The student service known as 5 Star, has an impact that is slowly growing over the school. Many know Five Star as the service that people check out with to use the restroom or go to the office, but it’s now much more than that. With the Casaba Dance this year, tickets are no longer being sold in the traditional RHS way, at the Patti Baker Theatre, and instead are only being sold online.
Many students express their concerns about the 5 star service, especially focusing on the convenience fee that comes with purchasing a ticket.
Junior Zebastian Valencia says, “The convenience fee might affect some students because some of us ain’t that rich. It could cause less students being able to go to Casaba due to it being too expensive.”
Senior JJ Young continues on this topic, “I don’t like it at all. I think it should be you pay however much you pay at the window, and that should just be it. I feel like it shouldn’t be like you get a fee; we’re only teenagers, we shouldn’t have to be paying a little bit extra.”
Others are concerned about how students will find the tickets, and the applications used. The biggest of which is how they will find the bid tickets for students that don’t go to RHS. To elaborate, the Five Star Platform isn’t very user friendly to those who aren’t technologically inclined, and finding even the landing page of RHS is difficult.
“I heard that some people aren’t really sure on how to place bid tickets, and how to even find Five Star in itself. So I think we maybe could have done a bit more in-person sales, because during Hoco we also did Five Star and Ticket Window sales; so I feel like if we did that again this year before transitioning one more time, I feel like that would have been more helpful.” Says Ryan Pettersen, who is the Student Government Dance Committee Chair.
Many also appreciate the Five Star system, due to the number of students at the ticket window asking if they took card, instead of paying with cash.
Pettersen continues, “It was kind of different, but I think it will be easier because we usually have every other person asking if we take card. So now I think it is easier that everyone can pay with card, which makes it more accessible for a lot of people.”
Most aren’t in favor of the Five Star system due to the fact that it charges a convenience fee when purchasing tickets, but Student Government Teacher Brent Mattix explains that it isn’t all bad. Most believe that the convenience fee is instilled by the school, and that it’s there only to capitalize off of students more.
“There is a fee that Five Star charges, that we do not have any control over, to make sure that their security system is set up so that when people are paying their information is secure.” Explains Mattix.
Mattix continues, “Student Government is absorbing that fee, and we are selling our tickets at a reduced price so that students are set up so that they aren’t being charged extra money. Tickets were reduced to a dollar less to incorporate that service fee that comes through Five Star.”
The mixed feelings of Five Star vary throughout the campus, but students can know that they aren’t being charged extra for no reason.
