Faculty bring their A-game quad day to ring in Homecoming

Junior Kiana Compeau hurried to the perimeter of the quad right after her third period on Sept. 20 filled with anticipation for the staff’s quad day performance, and she was not disappointed. Her jaw dropped after seeing history teacher Faith Stackhouse-Daly dressed in a bright yellow tutu with a matching head accessory while acting as Tweety Bird, the Looney Tunes canary.

“She was really funny, and I admired her dedication to the cause,” Compeau said.

The faculty’s show, centered around the childhood cartoon show Looney Tunes, was an endearing spectacle — short and sweet. After a year of remote learning, the faculty’s quad day was the perfect kick off to the return of Homecoming week.

The quad day performance featured three dances: an all girls dance, a Bollywood style dance and a finale. The all girls and Bollywood style dances, featuring 11 staff members each, were led by science teacher Kristen Thomson, who choreographed all three dances. Twenty one staff members participated in the finale.

The faculty’s skit featured faculty as iconic Looney Tunes characters including Stackhouse-Daly (Tweety Bird), principal Greg Louie (Porky Pig), English teachers Erick Rector (Yosemite Sam) and Megan Laws (Foghorn Leghorn) and more. Kerry Mohnike, the school’s ex-assistant principal who retired in September, was the primary script writer.

The highlight of the skit was the faculty’s basketball game, packed with comedy and fun facts about the history of Saratoga a la assistant principal Matthew Torrens. In the game, the Looney Tunes characters battled against a Los Gatos High School team — four staff members clad in orange “Cat’s Corner” shirts — and eventually won. Torrens took the opportunity to educate both his coworkers and the student body about sequoia trees near the basketball courts before 1955 and the falcon mosaic in the center of the quad.

In preparation for Homecoming, staff practiced their dances and scripts during tutorials and in script-writing sessions after school, managing to fashion, practice and refine the dances and the script of their 12-minute quad day performance entirely during lunches and tutorials. Returning to homecoming week was refreshing, Rector said.

Compeau mentioned that for her, the highlight of the staff’s quad day was the dances. Though her expectations for the dances were rocky, Compeau loved how spirited and enthusiastic all the staff were, and loved seeing the teachers whose classes she’s in “go all out” in front of the entire school. In particular, Compeau recalls English teacher Amy Keys telling her class of her previous ballet career. 

“When I saw Ms. Keys at the front of the group, I got super excited,” Compeau said. “I was like ‘Yes, Ms. Keys! Go you!’”

Ultimately, the faculty quad day was a major success, not only for the staff, but also for the students who were able to reconnect with the spirit of Homecoming week.

“It was great to be back and participating live and celebrating with the students,” Rector said. “We were all so proud of all the work done by the classes.”