At AHS, there has long been a push for a more inclusive and fun school environment by the Head Boys and Girls of each class. In previous years, this effort has taken the form of the class cup. However, the class cup served as a vague program that most students never participated in. As a result, this year’s head boy and girl have decided to create a new housing system, that they hope will continue into the future of AHS.

AHS Head Boy, Jack Halferty, is seeking to design a housing system that students will care about, creating a way for all students to get involved and have fun. Having taken inspiration from the Harry Potter franchise, Halferty and Fox formulated a system in which students are separated into lodges and cabins, named after features of the four surrounding ski mountains.

“Each student at AHS will be randomly placed into separate houses and will compete in activities throughout the year in order to win prizes. Each house will have the opportunity to earn points by participating in various events, from football game attendance to movie nights,” Halferty said. “There will be four major lodges, named after the surrounding ski mountains, and each of these lodges will have subgroups of students, which will be called cabins, and named after a ski run on their corresponding mountain. For example, I could be in Snowmass Lodge, and my cabin group would be named Longshot.” 

AHS head girl, Lauren Fox, feels that it is important to get every member of the student body involved in group activities, in order to develop a supportive and fun environment school-wide.

“I think that a housing system is very important for AHS as it will help to build inclusivity throughout the school by giving students a community outside of their friend group and their grade,” Fox said. “It is going to be a great way to get students involved both inside and outside of school, while also helping to create friendships between students of all different grades and backgrounds.”

Tharyn Mulberry, AHS principal, is hopeful that the new housing system will serve as an inclusive and positive aspect of AHS both in and outside of school.

“I think that the housing system is a great prospect for AHS as it can serve as another method for students to communicate with one another and have some fun stuff to do together,” Mulberry said. “My hope for one is that students will embrace it and really get involved, and secondly that it will have exactly the outcome that Jack and Lauren are wanting, which is that it will help the kids get closer and gives them one more connection that they might not have had before.

*This article will be updated as new information becomes available*