oak park high school
TALON
volume v • february 2015 • 899 north kanan road, oak park california 91377
TEXTBOOK DAMAGE LEADS TO POLICY CLARIFICATIONS by Lily Rudnick and Giselle Langley, staff writers
Even students who are interested in pursuing careers in a field apart from engineering can benefit from this program by building their skills in collaboration, communication and critical thinking. “It’s the right course at the right time – there’s a demand for it,” Jones said. “We are at a period where standards are changing, and Project Lead The Way entirely fits with the standards.” Further developments will also be appearing within the next school year in the
Textbook returns have become a dreaded task for many students at Oak Park High School. Hundreds of textbooks are given out each year, yet fewer and fewer are accepted when returned. Last year many students were asked to pay a $20 fee to have certain books rebound, but this year the main issue has been water damage. Water damage can breed mold, considered a health hazard, so students whose textbooks contain water damage are required to replace the book. Senior Pierce Langley’s economics textbook from first semester contained water damage in the Spanish glossary and thus was not accepted at the start of second semester. Langley said he did not cause the water damage. “I thought they would take my book back the way I got it, and I thought that they would have accepted good books in the prior semester,” Langley said. Library and media technician Shirin Sexton is a parent volunteer who has been working with textbooks for the last few years. “All I want the students to do is open the book in the front, open it in the back, because that’s where most damage is, and then flip through the pages. Don’t assume that you got a perfect book,” Sexton said. Many students claim that they received their textbooks already damaged, and that is where problems arise. In response to this, Sexton has only one question, “Why didn’t you
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Senior Tara Aleagha, right, “assassinates” opponent Austin Smith (Photo Courtesy of Molley Agapiou).
Liquid assets at stake Controversy surrounds water assassins prize pool
by Kailee Canty, staff writer, and Tushar Jois, editor-in-chief Second semester senioritis manifests itself in many ways. One of them this year is the popular underground game water assassins, organized and played by seniors. However, this year, the allure of a large, more than $1,000 cash prize is leading to disputes between participants, as well as concerns from members of the administration.
student organizer’s participation, money-handling questioned
Senior Olivia San Filippo is participating in the event — and also organizing it. For the past few weeks, seniors rushed to her with cash in hand, paying their team’s entrance fees. Few of the seniors knew exactly where their money would go — though they thought they did. Each of the 225 participating seniors paid $6 to enter the competition
bracket, and each player from the winning team will earn $225. In total, San Filippo collected $1,350 from the seniors. The cash prize for the winning team is $1,125. The Class of 2015 Facebook page — where the water assassins event planning took place — never mentioned that San Filippo would retain a certain percentage of the cash. “I am taking 15 percent of the profit from whoever signed up for Water Assassins, including myself,” San Filippo continued on page 6
Technical skills grant finances new courses by Ashwarya Srinivas, layout editor The staff at Oak Park High School has extensive plans involving technological developments for current and future students. The school recently received a three-year career technology grant to compensate for equipment funds for the new classes. One of the new projects for the 2015-2016 school year is Project Lead The Way (PLTW), a four-year program available to incoming fresh-
men. PLTW will encompass aspects of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and will teach students how to apply their lessons to broader, real-world problems. As each student progresses through his or her high school career, classes of increasing difficulty and pertinence to the child’s career choices will be added to his or her curriculum. “It is a national project that incorporates a fixed curriculum, and that provides pathways into engineering and other science-based sub-
jects,” said physics teacher Ken Jones, who is highly involved in the project’s implementation. Oak Park will also initiate the PLTW Engineering program, which will begin with a basic principles of engineering course taught by Jones and will progress in difficulty throughout the years. According to Jones, the school’s plan is for one teacher to accompany each “cohort of students” throughout their high school career with respect to the engineering courses.
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