By Nick Sestanovich

Homecoming Week is coming. Once again, Benicia High School will maximize its spirit levels next week and welcome back former students with its annual rally, dance and football game.One Homecoming tradition will not be present this year, and that is float parade. However, school officials have replaced it with something just as appealing: a carnival.

Mary Wheat, Benicia High’s activities director, said a lot of factors inspired the decision to end the floats. One was the breezy length of the parades. The parades typically consisted of four floats designed by members of each of the classes.“The parade was always a fun activity, but it was always very short,” she said. “It ran approximately 15 minutes from beginning to end.”

Benicia High last held a float parade in 2015. Wheat said the school offered to do a parade last year without floats, but students did not think it would be worth it.Additionally, when the school could not find a warehouse to store the floats, students had to build them in the Multi-Purpose Room, which Wheat said was taking up space utilized by physical education classes and the school’s wrestling team.“People loved the floats, but not everyone realized the money and time that went into building them,” she said. “Although it was a tough decision, we felt it was best to end the tradition of building floats.”

Source: Benicia High initiates new carnival night for Homecoming Week