Student Council officers have declined to redo Wiscasset Middle High School’s Oct. 7 homecoming dance, Student Council Advisor Deb Pooler said Oct. 14. But the council will get some financial help and will have input into the dress code policy, including getting to talk with the policy committee, Superintendent of Schools Robert “Bob” England said in a phone interview Oct. 14.

Principal Charles Lomonte had offered the council the chance to organize a second homecoming dance when he apologized Oct. 11 for a dress code issue he said was a mistake. Students and others reported girls were turned away due to exposed shoulders.

In an email response to questions, Pooler explained council officers determined they would rather focus their energy and time on the annual Haunted High School, Oct. 21 and 22 from 6:30 to 9 p.m.

“The students felt that ‘what happened at the Homecoming Dance cannot be undone’ and that they wanted to move forward in a positive manner,” Pooler wrote.

She and England said they and Lomonte met with student council officers. “I wanted to meet with them the next day (Oct. 12) to let them know that they were being heard, and that there would be follow through on things related to policies going to dress code, etc.,” England said. “Even though they were just redone in 2018 or 2019, there could be some improvements as with anything.” The students have handled the matter maturely, including at the school committee meeting and the discussion the next day, he added.

England said while the council officers declined to do another homecoming dance, they accepted an offer of $700 to get council funds up to where they typically are at the start of the school year, which he said Pooler estimated is at least about $1,500. Two years of fundraising were lost to the pandemic, so funds were down, even before the dance, England said. He doubted he would have known about the shortfall if not for the dress code issue at the dance.

“Would they have made money at the dance? Probably. Would they have made $700 ... You don’t know, because you don’t know how many people would have come in the door ... If the dance thing hadn’t happened, I don’t think I’d have been aware” how low the council’s funds were, England said. “So this actually precipitated” the plan to help with funds, he said. 

Asked the source of the $700, England said the student council will provide invoices for its activities, and the department will tap Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) pandemic relief funds. He said ESSER funds address social-emotional needs the pandemic impacted, and the work the student council does involves students’ social-emotional needs, including younger students such as those who will attend that Halloween event.

“And it may even be more than $700 in the end, it might be $800, to make sure that they’re back on their normal footing, pre-pandemic.”