Seniors graduating this year may need to do something new for graduation. The grass on the soccer field, where graduation is traditionally held, is going to have to be killed off in preparation for the coming renovations of the sports field. Principal Tim Hornig asked for student opinion about the grass problem for graduation, and is still taking suggestions.
The school is going tear down the old stadium and build a new one and redo its sports field. The field is going to have its grass slowly killed off, and replaced, the track moved, and the bleachers remade by next year. However, the grass must be killed by dehydration before graduation so the replacement grass to be able to take hold, and so the school will not be watering the grass three weeks before the last day of school.
Seniors at San Dieguito Academy aren’t exactly happy with the grass. Traditionally, the graduating students are seated on the grass field for graduation. This year, the grass on the field will be brown and dead, waiting for its replacement grass that won’t come until summer vacation.
Ideas were pitched; Hornig had the idea of painting the dead grass. This idea would allow students to express their artistic talents, but there is a chance of the paint having a horrible odor that would linger for graduation.
Hornig also said that if the school wasn’t willing to have painted grass, then the seniors could start a new tradition by painting a backdrop. The idea behind this was to have the backdrop hide the dead grass in the pictures, and have a layer of turf covering the area fenced in by the backdrop.
The issue of whether the grass should be painted or not resulted in heated exchanges. Scott Huntley approved of having the grass painted, but other students wanted to maintain the age-old traditional graduation on the grass. Senior Shawn Le said, “I was initially angry about the grass, because I thought that there wouldn’t be any grass on the field for graduation. The Forum cleared that up for me, and I think painting the grass is a good idea.”
Another topic discussed at the Forum was the lack of school communication. Many students have a lack of awareness on ongoing events, and event coordinators are scheduling occurrences on the same days. For example, the Talent Show is scheduled on the same day as a Mustang Minds competition, and the Great Gatsby Dance is occurring the same time as a Robotics competition.
The solution to the lack of school communication was discussed, but not resolved. There were ideas for a universal calendar that would list every event, but the school administration is rather strict about the one they already have.
ASB President Cassidy Mayeda revealed that once-beloved Airbands is being replaced this year with a video contest. This video contest is based on context, not editing skills, and is to be filmed for certain categories, such as music, poetry, or short films. These films will be submitted and judged at a movie night hosted in the Mosaic.
Airbands was dropped because last year, there weren ot enough people at the nighttime shows, said Mayeda. In past years, Airbands was a huge event, but now, most students have extracurricular activities that prevent them from attending, or have simply lost interest in it.