As the 2017-2018 school year comes to an end, most students are probably looking forward to the rapidly approaching day when the school year ends and summer begins. The beginning of summer also marks a new school year, however, and new events.

Student Council met yesterday to decide a theme for homecoming, the most anticipated event of the year that applies to all Utica High students.

“It’s going to have to do with the ocean,” teacher Steven Haley said.

The theme isn’t finalized as of yet, as details still need to be worked out, but the overall topic of homecoming is certain to be ocean related.

“It has to be polished. Right now it’s beach slash under the sea. So we’re doing something nautical,” Haley said. “The only issue is that 2012 was under the sea, so we’re going to go with something like that but we have to polish it and see where it’s going.”

Though the homecoming theme isn’t officially announced until “registration or when school starts,” junior Olivia Scandalis said, “when they start selling tickets,” Haley was willing to share the theme.

“There are almost one hundred members, they’re all teenagers,” Haley said. “Do you think they kept a secret?”

The decision of a new homecoming theme has the potential make students excited for homecoming, or it could end up disappointing them, making it a very important decision for Student Council to make each year. With such a major decision comes a lot of work and a specific process.

“There were 6 different groups and each group came up with their best idea,” Haley said. “It was the theme and then they had to come up with the spirit days. Three of the days are already there but they had to come up with two more and then name them based on the theme.”

Student Council ensures that all voices are heard in order to make this decision.

“We take votes and at the end we decide the theme that wins,” Scandalis said.

Themes suggested in the past were also taken into consideration.

“Carnival is a theme we thought about last year, too,” sophomore Ashley Siluk said. “And Candyland.”

The theme plays a crucial role in deciding the rest of homecoming preparations, as most things depend on the topic and nature of the theme.

“Now that we have the theme, we can start doing stuff based on that,” Haley said.

Most preparations for the big weekend don’t begin until the 2018-2019 school year, though some planning may take place at a Student Council camp over the summer.

“We don’t really do anything with it until school starts,” Scandalis said, “and then we start doing floats and stuff.”

Though not much is known at the moment, students can rest assured that Student Council will work to make Homecoming 2018 an amazing night.