This year’s Senior Week is taking a different approach and turning into Senior Day. Students will still partake in all the events previous seniors had but it will be turned into a single day.
The day will start off with a sunrise outside in the IM or Roosevelt field. Students will then have breakfast. Following that will be yearbook distribution and the tailgate outside.
“It’s actually been a conversation that we’ve been having for several years,” Adviser Wanda Vanish said. “The deliberate conversation started at the beginning of the school year, putting together a plan and then the conversation moved to the administration so that we could put a solid plan in place for the year, so the seniors would still be able to celebrate.”
Students will still have the opportunity to do everything past Senior Weeks have provided. The only thing that has been removed from the day is cap decorating.
“The big reason that we’re doing the transition from Senior Week to Senior Day is we didn’t have a lot of adult help in the sense that everything was run by Mountain Echo and Horseshoe Yearbook students in addition to Mrs. Vanish, Mr. Rupeka and Mr. Vanish,” Aboud said. “That was really the forefront. In the past couple years, we realized we were putting more stress on our publication staff than was necessary. When we realized that, we decided we still wanted to be able to do something for seniors that was our top priority; however, we also had to do something to make sure our staff was not losing their sanity and stressing over things because Senior Week is not all done in a week. We have months and months of preparation, and we start things in January and February and don’t stop until after Senior Week is over. We wanted to make sure what we did was beneficial to all people which is why we transitioned to a day.”
Students opinion differ about the changes.
“I feel incredibly disappointed; I was really looking forward to it,” senior Jacob Crum said.
While Senior Week is a tradition many students look forward to, this event didn’t exist until the class of 2020, where students got together to try and make the most out of the circumstances during the pandemic.
“Senior Week started as a one-time thing that was during COVID by two students, Ben Blackie and Jocelyn Fetter,” Vanish said. “It was only really ever meant to be a one year thing. And that first year, it was not all five days. It was just a couple of days. Then, other committees and other students decided to break the activities up. Breaking those things up leads to a lot of stress during a whole entire week where we’re doing things for one or two periods, and that just causes a lot of problems for us.”
While this news may come as a surprise to some students who were looking forward to Senior Week, what many don’t realize is the amount of time and planning that goes into making this possible.
“I haven’t had anyone say anything outright to me,” Aboud said. “I’m sure there are people who are upset at the change, but what I ask them to consider is the amount of time, preparation and planning that goes into this from one adviser and maybe 20 students. I would also ask them to realize Senior Day is everything you would have had in Senior Week condensed into a singular day. It will be a Friday; it’s a good way to end your week. There will be so many senior activities through the course of that week from what Mrs. Harrington was telling us that it is still going to feel like,[Senior Week] it’s just not all Senior Week Committee.”
“The primary purpose of the Mountain Echo staff is to publish an online newspaper that keeps the students body and community informed,” Vanish said. “It is nice to raise money to support the publication, but when that effort impacts the ability of the reporters to keep doing their jobs we have to reconsider if it is something that we should continue doing.”
Seniors will still walk the junior high, elementary and high school and view the senior video. Graduation practice will occur the following week.
George Mielnik • Apr 7, 2026 at 8:21 am
welcome to being a student the school doesn’t even do anything when a fight breaks out all there do is give them in school. and its unfair in many ways like some of the teachers favorite student and let them on their phone the whole class
Diehl • May 6, 2026 at 11:55 am
Yep, they have people that fight each other all the time, the people argue constantly, people throw things, people make things up about other people, people do drugs and vapes, falsely report things to Safe2Say to get people in trouble since seemingly they don’t think that Safe2Say can be abused for malicious purposes.
And just because a student is a teacher or principals favorite nothing gets done about it and it is so annoying. They just pick and choose what rules they allow students to break or not. I have seen people like to play games on their cellphones In front of a teacher for no medical reason but if other students even have an outline of a phone they search them.
It’s not even just phones that this applies to but also when ever teacher is saying that a student is dress coded, I have seen people with so much more offensive or not appropriate for school outfits have nothing done about them but other with way better stuff get dress coded and got told to change. It is entirely just based off if the teacher likes the kid or not and if the teacher deems them as a good kid.
