Prom planning is back and there will be a prom this year. This year the staff wanted to let students voice their opinions due to the lack of attendance from the past several years. The venue has yet to be booked, but the date is currently undecided between May 17th and May 31st.
The students have decided on a majority of the plans through a google form that was sent out by the class sponsors via gmail and schoology. Due to AP exams, May 31st is the best option right now, and some of the venues being discussed are located in Ashburn, Leesburg, Reston and Washington DC.
The school’s treasurer Anne Beltrane said, “We lost 7,000 dollars last year in sales.” In order to keep having prom, the team is working to find solutions to not lose as much money. Raising money has also been an issue with profiting a dance. There isn’t a student run prom committee so there hasn’t been any way to save the dance at the moment.
“The last prom that was profitable was in 2022 at Raspberry Plain Minor,” Beltrane said. In previous years prom in 2021 and 2023 was held at The Hilton Hotel in Sterling – Dulles Airport.
Nicole Winfree, one of the senior class sponsors, said, “I don’t see prom to be as big of a milestone moment for high schoolers now.” Prom has now been normalized for no one to go to the actual dance anymore with the lack of students involved.
There has been talk that potential venue ideas would be in Washington, DC or possibly a yacht, with the last time Dominion had a dance on a boat was in 2003. According to City Experiences, renting a boat from them would mean we have it for 3 hours being $100-200 per person with a provided DJ and a three course meal.
For the homecoming dance it’s different because the student government organizes it. “We can work with the students and we’re going to spread [advertisements] everywhere including SCA,” junior class sponsor Lidelmarie Santiago said.
“We want to do prom for students so they have the experience, and to encourage all students to participate,” Santiago said.
