Libertyville High School’s Student Council has a budget that is built on and pulled from throughout the year for fundraisers, dances at the school, and prom.
The council takes the budget very seriously and always makes sure to collaborate as a team before spending money on anything, Student Council Advisor Ms. Andrea Lara stated. Everybody involved in Student Council is taught fiscal responsibility through the process of decision-making and planning, Ms. Lara noted.
As for prom, junior Executive Board member Daniel Oh explained that tickets are charged to each student and that money is used toward the cost of prom, then the remainder of the cost is picked up by Student Council. That money is taken from the Student Council budget, which resets every year and is put together throughout the year from fundraisers.
The Homecoming and Turnabout dances, spirit packs, gift check books, t-shirts, and the color run are some of the ways that profit is brought into the budget. This is a way to take the cost burden off of the students when it comes to paying for prom, Ms. Lara said.
In previous years before last school year, Libertyville High School’s prom had been at the Lincolnshire Marriott hotel. But Student Council has been changing its vision of prom given LHS’s proximity to Chicago, the student body, and budget built from various fundraisers throughout each school year, Ms. Lara expressed.
The 2015 and 2016 proms have been the startups of the process of exploring venues in the city of Chicago. These exclusive city-based venues — the Spirit of Chicago boat in 2015 and the Shedd Aquarium this spring — have shown only a small amount more in expenses in comparison to the Lincolnshire Marriott.
“For not that much more money, we could get an incredibly different prom experience (in the city),” Ms. Lara spoke.
The juniors on the Executive Board and class council decide on what they want to see in their prom senior year, and the venue is determined from there.
Ms. Lara stated that since Libertyville’s prom is for juniors and seniors, the council is interested in eventually establishing two distinct venues that are alternated between every year. This way, if a student attends prom both their junior and senior years, they get to experience different settings. Although they do not know the exact prom venues that will be rotated between, in future years, the Shedd Aquarium and Spirit of Chicago have given Libertyville a very professional experience, Ms. Lara noted.
There come many challenges with this, though. Most schools stick to the same location each year because it is straightforward and there is no extra planning necessary.
Ms. Lara mentioned that “shopping for venues is a lot of work, but at least up to this point, we’ve found it to be worth it.” Libertyville’s turnout for proms have been over 500 students, so that calls for a larger venue, which can make the process of searching even more difficult, Ms. Lara said.
