`Dancers sail away tonight; alternate prom is scuttled`

By Nick Hildebrand
Herald Staff Writer

Plans to hold an ``Alternaprom'' for students unhappy about this year's Grove City Senior High School prom being held on the Gateway Clipper have been scuttled.

Concessions made by the school's junior class _ which organizes and pays for the prom _ have apparently allayed concerns some seniors had about holding the prom on the Pittsburgh pleasure boat, said Joe Skibinski, assistant high school principal.

The ``Alternaprom'' was canceled after a meeting between junior and senior class officers, he said. ``They worked out their differences,'' according to Skibinski.

In March a group of students complained that the Gateway Clipper trip broke the tradition of holding the prom in the gym on a Friday night, was too expensive and too structured.

Skibinski said juniors agreed to eliminate the dinner part of the dinner-dance cruise set for tonight. The move, he said, reduced the price of tickets to the event and allows students to go out to dinner on their own.

``The kids are looking forward to it. The excitement is very visible,'' Skibinski said Wednesday. Students spent part of this week learning about the dangers of drinking and driving and getting the abstinence message from speakers, he added.

Sales of tickets for the school-sanctioned event were at least as high as, and may have exceeded, last year's prom with 195 students attending, Skibinski said. The reduction in price put tickets at $25, less than the proposed ``Alternaprom.''

Differences between the juniors and seniors about the prom were blown out of proportion by the media, Skibinski said. ``My position on the whole thing was that this story was media-created,'' he said.

``It comes down to a few hundred kids. You try to do the best you can to make most of them happy,'' Skibinski said.

``My primary concern is that the kids have a good time and a safe night,'' he said. The Gateway Clipper trip promises to be both, he said.

Asked if any changes in the way proms are planned at Grove City were being contemplated, the administrator said no. He said juniors raise money for the prom and graduation expenses by selling magazines.

``It's a junior class decision. They make the money and they can make the decision. I wouldn't tell anyone how to spend their money,'' Skibinski said.

This year's prom controversy may change the way the school district spends its money, though. Earlier this month, Director Robert Montgomery questioned paying junior class adviser Byran Miller $1,301 for the prom work.

``He gets paid as much to call six buses for the Clipper as three weeks decorating the gym?'' he asked. ``In the future maybe we need to lay out his duties. If they decorate, that's minimal for the hours,'' Montgomery said.

Grove City Senior High School prom activities kick off at 8 tonight in the high school with the grand march. After walking a receiving line and having their pictures taken, promgoers will board buses for the trip to Pittsburgh and cast off on the Gateway Clipper at about 10 p.m. Students are expected to return to the school between 2:30 and 3 a.m.

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Updated May 3, 1997
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