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May 6, 2013 Issue 11, Volume 13
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THISISSUE Five teachers not returning next year, two of own volition FEATURES
Junior Stephen Morin to participate in summer research program at Michigan State University. Page 3
OPINION
Senior Akaash Nagra analyzes society’s misconceptions of evil-doers. Page 5
ENTERTAINMENT Sophomore Marian Abdelmalek reviews up-and-coming band Emblem3.
By Meghan julin
meghan.julin@eyeofthetigernews.com
Five teachers are expected to leave Roseville High School at the end of this school year, as two will leave of their own volition and three did not clear their probation. With two teachers having already left during the school year, this means RHS will see a change in seven teaching positions for next year. Under the teaching contract, the first two years of a teacher’s career are deemed probationary. A teacher can then become tenured their third year back at the same school, which means they become a permanent employee. However, RHS administration has declined to add three staff members into their staff list. Social studies teacher Jim
Bennett, mathematics teacher Kim Ceo and English teacher Amanda Morillas were not asked to remain at RHS next year. According to Bennett, there are criteria for probationary teachers that need to be met. “You’re evaluated as a teacher every year, and so there’s a list of things they want to see you do, things you do well, things they want to see you try,” said Bennett. “And so there were conversations of me trying different things as a teacher here within my first two years. I felt like I tried those, the things that they had recommended for me. But, in the end, I don’t think that mattered.” Ceo believes the evaluations the administration made were not enough to show a teacher’s true
potential. “I think the decision was based on something I didn’t have any control over, that it had to do with the whole geometry department,” said Ceo. “I also think to find out a teacher’s true capabilities that there should be more than two evaluations a year, with only two or three days with each evaluation. I think that it should be more in-depth – talking to the students, talking to the other staff members and seeing just how they teach over a prolonged period.” According to Ceo, the decision made by administration was not based upon students’ scores. “My scores were pretty even with the rest of the math department,” said Ceo. “I think they’re looking to change. With the Common Core
standards coming in, they expect a lot of change in the math department, and I don’t think the administration was seeing as much change as they wanted, but that also has to do with the whole department and not just a new teacher on staff.” Along with Bennett, Ceo and Morillas leaving, both English teacher Katie MacManus and social studies teacher Guy Fine are expected to leave at the end of the semester. MacManus is getting married and leaving for another area, while Fine is retiring. According to English teacher Cecil Morris, a change in staff is not unexpected, though seven is a bit more than usual. “It’s not unusual to have a
Every 15 Minutes ceremony takes place Long time
varsity girls basketball coach Ron Volk removed from position
A look into the experiences of this year’s victims...
Page 6
SPORTS
Girls varsity soccer team ties for SFL league title.
by robbie short robbie.short@eyeofthetigernews.com
Page 8
RHS student planners may not be issued next year by Robbie Short robbie.short@eyeofthetigernews.com
Roseville High School’s administration is currently considering a move that would cease the annual purchase of student planners in an attempt to cut costs and adapt to the changing needs of students. Planners have been given out to students free-of-charge for seven or eight years, and they cost the school $7800 this year, even after the bell schedule was removed in an attempt to save money. Assistant principal Matt Pipitone cited the lack of use by students and the cost involved as reasons to support the cut. “A lot of students don’t use their planners for anything more than just basically a hall pass,” said Pipitone. “The amount of money we spent this year on planners was about $7800, and that’s a lot of money to spend on hall passes.” The money for the planners comes out of the student body fund, which is run by Student Government and also covers the cost of things like the referees, ambulances and security at games. “Costs for everything are going up,” said Student Government adviser Lindsey Parker. “If we save $7800 on planners, we might be able to subsidize some of the students’ costs on things such as AP tests and that sort of thing.” The administration is currently evaluating the opinions of students and the faculty to try to determine the appropriate course of action for the planners. “We’re talking to staff [and] students about what their opinion is of the planner, whether they like using them or not, how much they’re using them, and then we’re going to decide … whether or not we’re actually going to still use them for all students,
See Planners | Page 2
number of people leave in any given year,” said Morris. “I don’t know if Roseville’s had that many in a particular year, but often there’ll be three or four people retire in the same year because they were hired around the same time.” Despite not gaining tenured status, Bennett maintains a positive attitude. “You can’t always control everything, and you just have to carry on and keep a good, positive attitude,” said Bennett. “That’s a lesson for my students, too. I’ve talked to the football team, they know how I feel and I’ll be following them. And my students, I’ve always been very helpful. That’s who I am – I teach students. And I wish them luck as well.”
