At the first Town Meeting of the 2023-24 school year, the St. Luke’s Upper School was told the new rules for Town Meetings. Our Student Council, moderated by Head of Upper School Dr. Billy Bludgus and science teacher Mrs. Susanna Clavelli, decided to remove all sports announcements in order to make meetings shorter and more inclusive.
In previous years, sports teams and clubs used Town Meetings to promote their games and increase school spirit. Teams would make announcements about upcoming contests, create “hype videos,” and get the crowd excited in order to create “buzz.” Currently, the only announcements for sports games at Town Meetings include a slide with the week’s athletic schedule.
The rationale for removing sports announcements was to ensure that Town Meetings are not too long and do not spill over into other student commitments.
Sports announcements “were making the meetings go too long and spill over into the mini-courses and whatever else happens after Town Meeting….That was the initial problem,” Dr. Bludgus said.
In a poll of Upper School students, out of 90 responses, 91.1% of students did not agree with having no sports announcements. 85.6% of students thought the rule decreased attendance at sports games.
“While I agree that some sports announcements made Town Meetings drag on longer than necessary, I think that the light-heartedness of promotion and hype videos raised morale for students and sparked interest in attending games,” said Jaime Supe ‘24. “I think when teams attend each other’s games, it enforces a sense of community and sportsmanship, and taking away that chance is unfair to athletes.”
While there was backlash from the student body about this rule, the ban against sports announcements is not set in stone.
“Right now, we are in a place where we are not doing all the announcements for everything until we figure it out,” Dr. Bludgus said. “I would love to see a map of the year where we schedule different teams, clubs, or activities at different Town Meetings to make sure that over the course of the year or in a particular season, everybody is profiled, everybody gets a chance to get up there and be spotlighted for the great things they are doing for the community.…I would still like to see us highlight different sports or different activities in Town Meetings in a way that also keeps the agenda within the confines of the time that we have been given.”
Head of Storm Pride Matthew Stimpson ’24 shared that the Student Council is working on increasing school spirit within the structure of Town Meetings.
“Student Council is working on a way to focus on a specific team or club at every Town Meeting. It’s in the workshop phase, but it’s being brainstormed. Team and club captains have to be more creative in finding ways to promote their games and events.”
Dr. Bludgus explained alternative ways sports teams and clubs can promote their events outside of Town Meetings. “We also launched…weekly email blast[s] for Upper School students to talk about what’s coming up for the week ahead…so our goal [for this newsletter] is to increase school spirit, increase community support for each other …based on everything that everyone involved in, whether its sports or debate or a theatrical performance or music, etc.”
The official rules for Town Meetings and sports announcements are up in the air right now, but Dr. Bludgus confirmed no matter what changes, Town Meetings will be a great space where “everyone feels included in those decisions to make sure that we can make it something fun, something joyful, something uplifting, where no one feels like they don’t have a voice in it.” Dr. Bludgus wants to “have a space where people feel like they can be spotlighted for their great gifts and talents.”
