In prior years, Winterfest provided a period of doughnuts, socializing, relaxation, and a break from classes. However, the administration has taken the problems associated with Winterfest into consideration and decided to take an alternative route with the available student government fund. Winterfest has not happened since 2007, but ideas branching from that will be taken considered and as of now, Student Government is still in the process of deciding what to do.
“We went to Mr. Hughes and we said ‘Mr. Hughes we want to have Winterfest, we want to use the student government’s money. We have $3,200 for the year and we were given $2,000 by the district and we raised about $1,200 from the other stuff such as Dawg Pound shirts,’” said the Student Government Treasurer, senior Jonah Mann.
The main reason for these changes, according to Principal Sean Hughes, is the problem of having a congregation of people in one area of the school, the high number of students skipping classes, and the amount of fights breaking out. The custodians have to put up with the hassle of cleaning up, a large reason why the tradition was discontinued two years ago. Last year, instead of a Winterfest, doughnuts were provided before the first period of school.
At a recent student government meeting, this same idea was proposed for this year; the day before winter break, students will grab a doughnut in the morning before going to class.
According to Student Government President, senior JJ Hoffstein, “When this issue was discussed at the most recent Student Government meeting, it was the position of the majority of members that indeed $600 should not be spent on doughnuts this year.”
However, Jonah Mann said, “Almost everybody I’ve talked to is in favor of getting doughnuts. [The money for doughnuts is from the] general student government fund; about 2/3 is from the district, 1/3 from the money we raised, but only $600 will be spent on doughnuts.”
Though most of the student government representatives at the meeting, upon a show of hands, said that they were against the idea, Secretary Laura Sokil explained, “Not everyone was at the meeting, and it wasn’t an accurate vote.”
The conflicts in interest have led to a compromise and, as Sokil said, “Now we’re questioning where we should spend the money and people have proposed better ways of spending it.”
The first proposal was to donate to charity, but that idea was quickly rejected since money allotted to the Student Government by the district is not allowed to be directly donated to charity. Another proposal was to install a “train” in the cafeteria that would have student activities attached to the train via a banner. The remaining money can be spent on doughnuts or future proposals.
No matter the final decision, Student Government will “spend the money in such a way that it contributes to school spirit,” affirmed Hoffstein.
Jenny Ma
Class of 2010
