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Newton North High School, 360 Lowell Ave., Newtonville, Mass. 02460
◆ Friday, Jan. 15, 2010 • Volume 88, Issue 16
Newton honors life of King HILARY BRUMBERG Both the city and this school will host their annual events to honor the work of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. within the next week. The English department coordinated the annual writing assignment for sophomore English classes, according to English department head Tom Fabian. Today, the honorable mentions will be introduced and the winners will read their essays at an award ceremony in Lasker auditorium. “This is really the kind of writing that needs an audience,” Fabian said. “It’s nice to have a contest just because it helps students get recognition for their writing skill.” The project required students to choose a “personal hero and convince us that he or she embodied the spirit of Dr. King,” according to the assignment sheet created by English teachers. The essays were judged on the quality of the writing and the writer’s ability to both make points and tell stories, according to Fabian. This year ’s winners were Courtney Leahy, first place; Pamela Chen, second place; and Maleeka Pearson, third place. Honorable mentions were Shelton Cochran, Clare Doolin, Jenny Hamilton, Evan Harris, Maggie Heffernan, Mira Netsky, Bethany Schubert, Hannah Stubblefield-Tave and Fatema Zaidi. Monday at 10 a.m., Our Lady Help of Christians church will host the 42nd annual citywide celebration, according to fine arts coordinator Richard King. Mayor Setti Warren will be the guest of honor of the event. Interim superintendent V. James Marini will introduce the students from this school, Bigelow and F. A. Day. The students will read reflections. According to King, the Newton All City Honors Chorus Treble Singers, Newton South’s Harambee Gospel Choir and Myrtle Baptist Church’s The Love Tones will provide live music. This event is co-sponsored by the City of Newton, the Foundation for Racial, Ethnic and Religious Harmony and the Newton Interfaith Clergy Association. BY
Environmental club sets up recycling
MARENA COLE This school now has singlestream recycling, according to senior Naomi Genuth. “Single-stream recycling means you can mix paper, plastic, glass and anything else recyclable in one bin,” Genuth said, who is an officer of the club with seniors Carissa Chan and Emily Denn. “We want our school to be a greener place, and one great way BY
Teddy Wenneker
“Mom Sketch”: Freshmen Ian Lund and Michaela Burla-Shulock portray distraught parents in “Freshman Cabaret” Friday, Jan. 9 in Lasker auditorium. See related stories on page 4.
Committee makes plans for move ELLEN SARKISIAN Approximately half the furniture in this building will not move to the new school, said principal Jennifer Price. “The furniture may not be moved because it is damaged, broken or its quality is poor, or it does not meet the standards of the fire code,” she file photo said. Jennifer First, it will Price be considered whether the item could be reallocated, for example, to another school, Price said. “Then, the city lets people know there are city items that are surplus, and people can purchase them,” she said. “After that, it becomes the property of the contractors.” The move will be completed by July 15, said English teacher Liana Kish, who is a co-chair of the Move Committee with special
education aide Mark Wadness. Price and department heads are in the process of assigning spaces in the new building, and the city is in the process of procuring a mover, Kish said. The Move Committee has at least one member from each department of the school, she said. The staff is in the process of reviewing the inventory of items for each department and will confirm and revise the inventory lists as needed, she said. The inventory lists, as well as the list of special items in each department, will be used to create a request for a proposal from moving companies, after which the moving company will be chosen, Kish said. Heidi Black, the administrator of high school construction and strategic planning, will then meet with movers on the state contract list to talk about the scope of the job, she said. “The lists will also be used to determine what furniture, fixtures and equipment need to be
ordered,” Kish said. “A coding system will be created to ensure that boxes are moved to the right place in the new building.” Black has been meeting with all department heads to determine which departments have specialty items that need to be moved, Kish said. “Specialty movers will be hired as needed,” she said. Each piece of furniture was labeled with a sticker: green means the item will be moved, tan means the item might be moved, red means it is not moving, not suitable for and or item does not meet code, and blue means it is a personal item, Kish said. If items that will not be moved are personal items, staff may take them home. For any remaining items, the city is required by law to go through the surplussing process, Kish said. Consultants inventoried the furniture and labeled it according to its quality, Black said. The city will have the mov-
ers in place by early spring, she said. “Once we have movers in place, we will be able to speak more specifically and take them to meet the different people to speak to about the move,” Black said. “For special equipment, for example fitness and career and tech equipment, the vendors will be contacted so a specialist can disassemble the equipment, the movers can transfer it to the new building and the specialist can reassemble it,” she said. “There really will not be a need for specialty movers, other than to move chemicals. “We will need to use vendors to disassemble equipment and then reassemble it, but there is virtually no need to have a specialty mover. The regular movers can do most every move,” she said. There will be approximately two purge days, when faculty can dispose of unneeded paper goods, each month starting in February until the end of the year, Kish said.
in brief
roJam, a concert to raise money and environmental awareness, March 26 in the little theatre.
Pledging is part of Your Skin Is In, a contest sponsored by the Melanoma Foundation of New England. Not tanning includes not intentionally laying out in the sun and using tanning beds, Eskinazi said. “If 70 percent of our senior class, 322 students, pledge, we could win $500,” she said. “However, if we can be the school with the highest percentage of pledges, we will win $1,000. “Also, if we are one of the first
150 schools to have 70 percent of the class pledge, we will win two day passes to Six Flags, which will be raffled off.” Any money the class wins will go towards the prom, she said. Students have until February 14 to pledge. They can pledge online at http://www.melanomafoundationne.org/skinpledgeform2010.php Last year, over 70 percent of the Class of 2009 pledged not to tan and won $1,000 for the prom.
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to do that is through recycling,” Genuth said. The Environmental Club organized a recycling system for this school, Genuth said. Homerooms are now being asked to empty their small recycling bins into the larger green bins on Main Street. Anything that is recyclable can go in the bins, she said. Additionally, the Environmental Club will host the annual Envi-
Seniors pledge not to tan before prom
MARENA COLE Seniors are pledging to not tan before prom, according to Eliana Eskinazi, the class president. “It is an incredible cause and it is important that people are educated to learn more about the consequences of tanning, and it is a great way to raise money for prom!” Eskinazi said. BY
Look Inside the New Building — See Pages 8 and 9