Two weeks before school began, when Junior Class President Suhina Mitra learned that she and the other officers were responsible for planning the Homecoming dance, she was in shock. The dance, which takes place annually in September, had previously been planned by the student government association. Due to SGA sponsor changes, the Junior Class had a month to organize it.
“Admin reached out to [Melanie] Richardson and [said it’s on] the Junior Class to run Homecoming,” Mitra said. “When she broke the news, the first thing that came into our heads was ‘fun’ because we have to worry about prom, which is already a big deal. We had to come up with last-minute themes, tickets, design and ticket pricing.”
Allison Vautier is the new Anatomy and Physiology and seventh-grade science teacher. In addition, she is taking on the position of SGA adviser after English teacher Lynne Bramlett stepped down from the role.
“Oh, I’m not doing this again,” Bramlett said in an interview in May. “I don’t know [who the next sponsor will be]. Nobody is jumping to take this over. There’s a lot of things that I like about being sponsor, but it is definitely more stressful, more work and a lot different than how I envisioned it being.”
In what she called a “chaotic” process, Vautier said she was unable to get into her new room until the week of school and did not take over SGA until the first day of school.
“[Homecoming going to the Junior Class] was very spur-of-the-moment,” she said. “I obviously wasn’t here, so I’m not quite sure what conspired, but all I know is that as I got here, [administration was] scrambling to find an SGA adviser. Trying to take on SGA [and] two new classes and [to] move into the building would have been too much on top of trying to get a dance going.”
Because of Vautier’s limited time to move in and set up, the administration reached out to the Junior Class and gave them the responsibility in late July. According to Mitra, she never expected the change.
“I think all the officers felt stressed because we didn’t know about it going into it,” she said. “We didn’t have a say in it. It was just thrown at us.”
With the dance scheduled for Sept. 24, the Junior Class officers decided to have a disco theme.
“It’s not really 80s, like the flared pants and Afro, it’s more just like disco ball—a silver, purple, pink vibe,” Mitra said. “It was so spontaneous. We decided this the day she [told] us.”
To improve the dance, Mitra said she and the other officers want to make the theme more apparent, ensure the decorations are “more fun” and possibly include a photo area. However, she said her greatest concern is the funding the two dances require.
“I mean, it’s stressful, but we’ll get through it,” she said. “It wouldn’t have been stressful if I knew about it going into it, but it was thrown at us last minute. [Homecoming is] not as big of a planning [as Prom], but I feel like it’s still something that shouldn’t be planned mid-August.”
Last year, SGA revived the pre-COVID tradition of pep rallies and organized three of them. But, similarly to Homecoming, they have now been passed on to another group: the cheer team.
“We wanted to do the pep rallies last year,” varsity cheer coach Kaitlyn Hoskins said. “But [administration] said that SGA had always done them, so they wanted to give [SGA] the opportunity. So they did [the pep rallies], and then they decided to have somebody else in charge of them.”
Sophomore and varsity cheerleader Hannah Jones said the previous arrangement with SGA in charge made preparations difficult.
“Last year, we were not given any time to practice beforehand,” Jones said. “If we had been in charge of them last year, we could have made sure we got that [time], which would have made us more secure in our performances.”
This year, pep rallies will be held during Power Hour at no cost to students. The cheer team has begun practicing for the first one.
“We weren’t sure what to feel initially, and it is a lot to plan out, but we’re fairly excited about the possibilities now,” Jones said.
Hoskins said students will be able to see the cheer team’s full potential at upcoming rallies.
“We are definitely gonna try our best,” she said. “Cheer does their best in everything, so we’re gonna make sure our pep rallies are our best effort. We’re really excited. We hope everybody comes to them and participates and hopefully even get some staff involved.”
With Homecoming and pep rallies handed to other groups, SGA has been left with Spirit Week, Homecoming Court, Red Ribbon Week, Teacher Appreciation Week, and the Whitworth Scholarship. Despite the changes, Vautier said she is focusing on making SGA more personable.
“We’re trying to revamp SGA in the way that students would like to see it,” she said. “I would love to do more activities, especially during Power Hour if we can, but obviously we have a lot to figure out with that. [Students and SGA] want to get students happy to be here and throw a lot of West Shore spirit in there. Especially when we don’t have a football team to rally us all together, we need somebody else to, so hopefully we can do that.”
Vautier said this first year will be about “building things up” and implementing more activities in the following years. Junior and SGA Vice President Gianna Theodoropoulos, who was the secretary last year, said it is a familiar goal.
“Last year was kind of like feeling around in the dark, because it was the first year SGA had been really hands-on,” she said. “It was after COVID, things were being allowed again and we had a real Homecoming for the first time in years. There was definitely a lot more last year and Mrs. Bramlett was new to us as a sponsor, so we were all figuring things out.”
However, for SGA, she said she believes these changes are for the better.
“It’s sad we didn’t get to do Homecoming, but I think we’ll be able to do it next year,” Theodoropoulos said. “But overall, it’s just easier doing things now. We know what forms we need to use now. We have money in our account. Most of the officers this year, if not all, have experience from last year or doing it before last year, so we’re all acclimated to the whole process.”
Despite the challenges that have arisen after becoming an adviser, Vautier said this is a role she wants to continue in the years to come.
“I know it’s a lot of an undertaking, so I’m a little bit nervous, but we have a good board right now, and we have students that are really wanting to do the work,” she said. “So I really think that just having them to help me out is going to be life-saving, and we can get through this. We can get through anything.”
