Administrators are hurrying to refund Saturday’s winter formal tickets after the Palo Alto High School Associated Student Body canceled the event.

ASB canceled the dance, which was expected to take place Saturday night, due to a National Junior Basketball tournament scheduled for the same time in the small gym, according to Friday’s ASB meeting minutes.

Paly administrator Jerry Berkson alerted ASB Student Activities Director Matthew Hall of the double-booking on Thursday afternoon. While ASB’s meeting minutes reflect that it searched for other potential locations to hold the formal, ASB eventually decided that none were feasible and issued a press release today notifying students of the cancellation.

As students became aware of the cancelation, some would-be attendees were disillusioned at the sudden change.

“I was looking forward to it [the dance] all week, I wanted to go with my friends, I bought a dress specifically for the dance, I was going to buy my ticket, I was ready,” sophomore Emma Stefanutti said. 

With the last-minute change, ASB was unable to get refunds for all prepaid services including caterers and DJs.

While the ASB minutes stress that neither ASB nor any one individual is at fault for the oversight, ASB is considering how it can strengthen its communication with the administration, according to ASB minutes.

“ASB and admin are learning from this event and hope to increase communication in the future,” ASB Clubs Commissioner Pooja Akella stated in an email to The Paly Voice. “We plan on inviting members of our administration to ASB meetings so we can update admin on what ASB has planned and stay up to date with what administration is doing.”

For questions regarding refunds, the ASB press release advises students to contact ASB bookkeeper Fatima Giffen at [email protected].