By Viviam Liao & Sophia Moreno
Staff Writers
Wanted Back West party
Excited chatter filled the lunch shelter on Sept. 8 as students danced, ate tacos and participated in various activities during the Wanted Back West party.
ASB chose this year’s theme, Decades, following the overarching themes in previous years. Starting with American Frontier as the first decade of the school year, this party followed the football team’s western themed home game against Mountain View High School.
With the abundance of events from January through May, ASB substituted the Sadies Dance, typically in March, with the Wanted Back West party in early September, allowing the Activities Committee more space to plan the back to school party as well as Prom.
Attendees enjoyed the night by accessorizing themselves as cowboys with different western themed bandanas, sheriff badges, fringes and more accessories.
Other activities included cornhole, making slime containing Frontier charms and panning for gold. Refreshments included lemonade as well as tacos from Chanos.
After organizing the theme and budgeting during the summer, the activities committee chose to keep attire simple, hoping to attract friend groups, individuals and couples.
“I thought the dance was really nice and the bandanas, sheriff pins and panning for gold really added to the wild west theme,” senior Esther Wong said. “I think the music they chose was perfect for dancing.”
Office Hours
For the first three weeks of the school year, freshmen and seniors attended mandatory office hours in alphabetically assigned classrooms.
One of the main purposes for the mandatory office hours is to help freshmen and seniors with their transitions in and out of high school. Schools must teach students lessons of safety and mental health, and office hours allow these lessons without disrupting class time.
During office hours, students learned how to navigate Naviance and utilize the resources throughout the year.
“Naviance is such an amazing tool for students and has so much good information in it.” counselor Cary Smith said. “With these office hours, being able to put all these lessons for seniors and freshmen in at the start of the year allows students more time to explore and use it.”
Before the pandemic, RAMS required freshmen to go to an assigned classroom for the first six weeks of the school year in order to meet with their link leaders and for academic help. Now, office hours replace RAMS and reduce the required attendance time to three weeks.
Link leaders attended specific days of office hours to meet with their members and guide them through the first few weeks of school. Activities included name games, bonding activities and talking about the different sports and clubs they could join.
For the first three weeks of the second semester, juniors and sophomores are also required to attend office hours to learn to navigate Naviance while counselors provide lessons about colleges and careers.