PHOTO BY MARIAN ABDELMALEK
Seniors Grant Jansen, Nicky Paige, Riley Nethercut, Roman Tyukayev, Cassidy Braddock, Cameron Bones, Breanna Dorsette, Landon Peik, Ausin Dirkes, Brenda Mendez, Delany DeMello, Max Jensen, Emily Desrochers, Forest Klein, Dylan Stauffer and Eric Waters were the students that “passed away” the day prior to the assembly. By leandra weinberg
leandra.weinberg@eyeofthetigernews.com
The annual Every 15 Minutes assembly was held for seniors last Tuesday and received an emotional response from participants and other students. In all, 16 students were selected to represent students who passed away as the result of a drunk driving incident. Those participants were first nominated
by their teachers for being viewed as leaders in their classes and influential in their peer groups. Then, assistant principal Matt Pipitone and Student Government teacher Lindsey Parker reviewed those nominations. This year, there were about 50 students nominated. “What we’re shooting for is a good variety of students, so there’s someone everyone can connect with,” said Pipitone. “I hope we
got that this year. I don’t know if we always do.” The participants are taken out of class the day prior to the assembly and are taken to spend the night in a hotel together with no contact to any friends or family. Participant Cameron Bones was impacted more than she expected. “I had seen how the program worked in past years, and I was prepared for how the school would
react,” said Bones. “But from a participant’s view, I had never anticipated how emotional the whole experience would be.” Though the participants were aware they would be taken, they did not know in which period they would be taken from or whose parents would speak at the assembly the next day. “I had no idea that my parents
See 15 Minutes | Page 2
2013 edition of Tiger Ink to print, despite Cole’s departure by megHAN JULIN meghan.julin@eyeofthetigernews.com
The status of next year’s Tiger Ink class is still uncertain. Previous Tiger Ink advisor, Michelle Cole, left the school just prior to Spring Break, and Amy Pritchard has taken over as both Yearbook and Tiger Ink adviser for the remainder of the school year. Tiger Ink and Yearbook are considered a combined class. As a new teacher on staff, Pritchard is willing to take over both Yearbook and Tiger Ink. “I’m open and available to take
the Yearbook and the Tiger Ink literary magazine together if they are going to stay together,” said Pritchard. “But I don’t know what’s happening with who’s taking what position and if there are any transfers from other schools. It’s all up in the air.” Senior Belle Fulton, Tiger Ink editor, is not sure of the fate of the class yet either, but thinks the future of Tiger Ink has a few options. “Tiger Ink [can be] in the form of a club,” said Fulton. As for this year’s Tiger Ink magazine, Fulton says it’s been sent in to
the publishers. “We just turned it in last week to be published,” said Fulton. “It’s really exciting. We got lots of work this year, lots of short stories. It’s going to be fun.” PHOTO BY SELINA LIANG
Above, submissions to be published in the Tiger Ink literary magazine, which will be published this year.
Girls’ bathroom mirrors vandalized school-wide with uplifting messages By michelle im michelle.im@eyeofthetigernews.com
The girls’ bathroom mirrors in the 900 East Wing bathrooms and the bathrooms adjacent to the pool were decorated with mysterious inspirational messages on May 2. One of the messages read “objects in the mirror are as spectacular as they appear.” This is a play on words to the warning message found on the rearview mirrors in cars, “objects in the rearview mirror are closer than they appear.” Senior Lily Kraft noticed the message during Senior Retreat and found the message to be of good intent. “I think they were just trying to
make people happy because girls are self-conscious,” said Kraft. “Also the writing came off, so it was harmless.” Not only did students find the message heartwarming, but maintenance worker Jacob Marsh also found the message to be touching. “It is good because girls should not be taught that beauty is just on the outside,” said Marsh. “It should be on the inside.” The messages were written with mascara or dry erase marker, therefore the message was easy to wash off. “If it hadn’t been easily erasable, it would have been tricky to erase off the mirrors, so it was a good idea,” said Marsh.
The message was erased off the mirror in the 900 East Wing bathrooms by the end of the day. However, the one in the bathroom adjacent to the pool did not survive without being vandalized itself. Underneath the message where “have a nice day” was written, a student wrote “tubbie” in permanent marker. Freshman Emma Garcia found the word to be immature. “I think they thought they were being funny, but they weren’t being funny,” said Garcia. “And they were only making fun of people [who] feel bad about themselves.” The offensive word was also
PHOTO SUBMITTED CORNACOLLI
BY
KYRA
Above, the mirror in the 500 wing bathroom. erased by the end of the day. However, the people who wrote either message are still unknown.
After six seasons, Roseville High School teacher Ron Volk was removed from his head coaching position on the varsity girls basketball team, surprising players and leaving the team in search of a new coach. Volk was informed of the decision by RHS administration on April 11. “They didn’t get into details – basically, it was just that they wanted to go in a different direction,” said Volk. “I kind of asked what that meant, and there was no elaboration on what [it did].” According to Volk, he did not expect the news, but was not completely surprised by it. “Being a coach, as long as I’ve been a coach … you always [think] that [getting fired] can happen,” said Volk. “I just didn’t think that it would. I can’t say I was totally surprised – in the last six years, we went to the playoffs once – and it’s been a struggle.” Volk informed the team of the administration’s decision at a meeting held several weeks ago. According to junior Lindsay Anderson, a player on the team last season, many of the players had heard about the decision before the meeting, but were still saddened by the news. “Most of us knew [by the meeting] … it’s weird – you expect to have the same coach and now you’re going to have to completely remake your entire season and program, so it was kind of sad when he came in and told us because it really solidified that it was actually happening,” said Anderson. Anderson does not believe that Volk deserved to get fired. “He was a good coach, and we all really liked him, and he really cared about us as people, and as a team he worked really hard last season to help us improve, and I think we did improve, but our record just didn’t really reflect that,” said Anderson. The team had experienced a steady decline during Volk’s tenure, going from 12-15 during the 2008-2009 season to 3-23 last season, including a 0-10 record in league play, its worst performance since Volk took over. According to Volk, he does not have any regrets about his coaching, and he remains proud of the team’s accomplishments. “Anything that I take on, I give it 110 percent … [and] I gave it everything I had,” said Volk. “Where I’m proud of with the girls is that
See Volk | Page 2