Calling all Juniors and Seniors to come and attend this year’s Prom being held from 8pm-11pm at the Torpedo Factory Saturday May 16. Prom is West Po’s annual upperclassmen formal. The junior class of 2027 Student Government Association (SGA) is made up of President Maggie Bilski, Vice President Addison Hood, along with Representatives Riya Kapoor, Nora Baker, Annabelle Bogdan and Fiona Rosello. The board also worked with their class sponsor to put together this year’s prom, Tim Stuecheli, a current 9th and 10th grade health and physical education teacher.
This is Stuecheli’s third year at West Po and his first time ever being a class sponsor. When he came to West Po he was immediately drawn to the class of 2027, he jumped on the opportunity to reinstate freshman classes having a class sponsor.
“You guys are very interactive, you’re smiling all the time, you are hard workers,” Stuecheli said.
“Our class board is incredible, Maggie is an outstanding president and extremely organized and the rest of the board is just great. I literally just sit back in meetings and watch it go, it’s just outstanding,” Stuecheli said.
There is a tremendous amount of planning that goes into planning prom for example fundraising, planning decorations, scheduling and catering food. This SGA board has raised almost “8,000” dollars and was able to put a down payment for prom at the beginning of this year. To do this they had many fundraisers, the most successful being the Five Guys fundraiser.
The 2027 SGA board organized one to two fundraisers a month either falling on the seventh, 17th, or 27th of each month, keeping the ‘27 and seven theme. The fundraiser lasts four hours and gives 20 percent of the money spent on Five Guys during those hours directly back to the SGA committee.
Along with planning Prom this year, the sophomore class SGA board organizes the school winter formal (Winfo) or spring formal (Springfo) as a way to raise money for prom while also gaining experience on how to put together a big school dance. The Class of 2027 SGA board organized last year’s Blossom Bash or Springfo. They used their past experience of planning to help them put together this year’s dance but it did come along with new struggles.
“One challenge was buying the food, most people don’t realize there is food at prom and it’s hard trying to know how much food to buy without over buying because it is really expensive,” Rosello said.
“We learned a lot about preparing and contacting early, we contacted a DJ for Springfo that we didn’t end up using, but because we had that contact, we are using them for prom” Bilski said.
This year’s Prom was scheduled back in 2024, the board wanted to make sure the date was after SOL’s and AP testing. “So hopefully people have a really good chance to relax and have fun with their friends,” Maggie adds.
Prom itself is also a fundraiser, like how Springfo is a fundraiser for prom, prom is a fundraiser for the class of 2027’s senior activities. This includes the senior trip, senior sunrise, and other exciting events to celebrate all the hard work the senior class has accomplished all four years of high school from academics to involvement in school sports and clubs.
The 2027 SGA board has put countless hours of planning into this event, so help support and go! You only get two guaranteed proms in your high school experience so it’s important to make them count.
“I’m excited to see a year’s worth of effort come together into one big event, and hopefully people really enjoy themselves,” Bilski said.
“It’s a really fun event to get dressed up with your friends and go to a fun new location. We are also having the same DJ (DJ Amplitude) as last time who people really liked, so students should be excited for that” said Rosello.
The class of 2027 can’t wait to see you there, mask up West Po.
