Field day: The Full Story

Field day is over, but we’re still unpacking everything that happened. There were a lot of changes to field day this year, from the location to different activities to the new house system to how money was raised. In this article we want to unpack all that went in to making this year’s field day and why the changes were made. All interviews in this article have been minimally paraphrased and edited for clarity.

Funding

Let’s start with the basics. How were all these changes paid for? Some readers may have heard from other sources that the school administration spent a lot of money on field day this year. We sat down with Ms. Anderson and the 10th grade treasurer Saad Umar to bring you full and accurate information.

According to the rumors, the school administration spent more than $3000 on field day this year. In fact, highly placed administration sources confirm that field day cost approximately $5500 this year. The largest expense was the inflatables. About half of that money came from the PTSA, but it is not clear where the other half came from except that some of the student councils helped with funding. Investigating that lead, we spoke with Saad Umar, the 10th grade treasurer.

We gave approximately $400. The student government was initially hesitant to give over the money because we were planning for events like SWIRL. However, we had to give it up the money after the administration requested it. We were not happy about it at the time, in fact we discussed if we could refuse, but I now feel that field day has definitely improved from last year and can better meet everyone’s needs. The 10th grade government now has about $1800 left. The field day money was almost entirely covered by t-shirt profits and most of the t-shirt profits went to field day.
Saad umar, 10th grade treasurer

Given budget rules, the money budgeted for field day could not have been spent on anything else, from replacement textbooks to band instruments. However, according to Saad at least $400 of the funding came from the 10th grade student government. It goes without saying that the district approved budget could not require that money raised by a student government money must be used for field day, as it has not been used like this before. The question is why did this year’s student governments have to contribute, and what was the new funding used for?

Innovation

One of the things that required money was a brand new innovation this year – the house system. We talked to Mr. VanTil about this new model, who has been designing and advocating for this new system for years.

The houses have been in formal planning for about a year and a half but I have been toying with the idea for about five years. I was inspired by Harry Potter. The last couple years City has been trying to adopt a model in which student leaders take on a role in improving school climate and culture. The goal is to give student leadership the ability to lead a real positive improvement in culture and climate. The houses are led by student leaders and promote teamwork between grades. Student identity should not be solely tied to grade level. I feel that field day was fun. Even some of the doubters were pleasantly surprised and relieved. The student leadership will be working on a more formal development of house culture. Mascots and visual culture will definitely be a part of that. Students who are interested in getting involved should look out for announcements about what to do.
Mr. VAntil

Student Leaders

After Mr. VanTil talked about the importance of student leaders we sought some of their input. Below are the thoughts of one of the student leaders for the houses, who wishes to remain anonymous.

Being a house leader was fun. So far we haven’t made a lot of decisions because we’re still in the very early stages. I think student input will become more important in later stages. I got involved when one of my teachers came to me and asked if I wanted to become a leader. I have no idea why I was picked. During field day I spent the majority of my time just doing what everybody else did. During the games it was my job to get the houses organized. We were also supposed to get people hyped up and excited. I think my house had the most school spirit. Field day was fun, the house thing was really awesome, but better communication is needed. We need to be able to prioritize education before doing things like field day but we still need to have a day where people can spend time with their friends and not worry about school. However, this could be done in less of a forced way. People don’t need inflatables to have fun.
Student house leader

Your thoughts

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