While planning La Salle’s 2026 prom, the Leadership class, guided by Director of Community and Student Leadership Mr. Quinn Peoples, had to navigate many hurdles.

The first issue they sought to tackle was the venue.

This year, prom was held at the Exchange Ballroom in Northeast Portland — which was not the original plan, according to Mr. Peoples.

“We had a location that we identified last year that we were unable to actually use,” he said. “We had to pivot very quickly, but that was the beginning of the process.”

Organizing events like prom involves several steps, the first of which is choosing a theme, Mr. Peoples said. The final theme, decided by leadership students, was “La La Land.”

“I think we started with ‘Great Gatsby’ before, then we realized that everyone else was doing ‘Great Gatsby’ for their prom,” he said. “The students were able to land on ‘La La Land.’ Specifically, I believe there’s a movie scene in that movie or a party scene in that movie that the students wanted to emulate and were able to do that in the space that we had.”

After the theme was chosen, the Leadership class worked on laying the groundwork for the event in several ways, including engaging the student body and setting ticket prices, an issue that was prioritized due to complaints of unreasonable ticket prices last year.

“Students … gave us feedback that the $50 was a lot, so we were able to get it down to $40,” Mr. Peoples said. “My hope in the future is to get it down lower than that — that’s no promise, but I know that students were very happy to be paying a little bit less this year.”

Finally, after weeks of planning, a team of students and staff arrived at the venue early to prepare for the dance. Doors to the ballroom were open between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., and students were allowed to leave at 9:30 p.m.

For senior David Sharyan, a member of the Leadership class and one of the organizers for prom, the dance was executed well.

“All the seniors in leadership including myself, we’ve been planning this prom for about a month now,” he said. “We all put in the hard work to plan this amazing prom, and it went really well.”

Mr. Peoples praised the Leadership class’s abilities as well.

“This is not happening if they are not the wonderful, visionary leaders that they are,” he said. “This whole process really starts with an idea that they have, and I’m just kind of shepherding them along and making the ideas come to life.”

For senior Tobias Ulrich, prom was an opportunity to connect closer to the community.

“I had a great time before prom with friends,” Ulrich said. “We went to dinner, hung out a bit in a limo that my friend ordered, and at prom was really fun. It was a really nice place.”

Ulrich appreciated the food, DJ, and venue while noting that there were still some complications. “I just felt like it ended early, and there was just more that I wanted to do and more people that I wanted to talk to and didn’t really get a chance to,” he said.

Sharyan echoed this perspective.

“I honestly was thinking ‘Why isn’t it longer?’ because everyone was enjoying a great time,” he said.

Ulrich also mentioned the ventilation and heat problems that came with gathering large numbers of people into an indoor, enclosed area, an issue Mr. Peoples was wary of.

“We always run into this issue where the room’s a little hot, a little steamy, because we have a lot of bodies in there,” Mr. Peoples said. “We actually had an original plan to be out on the rooftop, but for anybody who was there that night, it was about 45 degrees and raining, and I don’t think we wanted to be outside.”

In the future, Mr. Peoples intends on implementing the feedback he received to improve the event for next year.

One area he hopes to focus on, along with making the experience as enjoyable as possible, is ticket prices.

“I just want our dances and our events to be accessible to students,” he said. “While $40 may not be a lot to some, it could be a lot to others. So, if there’s any way that we can take some of that cost off, that’s my number one priority.”