Following the COVID-19 pandemic that had the Class of 2024 seniors sequestered to their homes for virtual learning during their freshman year, the class has been negatively harmed by lack of fundraisers. Unlike class of 2023, current seniors now have only had the opportunity to participate in two fundraising events across their four-years of high school, which caused the Senior packages to increase.
Although the seniors could have had plenty of fundraisers during their sophomore year, when school resumed in-person, and the beginning of the junior year, school leadership was concerned that the pandemic could have negative effect on the fundraisers, including but not limited to students possibly not getting their money back if events had to be canceled or school went back to virtual–similar to what occurred for the Class of 2020– as well as many parents and students still being afraid to catch COVID during events or the exchanging of funds.
This school year, seniors were given four options for their senior packages, as indicated in the image: the Panthers Ultimate Package for a total of $310; the Gold Package for a total of $210; the Bronze Package for a total of $100; and the Silver Package for a total of $65. Along with a choice in packages, the Class of 2024 sponsors also created a payment schedule to make it a bit easier for students to pay since the prices had increased from years prior.
“I actually got the gold package, which was my original choice so I could have the shirt and the prom ticket since I couldn’t pay $90 for the prom ticket separately, although it was a lot for both me and parents,” explained a senior who wished to remain anonymous. “ Since my family and I have to purchase the prom dresses and finish paying off the package, it causes a lot of stress for us especially since we are moving at the end of this school year. We were more conscious about when and how we can afford the payments for both the senior package and prom dress.”
While the package prices were difficult for some students, others appreciated the payment breakdown to help being able to pay it all off on time.
“I got the golden package since that’s the one I wanted,” said senior Daisy Rodriguez. “I was able to afford it but it feels like it was too expensive. It didn’t quite affect me since we broke down the payments and we had some money saved up too.”
Students like Rodriguez and the other senior expressed how even though they both were able to get the package they wanted, they still can not understand the increase of the prices. They seem to express that these packages had a major impact on them financially.
Both seniors only remember one fundraiser really happening throughout their nearly-four years at Parkdale.
“I remember we did a chocolate fundraiser but rarely anyone helped for my junior year,” said Rodriguez. “The rest of the fundraisers were from JROTC which supported our program.”
Junior year was the Class of 2024’s first fundraiser, roughly two years after most classes not affected by the pandemic usually start their fundraising, and because this was the only one, prices have been affected. For one of the seniors, inflation should have been taken into consideration.
“I think the senior packages should be around like $150 as our limit for the highest package because in this economy even $150 is very expensive,” they explained. “Our senior [class] is very small. Plus, many seniors are failing, don’t have their service hours, or they just don’t care. In my opinion, I think many senior’s won’t even graduate this year.”
Rodriguez brings up another point that could explain the lack of fundraising which has directly affected the cost of senior year: a lack of sponsors.
“Personally I feel like the prices were a bit too exaggerated but I do know that it was because we didn’t have a sponsor for a while,” added Rodriguez. English teacher Ms. Judyann Sutherland with the help of math teacher Ms. Danielle Yates joined the Class of 2024 team during the class’s junior year.
Due to lack of funds, senior package increase has led to prom being $90, depending if their package includes 1 ticket. Still, with this increase, seniors did not have the enough funds for a venue, which led sponsors having to do multiple events such as valentines bundle, selling snacks and much more. These events can be found on the Class of 2024 Instagram page.
