With the annual Homecoming dance approaching, administrators at Greenhill are working to restructure the preparation surrounding it.
The Homecoming Dance will be held on Sept. 28 at the Renaissance Dallas North Hotel. As the new Upper School Student Activities Administrator, Kira Rivera has implemented new protocols meant to streamline the Homecoming process for students and administrators.
The changes include an RSVP form for students who want to attend the Homecoming dance and similar forms for outside guests that students are bringing to the dance.
Rivera says that while tedious, the forms are important for administrators to keep track of students.
“The decisions I am making may feel like a logistical nightmare for students, but in reality, it prevents a greater nightmare in the event of an emergency,” Rivera said. “When you are an administrator who looks over a big student body and faculty, we need to make sure we know where people are at and make sure they are safe.”
Upper School Dean of Students George Heinrichs added that scheduling a large celebration like Homecoming is often challenging because there are so many moving pieces.
“One of the things that makes planning [big events] easier is being on campus, where you have all the faculty and staff to help,” Heinrichs said. “Instead, to have it be a big day on campus and then after have another event that is happening [off of campus], it is a lot.”
In addition to the forms, Rivera is also helping prepare for homecoming with scheduled Homecoming decoration sessions on the weekend. Students came in on one Saturday and two Sundays to trace, paint, and hang up decorations across the school.
This year, the Homecoming decoration sessions conflicted with the Greenhill Fall Classic, an annual debate tournament that Greenhill hosts with hundreds of attendees from across the country.
“We want to stay out of the way for debate so that debate can do its thing, and we can also do our thing and step up and be ready for Spirit Week,” Rivera said.
Students may also acquire additional service hours for decorating. Rivera says it is important that the decorations serve the broader Greenhill community during spirit week.
Specifically, members of the Student Council coordinated with leaders of the Lower and Middle School to help them decorate their respective areas on campus.
“We were able to get service hours for decorations because they are for the whole school, not just the Upper School,” Rivera said. “If we wanted to have hours, we wanted to make sure that we were serving the whole community.”
Like the Homecoming dance, students also must complete a form to sign up to decorate.
“I wanted to get an idea of how many kids I was going to have here so I can make sure I got enough lunch for everybody there,” Rivera said. “Signing up through a Microsoft form also makes it easier to give them hours when they request them in MobileServe.”
Senior student body Secretary Amanda Park says the sign-up form helps with the organization of decorations.
“It lets us have a good idea of how many people we have coming,” Park said. “Especially since we are using volunteers, we have to keep people accountable.”
As her first time helping coordinate Homecoming at Greenhill, Rivera says she has a lot of hope for the event given that Greenhill has a large student body compared to a lot of other independent schools.
“It is really exciting; I hope that Homecoming is fun, and that people will have a good time as they go to the dance,” Rivera said. “I can only hope because it is my first time hosting, but I am excited to see the things that we could do better for next year too.”
Heinrichs echoes this sentiment and adds that since his last school did not have Homecoming, he is looking forward to seeing what it looks like, especially with all the activities surrounding the event.
“If it is anything like Founders’ Day, where there seemed to be a lot of energy and excitement, I think it is going to be great,” Heinrichs said.
On the student side, since Homecoming generally has a lot of senior traditions including the pep rally dance and walking across the football field, Park says she wants it to be special.
“Homecoming is only as fun as you make it,” Park said. “Going all out for dress up days, making decorations look good and supporting everyone at games enhances the experience.”
