Teens from Haddonfield Memorial High School may not be raising the roof on the dance floor at their prom this year.
That’s because the coronavirus could push the event outside. The dinner and DJ might be set up at the school’s outdoor courtyard instead of their usual venue, the Lucien’s Manor in Berlin, said principal Tammy McHale.
But that’s just one idea. The school has monthly pandemic team meetings, and their upcoming agendas include ways the dance could be held safely amid the coronavirus, McHale said. It’s going to be a challenge for all schools given the indoor and outdoor gathering limits in New Jersey.
“It’s definitely not called off,” she said. “At this time, we are pursuing outdoor prom options... If we can have a safe prom, we absolutely plan to do that.”
Across New Jersey, there’s a sense that parents and students are determined to make the final senior celebrations happen this year after many were canceled last spring at the height of the pandemic in the state, says Elisabeth Ginsburg, executive director of the Garden State Coalition of Schools.
Planning is still in the very early stages, she said, and depends largely on whether coronavirus cases trend downward. The seven-day rolling average for new cases peaked on Jan. 13 and has fallen by 37% since then.
Most schools remain on a remote learning schedule. As of Monday, 470 districts were hybrid, 213 virtual and 89 fully in-person.
“It depends where we are with the vaccine, the restrictions on public gatherings,” Ginsburg said. “People are making tentative plans, but it’s all so up in the air. Most parents would love to see prom happen, and most students too. I think people are dying to get back to some semblance of normal, and so, I think people will work hard to make some kind of event happen. There is a longing for that.”
Ginsburg predicts outdoor proms could become a trend, but said even those will face roadblocks.
Outdoor gatherings are limited to 25 people in New Jersey (a senior class size is usually in the hundreds, and that doesn’t include their dates). Outdoor wedding ceremonies, funerals and religious activities have no cap on attendees, though ceremonies must comply with the 25-person limit. Dance floors at all venues are closed.
New rules on indoor wedding ceremonies, funerals or religious services go into effect Friday to allow those events to be held at 35 percent of capacity, but no more than 150 total individuals. Where proms will fall into the rules isn’t yet known.
“(We’re) just waiting on the governor. We do that for so many things, and I think this is another,” Ginsburg said.
The governor’s office did not respond to questions about gathering limits specifically related to prom.
In Haddonfield, McHale said there are 228 students in the graduating class. To help adhere to gathering rules, she said, the school could prohibit bringing dates from outside the school and from other grade levels.
Administrators, parents and teens will also need to make decisions about whether or not there is food at the event, since masks will need to be removed in order to eat, she said.
“What would that look like? Is it shifts where different students can go eat so the space of eating is manageable, or do we adjust hours of the prom so sit down and eating is not included?” McHale said. “But we are definitely looking to pursue something outside at this point, unless something drastically changes and we can go back to our venue.”
Adrienne Olcott, principal at Delaware Valley Regional High School in Frenchtown, says she is in talks with the school’s usual prom venue, the The Architects Golf Club in Phillipsburg, about holding an outdoor event there, but state restrictions could throw a wrench in that planning.
Another idea, Olcott said, is setting up a DJ, food, tents and seats on the football field for an outdoor prom. Normally, seniors and juniors attend prom, but it’s possible only the 187 seniors will be able to buy tickets this year to adhere to gathering restrictions, she said.
Oclott said she is setting up a Zoom meeting with seniors to gather more ideas.
“What we’re struggling with right now is we don’t know what the guidelines will be in the future. Right now, it’s so strict in terms of how many kids you can have at an event,” Olcott said.
In a typical year, the school would be holding its first round of ticket sales in February followed by another round in April. Last year, prom was canceled and the school had to refund students who had purchased tickets, Olcott said.
They tried to push the prom back to July, but faced a liability issue, she said. This year, they will aim to have it in the spring.
“It’s a liability issue for the school... We have to get a parents group to step up and do the prom because really the kids are no longer ours after they graduate,” Olcott said. “So there’s a wrinkle with that.”
Larger districts with more students in their graduating classes will likely have a harder time planning proms.
Woodbridge School District Superintendent Robert Zega said the district is considering its options but will be constrained by future gathering limits in May and June. There were 374 seniors in Woodbridge High School in the 2018-2019 school year, according to the latest state enrollment data.
Some large districts held multiple graduation ceremonies last year to comply with a 500-person cap on participants.
Meanwhile, some schools transferred deposits paid from last year’s events to new dates in 2021.
At Brigalias, a popular prom venue in Camden County, three schools have dates booked for the spring and are asking if prom could be held outdoors, said owner Tina Briglia. The venue has a 2,000-square-foot pavilion for outdoor functions.
Briglia isn’t holding her breath though. Depending on the state of the pandemic in a few months and state restrictions, those schools could cancel again, she says. And if they do, deposits will be moved again to 2022.
“What we’re telling everyone right now is day to day can change... We’re keeping in contact with everyone as things progress,” she said. “With wedding venues, rules and regulations are changing constantly and we’re going with the flow... Who knows what’s going to happen in a couple months?”
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Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.
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