Seniors say aloha to school

Students kicked off the beginning of the end of their high school careers poolside at Fountain Valley High School’s Senior Luau on Tuesday.

The luau was the first of a series of graduation events for seniors before the big goodbye.

“It’s just one of these fun events for seniors to celebrate what they’ve accomplished,” Spanish teacher Jim Diecidue said.

The event took place in the school’s pool compound, where students ate pizza and tried to sink teachers in the dunk tank. A few, like 17-year-old Courtney Frabbiele and Danielle Deovlet, donned swimsuits and jumped in.

Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga blared as students sat around talking to friends, some wearing leis, taking part in the highlight of the luau for many — signing yearbooks.

Students sat hunched around tables signing their farewells to friends. Julie Nguyen, 18, said the luau was one of the last times for the students to see each other.

“I’m really excited for the school year to end, but I’m going to miss my friends,” Nguyen said.

More than 300 students bought tickets before the event, and English teacher and senior committee advisor Sara LaFramboise estimated more than 500 attended.

The luau, which is followed by the senior breakfast, graduation and Grad Night, is a long-standing tradition, according to LaFramboise, but that didn’t stop it from facing funding problems.

“We needed our very own bailout this year,” LaFramboise said. “It’s a long-standing tradition. We are really glad we haven’t had to cut it.”

The school’s funding problems occurred for a variety of reasons, LaFramboise said. This year, for the first time, the revenues from prom went to the associated student body instead of the senior committee. In addition, the current senior class failed to raise funds when they were freshmen and sophomores, LaFramboise said.

As a result, the school had to charge students $5 admission this year to the luau, which it had never had to do before. The school also served pizza this year instead of a full Hawaiian barbecue, which would have cost more than $4,000.

Annie Nguyen, 18, who is Fountain Valley High’s senior luau coordinator, said her class sold T-shirts and lanyards and organized the Sadie Hawkins dance to raise money for the $2,200 event.

Next year’s graduating class will be facing similar budget problems, according to LaFramboise. She is trying to tackle the problem by beefing up fundraising and making pleas to fellow faculty members and administration.

“Given that we’re going to have significant cutbacks, it’s going to be harder and harder to have events like this,” she said.