<p>So, our HS held an all night event after graduation. After the ceremony we rushed home so D could change. Got her back to the school by 9:00 - busses were supposed to leave by 9:30. The buses did not leave until 10:30. They got lost on the way to the event. At 12:15 AMI started getting text messages from d, saying they were lost. So — finally, at 12:30 they got to the location. </p>
<p>Ate food, played a few games - left at 4:00 AM to make it home by 5:20 AM.</p>
<p>I actually called one of the organizers at 1:00partly because I was concerned if they could get the kids home. I wasn’t sure if I should come up there to take my d home instead of putting her on the bus.</p>
<p>So, 5 hours on the bus, 3 hours of fun !! </p>
<p>This was sponsored by the school, but organized by volunteers. I also volunteer with the school, so I appreciate volunteers – but what do you do when something is totally screwed up ?? I know that the organizers don’t think anybody should be angry with them…but I think their expectation of 0 accountability is unreasonable.</p>
<p>I am coming to the conclusion that this is a pretty stupid idea. My son did the ANGP and I really don’t get it at all. Posted all over the place is the idea that there are no drugs or alcohol, OK-so thats one night out of 365 if you were going to drink and drive. It was very mediocre, food and games-they did lots of fundraising all year long and it was still expensive.</p>
<p>Who drove the buses? That’s where you start if you want accountability. The bus drivers needed to know where they were going!</p>
<p>Our hs’s grad party is at the high school. Works much better; the kids have a lot of fun, it’s cheaper, and seems more nostalgic for them. After prom, they don’t need to go off-site.</p>
<p>I don’t know about cheaper. Our High School all night party costs a fortune. But well worth it in my opinion. They have 95% attendance by the seniors. It starts around 10 p.m. and they leave at 5 am. I would much prefer that to having them bussed somewhere.</p>
<p>Same at our h.s. Volunteers decorate the gym and bring in a wide variety of activities: casino games, carnival games, rock-wall, sumo wrestling set up, jousting game, DJ for dancing, crafts, food of course. We also get about 90-95 percent attendance and families pay about $95 in addition to fund-raising for goodie bags and carnival prizes. </p>
<p>My favorite thing has been that at around 3 a.m. a hypnotist puts on an act that is (from the one time I saw it), hilarious. The students have to be in the gym by 9 p.m. and can’t leave until 5 a.m. unless a parent comes and signs them out. </p>
<p>There are some schools in our area that arrange an evening of events elsewhere, like Disneyland or Knott’s Berry Farm, but we’ve always done it in the gym.</p>
<p>Our party is off-site, from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Kids drive there or are dropped off there.</p>
<p>Problem sounds like it’s with the bus drivers. This is the last event your child will have at this school. I’d drop it because I can’t see you asking for accountability from volunteers who no doubt worked very hard on this event and are more disappointed than you.</p>
<p>What a frustrating event - for everybody. I’m sure the volunteers are at least as upset about seeing their donated hours go down the tubes as the parents of participants are about the time wasted on the bus. Having poured many volunteer hours into certain events, I know how it feels when a participant complains. There’s a polite, appreciative way to do it but I wonder if even that is necessary in this case. The organizers know there was a big problem with the transportation, and they know people are ticked off about it. What can be gained by complaining?</p>
<p>I used to organize state-wide conferences for a mothers’ group. I cant tell you how it bugged me to receive complaints when I had all but killed myself to offer an enjoyable event on my own time, no less. One of my favorite comments was from someone who said “The building was so warm! Why wasn’t there someone in charge of temperature control?” Which prompted me to wonder why didnt you just open a freaking window???</p>
<p>FWIW in my current job I deal with bus transportation all the time, and its notoriously unreliable. I can always count on a problem of some sort when we plan a bus tip either the air conditioning wont work, the driver will be a last-minute replacement, well be too early or too late for the dinner reservation something.</p>
<p>I chaperoned in 2007- It was really fun. I knew very few of the kids ( which is why they have junior parents do it I suppose). We had really nice charter buses ( I rode in a private car- we had enough parents on the buses).</p>
<p>They left from graduation- we went to a site about 15miles away, stayed for about 3-4 hours, then to another site that was about 1/2 mile from that, and stayed till 5-6am then took the buses back to the school. ( they used an event planner- who I believe organized the transportation as well. Fundraising kept costs very minimal to encourage all to attend)</p>
<p>My favorite thing has been that at around 3 a.m. a hypnotist puts on an act that is (from the one time I saw it), hilarious.</p>
<p>they had that too- but I was really tired by then and was in the other room trying to keep one girl from leaving.</p>
<p>My daughters after school party used yellow buses- but I imagine that they went to the same places.</p>
<p>Having poured many volunteer hours into certain events, I know how it feels when a participant complains. There’s a polite, appreciative way to do it – but I wonder if even that is necessary in this case. The organizers know there was a big problem with the transportation, and they know people are ticked off about it. What can be gained by complaining?</p>
<p>I hear you- some people will spend a lot of energy complaining after the fact, but they could have spent a little energy in maybe helping to plan before hand</p>
<p>Our hs has the event in our building. Volunteers spend all year planning decorations based on a theme - when they’re done setting up (in 3 hours while graduation is going on in the other part of the building) you can’t even tell where you are. Kids who have been in this building every day for 4 years are asking where the bathrooms are, because the place is so completely transformed. The kids are there from 11 pm till 5 am. Besides the decorations, there are huge inflatable games, climbing walls, human foosball, etc in the gyms, and blackjack, poker & roulette. Kids are given a certain amount of “money” to start, and they earn more by playing games or winning in cards/roulette. They take the “money” and buy donated items, mostly dorm room stuff. Then there’s the 3 am hypnotist. 95% of the kids attend, tons of parents help out, and a very good time is had by all. The decorating committees have such fun planning all year (the committee I was on always had wine & cheese at our planning meetings… some of them weren’t very productive meetings but we still had fun!) The kids all love the night, there are never any behavior problems because there’s so much fun stuff for the kids to do and they’re just happy being together.</p>
<p>Wow, I’ve never heard of anything like this. And our school has never put anything on like this and neither has any nearby schools. 700 kids is too big to put something on for though, and we have no camaraderie as a class anyways. At graduation, I looked around and was like “who are 60% of these people??”</p>
<p>Our hs has the event in our building. Volunteers spend all year planning decorations based on a theme -</p>
<p>We often have trouble getting people to PTA meetings, let alone working something like this.
I don’t know of any school around here, that has the graduation party at the school. Security would be an issue, because part of the thing would be to control kids leaving. At a venue with an entrance gate- much easier to control than a school building with many exits.
More power to your parents though- that is a lot of work!
( a few people are * really* good at raising money though- so graduation costs, including the party are very low)</p>
<p>Back in the early 70’s, this was “the” after graduation event. It was probably somewhat expensive for the parents (I seem to remember a $35 tab) but none or the elaborate “prizes” that seem to be required to get kids to attend now. Everyone who could aford it went - I think we departed from the Seattle Opera house for busses to the waterfront to a boat for Blake Island. Fun, no chance for kids to just decide to leave early… Boat back as sun rose over Elliot bay… I nearly got thrown overboard for playing Pomp and Circumstance on my harmonica. I guess location is a big part…</p>