There will be no Turnabout dance held in 2015 due to a lack of attendance in the last two years. Other events that have been held during Charity Bash week in recent years are facing potential date changes, according to Christopher Bennett, Student Council Advisor.

“We discuss the entire school calendar every year in the spring,” Bennett explained. “Our goal every year is to make things a little bit better.”

And for next year’s purpose, “better” means removing the dance all together. This year 350 students attended the dance and in order to break even, 500 needed to attend.

“Turnabout is going to disappear for a little while,” Bennett said. “Two years ago we had 900 people there, the last two years we’ve had 350, which doesn’t cover the cost. Unfortunately, that means we have to take it away. Will it return in the future? I’m guessing it will, but not next year.”

This is not the first time student council has had to cut school events, in 1999 and 2000, the school did not hold assemblies due to lack of student interest.

“Many years ago, our student body didn’t like assemblies. They complained about them and didn’t really participate. They just kind of sat there and were bored. So we took them away for two years (1999-2000) and everyone started asking, ‘Hey, why don’t we have any assembly’s?’ so we brought them back and everybody went crazy,” Bennett said. “My prediction would be that we’ll take Turnabout away for a few years and all of a sudden kids will start asking, ‘Hey, why don’t we have a Turnabout dance?’ and we’ll bring it back and 1,000 kids will come.”

To Bennett, the drop in attendance in the last two years comes without explanation. Low attendance at the three dances has not been an issue since Bennett’s involvement in Student Council, which began in 1997.

“It could be a bunch of different reasons. A lot of kids work in today’s society, and I don’t know, maybe it’s just not something people want to do,” Bennett said. “It’s very strange that we’ve had 800 to 900 kids every year until the last two years when we took a big hit. I don’t really know what’s changed in the last 24 months.”

Homecoming and Prom, the other two dances offered by the school, have not faced major hits in attendance, Bennett said. This year, 1,000 people attended Homecoming, a standard amount for that dance, and Prom attendance in 2013 saw its usual attendance of somewhere in between 700-800 students, which fluctuates based on the size of the venue. Prior to 2013, Turnabout averaged about 900 attendees.

Aside from Turnabout being cut, other changes are being considered by Student Council for next year in respect for the timing of popular events that have traditionally fallen in the Charity Bash time frame.

“What we’re thinking about doing is taking the stuff that has usually been very popular and spreading it out so that there is one thing each month for kids to get really excited about

“Coffee House will be in November before Thanksgiving, the talent show will in February, and Mr. LZ in March,” Bennett said. “Probably what would happen is we would ask the clubs to donate a portion of the proceeds to the charity that has been selected for Charity Bash.”

The smaller Charity Bash events will still be held in a designated week. Altering the time frame for Charity Bash is not a new idea; the timing and length of Charity Bash has been a changing variable since the event started.

“Originally, Charity Bash was ten days in December, then we extended it to three weeks, then December wasn’t enough time so we went to three weeks in February, then compacted into two weeks in February, and we will probably still keep a Charity Bash week for stuff going on in the cafeteria and auction wall and some of the other less popular events that we do,” Bennett said.

Charity Bash fundraising as a whole took a dip this year as well, although Bennett encourages a positive view on the amount of money raised for Special Olympics, this year’s beneficiary.

“Honestly, just everything was a little bit down this year, not any significant event,” Bennett said. “It’s still $23,000 though. I think people lose sight of that; it’s still $23,000, which is a heck of a lot of money going to Special Olympics.”