Newspaper of Summit High School
February Volume 11 Issue 5
Schedule Change For Summit Students By ANDREW MANDELBAUM
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food selection. Ideally, each student would spend about half of the hour eating, and the other half participating in clubs, going to the writing and math help centers, or studying. These would provide new opportunities for busy students because
Photo by Andrew Mandelbaum
SPIRIT TALLY UPDATE:
On March 20-23, Summit High School will be piloting a new block schedule format. This is part of the district’s never-ending campaign to improve the quality of student education. The new schedule is different in a few ways. First, two classes will drop every day. This extra time will be allotted to the other 6 classes and lunch. Every class then becomes an hour long, and students will have an hour-long common lunch. The dropped periods will rotate much like our current schedule does, except with periods 4 and 8 being dropped on an A day, 3 and 7 on a B day and so on. Since all of the students and faculty will have a common lunch, an overflow in the cafeteria and senior lounge is anticipated. To match this new demand for seating, the school will be opening up the Auxiliary Gym, the concourse outside the Auditorium, and the area above the Senior Lounge as designated places for students to eat. Besides increasing the need for seating, another impact will be longer lunch lines. For the trial period, the administration is talking to the Pomptonium food service managers about expanding the
Principal Mr. Paul Sears considers the trial of a rotating block schedule to be part of a fact-finding exploration of block scheduling at our school.
they could also join and play an active role in clubs. For students in science classes with labs, lab days would become the day when their science class and lunch periods are adjacent, and so they would spend an extra half hour completing labs
Music Entrepreneur Takes Chance Downtown By KAYCE D'ONOFRIO
Current Hilltopper Points as of 2/16
Globe....................2 Opine....................3 Buzz......................4 S&S.......................5 Turf.......................6
What's Up: March 6-8: HSPA Testing March 14-17: Oklahoma! March 17: St. Patrick's Day
While walking the streets of downtown Summit, one might notice the myriad of clothing stores, or the wide variety of culinary options. Excluding Summit favorite, Scotti’s, there seems to be a lack in stores dedicated to music. However, toward the end of March, the World of Rock will be opening, offering a plethora of items, activities, and events for all ages. World of Rock was founded and developed by Paul Fessock, a P.E. teacher at Brayton Elementary School. An avid Elvis Presley fan since his youth, Fessock has always been immersed in the musical world. Whether teaching guitar lessons to one of his students, or entertaining others in his band Amp’d, Fessock is always involved in music. “I just thought it was natural to open a school/store,” he explained. Located in the Mondo building on Springfield Ave, World of Rock will be extremely versatile store. Not only will private lessons be offered for the guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard, the store will also be selling musical items such as instruments, picks, strings, drum sticks, and so much more. As if this wasn’t enough, World of Rock will also be doing children and adult
birthday parties, which includes a live band, guitar cake and more. It also offers summer workshops for audio and recording. Fessock has extremely high hopes for its success. “Opening a place like World of Rock has always been my dream,” he stated. “I want a place where kids and adults can learn their favorite instrument and get the experience to play on stage.” With Fessock’s distinct charisma and musical talent, World of Rock will be a great addition to the Summit community.
Forensics Team Represents at Harvard Weekend Tournament By DREW SCHWENDIMAN
This year the SHS forensics team competed in the 38th annual Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament during the President’s Day weekend. Over 150 schools and 2000 students from all over the country attended.
and then eating. During the trial only seniors with unassigned would have open campus privileges. However, if this became our standard schedule the administration would be inclined to bring open campus lunches to all seniors. In this new format, students only have to prepare for six classes each day. This could be beneficial in improving the efficiency of students because they would have to spread their focus less each night. Teachers could also plan new activities that take more time because of the extra fifteen minutes they will have every class day. All of the benefits of this schedule are impressive but there are also some potential flaws. The obvious one is if there is a snow day you will lose some classes for an extra day. Also missing school due to illness or sports could quickly put a student farther behind in individual classes. Mr. Akey said, “I like getting seniors opinions about changes [in the school].” Mr. Akey was also in favor of potentially trying a second new schedule later in the spring in which there would be a four period day each 90 minutes long. Forensics team co-advisers Mrs. Anne Poyner and Mr. Scott Rebholz, along with parent chaperone Mrs. Myung Kang-Huneke, accompanied 18 of the team’s varsity members to Boston for the February 18-20 event. Rise and shine was 6:00 AM, with the day’s competitions finishing at 8:30. Despite a long day at the tournament, debaters still found time to squeeze in a tour of the Harvard campus. Allison Scott and Victoria Abut, both sophomores, competed against 200+ competitors in Humorous Interpretation and advanced into octofinals, the top 48, before dropping. Beth Ann Powers, a junior, competed in Dramatic Interpretation against 400+ competitors, progressing to doubleoctofinals, the top 96, before being eliminated. In Original Oratory, Drew Schwendiman, a sophomore, advanced to double-octofinals, too, out of 300+ competitors. Two freshmen, Jai Padalkar and Abin Alexander, debated against hundreds of other teams and advanced into doubleoctofinals. Says Emily Claypoole, a junior who competed in Dramatic Interpretation, “It was an eye-opening and enjoyable experience. It was the right amount of fun and competition and going to this national tournament helped us become better performers. In one word, it was awesome.”