Surprise, surprise. The senior class officers had to postpone the Sadie Hawkins Black & White Winter Formal due to low ticket sales.
Only “50 or so” tickets were sold, according to senior class moderator Larry Hensley. But is this a shock, considering that students were only given two weeks’ notice of the dance?
A “formal,” by definition of the word, is supposed to be official and dignified. Despite what the senior class officers might think, attempting to throw a dance together at the last minute and then postponing it is neither official nor dignified. Sorry, but creating a Facebook event and making a single school-wide announcement are not enough to properly promote an event.
It’s a pity because the way the Sadie Hawkins dance situation was handled (or rather mishandled) is consistent with the student leadership’s action in the past.
Take Homecoming, for example. Did you hear anything about it until two weeks before?
The SAC neglected to adequately advertise this event as well. Homecoming is a school-wide bonding experience that should be built up at least a month in advance. The SAC should have stirred up excitement starting in early September. Instead, they waited until the week before to do anything more than a post in the daily bulletin.
The Halloween Dance and Variety Show unsurprisingly followed suit. The Halloween Dance was not promoted except by posts in the daily bulletin and a few announcements. No hype whatsoever.
As for the Variety Show, go ahead and tear it apart. Contrast it with last year’s awesome show. But when you do, please keep in mind that this year’s show was thrown together in the student leadership’s signature two-week time frame. Of course some skits seemed last minute—they were.
Sports games have not been advertised well either. Fewer than five JC students attended the women’s varsity volleyball championship game. Sure, it was all the way at Roland Park Country School, which is a hike for most students. But more students probably would have come if they had known about it. The game was only advertised at the bottom of the daily bulletin in the week leading up to it. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the congratulations announcement for the team’s B conference championship win was two weeks late.
It’s heartbreaking to watch a school that has so much to offer waste away because of a lack of promotion. The student leadership and the administration seriously need to pull it together and market the school’s events and achievements.
JC gives students so much to be excited for in this podunk county, yet students have to scour the school website to find out what’s going on. The student leadership and administration need to do their job and hype up the student body, or simply advertise events more than two weeks in advance. School spirit would skyrocket.
Mollyann Pais can be reached for comment at [email protected]