‘Dawg Day’ gets more organized

Weeks before school starts, lines of students crowd the library to pay fees as others spend a few minutes in the auditorium to take their school picture as part of an event called Dawg Day. This year, students were given a “passport” which sent them around the school to complete tasks such as getting pictures taken for the yearbook, paying class fees, and purchasing a parking pass. “For teachers, Dawg Day is very important,” BHS principal Dr. John Bartlett said. “This year on Dawg Day, we collected 75% of our students’ fees and forms.” The most important part of Dawg Day is getting fees, pictures, and forms out of the way so that the least amount of time is taken away from instruction, Dr. Bartlett said. Some students, however, recognized that the system still has some flaws after its second year. "The stops on the passport confused a lot of people I think, and it would be easier if we got everything at one stop,” Bearden senior Lacy Pack said. Ms. Vicki Lintz, Mrs. Karen Messing, and Ms. Tracey Ford started planning this year’s Dawg Day in January and started setting up the day before at 8 a.m. Pack said that although Dawg Day was a little crowded and chaotic, it was much more organized than last year. Similar to Bearden’s Dawg Day, West has West Fest, and Farragut has Summer Insanity. All of these events give students the opportunity to get some school year preliminaries out of the way. “Getting my parking pass was good, but everything else was kind of annoying,” Bearden junior Allie Thompson said. “I wouldn’t change anything about West Fest,” West sophomore Millie Hicks said. “It runs pretty smoothly the way they have it and it’s worked out nicely.” “It feels great to see people you haven’t seen all summer,” Farragut sophomore Jonathan Brewster said. “Most people enjoy it.” Next year, Ms. Lintz is planning on having forms online to take away from paperwork and chaos on Dawg Day, as well as fixing some logistics to make the event run smoother. If you have any recommendations on how to improve Dawg Day, you can e-mail Ms. Lintz at [email protected] .