NEWS 1-4
PROFILE 5
OP/ED 6-7
SPORTS FEATURE 10-11 12-13 INSIDE Getting Noticed: Senior’s Art Work Featured as a logo. Page 4
Story Time The third grade comes to visit Elements of Writing Class. Page 3
A&E 14
Basketball Season Boys and Girls soccer season starts. Page 10
In-Depth Feature The Teenage Brain in Love Pages 8-9
Laguna Blanca School - 4125 Paloma Drive - Santa Barbara - California - 93110
Volume XX
Thursday, February 13, 2014
LIFESTYLE BACK PAGE 15 16
www.thefourthestate.net
Issue 4
Tennis Courts Are a Big Hit Among Students By GRACE WOOLF
Laguna’s campus has witnessed major changes in the last year — it has a new, state-ofthe-art library and newly constructed eco-friendly parking plaza. Most recently, construction began on the addition of four brand new tennis courts. “The idea of having tennis courts was always something the athletic department dreamed about. Having the courts allows us to keep our tennis teams on campus for practice and to be able to host CIF matches. Having the players be able to play in front of their peers for the first time is very exciting for them and a great help to the entire program,” Athletic Director Mike Biermann said. They are to be used for team practices, matches, and P.E. classes. “The process included securing approvals from Santa Barbara County and the Hope Ranch Homeowners Association. The principal concerns we had to address were the placement and design of the courts. We needed to find a location that minimized noise to our surrounding neighbors and the ‘visibility’ of the courts from Las Palmas. Further to this approval process, we had to work with the County and Hope Ranch on landscape design elements of the project to ensure that the courts would, as much as possible, blend into the natural look of the areas surrounding the gym,” Mr. Tom Pickett, Chairman of Laguna
PHOTO: TARA BROUCQSAULT
TAKING IT ALL IN: Rob Hereford looking relaxed as he takes a stroll through a sea of students in the senior quad on a recent campus visit.
Meet Laguna’s New Head of School, Robert Hereford By PIERCE O’DONNELL
Q: What aspects of the School do you find most attractive? A: I love that Laguna Blanca is a small enough place that I will be able to know everyone. . .I believe the hallmark of any successful school is the quality of the relationships within the institution, and Laguna’s size provides the opportunity for all of us to build those relationships top to bottom. I love the energy and positive atmosphere . . . and I’m eager to build on that forward momentum. Ultimately, what is most attractive about Laguna Blanca is the people in the community. I was so impressed with everyone I met and how passionate they were in their dedication to the School . . . I’m honored that I get to work with this group of people.
whose success I am proud to have engineered in some way.
Q: What did you find helped raise school spirit at other schools? A: Successful programs certainly help drive school spirit, but beyond that, what has worked at a couple of different schools is scheduling athletic contests right after school and holding a cookout or pizza dinner to encourage students and families to come cheer on our teams and enjoy a meal together. Free food is always a good draw! A small school requires building up enthusiasm since the fan base is so small, so we hold K-12 pep rallies and other events so that Middle and Lower School families are encouraged to support the Upper School programs.
Sharing Stories: Gathered for lunch in The Isham Library & Nylen Academic Research Center are guest speaker Judy Meisel, Mrs. Kate Shevitz, Ms. Trish McHale, and Ms. Dana Martin.
Q: What about the School might you want to change? A: The most fundamental issue is the current enrollment level. I want to work with the entire school community to get Laguna Blanca back to enrollment figures closer to 400 students in the near future. With those stronger numbers, that will give us the opportunity to provide more options for kids in the curriculum, in activities and in student support. Tackling that challenge will allow us a great deal of flexibility going forward. My plan is to come in and listen and learn to see what we can do to make Laguna Blanca even greater in the years ahead.
