Rewind: How SF Decided on Prom Location

One year ago, students, faculty and administrators were getting ready for the 2010-12 prom, held at the Valley Forge Convention Center. Little did they know that it would be the last time the prom would be held at the close-by location.

On the night of prom last year, Principal Pat Nugent said the school found out its fate.

"We were really put in a bad spot," Nugent said. "We found out with less than a year to really find a new place. And we weren’t the only ones. I bet you there were four proms per weekend at that convention center. When we were there, there was at least one other school there."

Nugent said he really didn’t like that aspect of the convention center, despite its convenience, especially with 900 juniors and seniors to watch over. Regardless, a decision had to be made on a new venue, as the Valley Forge Convention Center was slated to become a casino. Renovations are still ongoing at this point. Nugent even said the school struggled to get its deposit back, but they did and went on to the next step.

From there, Nugent said the prom committees, faculty and administrators, including himself, former Superintendent Marsha Hurda and former Assistant Superintendent Kenneth Donahue set out to find a venue. The students saw three options: The Greater Philadelphia Expo Center at Oaks, a place in Reading on the other side of the airport, and Drexelbrook Conference Center, located in Drexel Hill. Drexelbrook would be the school's ultimate decision. It will be held on April 21. Nugent explained why...

Split? Not an Option

"We brought down the 10th grade class officers and the junior class officers (juniors now seniors, 10th-graders now juniors)," said Nugent. "We told them we had a dilemma. I said, 'This might be the time. We’ve talked for years and maybe we need to split the prom. Maybe we need to have a senior prom and a junior dance or something.'

"The kids were adamantly opposed to that. They didn’t want to hear it. If they want to go someplace, we’re going to have to really look. To find a date in one year for that type of size – think about it, most places are booked a year in advance. We always book ours two years in advance.

"If we split it, the seniors would be stuck funding another prom, because primarily, the juniors fund it every year. That’s going to be a hard break. We’re worried about that here. We might see what we can do with North Penn. They're going to the Oaks facility this year on Memorial Day Friday. Maybe we can split the cost with them. They could have theirs on Friday and we could do ours on Saturday and have them leave the stuff there for us. But, the dates just weren’t jiving for year one. We could have done it on Memorial Day Weekend, but I just don't think that would be fair to the kids.

"People ask why we didn’t go to Sunnybrook, or some place like that. We can’t fit there. They can only do 800 and that’s without a dance floor. We have 900 kids. You’ve got to move the tables off and put your dance floor together mid-prom. We’re not doing that. Some of our kids like to dance during dinner."

Oaks? Also Not an Option

"We surveyed the kids," Nugent continued. "Drexel Hill and Reading were about the same amount of time for travel. There was another one, which we found out was the convention center in Oaks. We found out through some conversation with people that we could rent that if we wanted to.

"We started looking around and said 'Listen, let’s go down to the convention center and look at it.' Well, you've ever been inside a warehouse with a cement floor and beams all around? They went in there and said we can’t have a prom here.

"Now, you can start renting the stuff, because they just decided to get into this business, and I think they did because they knew the [Valley Forge] convention center was going out of business. But, the kids hated it. They didn’t want any parts of that place. Then we started saying how much is this going to cost? You’ve got to rent a dance floor, rent curtains, rent ceiling, rent plates, get a caterer. We started getting into extraordinary costs and it started to be like we weren’t being cost productive.

"The kids were like what’s the chances of this place even looking good? How can you transform this place to make it look like a junior-senior prom, which is kind of a gala event. Kids started traveling around, they went to Drexelbrook. We started looking at what we should do and how much is it.

Drexelbrook it is!

"They decided upon Drexelbrooke," Nugent said. "It’s a Saturday, not a Friday. Friday would’ve made me a little more nervous, because you’ve got the Schuylkill and the Blue Route. But Saturday, it’s a lot less traffic. Either way, we were driving unless we went to Oaks. We’re going to go down to Oaks this year and see how North Penn made out with it. Maybe in the long run, we could be there.

"I had a parent say we shouldn’t let the kids decide. But, it’s their prom. If they said let’s go to Pittsburgh, I would’ve said no. When I went to high school here, we went pretty far. It was a little bit of a drive up in Reading. It’s not unheard of. When we were at the convention center, we were there with Upper Dublin. They’re coming down the turnpike. We were spoiled to be right in our own background for prom."

Transportation and Date

"Now, the other thing we didn’t like was we have post prom. So, we were like, 'How are we going to get the kids back here in post prom?' They’ve got a little bit of a ride.

"When we go to the prom, I will say, I don’t know the percentage, but I’ll bet you half of them are coming in limousines and other types of transportation. Some drive their own car or their parents' car, whatever the case may be. We actually have two buses that we surveyed the kids about. They didn’t want any parts of that.

"We surveyed how far are you willing to drive, how much are you willing to pay and all this for the kids. We took their spin on this. The class officers were involved. The advisors, myself, other administrators. We decided on this location. We could only get April 21. I would much prefer the prom to be later in the spring, but April 21 was the only date we could get other than Memorial Day weekend, which wasn’t fair to the kids.

"The buses can fit 56 couples and will be available. They’ll have to pay a fee. We’ll provide it, but I don’t know what the cost would be per student. If we filled them both up, the cost would probably be fairly minimal.

"We’re going to hold the prom from 6:30 to 10:30 p.m. The length is going to be the same, we’re just going to end a little earlier because of junior license and things like that, which is always the situation."

Thoughts on Drexelbrook

"It’s going to be a nice facility," said Nugent. "They have a nice outdoor patio. They have the kids coming down for food tasting. They’re excited about it. It’s the nicest one they saw. It’s an award-winning Philadelphia venue. It’s 41 minutes on Mapquest (28.28 miles)."

Final Thoughts

"You know, a lot of these kids are three months removed from going to college… in Arizona," Nugent concluded. "And I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, going to Drexelbrook would be like going to Texas. Nowadays, these kids are everywhere. They’re down the beach, they’re over here, there. These kids are everywhere. Going out of town, if we went to the Norco Mall, it was like holy cow! But, now kids can travel.

"Overall, it was their choice. Will we do it all the way out there again? We don't know at this point. We'll see how North Penn makes out at Oaks in May."