School Features

The students at Explorer Middle School know how to party.
About 300 sixth, seventh and eighth graders celebrated the end of the trimester at Explorer’s All School Celebration after school Thursday, with dancing, swimming and basketball.

Explorer’s ASB hosts the party three times a year to mark the end of each grading period.  From 3-4:30 p.m., the students could choose to dance to music in the commons, splash around in the pool or shoot hoops in the gym.

“It’s awesome [because] you can hang out with your friends without having to do any schoolwork,” sixth grader Brandon Davis said.  “And instead of just four minutes as you go from class to class, you get to hang out until 4:30.”

The parties give students the opportunity to let loose at school,  activities coordinatorTerri Harpster said. 

“Everybody really has a good time,” she said.  “I like them because a lot of kids that you wouldn’t normally see interact in games, in listening to music, or even swimming, for that matter, usually come to do this.”

PE teacher Otto Olson, served as DJ. When he’s not teaching, Olson offers a DJ service for weddings and school dances.

Thanks to DJ Otto, red, green and blue lights were flashing in a dark commons as songs like Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and New Boyz “You’re a Jerk” blasted from the speakers.

Sixth grader Ashlee Payne said it was cool to get to dance at school with hundreds of students.

“The music is cool, and there’s a bunch of people that like to dance, and [it] was fun jerking with my best friend to ‘You’re a Jerk,’” she said.

About 20 of the 300 students jumped into the pool at 3 p.m. and swam until the party’s end, taking advantage of the school’s diving board, kickboards and flippers.

“They stay here until I blow the whistle and then they whine and complain,” lifeguard and PE teacher Casie Wofford said.  “They don’t want to dance; they want to swim.”
Sixth grader Kayla Sether chose to spend most of Thursday’s party swimming in the pool.

“I love swimming and rarely get the chance at my apartment, so I love how I get to swim and be with all my friends and just play around,” she said.

Friends Stephen Chun and Ryan Grose, both eighth graders, took a break from dancing to play a game of one-on-one basketball in the gym.  They said it was getting a little too warm in the commons, but that they’d be back for the slow dance at the end.

“We don’t always have classes with all our friends, so the parties are almost like a family reunion,” Chun said.  “I mean, a lot of times, for three years, you haven’t had classes with people, and then all of a sudden [you] get to see them again.”

Chun and Grose, who are both moving on to Kamiak High School next year, said it feels bittersweet to be leaving Explorer soon “It’s kind of nerve-wracking, actually, because it’s a new campus, new classes,” Grose said. 

“The classes are supposed to be hard.”
Davis said he looks forward to the parties when the end of the trimester gets near, but that he’s also really looking forward to summer vacation.

“I want to be able to get up in the morning, not have to go to school, get a chocolate milk and play videogames,” he said. 

Sixth grader Maddie Prigmore said she’s going to miss her friends once school gets out.

“I feel really sad because then I don’t get to see my friends,” she said.  “I’m really going to miss the drama.”