Main Pitch

     Here’s our pitch to boost engagement.  It centers around the idea that instead of multiple themes in a spirit week, there should be a singular concept(?), helping to eliminate the potential of subpar and unpopular ideas.

Moreover, another change to the themes of spirit weeks should be that they start to be voted on by the entire school.  Currently, the themes are picked by the Leadership classes, and it’s already great that in said classes, they are debated and picked by students from all grade levels.  However, if the process of choosing a theme was extended to all students, more people would feel connected to spirit weeks, boosting engagement and general school spirit in them.

     Students would still be given the opportunity to dress up according to the theme, but as different dress-up days will no longer be the main focus, it brings up/conjures the question of what will be the highlight of the week instead.  That would be challenges related to the theme.  Challenges include the completion of daily mental games, like crosswords and puzzles, along with physical ones, like dodgeball and spikeball, held once or twice a week.  Leadership could reach out to teachers and faculty members at Monte Vista, many of whom are more than willing to help run these challenges in their designated rooms.

     Additionally, as a way to incentivise these challenges, the class points system would be implemented in all spirit weeks.  Completing or winning a game would contribute to class points, which would ultimately determine the winning grade at the rally that concludes the week.

Rally Adjustments

     Said rally would be themed around the spirit week, as is the current status quo.  However, elsewhere, there needs to be some key differences in rallies as a whole.  The main issue here is how rallies are currently structured in a way that unfortunately gives the senior grade level an unfair advantage, leading to them dominating rallies for as long as anyone at Monte Vista can remember. [quote from Events committee] [example from survey if we can get it]

• Make sure the Leadership quote is implemented as respectfully as possible.

     While it is nice for the seniors to get a win before they leave high school, it would demonstrate more school spirit if the competition wasn’t unintentionally biased. All grades deserve a fair chance at winning rallies.  Seniors and students in other grade levels would show much more interest in rallies (and school spirit in general) if there was a chance for anyone’s class to win, and therefore everyone had to try.

• Discuss with Mrs. Olson.

     Concerning how this change could be implemented, we could start off with including more equitable games and events in rallies, in which size and strength don’t matter, like balloon toss, for instance.  Understandably, Leadership would have to get more creative with this, as physical prowess takes predominance in many competitions, but active attempts to mitigate the issue should still go a long way.

     In the building-decoration competitions, currently the winner is decided by a pool of staff members, who carefully scope out the buildings, to avoid bias.  While this process is already effective, we believe that we can improve in order to better involve the student body.

     Instead of this system, there could be a school-wide vote to decide the winner.  To prevent biased voting, students wouldn’t be allowed to vote for their own grade level, but instead would have to pick their favorite from other grade levels’ buildings.

Decoration Placement

     On a final, less important note, we would like to see more widespread spirit day decorations, provided they are within Leadership’s capabilities.  It would be more interesting to see more areas of the school make transformations during school spirit weeks, rather than limit decorations to four buildings.  This includes anywhere with school staff members that would be willing to allow this.  Places for consideration include the student work day center, the library, and the wellness center.  Plus, decorations can be featured in smaller ways, like themed posters and pictures around campus.

A Sample of Our Spirit Week

     To wrap up this article, we would like to present the base schematics of a spirit week we believe that the student body would enjoy.  The theme would be Pokémon, a franchise that is at least relatively well known around campus.

     The challenges could be staged in multiple places, such as the library, student center, or a teacher’s classroom; dubbed as “Pokémon gyms” for the event.  If possible, for this event at least, there could be a digital collectible version of a “gym badge”, accessible via QR code or link after completion of a puzzle or challenge.

     For decoration and theming ideas outside of the buildings that usually get them, the Attendance Office could become the “Pokémon Center”, walkways in Monte Vista could become “Routes”, and the rally could be themed around a school-wide “Pokémon league”.

     Before you step away from this article, we would like to thank Leadership for the incredible effort that they currently put into rallies; planning them for months at a time.  But what we want to push forward is the idea that we could do even better than we’re doing now, and it’s up to us to make that change.