Conner Ryan • Mar 20, 2026 at 7:54 pm
So unbelievably disappointed in this decision. An arrogant group of teachers and administrators destroying a decade long tradition because they can’t chip in or put any effort towards it. Overall just a lazy and sad thing to see our school district and administration continuing to remove opportunities and events for seniors. Every year it gets worse, this year its senior week. These type of things are why Altoona has the reputation it does.
Conner Ryan • Mar 20, 2026 at 1:46 pm
This is why Altoona has a reputation for being so bad, bad administration and couldn’t care less what students want. Destroy traditions that are part of highschool for decades because they are lazy and don’t want to do anything. Can’t do anything here.
Nyah Hughes-Thaxton • Mar 18, 2026 at 2:08 pm
This is honestly so embarrassing, should’ve had the entire senior class participate in this decision. Everybody I have spoken to about this decision are extremely upset, and wish we would’ve been told sooner about this. This is the 150th class, that decision for such a big class is LAZY and RIDICULOUS. I have zero respect for people who decide for an entire class without any discussion from our end.
diehl • Mar 17, 2026 at 11:44 am
“I haven’t had anyone say anything outright to me,” Aboud said. “I’m sure there are people who are upset at the change, but what I ask them to consider is the amount of time, preparation and planning that goes into this from one adviser and maybe 20 students. I would also ask them to realize Senior Day is everything you would have had in Senior Week condensed into a singular day. It will be a Friday; it’s a good way to end your week. There will be so many senior activities through the course of that week from what Mrs. Harrington was telling us that it is still going to feel like,[Senior Week] it’s just not all Senior Week Committee.” Many people I have talked to said that they have tried to talk to you and email you yet either you have not seen them or have blissfully ignored them ,from what others have said not me,. You only allow Vanish, and the 20 students to plan and prepare. I have talked to so many seniors and those that are not that have said they would love to help and have asked yet their requests have fallen on deaf ears. If you actually allowed other seniors, underclassmen, and other advisors to help then your workload, prep, and planning would be cut significantly. Also just because Mrs. Harrington says that she thinks it will feel like senior week if we do one senior day doesn’t mean it will feel like senior week in one day. We won’t know till it happens but I can take a lucky guess that it won’t feel like senior week.
diehl • Mar 17, 2026 at 11:34 am
“The week is only run by me and a committee of students, so seniors typically may help to organize things, but they don’t want to help and volunteer to run the week because they want to participate, so that means it falls all on underclassmen. We had people who were in charge of each one of the days who were to run the day and that hasn’t been going all that well in the past few years. It’s also really taxing for me to be the only adult in charge of hundreds of students. Many people may not know this, but my husband actually takes vacation during the week to facilitate that, and then Mr. Rupeka was the only other person that was available occasionally to help.” No offence I respect you but if it’s that stressful then allow others to help it doesn’t just have to be run by you, you choose for it to be run by you guys only. If you want help then allow other to help you.
Paityn Shaw • Mar 17, 2026 at 11:27 am
“That was really the forefront. In the past couple years, we realized we were putting more stress on our publication staff than was necessary.”
Teachers are stressed everyday due to higher school authority not caring about their classroom problems unless there’s a fight. Even so get teachers to volunteer so that you guys know they want to do it. I’m sure there’s a few teachers out there that would. even so you all denied help. This sounds more like a escape plan than a caring for others plan.
Paityn Shaw • Mar 17, 2026 at 11:20 am
This decision should have been voted on. there shouldn’t be one senior representing all of them.
