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Encinal High School's student body was buzzing with excitement throughout the week in anticipation of the Performing Arts Assembly, planned for Friday, March 10, that would feature the talent of the school's band, drama, and dance programs Unfortunately, due to staffing issues, including twelve staff absences, the assembly was postponed until further notice.
“It’s not ideal to have an event when we don’t have a considerable amount of our teachers in the space,” said Principal Snyder. “It won't go as well as it could if we had the right adults with us.”
One of the staff absences included the Leadership teacher, Kevin Gorham. The Leadership class, who had helped organize the event, was prepared to work around this prior to the postponement.
“Gorham knew he wasn’t going to be here today and we were still going to push forward with it,” said ASB Co-President Macie LaGuardia, who planned to perform with both drama and dance. “But due to some staffing issues and teachers not being here and campus supervisors not being here either, it’s a safety issue for the students because all the students are gathered into one place and we don't have enough manpower to make sure everyone’s safe. We’d rather have it when there’s more staff and the campus supervisors are here to make sure everyone’s okay.”
For many students, this created a flurry of mixed emotions, especially within the students who worked hard for their performance at the assembly. Many felt disappointed, but were also understanding and glad for the extra time to practice.
“I was shocked at first, but then that kind of dissipated because I think things like this have happened before,” said sophomore Ava Diener, a cast member of Encinal Drama’s production of The Lightning Thief. “[I was] a little disappointed because I feel like there was definitely a build up and the cast was prepared to put on the thing that we’ve been working on… and there’s a let down when [this] happens. The arts are so underappreciated, schoolwide, worldwide, in so many schools, and I think there’s not many spaces to showcase them… We have a lot of shows, but not everyone is interested in seeing them and this is… a mandated way to see the arts so we can reel in people and build up the program.”
Even with the disappointment, performers, fellow students, and staff can rest assured that the event will still go on with only a momentary delay.
“Right now, my main focus is just making sure this assembly happens and even if it’s not going to be today, it’s always going to be next week, or the week after,” LaGuardia said. “We don’t have much exposure for our performing arts departments and this is one of the only times they can expose themselves to our whole student body and get people involved.”
Senior Naomi Chalem-Wallach contributed to this article.