The process of buying prom tickets this year has been extremely difficult. Prom tickets are selling for the final day for $105. Prom which will be held on Saturday, Apr. 20 at the DoubleTree Hilton hotel ballroom, will require their school ID at the door. This is considered their ticket to prom.
Students must go to their suite and get a form for their counselor and parents to sign prior to buying their ticket which takes a full day to do. This form clears students of obligations which include parking tickets, overdue library books and missing chromebooks. This form also requires permission from a parent or guardian to attend prom because it is not held at McNeil and most students attending are under 18.
They have to bring this form as well as their student ID card and money to buy the ticket. Students can only pay with cash or check and cannot pay with card or online payment options. However, next year an online paying option will be available.
The app next year will be used for purchasing with credit card, prom voting for king and queen and a QR code so the scanning process for buying prom tickets will be easier. Instead of standing in a long line checking IDs to buy tickets like this year, the app would be able to speed up the process.
The digital option is much easier for students and although the administration recognizes this, the app did not get approved in time by the district to be implemented this year and have tickets be sold through it. As administration tried to wait until the very last moment to sell tickets so it could get approved, it ended up not getting approved in time so tickets are being sold for a much shorter time this year.
Last year tickets were sold for five weeks starting at $75 then going up to $80, then to $90, then to $95 and ending with $100. Now this year not only are they being sold for only three weeks, but this also gets rid of ticket price options. This year tickets were sold for $75 the first week, $90 the second and the final week is $105.
No plans were made to lower prom ticket prices this year despite administration making numerous changes, including selling tickets for a shorter period of time and changing the venue away from Kalahari Resort where it has been held in previous years. Prom budgeting can be stressful and expensive but the setbacks of this poor scheduling causes students and parents to work under a time crunch.
Ticket prices for students with free or reduced lunch were not changed to accommodate these students since it’s not a mandatory event but it’s so advertised and a big part of the high school experience that every student who wants to go should have an option despite financial issues. PTA has offered to sponsor students who explicitly ask for financial help or who have teachers from special programs talk to administration for them. However, this option is not advertised to kids with free and reduced lunch by administration and is left as private conversations, in their worries that every student would try and get a free ticket.
Students who do not already know about this option or students whose administration is not already familiar with their financial struggles may not be able to afford a ticket and are not informed of an alternative to purchase a ticket.
