Every week, “The Patriot” checks all its campus-wide sources to bring you the best of what’s happening at JC.
Music to take center stage at country fair
This year, the JC Country Fair will shift toward the more family-oriented Country Fair and Music Festival to be held April 30 – May 2. The new design of the fair removes the traditional carnival rides and adds more live music.
“We’re changing the whole look of the fair. While we are not bringing back the traditional rides, we are now going to have some new games [such as] laser tag, a rock climbing wall, an obstacle course, and a moon bounce for the kids. In addition, there will be the traditional food, crafts, vendors, etc,” Director of Development Laura Lang said. Other attractions include a cross-campus hay ride and fishing at the pond.
The main focus of the fair this year will be the music. “We’re shifting gears. We are having a Battle of the Bands on Friday night that [Religion teacher Brian] Bourne is coordinating in the hopes of attracting our students. Outside we will be using Harford County’s Showmobile for all of the bands,” Lang said.
There will be an opening performance by Cryin’ Out Loud, a student band featuring sophomore Emily Oursler followed by a Battle of the Bands on Friday night. Saturday from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m., walk-in bands [ are welcome and at 7 p.m., a WXCY radio supported artist, Chuck Wicks, will perform live. An admission fee of $10 is required to gain admission to the event.
The change in the atmosphere of the fair is partially due to the safety and security issues at recent fairs. “Anyone who has attended the fair in the last few years on a Friday night knows and understands the safety and security issues that we have had to deal with. It’s just not worth it anymore to open our families and the schools up to that environment again,” Lang said.
Senior email address plans undecided
The decision about whether to discontinue the email addresses of seniors upon graduation has merited discussion, but “no big decision has been made,” according to Director of Technology Greg Russell.
Originally, “we intended that the account would be cut off when students graduated because of a Microsoft licensing agreement,” Russell said. “However, in this new day and age of connectivity, maybe students want their email addresses to in touch [with peers].”
Russell “has some feelings about keeping” the address because it “allows students to keep in contact and the school to keep in touch with alumni. The question is how much people will use it with things like Facebook to keep in contact with friends.”
Another possible solution, according to Russell, would be to allow students to keep a JC Patriot address, but “not in the same account as the rest of current students.” He added, “Maybe [for example] create an alum.jcpatiot.org, with the same password and account, but the address changes.”
If the accounts are deleted, students will be given warning and time to change the address on subscriptions made with the school email.
The earliest accounts would be deleted is in mid-August, when the school is “pretty sure of the new student population,” Russell said. “That’s when I import the new students and deleted the old students.” At the same time, current seniors’ Sharepoint access will be removed.
As for now, it is “still up in the air,” Russell said. The final decision will be made within “the next few weeks.”
Russell plans to “elicit the brain trust of some other tech savvy folks and the principal or president” to reach a final decision.
Katie Clarke can be reached for comment at [email protected].
Kate Froehlich can be reached for comment at [email protected].