Career Day, which has been held each fall since the school opened in 1998, has been cancelled for this year and could go away permanently due to a lack of time, energy and people to make it happen.

According to Jackie Ingratta, assistant principal of curriculum, several factors contributed to the administration’s decision.

“The school just acquired a new evaluation system, which for the faculty takes up a lot of time and requires a lot of work,” Ingratta said. “Also, the assessment schedule is getting heavier each year, and by the time we take care of all of that, FCATs have begun, which basically takes up the rest of the year.”

Jim Melia, assistant principal for facilities, pointed additional scheduling difficulties.

“The leader of the Career Day committee had an ill family member, and therefore could not make time for the in-depth planning the event requires,” Melia said.

Senior Kelly Hambel said she won’t miss the event.

“I feel it’s a waste of time because the jobs that I want and list as my top choices, I never get, so I just sit there bored,” she said.

Hambel is not alone. In an annual exit survey taken at the annual graduation ceremony practice, seniors regularly rank Career Day and the A-Plus barbecue luncheon as their least-favorite events. Teachers also rank Career Day near the bottom of their surveys.

“We like our activities at this school to be fun for the students, but they also have to meet instructional objective, which for Career Day, did not work that way this year,” Ingratta said. “Just because we have done things like Career Day in the past, does not mean we have to continue them in the future.”

Melia agreed that survey results contributed to the decision.

“We are trying to consider the students’ opinions while deciding what to do with the event,” he said.

Also, student dissatisfaction likely contributes to the large number of student absences associated with Career Day.

“I’ve worked at the school for eight years, and each year we have had Career Day,” Melia said. “It is a hard choice to not hold it, but with all the time, money and planning we put into it, we started to question whether it was worth it.”

By Felicia Solazzo and Kaylee Lew