Paityn Shaw • Mar 17, 2026 at 11:10 am
As a sophomore with many senior friends this makes me angry, they’re upset about this change and I hate to see a tradition broke. EVERYONE is promised a senior celebration and you taking away 6 days of it is selfish. being a senior entails your last year as a kid, your last year to enjoy the laid back life before committing yourself to a full time job and paying taxes while watching the world we live it go to hell more and more everyday. most of our seniors are entitled to their full week because of all the hard work they did to get here. hey school district, STOP BEING SELFISH AND GREEDY.
diehl • Mar 17, 2026 at 10:46 am
this is extremely disappointing, will not be participating
Keegan Fink • Mar 11, 2026 at 8:12 am
As a senior, this is extremely disappointing because our class officers among other groups have tried to reach out and help just to be shut down. The reason a senior day is worse than a senior week is because a senior week gives students something to look forward to each day. Now with a senior day it will feel much quicker and make each activity feel less important. All respect to Mrs.Vanish and Maddie Aboud but from the student body’s perspective this seems like nothing but laziness and stubbornness. Would love to know why they are refusing help.
diehl • Mar 17, 2026 at 10:56 am
It would have been nice to tell us our activities are being taken away. Going from a senior week for years to now just one day and also no decorating, which is one of the most anticipated activities. Just seems like laziness and unwillingness. if they take away this from us who says what else they can/will take away? They say the 150th class is one of the most important yet they are ripping stuff away from us. Again I get it’s also administration and respect to Mrs.vanish and Aboud but still if this massive decision was done a year ago and also with barley any representation from the senior body not just one student what else will be taken away not just for us but students after us.
Melissa Krainer • Mar 10, 2026 at 10:45 pm
I realize that many seniors are disappointed about the change to senior week this year, and I understand the frustration many are feeling. However, I would like those that are upset to also take into consideration factors that may not be explicitly mentioned in this article. Objectively, I feel that the organization of senior week should never have fallen to one singular group of people; I appreciate other clubs espousing and offering their help to make senior week happen this year, but ultimately this activity is a collaboration between administration and the student body. If students honestly want senior week to occur, then they must take action and communicate with both Maddie, Mrs. Vanish, and administration (i.e. Mrs. Harrington) instead of taking out their frustrations here in the comments section on the people who didn’t even have the final decision in the matter. It’s always easy to point fingers and blame people rather than undertaking constructive action to actually attain what one desires. I’d like to extend my gratitude towards Maddie, Mrs. Vanish and the Mountain Echo staff for still finding a way to give the seniors *something* this year, even though it’s not a full week, despite all the obstacles that had to be taken into consideration.
mohamed adam • Mar 11, 2026 at 8:13 am
While I understand the point you’re making about collaboration and communication, I think it’s also important to acknowledge why so many seniors are frustrated in the first place. Senior Week has been a long standing tradition, and for many students it’s something they’ve looked forward to for years. When something like that changes or is reduced without clear communication early on, it’s natural for people to feel disappointed. Yes, students can and should communicate with administration and organizers, but the responsibility doesn’t fall entirely on students either. Planning something on this scale requires transparency and coordination from the adults and school leadership involved as well. Many seniors likely feel that they were not given the opportunity to help or provide input until it was already too late. At the end of the day, most of the comments you’re seeing are coming from students who care about the tradition and wanted it to continue the way it always has. That frustration isn’t necessarily about blaming individuals like Maddie or Mrs. Vanish, but about wanting better planning and communication so that future classes don’t end up in the same situation. Everyone appreciates the effort that went into giving seniors something this year, but it’s still fair for students to voice their disappointment about losing a tradition that means a lot to them.
diehl • Mar 17, 2026 at 11:14 am
Whilst I do understand your point of view don’t get me wrong. I also feel that such a big thing especially something like Senior week on the 150th class is something that should be let up for Aboud, Vanish, and Harrington. If a group chooses to take on the responsibility and not allow help from other clubs that is solely on them. It shouldn’t just be a collaboration between the students and administration, this should be something we all vote for. They say this is important yet rip it away. No parliamentarian without representation!
Noah • Mar 10, 2026 at 3:21 pm
As a junior, I’m incredibly disappointed in this decision. Senior Week was something I was looking forward to in the 26-27 school year. It really seems like seniors are losing more and more of what people look forward to. Not making use of the clubs who reached out and offered to aid seems like an intentional move to me.
diehl • Mar 17, 2026 at 11:18 am
Same, like other clubs planned to band together to make senior week and not senior day a possibility yet it seems they deliberately ignored them. More student rights are being taken away day by day and we need to same something. No matter if you’re a senior, junior, sophomore, or freshman. It doesn’t matter as this affect just senior but all of us.
