Senior year means a major investment

High-school senior year, that rite of passage to adulthood, once marked by crossing a high-school stage and shaking hands with the principal, is now often a costly yearlong crush of deadlines and activities.

Between SAT prep tests and exams, college visits and application fees, senior portraits, homecoming and prom — that night of glamour and limousines that now often includes ending the night in a Seattle hotel — the year's expenses can add up to several thousand dollars.

The Huff/Miller household in Edmonds has had a double jolt of senior expenses this year — twins Derek and Paige are graduating from Meadowdale High School in Lynnwood.

Al Huff, a retired state computer-systems administrator, neatly listed the twins' expenses for the year on two sheets of paper — everything from trips to check out colleges to their senior pictures. The total came to about $18,000.

Some high-school counselors worry that the high costs of senior year may exclude low-income students. And some schools try to rein in the costs so low-income students aren't left out of the celebrations. And with the possible exception of a $40 cap and gown, most of the senior-year expenses are optional.

"Nobody has to go to the prom or on the senior cruise," said Nancy Anderson-Taylor, a counselor at Marysville-Pilchuck High School. "But then it starts excluding kids from the things that make senior year special."

She also understands the appeal of splurging at least once senior year. One mother at the school spent $1,200 on her daughter's prom dress.

"It was a spectacular dress. It was her only daughter. They went for it," Anderson-Taylor said.

At Seattle's Franklin High School, counselor Jocelyn Mitchell said, "Half the kids didn't order graduation announcements because they're so expensive." Mitchell said the cost of other senior activities "eliminates a whole population of kids."

Mitchell, who is also the senior-class adviser, said Franklin lowered the price of prom tickets from $100 last year to $50 this year so more students could attend. It also cut the price of the graduation-night party from $100 to $50.

"The parents have tried to rein in these costs, too," she said.

"$400 and $500 chunks"

For Scott Reiman, father of Allison, a senior at Roosevelt High School in Seattle, the $50 and $100 expenses this year no longer faze him.

"I'm moaning over $400 and $500 chunks, not $100 chunks," he said.

He estimates the family spent about $1,200 sending Allison and her mom, Cathy Barnes, to visit the University of Rochester in upstate New York, where Allison ultimately decided to attend school and play basketball.

But before she made that decision, there was an SAT prep test, the SAT itself, applications to 10 colleges, Advanced Placement tests and the fees to mail all the scores to each of the colleges.

"We're tapped out," he said.

Shaylee Roberts, at whose house a group of 13 Meadowdale High School students had met before prom earlier this month, thumbed through $300, her share of the limousine and dinner at a Seattle restaurant.

Standing back a few feet, their digital cameras working overtime, the students' mothers reminisced about their own, considerably less-expensive senior proms, the boys then in powder-blue tuxes with ruffled shirts, the dances in the high-school gym.

When talk turned to all the expenses of senior year, Shaylee's father, Joe Roberts, who was shooting video of the young people, tried to cover his ears.

"Don't tell me what it costs," he said repeatedly. "I don't want to know."

Kim Chenault, the mother of senior Diamond Chenault at Franklin High School, had many "Oh, my God!" moments this year. One was at a Seattle boutique when Diamond set her heart on a $700 prom dress as she shopped with her mom and grandmother.

"Oh, my God!" said Kim, a single mother who works one full-time and two part-time jobs, and who could remember her own $50 prom dress.

There also was $200 for 40 graduation announcements, $100 for 40 wallet-sized senior pictures, $50-$100 each for college applications, $150 for the rented red Dodge Charger for prom, $35 for the senior breakfast at Salty's. Ka-ching.

"Oh, my God!" Kim said again, as one after another expense escaped from where memory had repressed them.

But as hard as some parents argue in favor of searching for bargains or borrowing a prom dress from a friend, a dozen others argue that sentiment and nostalgia outweigh cost.

"You want to spend $186 for a stretch Hummer? Whatever," Dawn Steinruck recalled thinking when her son Evan, who graduates this month from Lake Stevens High School, told her what his share of transportation for 20 to the prom in Seattle would be.

In the end, Diamond Chenault didn't want her grandmother spending $700 for a prom dress Diamond might never wear again. She chose one that cost $350. But with $70 for shoes, $89 for prom pictures, $45 for makeup, $50 for nails, $150 for a hotel room shared with three others and what her date, a basketball player at Seattle University, spent on his white tux, dinner and her corsage, the evening came to almost $1,000.

"It's been hard," Diamond said of all the expenses. She works part time at the Nordstrom Rack, but by the time she had finished paying for prom, she said she had $50 left in the bank.

"Go all out on prom"

In the parking lot at Meadowdale High School, where Shaylee Roberts and her friends had appointments for their official prom pictures, the black limousine pulled in behind a white stretch Hummer. Another white stretch Hummer parked two rows away.

Sean Hawes said he wore jeans to homecoming but chose a black-on-black striped tux for prom. His boss at Union Restaurant in Seattle was preparing a four-course dinner for their party, including grilled branzino, strip loin with potato pavé and profiteroles with cognac ice cream.

"You have to go all out on prom," he said.

His date, Ramona Spoiala, agreed. "We've worked hard for four years. It's our time."

Lynn Thompson: 425-745-7807 or lthompson@seattletimes.com