Lauren LaFleur
Jacksonville Progress
JACKSONVILLE — By Lauren LaFleur
assistanteditor@jacksonvilleprogress.com
Jacksonville eighth graders will get a sneak peek at high school life Monday night at the district’s Freshman Fair, to be held 6-7:30 p.m. at the Jacksonville Middle School cafeteria.
Jan Lewis, freshman counselor at Jacksonville High School, said the fair gives the incoming freshmen an opportunity to plan their academic paths and begin working toward graduation night.
“We’ll have representatives from all of our academic areas on hand,” Lewis said. “We want to present to the students and their parents what academic pathways and opportunities are at the high school.”
She said she and the other JHS representatives get a variety of questions at the freshman fair, including “What is available for me academically?” and “How do I earn high school credits, and how many do I have to have to graduate?”
“Most of the questions we get are geared at academics,” she said. “But we also talk to them about the extracurricular opportunities at the high school. We let them know what it takes to be in the band or Charmers or the theater department..”
She also said an important part of the night is communication with the students’ parents.
“We want to let the parents know we’re here and we’re going to do everything we can to try to help their students transition to high school life,” Lewis said. “We want to do everything we can to let them know it’s fine an we do whatever we can to help them.”
She said any parents who are not able to come to the fair Monday can still get the information by calling her at the high school, 903-586-3661, ext. 15.
And one more important thing Lewis said is addressed at the fair — calling this year’s eighth graders the Class of 2014.
“We start calling them there so they get accustomed to hearing that and get them to work toward that walk across the Tomato Bowl stage.”
