Grandparents used to crowd the halls, buzzing with excitement to go to their grandchildrens’ classes and meet their friends, but now, the administration wants to make a change.

Grandparents Day is a tradition that seniors looked forward to each year. However, this year, it will not be possible for grandparents to attend classes with students. For the past four years, seniors have brought their grandparents to school to allow them a glimpse into an average school day.

For a long time, Grandparents Day has remained unchanged. It was started by retired Principal Scott Kasik during his second year at DGN.

In a survey sent out to seniors by the senior class board, six options were presented: three in regards to activities that could take place, and three in regards to when the event could happen. Out of 126 responses, 62% said they would prefer the event to take place the morning of a late arrival, and the majority of seniors said that they would most prefer a pancake breakfast. Senior class board sent out a second survey on Nov. 3, and is waiting on responses. However, in both surveys, there was no option to keep Grandparents Day the same, or, to get rid of Grandparents Day all together.

In an Omega poll of the senior class, of the 149 students who responded, 71.8% of seniors said that they would most prefer that Grandparents Day be held during school hours, as it has been in recent years. Additionally, 5.4% said that they would rather not have Grandparents Day at all.

However, the majority of the senior class will be disappointed, as principal Janice Schwarze said, “We already made the decision that we’re not doing it the same way.”

The administration states that the main reason for the change to Grandparents Day is due to the disruption of class time.

“One of the things we’ve been really conscious of is how often we take students out of their instructional setting and trying to minimize that time and that was another piece it also became a huge drain on our resources,” Schwarze said. “Enough where I was asking the question why are we doing this, what are the benefits, and what are some of the challenges that we are experiencing.”

The administration has decided that this event has to take place outside of school this year, but even they admit that it may be difficult no matter what time of the week they decide to honor grandparents.

“Some people’s grandparents are still working or they live out of town,” Schwarze said.

However, each of the options given still provide several problems. Saturdays may not work for students because of conflicts with sports or work. Late arrivals are also an option, but still this would conflict with some schedules because of Positively North training sessions, choir board meetings, or ELITE.

Even if Grandparents Day is moved to the weekend or a late arrival day, there will still be students whose grandparents cannot attend the event. The main attraction of Grandparents Day is the fact they get to come to their grandchildren’s classes and have the opportunity to see what they do at school all day and to interact with their various teachers.

“Part of the purpose of doing it is it’s a really good community outreach idea, having grandparents coming in, especially [to see] just how much education has changed since they’ve been in school, so I think that was kind of the appeal and draw of it, was to have them come and see and keep that relationship going,” senior class board sponsor Anne Driscoll said.

The administration should consider reevaluating their current stance on Grandparents Day for the upcoming school year.