Anyone who makes confident predictions about school events in a pandemic is likely to be proven wrong.
Even so, junior and senior class officers have hopes they might be able to salvage some kind of prom for their classes in the spring. Their optimism comes despite knowing so much depends on events beyond their control, including when people will be able to get vaccines, how effective they will be and when full in-person school will start again.
In the meantime, they're determined to plan for the events.
“It's very likely that we're going to be in phase 3 by April because we are already moving into phase 3 right now,” said junior class president Nandini Desai. “Mr. Torrens has already given us the contact information for a decorator and a DJ.”
(Phase 3 refers to hybrid education in the district’s four-phase plan.)
Class officers hope to hold senior prom at a venue close to Saratoga, while holding junior prom on campus. Even though both proms are Phase 3 activities and would be held outdoors, students would be required to wear masks.
Class officers say they realize that it would have to be a socially distanced prom, and mask wearing is crucial. They acknowledged the difficulty of maintaining six feet apart during the dances and dinners.
The proms would be held indoors with masks and social distancing if the district reaches Phase 4, in which all students and staff return safely to in-person learning.
The only circumstance where masks and social distancing is not required in proms would occur if all the students and staff attending already received the COVID-19 vaccine and it is fully effective.
The senior class officers are searching for venues close to Saratoga so students can drive there themselves if they do not want to ride buses. The venue the senior class officers originally chose for their junior prom will be passed down to the current juniors for their senior prom.
Bringing prom onto the agenda is exciting for the class officers as they realize they might not miss out on all the memorable high school moments of being upperclassmen due to the pandemic.
“We didn't get to have a junior prom, so I personally would really like an outdoor senior prom,” said senior class president Lauren Tan. “I think that it would be really fun to have a senior prom because we're going to go to college soon and a lot of us haven't been to prom before.”
Even though neither the junior nor senior class officers have put forward concrete actions for prom, they are optimistic about the event because it serves as a celebration for students’ progress and connections made in high school.
“I am motivated to deliver the best prom possible for my peers, but for me, junior prom is not a huge deal,” Desai said. “I'm going to put in all my efforts to deliver something reminiscent of prom even if it's outdoors.”