Prom will be held on Saturday, May 8 in three one-hour time periods. The sessions will be from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., 8:10 p.m. to 9:10 p.m. and 9:20 p.m. to 10:20 p.m.    A maximum of 180 students will be allowed in each of the time slots, and a total of 555 students total will be allowed at prom. 

With the separated time periods, the junior and senior class will not get to experience prom as a whole. Senior Emma Nentwig, however, sees the necessity in limiting the amount of people grouped together. 

“I feel as though the time slots are necessary for prom even though it will change the experience entirely,” Nentwig said. “It will definitely separate the grade up so we aren’t going to have the last school event with the kids we’ve spent our lives with.”

Seniors will be allowed to buy tickets first starting on Monday, April 26 until Thursday, April 29 before school in room A210 and after school from 3 to 3:30 p.m. The following week, juniors will have the opportunity to buy tickets on Tuesday, May 4 through Friday, May 7. Each individual student will be allowed to purchase two tickets and outside guests will be allowed. 

“In a typical year, prom tickets are not sold to seniors first. We are doing that this year to try to give them the chance to get their first or second choice for which session to attend,” Prom coordinator Angie DalBello said. 

Junior Danny Talavera is not upset by having to buy tickets after the seniors because they have not had the opportunity to go to their junior prom and countless other events they have missed out on in the past year because of COVID-19.

“Honestly, I think they deserve it. With the year they’ve had and all the things they haven’t gotten to go to because of what all is happening,” Talavera said. “I think it’s what’s right.”

Administration and chaperones will be at the dance to monitor and enforce masks and overall safety of students. 

“They will be walking around and enforcing like we do at school. Students who disobey and are not compliant will have to leave the dance,” Dalbello said.

Other safety precautions that will be taken at the dance include that no food or drinks will be allowed, the photobooth will not be provided and the coronation will take place during seminar on Friday, May 7.

Some students including Nentwig will be taking a few extra safety precautions on their own.

“Personally, for prom I am going to one hundred percent wear my mask and maybe even double up as well as keep hand sanitizer on me,” Nentwig said. “I want to have fun with the dance tradition, but I also want to keep myself and my family safe.”

For more information you can visit this link: https://www.usd232.org/domain/3827