Erica Sawyer
Robbinsville – Everything from the style of dress to meeting a number of qualifications just to be on the homecoming court are being proposed as part of a sweeping change to the yearly format.
Robbinsville High School Principal Erica Sawyer presented the planned revisions at Tuesday's Graham County Board of Education meeting, which she positioned as a plan to both lower the costs that have become associated with homecoming and also increase the amount of local impact those on the court are expected to make.
"We want to limit the financial burden on families, but also we want to add a character component to the students that are on the court," Sawyer said. "Every year, it's become a little bit more of a hardship. For some families, it's a whole-family effort to pull homecoming together. Some students are elected to the court and they don't have that support system. They're excited, but it's a burden.
"That's what we want to move away from. When we've got a kid that can't pay for it, we're missing the mark."
Under the new concept, those wishing to be on the court would fill out an application, detailing what the expectations for a member of the court would be. Added to the mix are voluntary, community-service hours; raising funds for a local charity; and a panel of teachers, to provide recommendations for each representative.
Sawyer stressed that student votes for homecoming queen will be the largest part of the formula. Students will also be polled if more than 10 applications are received.
"There will be a cap to each category, so if you complete a certain number of community-service hours, you earn the most points for that category. If you have raised a certain amount of money, you have earned the most points in that category," Sawyer explained. "It's not going to come to, 'Who can get the most money donated and that's the winner.' All the pieces are weighed in."
Dresses would no longer be limited to the quinceanera-style that has been the standard, which Sawyer called another cost-saving measure.
"We'd like to move back to formal wear," Sawyer added. "The pressure is, nobody wants less for their child. If everybody else is buying it, then there's the pressure to do it. Formal attire will be a lot less."
Another change focuses on the parade. Sawyer's plan is to eliminate the use of trailers, which have emerged as a popular use for floats in the last few years. The proposal calls for each representative to be limited to one vehicle.
For now, the court will remain exclusive to seniors.
New school update
Later in the meeting, the board unanimously approved Hickory (N.C.) Construction as the CMAR (Construction Manager At-Risk) for the new Robbinsville Elementary School. The construction manager at-risk is defined as a "project delivery method where the owner hires a construction manager to oversee the project from start to finish, acting as both a consultant during the design phase and the general contractor during construction."
Cove Architecture of Knoxville, Tenn., was approved as the firm to design the school Feb. 4.
The district secured 6.04 acres of property for $230,000 to build the new school adjacent to the Robbinsville High School baseball field in November.
Robbinsville Elementary's new campus will be built on the backing of a $42 million grant.
Graham County was 1-of-7 school districts across North Carolina to be awarded a total of $360 million in lottery-funded grants, under the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund – which was launched in 2017 by the General Assembly.