And a Little Help in the Date Department

On the chalkboard in Bob Vincent’s classroom at Canyon High School in Canyon Country are about 40 different names of students.

Students who need dates to the prom.

What started out as an agenda for one student grew until Vincent became responsible not only for advising students in planning their May 14 prom, but helping them find dates as well.

“People who didn’t have dates put their names on the board, and every once in a while students come by and peek in to see who’s up there,” Vincent said. “I’m not sure how many have found dates yet. I tried to match them up, but they wouldn’t go with who I picked.”

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But the host of this dating game warns his students: “I tell them the person I took to my prom in June of 1971 is the woman I married,” Vincent said with a laugh.

Part accountant, part confidante, part fashion consultant, the role of high school staff members who help students with the prom is a multifaceted one.

Christine Krohn, senior class adviser and physical education instructor at Burbank High School, has assisted with the school’s proms on and off for the last 10 years. She has helped classes with fund-raisers, provided budget and planning advice and helped select prom sites, which sometimes need to be reserved a year ahead of time.

“They start raising money their freshman year. But it doesn’t really sink in until their junior year that they’ve got to put on a prom,” Krohn said.

“The juniors last year had $800 at the beginning of their junior year. By the end of their junior year, we had raised that amount to $8,000.”

Jon Spiro, Student Council adviser at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, has helped students from ninth grade through their senior year put on such fund-raisers as candy sales and lip-syncing contests to earn money for a trust account to lower prom costs.

While Spiro’s goal is to keep costs--institutionally and individually--low, many students want to go all out.

He said one challenge he faces in helping coordinate the prom is being labeled the “bad guy” in terms of spending.

“Some mom may call and want to know why she has to spend $800 on the prom,” Spiro said. “They want to blame me and say I was the one who told a student to buy an expensive dress. It is the student who wants to buy the expensive, fancy dress.”

Betty Zigler, senior sponsor and teacher at Granada Hills High School, said a prom adviser should be sensitive to the financial and emotional needs of students.

“We have busloads of students here from poverty-stricken neighborhoods,” Zigler said. “Girls lost their dresses in fires during the riots. This year, we have a lot of students who are no longer in their homes. Financially and emotionally, it’s been a tough year.”