In a school with doubling enrollment, change and adaptation to the new size is bound to occur. This year math teacher Kelsey DeWitte and social science teacher John Lund, have taken the reins of Homecoming and they are guiding Jones in a different direction.

Three years ago was the last year students and teachers rode the “Spirit Train” to Near North for pep rally. Business Manager Jeremy Voigt said “The spirit train the last year we used it came out to $7,433.46, but $4,000 was the deposit.” even after taking away the $4,000, there are $3,433.46 left to pay.

After the new building was habitable, many students and faculty thought that everyone would have a chance to be included in the pep rally. However, last year, one of the problems that was presented around the time of the homecoming pep rally was the capacity of the gym. At the time, it was dealt with as best as possible and people were squeezed in where there was room. As we reach homecoming this year, with higher enrollment there is confusion to whether or not everyone that is eligible to go to the events Jones will host will fit in the gym. One of the two Student Government Association Sponsors, John Lund, said, “With the larger enrollment we can’t all fit into the gym at the same time, so we needed to devise a plan. Therefore this year there will be no pep rally, instead we will have Pack the Gym Night” anyone who wants to perform will be given a chance to during halftime of a basketball game that will take place in January.

This year Jones is hosting their first ever “Eagle Games”, These are going to be skill testers, some examples of the games are a three legged race, 3-point shoot out, and tug-of-war. Assistant Principal Eric Fay said he is excited for a new tradition at Jones. Fay said “There are going to be different contests, a talent show, trivia, math games, athletic contests, etc. I think it is very cool that we are trying something new.”

Something else that has changed from last year is that there will no longer be assigned floors to each class, now there will be assigned days where a class decorates the lobby and second floor according to their themes, the class will then be judged on how well they incorporated their theme and how creative they were.. Whichever class wins will have a higher chance at winning the Class Cup.  Since this is the grand prize, everything will be taken into account to determine the winner.

The Class Cup is an award that will be displayed on the first floor lobby, on it a plaque with the winner’s graduating year. Another thing that is judged would be the class packages, these include a class shirt designed by a student from that class and approximately three items that are relevant to the class theme.

Another issue that has presented itself is that over the summer was the decision that there would no longer be class colors. Instead, each class will have a different homecoming theme, with a new theme chosen each year. When this new change was announced there was a lot of disagreement coming from the senior class.

A petition started by Ellice McDonald and Brittany Lieber, both ’15, was delivered to Principal P. Joseph Powers. The petition said it was unfair that students did not all have a direct vote on the subject.

“Every year at Jones at least one thing has been different, for them to change the one thing that we really enjoyed just seems disrespectful,” said McDonald.  Lieber doesn’t agree with having homecoming themes. She said, “We are already unique, I don’t understand why they are trying to change us to be similar to other schools. We were fine before.”

However, other classes did not seem as fazed. Dallas Broderson ’18 said “ I like themes, I feel like if you have a theme you can dress up and make yourself more unique”. The freshmen have the theme “superheroes”, the sophomores “Hollywood”, the juniors “hippies” and the seniors have the theme “under the sea”.