On Friday, May 1, the official SCHS Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts posted a video of principal Gregory Shelby with his hair and beard dyed blue to congratulate students for being engaged in online learning. The hair dye was a prize for a new event created by school administration, called the SCHS Attendance Challenge.

“We are looking for a fun way to encourage students to keep engaging,” Shelby said. “The most important reasons students engage are because of student’s desire to learn and their relationship with our incredible teachers, but we wanted to add to that with a little bit of silliness.”

Watch Mr. Shelby share the news!

The challenge stipulated that if 96 percent of students were engaged, Shelby would dye his hair blue, and if 98 percent of students were engaged, Shelby and the vice principals would take a pie in the face. After reaching an engagement level of 98.3 percent this week, Shelby went blue-haired and promised “pies to come.”

Psychology teacher Emily Haven originally contacted the administration with the idea to create a challenge because of the change to the credit/no credit grading system.

“You guys (students) are really used to being rewarded for doing what you’re supposed to be doing with grades. And when that got taken off the table…I was trying to think of some creative ways that we could reward you guys for being here,” Haven said.

School administration spread news of the SCHS Attendance Challenge through social media and by having teachers announce it in class. For many students, the challenge is a memorable idea.

“I think it’s a good idea because it seemed to get a lot of people’s attention,” sophomore America Jeronimo said. “I feel like it’s a fun way to get students to be engaged and it’s something fun to look forward to while we’re all in quarantine.”

The school administration is open to holding future challenges though they haven’t made definitive plans yet. Either way, Haven believes the challenge brings needed positivity to the SCHS campus.

“I think a lot of people got a good laugh out of it,” Haven said. “I’ve joked about it with my classes, so I know that we were all laughing about even the idea of it. I think that’s good in and of itself. We all needed a little positivity and a little humor.”