After a vote by student assembly, the Winter Formal will be replaced by a formal Homecoming Dance. According to student assembly sponsor Dan Marsh, the decision to end Homecoming Week with a formal dance is unprecedented.

“Neither school, that I’m aware of, has ever had a true formal-style dance,” Marsh said. “It was typically a post-Friday-night-football-game gathering.”

The formal homecoming dance will replace the typical Winter Formal in late January or early February. According to Marsh, it was a bit unusual that North didn’t have their formal in September.

“A lot of schools actually do a formal dance on the Saturday of homecoming,” Marsh said. “There tends to be a fall dance.”

But this was only one of the considerations made by student assembly when deciding to move the dance. Marsh explains another major factor in making the decision.

“January is a very busy time for us,” Marsh said. “We’ve just finished up Can Drive, which is a massive event. We then go into formal planning, and then eighth grade open house night.”

Several other issues, like the probability of bad weather and the closeness to Prom, also made January an inconvenient time to have a dance.

“The dance was going to move, it was just a matter of where,” Marsh said. “Through conversation amongst the administration and through student assembly last year, we did a survey and it was close. It was probably about a 55-45 percent vote split that wanted to do homecoming.”

As the poll showed, not everyone was on board with the idea at first. Initially, Student Body President Benjamin Stevens was in favor of moving the formal dance to February around Valentine’s Day.

“Then, [Marsh] started talking about all the reasons why we should move it to homecoming, and I think it was a pretty easy decision to make based on the reasons he gave us,” Stevens said. “I think it was for the better.”

Similarly, junior Elizabeth Alderfer didn’t love the idea at first. But she also agrees that the decision to move the formal dance was justified.

“Since I’m a choir person and the dance was a choir fundraiser last year, I’m a little salty that we don’t get to do that again this year,” Alderfer said. “But it makes sense.”

While the reasoning behind the change seems valid to Alderfer, Stevens has a few concerns.

“One concern I have is that people may think that the dance is after the football game, but it’s really the following day,” Stevens said.

Like Stevens, Marsh also has some worries about the change.

“We have a lot of soccer players and a lot of cross country runners,” Marsh said. “Saturdays are big days for events.”

Despite the concerns that Marsh and Stevens have, Alderfer believes that the dance will be enjoyable in the end.

“I’m just looking forward to being able to dress up and have fun at a dance,” Alderfer said.