EYE TIGER www.eyeofthetigernews.com
OF THE
Roseville High School’s student-produced publication
Connect with us online
facebook.com/eyeofthetigernews
March 18, 2013 Issue 9, Volume 12
THISISSUE Federal Program Monitoring to audit EL programs FEATURES
To celebrate 3/14, or Pi day, pies sold on Campo St., to be thrown at math teachers Page 3
OPINION Senior Leandra Weinberg takes issue to Roseville’s switch to CVC. Page 5
ENTERTAINMENT Freshman Breanna Weinberg delights, tries to encompass all age groups. Page 6
SPORTS Varsity softball opens up league play with win over Granite Bay. Page 8
New gate scheduled to be built on Campo St.
by megHAN JULIN meghan.julin@eyeofthetigernews.com
At last week’s board meeting, the Roseville Joint Union High School District approved a proposal to build a gate on Campo Street. The new gate will replace the chain links that school currently uses to close the street during school hours. Plans to hire a company to start drawing up blueprints are forming, but they still need to pass the drafting stage and other stages. The possibility of this new gate has been discussed for years, and is now being put into action. According to principal Brad Basham, part of the reason for this is the recent school shootings and threats they pose to schools across the country. “I believe that the reason why we’re seeing this movement is because of the unfortunate events that happened back in Connecticut,” said Basham. “And, you know, [it’s] another school shooting. That always causes school officials to reflect and look at their own campuses.” Campus monitor Nancy Rash feels that the gate is not only needed, but will both protect students from outside threats and making sure students are kept on campus. “It’d take a little bit of getting used to,” said Rash. “But it’d keep the kids safer. Keep the flow of traffic in one direction, for the most part of the school day.” Denise Weis, an English teacher, also agrees with the safety of students, as well as staff. “There are times when they take that gate down, after school or on minimum days, and I have walked across that street and nearly been killed by a car because I forget the gates are down,” said Weis. “If the gates are up, that makes me safer and therefore makes everyone safer, and I’m totally for the gate being up there.”
By robbie short
robbie.short@eyeofthetigernews.com
Former district EL coordinator blows whistle on district’s improper allocation of state economic aid The Roseville Joint Union High School District will again be conducting mock Federal Program Monitoring (FPM) visits through the rest of March and into April to assess the English Learner (EL) programs at all seven district schools, keeping with a standard set after the district admitted to improperly allocating
funds meant for the programs. These mock FPM visits were first conducted during the 20112012 school year, after they were designed by an English language learner consultant, Dr. Edgar Lampkin, who was hired to provide guidance for the district after the rulings in Herr v. RJUHSD. In the case, which was decided July 11, 2011, plaintiff Ted Herr, formerly the district’s coordinator of intervention and EL support and currently a mathematics teacher at Roseville High School, alleged that the district failed to meet the minimum legal funding requirement for the programs. Money for the EL programs comes out of a state program
known as Economic Impact Aid (EIA), which provides support for educationally disadvantaged students and bilingual English learners, and districts are required to allocate 85 percent of the funds they receive from the program to their school sites for spending. However, as Herr claimed, the district failed to reach that requirement, and in the 2010-2011 school year – the year before he filed the complaint – the amount of funding received by school sites amounted to only 38 percent of the money received by the district. “The school district was withholding funds,” said Herr. “They were accepting funds from the state, they were spending
some of it appropriately, they were just stashing a bunch of it, and some of it was being diverted to other programs, to ineligible students, to ineligible programs.” One of the programs that illegally received the funds was the AP Chemistry program at Antelope High School, which received new textbooks paid for with money from the EIA funding. However, a majority of the money was going unspent and carrying over from year to year. The district initially denied the allegations, but an appeal by Herr eventually resulted in officials admitting to the misappropriation of funds, along with Herr’s other claim that they falsified paperwork to convince the state that the district
was allocating enough to the schools. However, the district did deny Herr ’s claim that the English Learners were being discriminated against on the basis of their national origin, and an appeal of that allegation, along with one that states that the district has unjustly taken actions against Herr for being the whistle-blower, including eliminating his administrative position, is currently working its way through the legal system. After the district admitted to Herr’s allegations, they were forced to follow a set of Corrective Actions to remedy the problems, which included the hiring of Lampkin,
See FPM| Page 2
Juniors win Powder Puff championship By MICHELLE IM netzy.ortega@eyeofthetigernews.com
For the first time, the annual Powder Puff football game was incorporated with the Battle of the Sexes rally. According to Josh Errecart, who oversees the Powder Puff game, the rally added to the experience as a whole, made it even more of an event than it already was and helped hype the games up and got people thinking more about going to the game. “600 people purchased tickets, and there were roughly around 200 players and 20 coaches,” said Errecart. The games took place on March 6, and the first game was between the juniors and the sophomores. The juniors claimed victory with a score of 11-6. The freshmen played the seniors next, and the seniors won 26-6. The championship game took place afterwards between the juniors and the seniors. Juniors dominated the field and won 27-0. Despite some of the scores being lopsided, Errecart feels the games were spirited. “The game was much more competitive this year,” said Errecart. “The freshmen scored a touchdown
for the first time in three years and everyone had a competitive team. The players and coaches were very spirited and intense as always. The crowd was really into the game and did a great job cheering on their team.” Freshman Madison Connor participated in the game for the first time. “I loved it,” said Connor. “The game was a lot of fun and, overall, really great. It was just a lot more aggressive than what I expected, but I think we did fine.” Senior Jordyn Smith played for the third year in a row this year and believes people should join the team. “The game hasn’t really changed except for people being more rough and vicious,” said Smith. “That shouldn’t stop people from playing, because they train you before the game and you can always go and just watch.” Freshman Marcus Wells was one of the male student coaches and enjoyed the experience. “I had a good time, but some of the girls were too girly and were too scared to actually play,” said Wells. “But there were also some girls who were kind of scary because they were so aggressive.”
