The juniors on Student Council and their class sponsor, digital design teacher Jennifer Hair, are working to put together this year’s prom, which will be held on May 8 at Union Station, despite a late start on planning.
The juniors usually start their planning in the fall, but this year it was unknown if there was going to be a prom until the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment restrictions allowed it on March 23 when students returned to full in-person, leaving only a month-and-a-half for planning.
“It’s been pretty crazy,” Hair said. “The juniors are really helpful, they had a really clear goal that they wanted to try and provide some sort of prom for seniors. So, they had lots of ideas of, ‘If this didn’t work out, what could be done?,’ and everyone had an assigned job and they have been very diligent and been very responsive.”
In order to have a prom this year, a few alterations are being put in place — masks will be required, no food will be served and there will be no designated dance floor. Instead, students will dance next to their tables throughout the hall. Additional staff members will be there to help enforce these requirements at the dance.
“[These staff members will be there] to help us out to make sure every student feels safe, because we want everyone to enjoy prom,” Hair said.
Along with this, no underclassmen or guests from other schools will be allowed at the dance. It’s strictly East juniors and seniors to make it easier to track exposure and get in contact with students.
They’re also reducing the number of guests at the dance by breaking it up into two shifts of 300 people that juniors and seniors signed up for after purchasing their tickets — one from 7-8:30 and the other 9-10:30 p.m. Between shifts, the space will be clean and sanitized.
Hair and junior StuCo were able to still reserve Union Station and the band, but the decorating company isn’t available until the summer, so they’ve asked the PTSA to help out with decorating the dance.
The theme that junior StuCo chose for this year is “Masquerade,” as a play on words with everyone having to wear face masks. It will be a mix of an up-scale Mardi Gras and Great Gatsby according to Hair.
“[Prom will be] like a huge end of the year celebration for seniors and rising juniors…and it’s like a return to a tiny bit of normalcy,” Hair said. “You guys have been so flexible, so positive and have had so many changes…we just want everyone to come and…be a high schooler and have that euphoric feeling of friends and fun and laughter.”