Some of comments about parade addressed

To the editor,

My name is Julie Lewis and I am the Anna Jonesboro Community High School Student Council sponsor. I work with some wonderful student officers who help plan many of the homecoming events here at the high school, the parade being just one of them. Those students put in a lot of hard work and begin working on it over the summer.

Regarding Ms. Steveson’s letter on Oct. 1, I wanted to address some of her negative comments directed at the parade.

Anyone watching the parade past the judges’ trailer in front of WIBH, will see gaps in the parade. All of the school bands stop and perform for the judges here while the rest of the parade moves on. The parade leaves the park in front of Rusty’s so if one would like to see the parade without gaps, feel free to watch near them. The 80-plus units leave in a tight line.

As far as the themes, the student council officers are the ones who pick the theme based on the team we are playing. The fact that it is not too specific is done on purpose so that the various classes can use it in a variety of ways.

The parade is just one of many activities that occur during the week. Float building is only in the evenings the week of homecoming and each class can only spend $100 on the materials. Chicken wire and napkins are not a thing of the past and as a freshman class sponsor last year, I know we used this on our float. I was not involved in float building this year so I am not sure what materials were used by the different classes.

As a teacher, I feel that our goal is to help students learn and achieve and I do not agree with letting students out of class to work on the floats. We have students who participate in after school activities. This does limit the number of students available to work on the floats in the evenings. In addition to that we were also working on the coronation set after school and many people were in attendance at coronation Wednesday evening in the auditorium.

Student council members were at the park the morning of the parade setting out stakes and setting up at the judges’ trailer. Then these students went through the park collecting the stakes and returning the materials from the judges’ trailer to the school following the parade.

Homecoming week takes place approximately five weeks after the beginning of school and I can personally attest to how much work the students do for all the activities. Many of the students worked before school, at lunch as well as during their study halls. I am proud of each and every student who helped in some way.

I’m sure that next year the teachers who chaperone float building would welcome any community members who would like to assist the students build floats. Contact us next fall and we can let you know where and when float building will take place. There is always an article placed in the local newspapers calling for float entries so this parade is open to the community.

All in all I want to say thank you to everyone who participated in this year’s homecoming parade. Based on the number of people in the parade and the number of people I see watching it in the area of the park, I’d say there is definitely reason to hold the homecoming parade again next year and I’ll be in the park getting them out in an orderly fashion as I have been the past eight years and as the student council sponsors before me also did.

Thank you, Julie Lewis, A-JCHS teacher and student council sponsor