PHOTO BY CECIL MORRIS WWW.CECILMORRISPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Above, the seniors face the freshman in the second powder puff game. The freshman loss lead the seniors to play against the juniors in the final game. Errecart would like to add a faculty coach to each team next year to oversee the decision-making and keep the sideline coaches and players under better control.
“I definitely like having it paired with other events, as it just adds to the experience,” said Errecart. “I would like to see it be more connected to the actual football
season and/or the football team.” The timing of next year’s games is still undetermined at this point, but Errecart is aiming to hold it during the football season next fall.
Increase in students ticketed for illegal parking By NETZY ORTEGA netzy.ortega@eyeofthetigernews.com
The city of Roseville’s parking enforcement has been handing out tickets in Roseville High School parking lots and streets near the school. Tickets being issued to students range from $25 up to hundreds of dollars, depending on the situation. According to youth service officer Carlos Cortes, the tickets are being handed out in response to complaints coming from residents in the neighborhoods around the school. He believes the large increase is also due to the fact that more students are driving and that there are more cars available for them to purchase. “It’s not that parking enforcement
is hammering the kids, but the people who live in these neighborhoods calling the police department, asking parking enforcement to come out and issue citations,” said Cortes. Senior Alyssa Sleadd believes the ticket she received was fair, but the reason why she got it was not her fault. “I understand why I got my parking ticket, but I would not have gotten it if there were more spaces for me to park,” said Sleadd. “I feel like students are at a disadvantage because teachers can park wherever they want but students cannot. I think a parking lot should be built, but I know that we don’t have a lot of space, but I think the portable area would be a good area.” According to Cortes, he sent
out an email to all teachers and administrators asking them to not park in the student parking lots because he does not think it is fair to the students. Cortes also believes that there are parking spaces for students to park, but they just aren’t as close. “Although it is quite a walk, students can go park by Woodbridge Park,” said Cortes. “There are a lot of parking spots over there.” There are also parking tickets being issued at other schools nearby and in downtown Roseville. Junior Kale Carder does not think the tickets are being issued fairly and that the police should not be so involved. “If students don’t care about what happens in the parking lot,
PHOTO BY BRODIE MAY
The Berry St. lot, one of the two lots where students can legally park, is pictured above. why should the police?” said Carder. tickets being given out, it feels like “I feel like they should not get they are just trying to make money.” involved. With the large amount of
Prerequisite for Student Government class mandated starting next year By BRODIE MAY brodie.may@eyeofthetigernews.com
Roseville High School will be seeing the addition of a Student Government leadership class starting next year. The class will be a prerequisite for the program and aims to help students develop the necessary skills to be successful later on. It will be required to be taken for one term and will be available for students to enroll in during both the fall and spring semesters. The class will be required of any newcomers to the program,
including students who were involved with their middle school student government program. Additionally, current Student Government students will go through an interview process to determine whether they stay in Student Government or are placed in the leadership class. However, the three freshman class officers will not have to take the class and will automatically be in Student Government. Senior Ariana Criste, ASB president, explained that some of the more experienced students in Student
Government will be helping those less experienced students in the class. “There’s going to be teacher interns who will be helping out with leadership,” Criste said. “They’re kids that already have the skills and experience to help work with students who are new to the program.” Students in the leadership class will be assigned to host and manage smaller events like spirit weeks and movie nights, while Student Government will still handle all of the large events, such as rallies and dances. Senior Alyssa Sleadd feels that
the class will help students learn important skills they will use with other students in Student Government. “It’s going to be more focused on your individual and teamwork skills, rather than planning events,” said Sleadd. According to Student Government teacher Lindsey Parker, the class won’t infringe on students’ free time. “Aside from teaching them the skills they will need to be successful, another benefit to Leadership is that there won’t be any outside hours involved,” said Parker. “Student Government students a lot of times
struggle with it because they’re playing sports or have a job and they have to be at a rally rehearsal or decorating, and Leadership students won’t have that problem.” Ariana Criste believes Student Government takes up a lot of time and agrees with Parker that the leadership class will not take a lot of the students’ time. “It’s a lot less of a time commitment,” said Criste. “So it’s easier for a lot of kids, because Student Government does end up being a very large time commitment.”