School has been back in session for over two months now and Oakton still has yet to host its annual homecoming dance. Originally scheduled for the Oct. 3, the Grease-themed homecoming dance has been postponed by the weather.
This is by no means the fault of Oakton Leadership, as all of their preparations were finalized and ready to go by the original date. However, Hurricane Joaquin threw a wrench into the operations of both students and faculty with threats of dangerous flooding, causing Oakton officials to delay the dance until Nov.  7.
Many students considered the original date to be too soon.  Date proposals began as early as the first week of school. Although a delay was welcome, the month of extra time was unfortunately considered too long, as a November homecoming isn’t much of a “back-to-school” event. As impossible as it is to please high school students, many said that they would prefer a mid-October homecoming. To the annoyance of many at Oakton, this request was impossible as the other high schools in the area had all previously scheduled their homecoming festivities for this time. Thus, the Leadership team was left with two options: Halloween weekend or the first Saturday of November. The Halloween option was not ideal. Given that it was the end of the quarter and a long weekend due to teacher workdays and Election Day, Leadership decided against Halloween, leaving Nov. 7 as the only replacement date. Oakton’s 2015 homecoming has not been an easy journey due to delays that have been impossible to predict. However, Leadership has taken to looking at the bright side. “We were all pretty upset when we had to push the dance back but we found ways in which we could use the change to our advantage, such as improving the tailgate and homecoming decorations,” said Leadership senior Grace Donohue. In addition, Leadership used the extra time to plan another spirit week for the new date, leaving the staff “pretty excited,” according to Donohue. Although the end result still remains to be seen, Leadership is hard at work making the 2016 Oakton homecoming a success.