On Friday Jan. 14, Superintendent Paul Sally announced in an email that the Trevapalooza dance had been rescheduled to Saturday, March 19. The dance, also commonly known as “Turnabout,” usually takes place towards the end of February.

The decision comes in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases in the New Trier Township due to the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant. While positivity rates have been decreasing since break, it was as high as 16.10% the Wednesday after break ended. The CDC Threshold for Substantial Transmission is 8.00%. 

In the email, Sally wrote that having Trevapalooza later in the year would allow the possibility of having parts of the dance outside. In past years, it has taken place entirely inside the gyms. 

Junior Sidney Lewensohn said that she wasn’t sure how she felt about the postponement, but wishes that it wasn’t so close to Prom if juniors go this year. Prom was seniors-only last year due to COVID-19 concerns.

“[Trevapalooza] was still a little bit far out, so I hadn’t really made any concrete plans yet,” she said. “However, I am a little disappointed that it’s going to be happening so close to Prom, because then it just feels like a rush of school dances.”

Senior Elayna Whiteman thinks that rescheduling the dance under these conditions doesn’t really make sense. 

“I think it’s a little illogical to postpone it because of Covid because you can’t see how far Covid is going to advance or if there will be spikes or a new variant in March,” said Whiteman. “I also think that if it’s going to be held outside, March is usually thirty to forty degrees here. That is not warm enough to have an outside dance where a majority of the girls are wearing dresses.”