What does it take to be SAC President? Senior Nijah Johnson arrived an hour early to the homecoming dance. She made sure everyone knew where to go and checked in with the DJ. She confirmed that the decorations were set up and that the food had arrived. Her job was to make sure the night went smoothly.

Johnson had been planning the dance as Student Activities Committee President, alongside the rest of the elected members since the spring. Just before prom, SAC got to work, choosing the theme and designing T-shirts for the coming fall.

This school year, SAC had two rushed meetings to prepare for homecoming. Together they decided on the week’s games and the order of the pepfest events. The homecoming theme, decorations and food, were also chosen in a vote by members of SAC.

SAC drew from old traditions and new ideas to create a homecoming experience unique to this year. For example, they replaced the usual pingpong tournament with tug of war and reintroduced the student talent showcase into the week’s festivities.

Most of SAC’s changes to homecoming traditions are based on student feedback. When members of SAC heard from students that last year’s DJ didn’t take many student song suggestions, they sought to find a new DJ that would make the dance more fun for everyone.

SAC chooses the week’s dress up days and activities based on student’s responses to the activities in previous years. “The reason why we had the [Anything but a backpack] day and pajama day on the same day, is because when people did not want to do anything but a backpack day, they just ended up wearing pajamas. We ended up combining those so it still seemed like people were participating and not just going against what we’re trying to do,” Johnson said.

“I think on the dress up days, we had a mix of good and bad turnout,” Junior Caden Deardurff, a member of SAC said. “We got a couple of days where there was less school spirit, but still, it was good overall.”

Deardurff believes turnout and participation is what raises school spirit. Part of SAC’s goal is to make sure everyone is encouraged to engage in school activities. For example, for the past four years, the pingpong tournament has been a homecoming staple. This year, SAC realized that not very many female-identifying students were signing up to play.

“We wanted a more equal gender turnout this year, so we opted, in a vote of complete majority, to do the talent show instead. We actually ended up getting a really good gender mix too, so that worked out well,” said Deardurff.

The height of school spirit was the pepfest, where students in all grade levels participate in activities to get the school hyped up and also compete for house cup points. Johnson’s role was making sure everything went smoothly. She emceed the event and made sure activities like dodgeball, tug of war and relay races went according to plan and got done in time.

“This year, we went over [by] 10 minutes. That’s a good thing in some ways, because then it meant we had enough activities, enough fun, that filled up the whole time and everybody enjoyed it,” Johnson said.

Homecoming week finished off with a splash at the homecoming dance on Saturday, Sept. 20. Throughout the dance, Johnson was working to make sure the night was enjoyable for everyone else. “I’m just monitoring and enjoying the dance myself, but also making sure everything’s nice and clean,” she said.

Even when Johnson isn’t in charge of a certain activity or game in spirit week, people look to her to set the tone of the group and solve problems. “[Homecoming week is] really fun, but it takes up a lot of space in your brain, especially as the President,” she said. “It was just a lot on my mind, because no matter how much we try to please everybody, somebody always has something that they have to say or feels like they weren’t included in something, so I guess that was really stressful.”

Now, homecoming week has come to a close and Johnson is feeling great. “I was very stressed all last week. I was super tired no matter how much sleep I got,” she said. “I woke up very refreshed this morning.”

Although SPA’s 2025 homecoming was a success, to Johnson, the week still feels unfinished. “It feels really good to be done, but also kind of sad, especially when our homecoming game got canceled. It doesn’t feel complete in a way, especially as a senior, I feel like I’m still missing something, but I’m glad that stress is gone,” said Johnson.

On Sept. 22, the newest members of the Committee, ninth-graders Phoebe Gottlieb, Lucas Messier and Annalia Sarzoza, were elected by their peers to join SAC. On Sept. 29, SAC will welcome in their new members and get to work planning the winter formal.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Sylvia Westra

PREPARE. Senior Nijah Johnson gets ready for pepfest.