On Oct. 1, 2022, Decatur High School (DHS) will host the first Homecoming dance since 2019. The Parent Teacher Student Association, Student Government Association and principal Loftstrand are working together in planning the 2022 Homecoming. All plans for the dance are still tentative as of Aug. 18, 2022. 

As the classes at DHS have become increasingly larger, holding school events safely has become more challenging. Currently, the dance will be held in the DHS cafeteria and the two courtyards on either side. The school is working with the fire department to calculate the number of students who can be safely allowed in the cafeteria space. 

In previous years, the dance has been held in the gym. However, it poses multiple challenges such as accessibility, lower capacity and poor exits after the dance. In fact, the gym floor can only hold approximately 400 students which is no longer feasible to hold a dance, as student numbers have increased at DHS.

“If we want to explore the idea of having the dance elsewhere, it will increase ticket prices, [and] it would limit where we can have it. [The dance] may not be held in Decatur, [so] it would limit people that could go because of transport issues,” Homecoming Coordinator Amanda Lockhart said.

Presently, the dance committee plans to release 1,000 tickets. However, this number is subject to change. To allocate tickets to students, the school plans to release tickets virtually. DHS students will receive priority over students from other schools who are coming as dates. 

“I know that homecoming is a full school-wide event, we just don’t have the space for everybody,” Lockhart said. 

Ideas for having separate dances for underclassmen (9th and 10th graders) and upperclassmen (11th and 12th graders) circulated, yet were tabled in order to create a celebration for the whole student body.