The games. The costumes. The rollercoaster. These components are the highlight of every school assembly. Students from every class roar with laughter at the thematic costumes, cheer on their class in the competitive games and rumble with enthusiasm during the traditional roller coaster chant. However, there is more to each assembly than what meets the eye. Sitting in the bleachers is one thing, but there is a lot more going on behind the scenes of each assembly than students might think.

On the sides of the gym and often in the middle of the floor, Leadership students stand and serve as the puppet masters of each assembly. Before each assembly, the Leadership class divides up to organize ideas and begin planning.

“We have our Leadership class split into six different groups and we have to bring all of the different groups together to make the assembly come together,” sophomore Shae Turner said.

Initially, the plan for each assembly is very basic and requires a little bit of TLC to get a better idea of how it’s going to flow.

“We start really rough as far as writing and organizing, almost like a skeleton of what we want the assembly to look like,” junior Kayel Newland said. “We then type in dialogue and stage direction and build up more details as it continues to build.”

In each unique committee, members put their heads together and come up with ideas that will make the assembly better than the last. Most ideas come from past successes, but there are some fresh ideas that get thrown out to go along with the theme.

There is some pressure associated with being a part of Leadership. It’s not all fun and games when you know the entire school is watching the product of your hard work. The Homecoming assembly usually causes high stress levels for Leadership students, but allows for an experience that makes it easier when it comes to planning for Courtwarming. Veteran members enjoy less pressure that comes with more experience.

“For Courtwarming we don’t have as much time to plan,” senior TJ Persell said. “But we kind of know what we’re doing, so it’s more relaxing I guess.”

For some students, the Homecoming assembly was their first glimpse into what the Leadership class is capable of and has them looking forward to Courtwarming.

“At the Homecoming assembly, I liked the videos, decorations and water bottle flipping game they did,” freshman Gabby Schaller said.

Nobody is perfect. Sometimes Leadership runs into small problems on the day of the assembly that they have to address quickly.

“Last time a couple of videos cut out so we just have to make sure that we can flow it a little better and make sure that it all works,” Persell said.

After the assembly, Leadership welcomes feedback from the students and faculty.

“A lot of times we get feedback from administration and the teachers,” Turner said. “Our feedback also comes from people and students talking about it at night or the next week about how cool the assembly was.”

The boost in school spirit only motivates Leadership to boost it even more. Immediately after the assembly, they begin planning how to make the next one even better.

“At the end of each assembly we kind of have a list of things that maybe didn’t go so well and then we keep it for the next assembly so we can work on them,” Turner said.

Through all of the hard work and pressure that it takes to put each assembly together, Leadership always has one clear goal in mind.

“We try to increase the school climate or the school spirit a lot, which sometimes goes unnoticed,” Turner said.

When this goal is achieved, students in Leadership get to enjoy the rewarding feeling of their success.

“I think my favorite thing, like when I was on stage looking at the crowd, a lot

of people were smiling and they weren’t bored to be there,” Persell said. “It seemed like they were having fun. It’s just the expressions on people’s faces when everything is happening and just looking around and seeing everyone engaged instead of sitting in the back on their phones.”

Once the ideas have been approved by Administration, the planning process begins. Leadership spends several weeks doing behind the scenes prep work. This includes managing the logistics, writing a script, filming a lip dub and communicating with students and teachers who will participate. They also do several run-throughs to make sure every part of the assembly transitions smoothly and small errors are fixed before the big day. For those on the decorations committee, the night before the assembly is spent staying up late to add finishing touches.