Pictured above, the 2017 Fall Homecoming Court for Marysville High School has been named. Pictured above are, from left to right, in the front row, Adetokunbo “Dayo” Adeoye, Madison Heflin, Sara Berkland, Blythe Atzbach and Phylyn Forrider, and, in the back row, Samuel Essig, Thomas Rush, Kaleb Shultz, Parker Kuzma and Matthew Walters. The king and queen will be named prior to kickoff of Friday’s football game against Westland. The Marysville Homecoming Parade will begin in the area of the First United Methodist Church at 6:15 p.m. and will make its way north on Main Street to the Union County Fairgrounds.
(Photo submitted)
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Pictured below, the 2017 Fall Homecoming Court for Marysville Early College High School has been named. Pictured above are, from left to right, in the front row, Sydney Cooper, Leah Arnold, Becca Borawski, Megan Shoemaker and Katie Weller, and in the back row, Matt Chalmers, Jordan Ellington, Steven Shamhart, Jakob Piper and Hy Nguyen. The king and queen will be named prior to kickoff of Friday’s football game against Westland. The Marysville Homecoming Parade will begin in the area of the First United Methodist Church at 6:15 p.m. and will make its way north on Main Street to the Union County Fairgrounds.
(Photo submitted)
Local residents who line up to watch Thursday evening’s parade might think they are seeing double when it comes to Marysville’s Homecoming royalty.
This year, local parents, alumni and fans will notice there are two Homecoming courts for the game – 10 total queen candidates and another 10 king candidates. Prior to kickoff of Friday night’s game against Westland, four total crowns will be handed out – one set for Marysville High School (MHS) and one for the Early College High School (ECHS.)
This is because the 2017-18 school year is the first that ECHS has a senior class. This left the district to decide how to handle Homecoming royalty, as well as a number of other joint events between the two schools.
The school opened in 2014-15 with only a freshman class, meaning those students are now seniors.
Prior to the opening of the ECHS, officials pledged that the two high schools would operate as one entity. Programs such as band, choir and sports teams are comprised of students from both buildings.
But some difficulties arose with that idea soon after it opened. Officials had intended to operate one student council for the two schools, but found the differing class lengths made it difficult to set meetings. Eventually the decision was made to have separate student councils.
When ECHS had its first class of juniors last year, those seeking National Honor Society induction were intended to be folded into the existing high school organization. District officials were told, however, that because the two schools had individual state identification numbers, ECHS would have its own honor society.
And now with the first senior class at ECHS, decisions must be made on other events such as Homecoming, prom, awards programs and graduation.
When it came to handling Homecoming courts, officials looked at a few ways to handle the situation. Superintendent Diane Mankins explained that the district considered having students vote for one combined court or having a certain number of the candidates for each position set aside for each school. MHS has a current senior class of 259 students while ECHS has 123.
ECHS principal Kathy McKinniss said over the last three years students at her building have been voting on members of a court that they may not have known. While extra curriculars and some elective courses blend students from the two buildings, most of the school day is spent in separate facilities. McKinniss said students at her building have also developed their own identity within the district over the last three years.
“We wanted to give students to the opportunity to vote for their peers that they have been in school with for years,” Marysville High School Principal Tom Cochran said. “If we did not have two groups, students would be voting for someone they potentially did not know, or have ever seen before.”
Because of this, the district decided to allow each building to elect its own court and select its own queen and king.
“In the end we said ‘let’s not make this more complicated than it has to be,’” Mankins said.
The superintendent said officials looked at how some other districts handled Homecoming courts, but decided on a plan that fit Marysville’s situation.
“Our’s looks a little different, because it makes sense for us,” McKinniss said.
Mankins said the district intends to handle the Winter Homecoming Court as well as prom royalty in the same fashion. The district will continue to hold only one prom for both schools, she said.
Similarly when the senior class honors are announced at the end of the school year, the district intends to hold one program.
One area where families might notice a change will be the graduation ceremony. While the district intends to hold one ceremony for both schools, student attire will be slightly different.
Mankins explained that all students will continue to wear the traditional blue robes, but students will wear different color stoles based on which high school the student attended.
Students attending MHS will wear red stoles with a school logo on it, while ECHS students will have white stoles with their own logo.
The Marysville Homecoming Parade will begin in the area of the First United Methodist Church at 6:15 p.m., Thursday and will make its way north on Main Street to the Union County Fairgrounds.
Officials have said the introduction of candidates and crowning ceremony before Friday’s football game has been adjusted to that it will not interfere with the 7 p.m. kickoff.