Russians go. “As we left with so many others, children I played with—that I went to school with, were calling us . . . dirty Jews and spitting on us and throwing things at us,” Judy said about being forced to move into the Kovno Ghetto. Judy was then taken to Stutthof Concentration Camp in Poland where she was separated from her brother and her
Q: What would you say your greatest accomplishments were at Fort Worth Country Day School? A: What I take most pride in is having helped some kids graduate from Country Day who might not have otherwise made it. I have loved calling those kids’ names at graduation each year, and we have a couple of students in that class
CONSTRUCTION UNDERWAY: Workers from First-Serve Tennis of Santa Barbara prepare the soon-to-be tennis courts on Chase Field. Construction is set to be completed in time for the boys’ tennis season to begin. Blanca’s Board said. The courts were fully funded by the Furukawa family. “The decision on the tennis courts was really created by the Furukawa family. They came forward and offered a gift to the School designated specifically for the building of the tennis courts. Because tennis is an important part of Laguna’s boys’ and girls’ athletic programs and offering comprehensive athletic programs to our students is part of Laguna’s Mission. We welcomed the Furukawa family’s generous gift and moved the tennis courts project forward,” Mr. Pickett said. Having the courts on campus will make it easier on the players because they won’t have to travel for practices, and the student body will now be able to
attend more games. “We will now have a total of six courts, which is the required number for us to host home tennis matches instead of playing t h o s e matches at the Santa Barbara Municipal Courts. This will PHOTOS: CARSON SHEVITZ make it easier for our community of parents, students, and surface. faculty to attend home “Having courts on matches and support campus means we don’t our tennis teams,” said have to waste 30 minutes Mr. Pickett. driving to and from The courts are being the Muni courts. Plus, built by First-Serve maybe more than two Tennis of Santa Barbara. people will show up to They will be hard-court the matches,” senior Ben with a medium/slow Furukawa said.
Holocaust Survivor Speaks at Martin Luther King, Jr. Assembly
“Tak for Alt” Thanks for Everything By JACQUELINE BERCI When Judy Meisel and her sister escaped to Denmark at the end of the Holocaust, Judy was 16 and weighed 47 pounds. Thanks to the Shevitz family, Judy, a Holocaust survivor born in Jasvene, Lithuania, spoke to students following the screening of the film about her life, “Tak for Alt.” “Racism and bigotry, it’s still happening all over the world and we have to constantly work at it to see that this does not happen here or anywhere. We cannot afford to say that one person cannot do anything. I’m only one person—one person can do a lot,” Meisel said. In 1940, Russians invaded Lithuania, and
PHOTO: CARSON SHEVITZ
Judy recalled how a man came and told her family that the Germans were burning Jews in Poland and the people refused to believe that such an educated people would do such a thing. Judy can remember Lithuanian women and children welcoming the German soldiers with flowers, when they invaded Lithuania in 1941, because they were excited to see the
mother was killed. Judy said that remembering the smells of a flower she used to have and her mother’s challah bread were what kept her alive. She describes these memories as “an extra breath of life.” When Stutthof was liquidated, Judy and her sister were marched out, and, as bombs were Continued on Page 4
Q: What should Laguna Blanca know about the Hereford family? A: My wife, Amanda Whalen, is a gifted teacher who has taught in lower, middle and upper schools in her career . . . She is also an absurdly talented athlete—she played softball at Texas A&M—and I’m hopeful she passed on her athletic genes to our boys, John and Joseph (who goes by Jojo). John is five and will be in the Lower School next year; Jojo is three and will be in preschool next fall. I have a third son, Scott (age 18), from my first marriage, who is a freshman at Rhodes College in Memphis. I’m sure that everyone on both campuses will get used to seeing John and Jojo running all over the place!
Q: Are you a sports fan? Who are your favorite teams? A: I love watching sports—particularly high school sports—I coached basketball for a number of years. Outside of my school teams, I watch the NFL, NBA and professional tennis regularly. I’m a huge New Orleans Saints fan and, while I grew up as a fan of the Lakers, I’ve been drawn to Oklahoma City in recent years because I love watching Kevin Durant play.