We understand that EISEF makes for a long day: those of you from Jefferson and Lee counties board your buses at 6 AM and return home at nearly 11 PM. (It’s a long day for us organizers, too!)
Some of you have asked about a shorter EISEF, with judging in the early afternoon, quickly followed by the awards ceremony. For several reasons this is impractical, or impossible:
- It would be a fair just for you junior students, grades 6–8. To select our Senior Champions, a second panel of judges interviews the top senior students a second time; these interviews take all afternoon. A shorter fair would have no time for this second round of senior interviews.
- This shortened fair would have to lose all the non-EISEF awards. Most of these awards include certificates, printed with your name and other information. It takes us all afternoon, until 7:00 PM, to print these certificates and prepare the awards for you. A shorter fair would have no time to print these certificates.
- Lindale Mall wouldn’t allow an afternoon-only fair. Sometimes the lines at Student Check-in grow long and block the passage. We can get away with that in the morning, before 11:00 AM when the stores open. After the stores open, we mustn’t block the passages.
In any case, we already shortened the Fair once — 40 years ago, before you students were born. Before 1984, EISEF was a 2-day fair. We cut it to 1 day, partly because the teachers asked for a shorter fair.…