Middle school had a very exciting event on Friday, Oct. 22. This is going to be the first middle school dance since October of 2019. The dance is Halloween themed, students and staff will be dressed in their best costumes and dance all night. Many young students are looking forward to their dance and staff members are excited to see students relax and have a fun Friday night. The middle school student council is working very hard for all of the preparations. They have been working on a theme, décor, and planning out the events for the night. 

“We are planning to meet up at the school an hour and a half before the dance starts to get the decorations up and ready,” Sophia Parmelee, middle school student council president said. It must have been intimidating to get the dance ready knowing that middle school hasn’t had a dance in a while. They wanted to make it a great experience for the students.

“I’m mostly excited that the PTO movie night is on the same night as the dance, so that we can dance and hang out, and also watch the movie that they will be showing,” Parmelee said. “My mom will also be one of the chaperones at the dance, so it will be exciting to be able to talk and hang out with her.” Organizing a dance can be difficult especially for Sophia Parmelee and the rest of student council as they are young and have other commitments outside of school.

“We planned for students who are attending and paid for to wear a wristband so that the chaperones outside can let the right group of students inside the school for the dance,” Parmelee said. “We’re hoping this will get rid of the confusion that may happen with the PTO movie night happening at the same time.” Using wristbands to let staff know which students are attending the dance is convenient for everyone.

“We started talking about dance preparations a week before the actual dance happened. In that meeting, we stationed people so that they know what job they will be doing for the night and we started to look for the decorations,” Parmelee said. Since there hasn’t been a middle school dance in awhile, it can be worrisome if students will actually attend since there are other school events happening the same night.

“I am hoping that most of the middle school will show up to the dance. This week has been really stressful and we all want our hard work to pay off,” Parmelee said. “I think a lot of sixth graders will show up more than any grade because 

they’re new to the school and are excited to do school events.” Although the PTO movie night is the same day and location, this can be beneficial for parents to attend so that they won’t have to worry about leaving their kid alone at the dance. Masks were not required at the dance since the dance will mostly be taken outside and there will be less people. 

The following Monday after the dance (Oct. 25, 2021), Sophia Parmelee was interviewed again about how the dance went and her overall view on it. “The dance was decent, I feel like there were some parts that could have been better,” Parmelee said. “Many of the kids who attended have different views on it, it also depends who you hung out with.” It can be stressful at times to make something fun for everyone, this is the time to reflect and improve on what could have been better.

“There was almost no lighting outside, it was really dark so it was hard to manage all of the students walking in the school. There were also so many students that we couldn’t check all of the wristbands in time to see if they could enter or not,” Parmelee said. “I think that maybe if there were more staff and chaperones outside to help, things would have gone smoothly.” More help was needed for this part of the dance, especially when all of the students were piled up at the door.

“There were so many places for the students to go that it was hard to manage where everyone was. There were some parts of the field and outside the bistro that students weren’t allowed to go through but they did anyway,” Parmelee said. “We should have been more vocalized about the boundaries to the students so that they knew where to go instead of telling them individually.” One of the hardest parts of setting up school events is the communication.

“Something that went well were the booths outside at the PTO night. I think that students really liked being able to get different food than what was selling at the dance,” Parmelee said. Most students can get bored by staying in one setting for a long period of time, having the PTO night on the back field was beneficial for any students and fulfilled enjoyment. 

“A good majority of students attended the dance, it was hard to tell approximately how many came, but it was a wide range of students,” Parmelee said. “It was surprising to the student council team by how many students came to the dance!”

“I had a lot of fun at the dance toward the end. In the beginning, I was running around everywhere trying to make sure everything is set up correctly and prepared for the students,” Parmelee said. “Toward the end, I got to relax more and hang out with my friends and that is what I was looking forward to. I think many students had fun and it has been awhile since our last dance, it left off on a good note.” 

The middle school dance was a stressful week for middle school and student council to prepare, it left off with a good ending and happy memories.