<p>Coolweather, I think there’s a big difference between graduating from HS and college. When you graduate from college you’re an adult, with (one hopes) an adult’s judgement. I don’t recall any organized events after any of my or my husband’s college or grad school graduations. However, HS grads are 17 and 18 and don’t always exercise as good judgement as we would hope. A big grad night party keeps kids out of trouble of all kinds, as other posters have pointed out. No deaths and no pregnancies - THAT’s a good graduation!</p>
<p>$70,000 sounds like a lot of money, but it may not go all that far, esp. in SF. You need a big space to have a party in, and even if the school is willing to make the gym available (ours is not, since the gym was just refurbished a couple of years ago), you have to pay a lot of money to cover the floor, get insurance, etc. Then there are decorations - even minimal ones get expensive fast - and games/activities/entertainment, food, prizes, etc. I was PTA Pres. at my kids’ middle school for a couple of years and was horrified at what it cost to put on the graduation dance, but when I helped at my son’s 8th grade graduation I realized that everyone involved was scrimping and saving like crazy. This is just a really expensive place we live in.</p>
<p>Our HS depends on donations (cash and in-kind) and ticket sales (to those who can afford to pay) to cover the cost for the party, and we’re lucky that there is a tennis/swim club located across the street from the school.</p>
<p>Our school has the All Night Party after graduation (starts at 11pm, about 4 hours after graduation ends). I don’t know how much they spend, but they do the party in the school. We are fortunate to have a large field house, they rent blow-up obstacle courses, bungee games, etc. The main hall of the school is transformed by decorating committees that prepare all year - you can’t even tell you’re in the same building when they’re done, and they get all the decorations up between when school ends at 2pm and the party starts at 11 - and each section features a different “photo op” or activity (black jack & roulette for play money that can be redeemed for prizes, karaoke, etc). They have tons of food in the cafe, and the end of the evening features a hypnotist. I don’t know what their budget is, but they get TONS of donations of food, money and gifts from businesses, the PTA’s from all the schools in the district donate a couple hundred dollars each, and they ask the Senior parents for a “donation” of $75 per kid (but no one is turned away regardless of whether they pay). We have a large hs so the parent “donations” probably total $20,000. I don’t know what their total budget is, but they operate independently of the PTA. Around 90% of the seniors usually attend.</p>
<p>It’s totally worthwhile. Not only do the kids not drink; they have a great time together with their friends for one last night, and the parents have a blast chaperoning and working at the different booths & activity areas. I just wish we’d had this when I was in high school.</p>
<p>Just finished co-chairing the After Grad party for my youngest D’s class. We raise the money by asking local businesses for donations of cash or merchandise AND we ask parents for a $25 donation. We received $4,000 in cash from the businesses and @ 100 of the 275 families donated the $25 (this is a lower to middle income Midwest community of @ 25,000) - so the whole party was accomplished for less than $7,000. We rent a casino company who comes from the “big city”, sets up the tables, etc. The games are then run by parent volunteers. Local eating establishments donate lots of food for the kids. There was a DJ for dancing. Prizes and cash are given away all evening, with the BIG prizes being drawn for in the last 30 minutes.
As previous posters have mentioned with their parties, we have had no deaths (from alcohol, drugs, accidents or drownings at the local lake) since the parties were started several years ago. Makes all the months of work worth it!</p>
<p>$70,000 for less than 600 kids. It is more than $100 for each kid. The party is on the school ground, no rental cost is involved. I am not opposed to the party idea. If the school and parents can collect a generous amount like that for regular EC activities then I will be happier.</p>
<p>I think you’re fighting a losing battle, coolweather.</p>
<p>First of all, all members of the class can benefit from the graduation party. But only a small number of kids benefit from any one particular EC. This makes it easier to raise money for the graduation party than for, say, sending the mock trial team to an out-of-town competition. People whose kids are not involved in mock trial probably don’t care much about it, but everybody has a potential interest in the graduation party.</p>
<p>Second, the safety aspects of the graduation party are a powerful argument in its favor. You and I may realize that regular ECs also promote safety by providing students with constructive, safe ways to spend their time, but that’s nowhere near as dramatic as being able to say, “Since we started having these parties, there have been no auto accidents involving our students on graduation night.”</p>
<p>Our high school spends about 25-30K on grad night. They go to a theme park, do a gambling cruise, win prizes (last year some kids went home with computers).</p>