Winter Ball is no more. The formal dance that Granite Bay High School has had for years past has been replaced by the newly minted Homecoming dance. Before, Homecoming at Granite Bay High School has been a casual event, and Winter Ball was the time to don dresses and suits. 

This year, there’s been a shake-up on the dance scene, with Homecoming being promoted to semi-formal. Although this is GBHS’s first semi-formal Homecoming in the history of the school, neighboring schools have celebrated the event for years.

“I’ll miss [Winter Ball] a little bit, but Homecoming is also really important…Because when you see other schools around us have something like that, and their community all comes together, I think it’s important to see that,” Sumner Jetpur, a junior, said.

GBHS’s traditional Winter Ball typically occurred right before the commencement of winter break, and was a time to wind down as the term came to an end. 

“I actually liked winter ball more, just because I liked the winter vibe. And I think that it was kind of like a reward after having a semester of work… So it was like, kind of like a break,” Iman Tahir, a senior, said. 

Despite Winter Ball’s popularity with many GBHS students, the majority of students surveyed by student government wanted Homecoming to be a semi-formal event, too. 

“We also did a survey, and people wanted a semi-formal Homecoming,” senior student government member Summer Shelton said. “Also, we’ve sold more tickets already than we sold in total for last year’s dance.”

Student government is orienting to the new school dance schedule, with talks of a potential dance happening in February. 

“I think there’s a plan. We just haven’t figured it out yet,” senior student government member Ryan Weltsch said.

After Homecoming, student government plans to release another survey to assess how students feel about the new dance schedule, according to Senior Class President Ruby Conger.

The upcoming dance is already much anticipated.

“We’ve heard that people are really excited about it, since it’s our first one,” Shelton said.