How is prom planning in general?

It’s going well. We had a little bit of a bumpy start because this is a new process for a lot of us. But today in class we got a ton of stuff ordered, the ideas are set, people have been hired.

Can you explain the theme?

Yeah, a lot of people are confused about it. It’s “Upper East Side” and the Upper East Side is Manhattan. So the Met, Central Park and all that. So how prom’s going to work is that you’re going to walk in and there’s going to be a portrait of New York City and it’s going to say Prom and then, because it’s at the Event Center, so when you’re walking into the dance, there’s a hallway, there’s going to be trees and benches and water fountains and that’s going to be Central Park. Then you’re going to enter another hallway and it’s going to be the Met so there’s going to be art and different cool things. Then you’re going to walk into the dance and it’s going to be white and gold.

Obviously prom is already a huge thing and people know about it because it’s prom but what else are you guys doing to hype it up?

We ordered a ton of posters, we just haven’t put it up yet. We’re going to put them. We’re also going to try and make a video for the announcements. They did that last year for Christiansen’s Corner. We had a prom episode so I need to make another one for prom. And we’re going to do a competition with the prom proposal and whoever wins gets two free tickets. That should be starting next week.

How much are the tickets?

40 bucks. We’re actually some of the cheapest in the area. Like Lovejoy’s is $75. We have 1400 students going, they have 400.

You’re working with the DJ, can you explain more about them?

Like I said the DJ was hired for Sadie Hawkins and they’re super good. I actually found them because I went to Lovejoy’s homecoming with a friend. And I was like “Wow you’re DJ is so cool, can I get their information?” That’s how I discovered them. They’re ProDJs DF. For prom we got the senior package, which is the most deluxe you can go. It’s a pretty expensive package. But it comes with tons of lighting and huge screens and they’re doing all of our tickets and all of our posters and they’re just really good. I think they’re pretty good. There’s also a page where you can request songs.

How is the student council doing? Are you guys nervous? Stressed?

I mean it is stressful. We did homecoming and it’s almost as big as prom – smaller budget, more people. But we have a class period. Student Council is sixth period and we’ve just been cranking it out during sixth period. We’ve ordered a ton of stuff. I think it’ll come together hopefully because I mean it’s my senior prom.

So what else have you guys been doing for prom?

There are a lot of things that go into planning a dance that people don’t really realize. There’s security, there are teacher chaperones, there’s food and there you have to work with your venue to make sure the food is okay, tickets, prom court, prom court nominations and voting. The whole process is not hard it just takes a lot of time. It takes time to set up so it’s effective and so you won’t cheat the system. Ice sculptures – I kind of forgot about that, glad we’re going over this. We’re helping with After Prom too. Not helping but help advertise for it.

How’s the food at prom?

The food at prom we get from the Allen Event Center. That’s a requirement that we cater through them. So it’s going to be desserts. There’s going to be a huge chocolate fountain and you’re going to have your fruits and pretzels and marshmallows to go with it. And then there’ll be like brownie bites, cheesecake bites and there’ll be slushies.

Originally people were kind of freaked out because prom is so soon. Do you have any comments on that?

So the date is picked by administration. They picked it last year. What happened last year, prom was Saturday and Saturday, Sunday, you’re still doing After Prom stuff in the morning. You’d sleep and you’d show up at school on Monday morning for AP exams. So for some students, like I know for Chris Edwards last year, he had AP Psychology and AP Biology or something on that Monday. We wanted to avoid that so we pushed it one week forward. Last year it was May 3rd and this year it’s April 25th. It’s a difference of one week.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Buy your tickets so the dance won’t get cancelled. Just kidding people are going to come to prom. It’s like a rite of passage.