Sharris Pepperd, Kari Watt, and Lisa Walker could attend the prom with students of their home Greenville Area High School on the Gateway Clipper in Pittsburgh. But it’s not likely.

"We want to be at school here and we want our own prom," said Kari, a senior at Keystone Charter School in West Salem Township.

Besides, the Greenville prom was just too expensive, said Lisa, a junior at Keystone Charter School. "We’re a public school and we want our own prom," she said.

"We want a prom before we leave," said Sharris, who is a senior at Keystone.

So, the three girls approached a teacher, Tammy Gentile, about the prospects of a prom for Keystone Charter School juniors and seniors. If enough Keystone students were interested, they could do it, Mrs. Gentile was said to have responded.

All but one student in a survey of students endorsed the idea of a prom, Lisa said.

About 150 people are expected to attend Keystone Charter School’s first prom on May 4 in the Greenville Elks Club. That’s a good sign that almost all of the 70 juniors and seniors at Keystone, their dates, and a few teachers and their escorts will be there in formal attire.

Classes and activities at the four-year-old Charter School are designed for students, who experience difficulty functioning or learning in their home school’s traditional classrooms. The students and their parents volunteer to attend the charter school.

"This will make us feel like a normal school and we like to be part of it. We just want to be here and go to our own prom," Kari said.

Planning the prom got Keystone students to come together, Lisa said. The 13 students on the prom committee are not as many as their home high school might have working on their proms, she said. So they worked harder in raising funds and decorating the Elks Club, she said.

Students raised funds for the prom by such projects as selling arm’s length of duct tape for $1 each. The duct tape was used Friday to tape Vice Principal Matt Nelson to a gym wall for two hours.

The school also will help with the funding, Lisa said. The students want to keep the admission fee less than the cost of other proms, Lisa said.

The Keystone prom was scheduled so it does not conflict with home schools’ proms, said Cindy Nehlen, prom advisor.

Lisa said she would attend Greenville’s prom, if she were asked and her date paid her way. However, the junior said she still wants to attend Keystone’s prom..

Theme of the first Keystone Charter School prom is "A Dream For Us."