Miley • Mar 10, 2026 at 2:39 pm
You said this was a decision you made last year? I’m wondering why students were not informed earlier or asked to help. If this was an issue there were months to ask for more assistance and help. Additionally, I know our Class President and Vice President approached the Staff about this issue, offering solutions, ideas and any assistance that would be needed but they were turned down with no real explanation. As well as other organization who had offered their support or to take the event over entirely. Just wondering why this is being announced 2 months before Senior Week is supposed to take place instead of trying to find a solution when there were months to do so? Also will tickets be the same price for one day as they were for the entire week?
Diehl • May 6, 2026 at 12:18 pm
Because they don’t want to do anything they say young people are getting lazy but they pull this stuff no disrespect
Aaron Kuntz • Mar 10, 2026 at 2:06 pm
As a senior, this is incredibly disappointing. Seeing previous graduates’ experiences with senior week had us all excited to finally experience it ourselves, and this is just wild. There are many factors that make up the disliking of “senior day”, such as changing the location of senior sunrise AND a lack of cap decorating, but one that I don’t really understand is that there is a ton of help proposed to assist in setting senior week up from many people, including staff, yet heads are being turned away from that and we continue to disagree there isn’t enough help…why? We are the 150th graduating class, shouldn’t we have something special to commemorate it?
Yu'Nazia Reeves • Mar 10, 2026 at 12:52 pm
As a junior this year, who is very much looking forward to their senior year, this is frustrating and genuinely heart-breaking. I know multiple clubs have reached out and offered to help with the production of senior week. This is supposed to commemorate the time we’ve spent looking forward to the rest of our lives. I’ve watched the senior class get activity after activity stripped away from them. They have nothing but the grad walk, senior week and after glow (possibly not anymore). That’s it, that are the only activities dedicated to purely seniors. Transparency to the student and parents should have been prominent. This was not only a decision for 3 people to make. The school system claims to prepare us for a future where we have plenty of decisions to make but leaving the school out of the decision is rude. There’s also a guarantee that they’d still have to pay money for this singular day. There’s a huge student body and a bigger community that we live in, if money was the issue we could always fund raise for it. If the amount of people that are helping is also the issue, we could start a club just like the homecoming committee has. If this is not a responsibility that they wanted to hold, they could’ve passed it on to a different club or teacher that is willing to run it and not let down the hundreds of students that are depending on it. I believe this decision shouldn’t have been made and should’ve reached out to the classes of AAHS. Even if it couldn’t be senior week, don’t jam everything into a 7-8 hour day.
Theo Kessling • Mar 10, 2026 at 11:42 am
Hello Senior class. Why are we turning on one another? Maddie is the editor and chief, she is not our grade principal who is ACTUALLY in charge of making these decisions. I am actually quite surprised to see a lack of quote from Harrington since this was her decision was it not? We as a class shouldn’t be turning on one of our own—but directing our focus to our administration who has yet again made a decision to limit what we can do. I’ve had friends who graduated last year that informed me they really did not see any administration helping out—but saw Maddie and Vanish working tirelessly to provide a fun time for the seniors. We are completely glossing over the fact the administration alone turned our fun afterglow into a—honestly cheap—replacement to save money and work. Including adding the Juniors into something that is supposed to just be for us. Afterglow is made for seniors to go to after prom so they don’t go out partying or doing anything illegal—it is to keep us safe. By the administration providing an afterglow that the student body will not attend—they are not preventing any of those activities.
I am honestly very disappointed in the parents of our class who are making hateful comments to students who are also trying to enjoy THEIR senior year. We should not have to be more mature than our parents.
Us as seniors have worked very hard to get to this point and we have seen every class before us get this and I know you’re all frustrated to not get to follow in their steps. It honestly feels like these things are being taken from us—but I encourage you to instead turn your frustration on our AAHS administration instead of the people working hard to even provide us a day. I extend my thanks to Maddie Aboud and Mrs. Vanish for working hard to still provide us this day and ensure we have a good time.
