MORRISTOWN – Morristown Central School isn’t going to host a junior class prom this year for budgetary reasons, but parents of high-schoolers are coalescing to host a dance of their own.

“Parents have decided it’s going to happen with or without the school,” Jennifer H. Hall said.

Mrs. Hall, mother of junior Samantha Hall, said she and other parents are “willing to give their time and energy” to the cause.

But pure determination may not be enough, Mrs. Hall admits.

Because the school is unable to pay teachers to act as advisors for clubs and organizations, there is no one with access to the junior class’s bank account at the school.

Superintendent David J. Glover said the junior class has roughly $5,000 in its account but without a class advisor the money is inaccessible per state law.

“The [junior class advisor] has been abolished and it belongs to the teacher’s union,” Mr. Glover said. “The funds do belong to the kids, but without the advisor they can’t access those funds because the students have to vote on how it’s used.”

Mr. Glover said that, while one advisor is not necessarily going to break the bank, the total cost of employing advisors was expensive. “It wasn’t the individual pieces, it was altogether.”

And because fund-raising must be done through a non-profit organization, Mrs. Hall said parents are looking for a local charity or non-profit group to sponsor them.

So far the cost is still an unknown, though Mrs. Hall said organizers are making every effort to keep costs down.

“It’s very silly that it’s this difficult to put on a dance,” Mrs. Hall said.

Mr. Glover noted that the honor society or the year book club could be in a position to host the event. “I haven’t heard of any of the extracurricular groups at school expressing interest in doing that,” he cautioned.

Roughly a dozen parents have already begun meeting on a regular basis to plan the event.

The next meeting will be at the Morristown Fire Hall at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 30.

“The kids want to make a statement,” Mrs. Hall said.

So far organizers have determined the dance would be open to the entire high school and wouldn’t feature any particular king and queen.

“Everybody’s going to have a crown,” Mrs. Hall said. “They’re really easy going kids and they just want to have a dance.”

Anyone looking to get involved with the effort should contact Mrs. Hall at 528-6545 or Mary M. Paquette at 276-8202.

Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.

You can continue on to this article in a few seconds, or you can visit one of our websites:

• Watertown Daily Times
• The Ogdensburg Journal
• Daily Courier-Observer