second semester this school year.
“It was kind of tricky to gauge students’ engagement like the student body's opinion, if people would actually come and ultimately this late in the year it was not feasible to do it this year. But we are potentially in the works for future years to have a second semester dance. It may not even be winter, it could be like a spring thing,” said Luke Jennings, 12.
The main goal of having school events is to get students involved, having more events could be a good and fun idea, but there also needs to be a good balance.
“We want things to happen all the time but not so many that people are overwhelmed and you know can’t attend them all. I think that dances are great, we got some that we like that are successful, we’ll see if we get enough tickets to sell for this,” said Principal Brad Craycroft.
The Pony Express surveyed 100 students Jan. 26 during the Social Emotional Learning period and 91% said they would like to have another dance during the second semester. An overarching reason many students would want another dance is it provides the opportunity for underclassmen like Lauren O’Maoinagh, 9 to have more than one dance that they could go to.
“I think there should be a winter formal because the last dance was really fun and I think it would be a good experience to have another one freshman year,” said O’Maoinagh.
Students believe having a second semester dance would be beneficial and have many reasons as to why they see it as a good idea. These experiences and opportunities create a fun space for students to bond with their peers and allow students such as Riley Nevins, 9, the chance to create connections and build community.
“It'd be a really good opportunity for friends to hang out outside of school that don’t really get to see each other outside of school and to dress up and the last dance was really fun and so I think it would be equally as fun for everybody,” said Nevins.
These events earlier in the semester could possibly also lead to friendships and teamwork skills that could help at events happening later in the year. This can also create a better day to day on campus community since another dance could give students the opportunity to get to know each other more.
“I think including the underclassmen in another event that people get to come together is pretty important because we have events following this semester like Mustang Madness where you gotta be involved and social and having these events that build up to things like that are pretty important to have successful events,” said Arya Pishva, 10.
Even upperclassmen like Lauren Wittekind, 11, have noted that underclassmen deserve more opportunities to socialize outside of the school day by reflecting on her personal experiences as a sophomore.
“We need more activities. Prom and Homecoming are not enough and prom is only for upperclassmen. Homecoming last year was sad because there was nothing else,” said Wittekind.
Leadership would like to give more events, it just takes planning and more time than what they had to work with this year.
“People who are like ‘oh I'm so sad they canceled it,’ we didn’t really cancel it we wanted it, we want to have it but we just think that in order for it to be the best it can be, it needs to be fully thought out and it is still in the developmental stage of ideas,” said Jennings.
Leadership has been trying to have a winter formal, but it will not be happening this school year. On Jan. 11 they even sent out an email looking for possible chaperones, but unfortunately other obstacles arose leading to the decision of not having another dance for second semester this school year.
“It was kind of tricky to gauge students’ engagement like the student body's opinion, if people would actually come and ultimately this late in the year it was not feasible to do it this year. But we are potentially in the works for future years to have a second semester dance. It may not even be winter, it could be like a spring thing,” said Luke Jennings, 12.
The main goal of having school events is to get students involved, having more events could be a good and fun idea, but there also needs to be a good balance.
“We want things to happen all the time but not so many that people are overwhelmed and you know can’t attend them all. I think that dances are great, we got some that we like that are successful, we’ll see if we get enough tickets to sell for this,” said Principal Brad Craycroft.
The Pony Express surveyed 100 students Jan. 26 during the Social Emotional Learning period and 91% said they would like to have another dance during the second semester. An overarching reason many students would want another dance is it provides the opportunity for underclassmen like Lauren O’Maoinagh, 9 to have more than one dance that they could go to.
“I think there should be a winter formal because the last dance was really fun and I think it would be a good experience to have another one freshman year,” said O’Maoinagh.
Students believe having a second semester dance would be beneficial and have many reasons as to why they see it as a good idea. These experiences and opportunities create a fun space for students to bond with their peers and allow students such as Riley Nevins, 9, the chance to create connections and build community.
“It'd be a really good opportunity for friends to hang out outside of school that don’t really get to see each other outside of school and to dress up and the last dance was really fun and so I think it would be equally as fun for everybody,” said Nevins.
These events earlier in the semester could possibly also lead to friendships and teamwork skills that could help at events happening later in the year. This can also create a better day to day on campus community since another dance could give students the opportunity to get to know each other more.
“I think including the underclassmen in another event that people get to come together is pretty important because we have events following this semester like Mustang Madness where you gotta be involved and social and having these events that build up to things like that are pretty important to have successful events,” said Arya Pishva, 10.
Even upperclassmen like Lauren Wittekind, 11, have noted that underclassmen deserve more opportunities to socialize outside of the school day by reflecting on her personal experiences as a sophomore.
“We need more activities. Prom and Homecoming are not enough and prom is only for upperclassmen. Homecoming last year was sad because there was nothing else,” said Wittekind.
Leadership would like to give more events, it just takes planning and more time than what they had to work with this year.
“People who are like ‘oh I'm so sad they canceled it,’ we didn’t really cancel it we wanted it, we want to have it but we just think that in order for it to be the best it can be, it needs to be fully thought out and it is still in the developmental stage of ideas,” said Jennings.