Upon entering the venue, Bonita Vista High (BVH) students were greeted by a dark-lit venue decorated with colorful lights, balloons and centerpieces. There were tables and chairs, a photo booth and a flight simulator game. As the DJ illuminated the place with loud party music, the students danced on the dance floor.

On the night of Nov. 20, BVH had their Homecoming dance at the USS Midway’s hangar deck. The dance was made possible by the cooperation between members of the Task Force class of 2022, Associated Student Body (ASB), BVH teachers and staff. 

“Everyone’s going to be excited because it’s the first dance after two years. Every year for Task Force, the big fundraiser is for our dances through the ticket sales,” Task Force class of 2022 President Isabella Garcia said. 

Task Force class of 2022 first prepared for the dance that was originally set to be held in September. However, the dance was cancelled by the Sweetwater Union High School District; therefore, dance preparations by Task Force Class of 2022 for the dance in November had to start from the very beginning. 

“This year was difficult because we had the district tell us we couldn’t do the homecoming dance when we had already started to plan it,” Garcia said. “It was challenging and disappointing for Task Force and ASB because we had spent those months prior arranging everything, and then we had to start from scratch because we cancelled everything afterward.”

According to Task Force Class of 2022 Public Relations officer Ingrid Alcantara, finding the venue was the most challenging part of preparing for the dance. 

“Finding a venue for 1,000 plus people is actually more difficult than it sounds. Venues don’t take us seriously because we’re kids. It was hard to get them to even give us a chance to begin with, unless they’ve already worked with other schools beforehand,” Alcantara said. 

The USS Midway was a popular venue to host the dance as other high schools have held their dances there. For instance, Alcantara mentioned that schools like Mar Vista High and Chula Vista High held their dances at the USS Midway. 

“The USS Midway is such a popular choice by schools because it’s on a boat and it’s outside. At the same time, they have all of this stuff connected to them; they have tables and linens,” Garcia said. 

In an effort to uphold student safety, attendees were required to provide a negative COVID-19 test result 72 hours prior to the dance on Saturday. Free COVID-19 testing was available to students on the week of the dance at school. On the other hand, students were also allowed to get tested outside of school. Students must submit a physical copy of their test results to either Task Force Class of 2021 Advisor Christina Ada or Task Force Class of 2022 Advisor Robert Tucker.

“Other than the checking of the COVID-19 test that was negative, there wasn’t any enforcement whatsoever. We were encouraged to wear masks at the homecoming,” Alcantara said. “There were a lot of people including myself that were not wearing a mask. To be honest, I said I wouldn’t take it off, but it was so hot and stuffy in there.” 

BVH’s ASB was primarily involved in the entrepreneurship aspect of the Homecoming dance by holding assemblies, coordinating spirit weeks and selling tickets. 

“In a normal year, we would have had the homecoming assembly and then the homecoming dance the day after, but due to the COVID circumstances, we had to postpone the homecoming dance for November,” ASB Vice President and senior Michael Dimapilis said. 

According to ASB Finance Commissioner Judah Sanchez, the ASB would post on their Instagram account to notify students about the Homecoming dance ticket sales. 

“[The] finance [commission] has definitely been very involved. We’ve been selling homecoming tickets for over a month. Every day we would go into the ASB, and we would sell homecoming tickets for everybody who wants to go to homecoming,” Sanchez said. 

The ASB started selling Homecoming tickets on the week of Oct. 18th. After every week, ticket prices go up by five dollars. Sanchez mentioned that the weekly increase in ticket prices was implemented to encourage students to buy their tickets early on.  

“The motives or incentives of any business is to make money and so we started them at 50 [dollars], which is a little bit expensive, but of course we have to fund the event. Relative to other schools’ homecoming ticket prices, 50 [dollars] is actually not so high,” Sanchez. “We raise the prices because we want to incentivize students to buy them early. It just helps with the whole process and buying them late causes trouble with making sure everybody who bought the ticket is registered to go to the dance.” 

Moving forward, as Task Force and ASB plan future school functions, Alcantara asks for students to be understanding and cognizant of their effort. She emphasizes the importance of attending biweekly Task Force meetings every Thursday in room 208 so the voice of students can be heard and represented. Moreover, she asks students to aid Task Force by supporting fundraisers and following their Instagram account so students remain updated on upcoming events and crucial information. 

“Be nice to us, please. We’re trying our best and I know that some things are unfavorable. Trust me, we are students too and this is also our dance, so we know when things are unfavorable,” Alcantara said.