Every successful student-run project has one key similarity: the advisor. This year’s winter formal and prom at Powell High School are both getting new advisors. The previous advisors were office staff members Vicki Walsh and Erin Beavers.

Four applicants interviewed for the advising position; any PHS staff member had the opportunity to apply for the job.

“I chose to become the advisor to get my foot in the door,” winter formal advisor and para-educator Ms. Ashtin Decker said. “I want to be more than just a para-teacher in high school.”

The application and interview process were very low-key when compared to interviews for similar positions.

“The interview was very casual,” Ms. Decker said. “It was like a back-and-forth conversation. I think there was maybe one question regarding what I would do if a student wasn’t doing their role that I gave them.”

With any new job, employers look for applicants with prior experience. With this position, it may be difficult to have any pre-existing dance planning experience.

“I have never planned a formal dance,” Ms. Decker said. “I’ve been a caterer for four-ish years. I always did the decorating side of it, as far as decorating the plates and the decorations for the room.”

The group of students chosen to plan Winter Formal and prom is the junior class student council, unlike homecoming dances, where any student council member can help. With the students being juniors, most have had years of council experience but little experience with planning dances.

“I don’t have too much dance planning experience,” junior treasurer Taylor Iverson said. “Mostly just setting up for other dances, which is pretty easy, and pretty fun.”

Even if students have no experience with dance planning, their student council experience enables them to achieve virtually anything needed while planning.

“[Planning] has been good and the council seems like they are doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” Ms. Decker said. “They have a grasp on things, and I am just there to supervise and make sure everything goes as planned.”

There are many factors that lead to an easy planning experience, like agendas, communication, and fair distribution of work.

“We have had a lot of success with the delegation,” Junior Vice President James Emmett said. “I feel like we didn’t have good delegation my freshman year, and that those dances were always very stressful.”

With students being thrown into planning very late, along with getting a new advisor, some council members didn’t know what to think of the experience. 

“The process of getting a new advisor was very interesting,” Emmett said. “We were planning all these ideas, and it was nerve-racking not knowing whether the advisor coming in was going to like the ideas, or if they were going to say, hey, we can’t do any of that and veto it.”

As the council began their planning meetings and they all got to meet the new advisor, any fears of planning or communication issues faded away.

“I really enjoy having Ms. Ashtin,” Emmett said. “She brings a very unique perspective, and she has a lot of experience with this. I feel like she is one of the best teachers who would be able to relate to us.”

With a new advisor comes new ideas surrounding themes, activities, advertisements, and most importantly, the decorations.

“The theme is ‘Winter in Times Square’ –we kind of came up with it as a group,” Ms. Decker said. “The council had chosen it first, then we voted on it.”

The council’s goal with the winter formal is to make sure it appeals to the most people and that the masses have the best time they can. In the past, some think themes have been very feminine-leaning.

“I’m really liking the theme, it’s so much more neutral,” Emmett said. “Rather than this being like a dance that is advertised for the girls, and then they just drag their boyfriends along. I feel like the guys are going to be more interested in this dance theme.”

The biggest downside of getting a late advisor is the huge loss of time while planning. Fortunately, the council is extremely prepared for this short timeline.

“I think that because of getting the new advisor so late that everything has been a little bit cramped,” Emmett said. “I do believe that we’re going to work it out, and I think it’s going to end out pretty well.”

One big hurdle that the council faces is the lack of a budget. To raise more money, the council is running a fundraiser at the dance where students have the chance to buy locks with their date.

“I know winter formal is going to put us in the hole,” Iverson said. “But it is going to build our budget for prom with all the fundraisers we’re doing, like the lock and key fundraiser, where a couple will put their initials on a lock and key, and it’ll be locked to a fence and be something cute, so for a fundraiser, and then the cost per person to come in perfect.”

Every council member has a different highlight of their winter formal experience. Some love decorating, some prefer the technical aspects. 

“The fun is thinking of what is going to happen and talking about it,” Iverson said. “It makes me excited for what’s gonna come.”

The overall highlight from winter formal planning this year involves finding a diamond in the shed.

“When we went to the shed, and we looked at all the decorations and got them out,” junior representative Paige Sanders said.  “We went through our stock and saw what we had, and we found a Jonas Brothers cutout, and it was really funny.”