Every student prepares for their Homecoming and prom night in a similar schedule. Selecting a color to coordinate with your date, finding a dress or tux, buying your ticket, and the entire stress of getting ready pre-dance. For Mrs. Stacey Dennigmann, the woman behind all the planning for the school dances, her preparation starts many months before students have even given homecoming or prom a thought.

“I’ve been in charge of Student Council for the last seven years, and prom is junior class, and I’ve been in charge of that for three years,” Dennigmann said. “For Homecoming, we start planning in May for the previous school year, and we start planning for prom in October. Homecoming is way more stressful than prom, because you’re planning for all grade levels, whereas prom is only for Juniors and Seniors.”

As simple as these dances seem, the entire week before is incredibly busy, full of events for the school such as football games and the homecoming parade. Mrs. Dennigmann works hard with her students to decorate the gym or venues in accordance to their selected theme and spends almost all of her time at the school the week before.

“Homecoming includes spirit week, door decorating contest, float building, parade, in addition to getting all the vendors included and the DJ. The freshmen also are completely new to the way we do ticket sales and fine checks, so they don’t know what they’re doing. Prom is less stressful because it’s only one dance. We focus on food, which we pick from a menu, and getting the venue and DJ together,” Mrs. Dennigmann said. “I enjoy it all very much, even if it’s stressful sometimes throughout the year.”