River City High School leadership students pose for a group photo during a float building day on campus, leading up to their homecoming week. Homecoming week starts on Oct. 20 and ends on Oct. 25 with the homecoming dance. Photo by Seth Henderson

WEST SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) - Constructing backdrops, props and other decorations for a homecoming celebration, River City High School students are hard at work through their student-led classes and clubs to prepare for a hero and villain-themed homecoming on Oct. 24.

Students in the leadership program and other clubs said they are required to conduct a certain amount of float-building or community service hours to graduate and nearly two dozen out of the 40 total students were present after school to complete that requirement on Oct. 3. Students continued to build floats for their homecoming parade with help from the Construction Club and Interact Club. 

Associate Student Body (ASB) President Mariana Gutierrez, a 16-year-old senior in leadership, said students will spend the next few weeks sketching, outlining, painting and using papier mâché to construct the decorations, including a backdrop for the float and a 45-feet-long banner to be hung up during the homecoming rally. 

Gutierrez said that upperclassmen will represent Marvel characters and the lowerclassmen will represent DC characters. The freshman and seniors will be villains while the juniors and sophomores will be heroes. In addition to a hero or villain, each float and poster will represent a certain awareness, such as breast cancer, child cancer, child abuse and Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD).

“We have a rubric, so we’re going to require them to do some kind of pomping,” Gutierrez said. “It’s like tissue paper and you have to add it on the float.”

As ASB president, Gutierrez said, she is responsible for grading the decorations as well as the student participation. Floats are required to have both three- and two-dimensional elements. She said the floats' lives might be short lived, as they will most likely be broken down within a week of the rally but the 45-feet-long banners will be displayed approximately until February.

The leadership class instills accountability, Gutierrez said, and the faculty advisor, English teacher Melissa Donnelly-Gowdy, puts the class in positions to thrive, learning to handle interacting more effectively with others. Gutierrez said that she has learned to handle more responsibility as a result of being in leadership since she was a freshman. 

“In the real world, you’re going to have strict deadlines, you’re going to be stressed, you’re going to manage multiple things at once,” Gutierrez said.

Club liaison Clayton Pour, a 17-year-old senior in leadership, said that building confidence is a skill that is learned when leading peers to a common goal.

 Associate Student Body (ASB) President Mariana Gutierrez, a 16-year-old senior in leadership, paints a float’s backdrop at River City High School on Oct. 3. The school’s homecoming week begins on Oct. 20 and ends with a dance on Oct. 25. Photo by Seth Henderson

“You have to have confidence in your own knowledge” to lead one's peers, according to Pour. 

“You have to have the confidence in yourself and your decisions to really lead or be led by other people,” Pour said.

Pour said the level of seniority does not always correlate to an officer’s rank, meaning that a junior could direct a senior.

“It also puts you in a position to fail, which might sound scary but it’s OK,” Gutierrez said. “It shows you that failure is OK.”

Gutierrez said that leadership class has made her more mindful of others’ perspectives, prompting her to treat others how she would want to be treated.

Seventeen-year-old senior and leadership student leading the Royalty Commission, Lana Tobia, said her favorite part of homecoming is the football game. She said the float parade happens during half time and the homecoming king and queen are crowned. 

Tobia said she has been leading the royalty commission for the past two years and her role in leadership has made her a stronger communicator.

“(Student leadership) has definitely made me a lot more talkative or willing to talk in front of people,” Tobia said. “A lot better at public speaking, you know? It’s easier for me to talk to adults. Being able to take initiative, I feel like this class has helped me a lot.”

Time management has been a crucial skill to continue developing in leadership, Pour said, because it feels as if they run out of time every year to fully prepare for homecoming. He said most students, especially the ASB officers, have jobs on top of other academic commitments on campus. Pour is a part of the student section for campus sporting events as well as president of a campus club. 

Painting designs on a 45-feet-long banner, freshman vice president Jayden Dhillon, 14, said that he had participated in leadership while he was in middle school and was having a nice transition into high school. He said he was becoming more responsible and more professional. He said that the leadership class was one that can help develop important life skills.

Kyliee Clevenger, a 15-year-old junior in leadership, said her favorite part about homecoming is watching all of the success come into fruition at the end. She said he’s turned down plenty of opportunities to hang out with her friends to spend hours after class in leadership. 

Clevenger said after leadership, she goes to practice, goes home and lays in bed. She said she completes her homework at school to minimize responsibilities while she is at home. Leadership taught her independence, communication, motivation and discipline. 

Freshman leadership student Sadie Ramdass, 14, said that the class helps inspire her to persevere no matter what she’s feeling, whether she is hungry, happy, sad or angry.

When asked about what he’s learned in the leadership class, 14-year-old freshman Clark Huntington, said he didn’t expect “how much communication you need to help with people and you need to be able to communicate to get stuff done.

“If nobody had communication, then nothing would get done and it would all fall apart.”

Sixteen-year-old junior Kylie Carpenter, said she has been in leadership for four total years, starting her experience in the eighth grade. She said there have been many stressful arguments over the years but that there is “no harm done.” 

The entire class has all spent so many hours together, Carpenter said, but leadership is still her favorite 90 minutes of the day. She said waiting for all the pieces to come together is the hardest part of leadership but that there is only so much one can do in a day. 

“I’ve played sports for nine years,” Carpenter said. “I would say leadership was my best experience with a team.”

 Banners for each grad level line the floors in a room at River City High School as students paint, sketch and craft their designs for their homecoming floats and banners. The school's homecoming week begins on Oct. 20 and ends with a dance on Oct. 25. Photo by Seth Henderson

Carpenter said she has been working on plywood cutouts for the construction of the homecoming floats to fulfill the three-dimensional requirements. She said she designed the floats and the 45-foot posters. 

River City High School Homecoming Week kicks off on Oct. 20, ending with the Homecoming Dance on Oct. 25. The homecoming rally, football game and parade will take place on Oct. 24. The rally will take place while school is in session and the varsity football game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. with the homecoming parade taking place during half time. Homecoming will also be Senior Night to honor the graduating Class of 2026 

Leadership students will arrive at school at 6 a.m. Oct. 24 to set up for the rally and help clean up after the homecoming game until about 11:30 p.m. or midnight. Leadership students will return to campus on Oct. 25 to help set up for the homecoming dance at 10 a.m. and the dance is slated to start at 7 p.m.

River City High School is home of the Raiders and located at 1 Raider Lane in West Sacramento. To see the calendar of campus events, visit https://rivercity.wusd.k12.ca.us/Calendar.