Diehl • May 6, 2026 at 12:27 pm
Dude you are doing too much lmao. it says in the article that Aboud and their small group of seniors that apparently stand for all seniors had a vote for senior day instead of senior week then told Harrington and from what the article says and from what I read she only voted after the vote from Aboud and their small group.
I do agree with u on AfterGlow fully though. Don’t get me wrong I agree that administration has messed up and have not helped at all but Vanish and Aboud wouldn’t need to work tirelessly if they accepted the help they were given.
Also you say ” It honestly feels like these things are being taken from us” that is because they are. Don’t get me wrong no disrespect to them b ut it would be easier if they used the help that they themselves denied.
Zach McGary • Mar 10, 2026 at 11:40 am
What’s the point of pretending us being the 150th graduating class is important whenever they’re actively taking activities away from us?
Diehl • May 6, 2026 at 12:16 pm
Yep just decreasing their workload and our fun
Diehl • May 6, 2026 at 12:33 pm
no idea probably just for show
Rowan McCusker • Mar 10, 2026 at 10:48 am
It’s frustrating to see blame be pushed off of administration, who failed not only the staff who organizes senior week and the seniors who are now denied a tradition they were excited for, and instead put on the seniors–especially Maddie. This is on top of our graduating class losing other things they were expecting from years prior, such as afterglow now being open to juniors as well and no longer held at galactic ice. There are solutions to these issues that seem to not have been considered or discussed by the adults involved (as none of this should be so heavily reliant on students as a school event), such as enlisting senior teachers to run these events or providing incentives for helpers. All this comes across as is the mountain echo staff wanting to push off the responsibility they took on, rather than finding a reasonable compromise that doesn’t affect the seniors who thought they’d have their week to feel recognized. There was also no notification to the students this change affected outside of word of mouth, when even a google form including a request for help from parents could’ve provided a possible solution. It’s hard to see this as a fair change when minimal effort was applied to share the responsibility.
Mohamed Adam • Mar 10, 2026 at 10:34 am
Cutting Senior Week down to a single day is extremely disappointing and unfair to the senior class. For years, students have looked forward to having a full week of activities to celebrate finishing high school. Now, after watching every class before us get that experience, it’s suddenly taken away from us. Saying it’s because of stress or lack of help doesn’t justify removing a tradition that matters to so many students. especially when many people were willing to help. Seniors deserve the same chance to celebrate that every recent class had. Turning a week into a single day makes it feel like our class is being overlooked rather than appreciated. If the Issue is lack of help, I am sure the senior student body would be more than willing to come together and help. Although the events of Senior week were not all day long events, I believe it gave seniors something new to look forward to every day. Also cap decorating has been stripped away from us. I am sure not only myself but other seniors were looking forward to this. Senior week being a week also gives the seniors a week to bond together before we all graduate and go our separate ways in life. Us seniors are not happy with this and would’ve appreciate a little more consideration before making this decision. Thank you, and I hope this change can be reverted.
Diehl • May 6, 2026 at 12:14 pm
Yep and just like I said under other comments Like they were given help and denied it lol just so they could do less and less stuff and lower our opportunities. Also I am like 99% sure that I had a comment under your comment Owen but there doesn’t seem to be one here anymore. if there was one they are just taking away our comments like they did senior week.
it is so annoying that they are making us do less and less because they don’t want to do stuff more than they need to.
Margaret Brouse • Mar 10, 2026 at 9:20 am
Very disappointed to hear this. As a senior, it feels like despite the alleged significance of us being the 150th class, all the traditions we have very much looked forward to since freshman year are getting taken from us. I know multiple organizations throughout the school have offered to help make this possible, so it disheartens me to see that the help has been turned away when they simply wanted to continue making this year special for seniors. It seems to me that assistance has been offered, but is not sought.
Diehl • May 6, 2026 at 12:12 pm
Like they were given help and denied it lol just so they could do less and less stuff and lower our opportunities. Also I am like 99% sure that I had a comment under your comment Owen but there doesn’t seem to be one here anymore. if there was one they are just taking away our comments like they did senior week.
diehl • May 6, 2026 at 12:34 pm
real
Cherie Bower • Mar 9, 2026 at 7:16 pm
How is it up to one senior student to make a decision for an entire class regarding a tradition that has been in place for a VERY LONG TIME? Concerned AAHS senior parent.
