Published March 6, 2026
BY RUBY IRANMANESH
After experiencing a disappointing turnout at last year’s winter formal, which was held at the Monterey Conference Center, and losing money as a result, the CHS Associated Student Body chose to relocate this year’s winter formal dance, which took place in January, to a smaller venue and increase ticket prices to avoid losing money.
ASB moved this year’s winter formal dance to The Club at Pasadera, a much smaller venue, in adjustment to the decrease in student attendance. Photo by RUBY IRANMANESH
“What we realized after using the Monterey Conference Center was that the venue was just too big,” says CHS activities director and leadership teacher Aubrey Powers. “We had a realization that if we were going to continue to host a winter formal, we needed to do it in a different way.”
The smaller venue chosen was the Club at Pasadera located in Monterey, and the goal of this decision was to lower the expected attendance while still allowing the school to host a formal dance. With this new location, ASB aimed to sell only 250 tickets–almost the exact number of students who attended last year’s dance despite ASB expecting 320 to show.
However, even with the smaller venue, expenses remained high, and ASB was forced to increase ticket prices to $40 with an ASB stamp and $45 without.
“We got a lot of complaints about how much empty space there was at last year’s dance,” says ASB dance commissioner junior Elizabeth McDonald. “We took these complaints into account and changed the venue to Pasadera, which was slightly more expensive and had limited space. Since we had to lower our ticket sale limit to 250 due to the smaller venue, we increased the ticket prices to make sure we broke even.”
While this decision created frustration among many students who felt the higher prices made the dance less accessible, ASB ended up selling all 250 tickets. In the future, ASB hopes that more students can understand that the increased prices help prevent the organization from losing money.
Due to the larger venue, professional DJ and pricey decorations, ASB spent a significant amount of money on the dance at the Monterey Conference Center. In order to cover these costs, the student leadership class relied on ticket sales; however, ticket sales did not meet expectations, and ASB ultimately lost money.
Last year’s winter formal, hosted at the Monterey Conference Center, had a low student attendance despite being hosted in a larger space. Courtesy of CHS ASB.
“When we took into account the venue, drinks, games and the photo booth, we realized that if we have 320 attendees, we would be able to cover those costs,” says Powers. “But when we didn’t have 320 attendees, we had to pay for the costs out of pocket.”
This was not the first time the school had struggled with student turnout. In spring 2024, the leadership class introduced a new event called Spring Fling, intended to give students the opportunity to attend a springtime dance that wasn’t prom, but only one-third of the expected number of students showed up.
“At the time, the leadership class was thinking of the freshmen and sophomores who didn’t really get to experience any kind of spring events,” says ASB president Drew Galy. “They wanted to put on an event that was supposed to feel smaller than Homecoming, but still have the same feel. However, it ended up being way smaller, and we did lose some money.”
Spring Fling included silent disco, a student DJ, food trucks and an inflatable jousting ring to ensure that students enjoyed the event. Despite the variety of activities, Spring Fling saw disappointing attendance. In response, the ASB decided that it would be best not to host the event the following year.
“It’s really sad that dance attendance has decreased,” says ASB member and sophomore Julia Gallagher. “You’re only in high school for four years of your life, so you might as well live it to the fullest and have fun.”
