It was the week of homecoming and while the Covid-19 pandemic had cast a shadow on the Inglemoor community, students couldn’t wait to attend the dance and experience a taste of normalcy again. On this particular Wednesday morning, I was rushing to school with excitement, for I was tasked with shadowing Elisabeth Kowalski, who is the Event Coordinator and ASB Advisor, for the day. Kowalski leads the ASB class and plans fun activities for the whole school to enjoy.
Every Wednesday morning at 7:15 a.m., Kowalski meets with her ASB Student Executive team. The meeting consists of going through purchase orders and fundraising request forms from sports teams and clubs, as well as approving new clubs being formed.
“The Exec board and I give final approval for spending their funds. Because ASB money is student money, we want to make sure students have a voice on how their accounts are being spent,” Kowalski said. “We want to make sure that the clubs are spending the money they raise within the same year, so it’s not just sitting around.”
Another issue that the executive student board discussed this particular Wednesday was ASB Senate, the student group wherein two representatives from each third period class meet to discuss ASB activities and school issues and report back to their class.
“In Senate, we would do updates with fundraisers for each class,’’ Kowalski said. “If there’s activities coming up for the classes like pumpkin grams or a taco truck—[it’s] a good way to get student voice and feedback for events and stuff they might want to see occur.”
Kowalski is working with Principal Adam Desautels to see if Senate meetings can be held during Study Time—the 15 minute study period at the end of block periods—in order to make sure everyone can attend the meetings.
Since it was a block period day, Kowalski only had one class, second period, which started at 8:15 a.m. She starts off the class with daily “shoutouts” where students can raise their hand and share their excitement for a school event coming up, like a sports game or club competition, or simply share something positive with the class.
Homecoming was approaching, and the preparation required all ASB hands on deck. Many decorations were yet to be put up or made, so everyone had something to do during class.
“It’s been a little tough to figure out what outdoor homecoming could be. It’s nice to see excitement from students for homecoming,” Kowalski said.
Kowalski said she expected a good amount of ticket sales this year. In the end, here were a total of 913 homecoming ticket sales.
Even after teaching, Kowalski still had her hands full. She was always on the move: grabbing extension cords from a storage room under the 500 building, hauling a ladder to the courtyard to fix decorations, asking bookkeeper Lesley Clawson about missing packages, and making photocopies for her students in the main office.
I followed Kowalski all around the school, from the student parking lot all the way to the 500 building. I sure got my steps in!
Kowalski greeted the homecoming DJ, Michael Duncan, who came to set up his booth in the cafeteria to play music during lunch in an effort to increase student excitement for the dance on Saturday.
After lunch, Kowalski greeted the representative from Jostens, the memorabilia company that manufactures class rings and graduation gowns for the school, who was delivering boxes full of senior packets.
Kowalski then convened with Desautels and office secretary Anna Shipley to discuss the best method to hand the packets out that will reach the majority of seniors. Together they agreed that they would distribute the packets during the seniors’ English classes, since all senior students are required to take an English course.
Kowalski then met with Duncan in the student parking lot to discuss the location for the stage, tent and food trucks for homecoming.
Since the parking lot is so big, Duncan said he was worried that students would be too spread out. But due to the rainy weather forecast, they hoped that a big tent would keep people in the same general area.
I, however, was less concerned about the rain, and more about the location of the food trucks, which turned out to be placed along the parent pickup line.
After school, there was a staff meeting that took up her afternoon. Later in the evening, Kowlaski attended a student board meeting hosted by NSD Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid.
Kowalski’s work as ASB Advisor and Event Coordinator goes beyond what many students realize. In addition to teaching, she works behind the scenes to manage logistics, solve problems, and identify ways to improve the school experience for all who set foot on campus.
