Principal: High School's Pre-Thanksgiving Pep Rally Now Two Events

's annual pre-Thanksgiving pep rally will be split into two events this year, one for grades 9 and 10 and another for grades 11 and 12, high school Principal James Marcella said.

The Fair Lawn School District was –held on the last day of school before the holiday as the culmination of "Spirit Week"–due to the concern that students from different grades were jeering each other at the event, in addition to the fact that the rally attracts over 1,500 people, exceeding the high school gym's maximum legal capacity of 1,320.

Holding two rallies, one after another in the gym, will solve the overcrowding issue and help keep student behavior under control, Marcella said. When Marcella, the high school's student government, and parents got together to discuss the future of the rally, the students were the ones who suggested splitting the rally into two events–which was convenient because Marcella "had the same idea," he said.

Each year, the rally has been a forum for announcing the results of fundraising activities by all four high school grades, while the fall season's senior athletes are also introduced to the crowd. The theme of this year's rallies, Marcella said, will be "coming together." Both events will include the high school's marching band and every other element that was present at pep rallies in previous years, he said.

"A pep rally is meant to bring people together," Marcella told Patch.

Superintendent Bruce Watson said of the rally last week that, "If we're not supporting each other, then we don't want it." When the topic of the rally came up during Monday night's meeting, Watson revealed that the issue had been resolved.

Board of Education member Elyss Frenkel, reporting on a dialogue meeting between board members and high school students, said a number of students suggested that the pep rally should be held at the start of athletic seasons rather than during Spirit Week, which comes at the end of the fall sports season.

Students who researched the issue explained to board members that other schools hold pep rallies to kick off the season in order to motivate student bodies and the athletes, Frenkel said. Perhaps Fair Lawn should hold a pep rally before the spring sports season in 2011 to see how it works, she said.

Mike Rosenberg, the Board of Education's vice president, commended the high school's students on how they came together and found a solution to the pep rally dilemma.

"We could all learn from [the students] how to run a meeting and how to be respectful of each other at a meeting," Rosenberg told his fellow board members.