Wanda Vanish • Mar 10, 2026 at 7:37 am
For clarification, the senior quoted in the article is in charge of the committee and was part of the discussion to make changes. The students involved work very hard to make this event happen in addition to all of their responsibilities running a newspaper. A presentation was made to administration, and the Mountain Echo adviser as well as administration were in support of the decision. There appears to be some confusion about how this week is planned and run. The Mountain Echo newspaper staff creates student committees which run different parts of the event, and the Mountain Echo adviser oversees the student committee. This event started as a goodwill gesture during Covid and then continued as a fundraiser for the newspaper. I believe this will be the sixth year. The newspaper staff and adviser have never had any help with the week and have run this independently. We hope that seniors give the one day celebration a chance and enjoy the day’s activities which will encompass everything that was split up in the past. Some seem to think that the week included all day activities every day. It did not. Each activity took about two periods of a student day. Senior day will use the entire day and include the sunrise, breakfast, yearbook distribution and signing, sidewalk chalk, tailgate.
Owen Carmel • Mar 10, 2026 at 9:06 am
With respect- some transparency throughout the process would have been nice. I feel more than positive that if the effort was made to request help from the senior student body, it would’ve been given (perhaps via google form, similar to how the Afterglow survey was set up).
Having a senior week can be a very positive and fun experience, and even though it is a recent tradition, it is one that makes us feel valued as students at Altoona.
The responsibility should absolutely not fall on one person or one small group, and the fact that it did is definitely a problem that should be solved. At the same time, it should also not be up to one student or small group to make this decision on behalf of everyone at the school to take it away, either. However, it is a problem that the vast majority seem to agree could’ve been solved in a better way than by taking the week away entirely.
Diehl • May 6, 2026 at 12:10 pm
I am like 99% sure that I had a comment under your comment Owen but there doesn’t seem to be one here anymore. if there was one they are just taking away our comments like they did senior week.
Attison G Batten • Mar 9, 2026 at 2:41 pm
Pinning the blame on the upperclassmen and claiming they don’t want to organize this event is a disingenuous attempt to shift the blame away from the adults who have been arranging senior week for years, and place it on the upperclassmen who genuinely want to help. Seniors have gone through high school, seeing their seniors get a week all about them, and waiting for that for themselves, only to have it ripped away from them. If the administration is able to remove events on fabricated grounds, who’s to say they won’t continue to do this if the student body doesn’t speak up?
Diehl • May 6, 2026 at 11:59 am
Exactly, if they are taking away this much from us, we need to speak up and care about it. imagine what they will do later in the line If people don’t speak up or care nothing will change at all and it will keep just getting worse and worse.
Harlem williams • Mar 9, 2026 at 2:08 pm
me as a freshman wouldn’t want none of my friends to have only one day every other seniors before them had a week but its not fair to them or us because idk if yall are gonna do it the the next generation everyone should have week.
Diehl • May 6, 2026 at 11:58 am
Exactly, if they are taking away this much from us imagine what they will do later in the line. If people don’t speak up or care nothing will change at all and it will keep just getting worse and worse.
Owen Carmel • Mar 9, 2026 at 1:11 pm
This is such a shame…myself and the rest of my class are disappointed at this decision, and would love to find a way to bring it back in a more organized way!
diehl • Mar 17, 2026 at 10:53 am
same and if this was made last year It would have been nice to tell us our activities are being taken away. Going from a senior week for years to now just one day and also no decorating, which is one of the most anticipated activities, just seems like laziness and unwillingness. if they take away this from us who says what else they can/will take away? They say the 150th class is one of the most important yet they are ripping stuff away from us.
George Mielnik • Apr 7, 2026 at 9:02 am
yea 40$ dollars just to do the activities/join
Madison Aboud • Apr 7, 2026 at 12:49 pm
Hello! Senior Week tickets are $10 per person. I know the 150th School Day celebration is taking place on April 22, and each team is $40. Perhaps this is what you were referring to? Have a wonderful day!