Early December, DECA had been running smoothly with its new sponsor of four months, Dustin Myers. But after four months, Myers unexpectedly resigned from his position, with the resignation going into effect Dec. 3, according to the . In the wake of his departure, the DECA program was facing minor instability, unfulfilled promises, and a new sponsor for the second time in seven months.
“It’s hard because we had plans,” senior Olivia Moody said. “We had objectives, the Green Bean had schedules. We had everything ready. ”
Myer’s resignation put stress on DECA, with plans and duties being transferred over to others, including seniors Ryder Haven, Kade Uniak, and Moody, as well as the new DECA sponsor, Josh Oldenettel. Many students would search for answers as to what happened, but any teacher or admin who was asked could not comment on the matter of his resignation.
“Mr. Myers resigned,” principal Todd Dain said. “That’s all I can say.”
The loss of their sponsor posed consequences, but DECA members have handled it well, with more experienced members taking charge and helping to manage the situation without Myers.
“I reached out to him when he originally went missing, and I was like, what’s going on?” Moody said. “I need to know because I’m the president of DECA, so everything that gets ran, I have to do it if he’s not here.”
With Myer’s resignation, Oldenettel was asked to step in as the new sponsor. Despite being the new sponsor, Oldenettel has been involved with DECA for several years, having traveled to the state competition in Manhattan with the team for the last two years as well as going to nationals in Orlando in spring of 2025. With his experience and the senior members, DECA has been able to find stability and organization as the program.
“It hasn’t been too bad,” Uniak said. “Mr. Oldenettel came in pretty helpful because he understood the situation we were in. It’s hard to have a teacher leave who was trying to help us get on the right path with DECA, but I think Oldenettel has done a really good job coming in and taking over that role for us.”
The Green Bean and DECA are closely related, with both of the organizations sharing many members. Unlike DECA, the majority of people in the Green Bean are upperclassmen, as it is a class and has pre-requisites to join. Despite the turnout for DECA being higher than it was last year, with 12 members, the Green Bean has a mere 5 official staff members, all of whom are graduating in May. Additionally, what has been a fairly balanced staff in past years, with a 4:5 split between girls and boys last year, has transformed into a 1:3 staff this year. While the Green Bean has a lack of gender balance, DECA has a majority female membership, mostly underclassmen, prompting a more balanced gender demographic following this year.
“I’m glad that we have so many women,” Moody said. “I’m the only girl in my class, so I’m glad that women want to be in DECA now. We need that.”
Along with more female involvement, underclassmen are now able to participate in the Green Bean. In the past, the Green Bean class was exclusively run by juniors and seniors, but due to the lack of Green Bean members, underclassmen from the marketing principals class have been welcomed to step up into those positions and maintain the program. Keeping the Green Bean staffed and efficient is one of the worries that comes along with every official member of the staff’s graduation, but belief in the future of the program, supported by the up-and-coming underclassmen, going into next year is strong.
“Personally, I think they’re ready,” Haven said. “When we’re not there, they’re just gonna have to figure it out. It’s the same thing that happened with us. It’s a lot of trial and error and problem solving and just one step at a time, seeing what we can do. Since we’ve been training them up, I think they already feel prepared. They could run the Green Bean right now, but taking over DECA and Green Bean are big tasks. They’re gonna be as ready as they can be. They just have to trust themselves and go with the process.”
