For years, DePaul College Prep’s Winter Formal has been a staple of student culture. It was a chance to dress up, dance, and celebrate with friends. However, this year marks a break from that tradition.
On January 14th, administrators sent an official email to all DePaul Prep students and families explaining the decision. The email, signed by Christopher Petersen and Britt Parker, Ddirectors of Sstudent Aactivities, stated that last year’s winter formal “experienced significantly low attendance across all grade levels.” After gathering feedback from the student body and consulting with neighboring schools facing similar challenges, the administration made the tough choice to cancel the dance.
The numbers told a clear story. “We had under 300 kids at Winter Formal last year. So it was just a significantly low attendance,” said Parker, who worked alongside Petersen on the decision.
Put into perspective, winter formals have welcomed between 600 and 800 kids in the past. Last year’s turnout was exactly 229 students. This raised serious concerns for the future.
However, low attendance is not specific to DePaul Prep. “We’ve noticed that this is kind of a trend amongst a lot of high schools. It’s not just us,” Petersen said.
Before making the final decision, administrators reached out to other Catholic schools in the area such as Loyola Academy, Ignatius, Notre Dame, and Mother McCauley, to see how they were handling similar issues.
The responses were significant. “Some of them [other Catholic schools] said, “We’ve actually pivoted to a freshman/sophomore dance only because those are the only grades that go,” Petersen said, “Other schools said we canceled it entirely because we also had low attendance and it wasn’t worth the effort.”
Responses to the cancellation have been wide-ranging. Some students were disappointed, others didn’t really care, and a few saw the decision coming.
“I found out through the announcements during FRESH. I think it was communicated clearly and early in advance which definitely saved some time for me,” said Michaela Hartley-Barbee, a freshman who appreciated the conveyed information.
As someone who had been looking forward to her first winter formal, Hartley-Barbee remained optimistic about the situation. “As a freshman, I was expecting the winter formal to have sparkles, snowflakes, and be a really fun experience. Even though winter formal was cancelled this year, it absolutely does not mean that I’m less excited for other events in the future. It makes me look forward to the next one.”
On the other hand, Harper Jordan, a senior, wasn’t exactly surprised. “I didn’t go to the winter formal last year but I know attendance was really low so I wasn’t too surprised when I heard it was cancelled,” Jordan said. “I think it was definitely the right idea to make winter more festive and I always like dressing up for winter spirit week too.”
“My initial reaction when it was canceled, I was actually pretty indifferent about it. I wasn’t happy that the dance was cancelled, but I had nothing planned for it,” said Luisa Schelzo, a sophomore.
The situation became complicated when administrators considered restricting the dance to underclassmen, who are typically the primary attendees. However, after proposing the idea in a survey, the feedback was clear: the student body largely opposed the idea.
The survey was sent to freshman, sophomores, and juniors, a total of 974 students, but only 327 students actually filled out the form. 80 students responding to the survey said they would go to the winter formal, 65 students said no, and 182 students responded with a maybe.
However, student government representatives talked with their corresponding class and came to the conclusion that most of the students who responded with a maybe, would not attend the dance.
“The feedback we got on the freshman/sophomore only situation was very much a no. If just freshmen went, sophomores wouldn’t want to go. That’s the group we really needed to attend. We knew that the freshman would be the largest pool of people, but sophomores would need to fill the gap,” Parker explained.
For the people who had to make this decision, it wasn’t easy. Canceling a dance that’s been around for years, that students have looked forward to and made memories at, was a difficult choice.
“School culture obviously is the job of our department. So taking away a dance or any activity that is a part of school culture was a hard decision. I think we’ve seen it slowly decline over the years and last year was a big eye-opener for us, that we were losing money for the first time ever,” said Petersen.
In Petersen’s eight years as director of student activities, winter formal had always helped fund other events. “We use it as a money maker to help offset student activities like prom, but last year was completely different,” said Petersen.
Still, it’s not just about the money, “Even if we could have the dance, break even, and kids had a good time, I would still want to have it. For some students, they don’t care if upperclassmen are there. I always say that the kids who stay through the entire dance, that’s who winter formal is really for, because they’re staying, they’re having a great time, and they want to be there,” explained Petersen
DePaul Prep is still making an effort to have an eventful winter. Instead of having Spirit Week before the formal, it will be moved to March 9-13, prior to spring break. “Typically, Winter Spirit Week is tied to the dance. The hope is that the new timing will build more excitement throughout the community, heading into the break,” Parker said.
Furthermore, Winter Formal is not cancelled for good. The email sent in January offered a form of optimism.
“Looking ahead, with the addition of a new on-campus gym in 2027, we are hopeful that student interest in a winter dance may return,” said the DePaul Prep administration
For now, the focus is on keeping school spirit alive. The email reassured families that “Homecoming and Prom will continue annually as planned,” emphasizing other, more popular school traditions.
