Spirit Week this year, like other years, started off with a bang, with brightly colored costumes filling the halls. However, many things were different this year, too.

The most prominent change was the switch to a point system, which determined who won spirit week as the most spirited class. According to Spirit Week Committee Chairs Corinne Lamond and Iris Cotrupi, while this may be new to students, this actually isn’t new to the school. Portsmouth High School used to have a system like this but hasn’t used it in over ten years. The point system was based on class participation in fundraisers outside of school, such as the outdoor movie on Tuesday night, as well as the percent of each class dressed up each day of the week.

According to Committee Chairs, the new point system is designed to encourage more students to participate in Spirit Week, as well as to increase sportsmanship and class bonding.

One of the most talked about aspects of Spirit Week is the pep rally at the end of the week. This year, classes gained points for their class by participating in friendly games, such as knockout and tug-of-war. On the other hand, classes lost points by boo-ing other classes. This isn’t a new policy; it’s always been frowned upon, but this year it was counted. According to Cotrupi and Lamond, the purpose of losing points for boo-ing is to promote inclusiveness throughout the school and create a welcoming environment.

Another change was the spirit week website. If one were to go to the PHS website, they could find to the PHS library site. From there, they can see a link for the spirit week website. This was designed by Ms. Raab, the librarian at PHS. It has sections for each grade, as well as faculty and staff, where there is important information for each grade to know.

Iris Cotrupi says, “Both Corinne and I, and the rest of the Spirit Week Committee, are looking forward to seeing these changes in action, and hoping to see improvement throughout our school.”

Despite these changes, the most important things for students to remember during Spirit Week are school spirit and sportsmanship.