NEWS 1-4
PROFILE 5
OP/ED 6-7
Talent Show Students and Faculty show their talents. Page 3
SPORTS FEATURE 10-11 12-13 INSIDE
Art Student Profile Sophomore Victoria Huang Page 5
A&E 14
March Madness We’re building the brackets. Pages 9-10
Beatles at 50 Beatles celebrate 50th anniversary Page 14
Laguna Blanca School - 4125 Paloma Drive - Santa Barbara - California - 93110
Volume XXI
LIFESTYLE BACK PAGE 15 16
www.thefourthestate.net
Friday, March 21, 2014
Issue 5
STEM Expansion Plans Announced By MARGARET LAZAROVITS
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PHOTO: KYLAN TYNG
HOLD IT: Head football coach Shane Lopes stands by to spot as Owls tight end and linebacker sophomore Pierce O’Donnell practices in his repetitions during one of Lopes’ personal training sessions the weight room.
Shane Lopes Named County Coach of the Year
By KYLAN TYNG & PIERCE O’DONNELL Earlier this year, Laguna Blanca’s newest staff member not only became an on-campus all-star, but also a AllCounty MVP. In early February, the Santa Barbara NewsPress published their All-County Football Honors List. Among the recipients was Coach Lopes, who beat out dozens of coaches across a myriad of high school programs to receive All-County Coach of the Year honors. “At first, I was surprised,” Lopes said when asked about the
Despite Rainfall, California Remains Ravaged by Drought By ALLISON LEWIS TOWBES While the rest of the country freezes, Santa Barbara is now in “exceptional” drought conditions. As of Feb. 20, the state of the water shortage in Santa Barbara County has officially been increased from “extreme” to “exceptional.” This is the first time in 15 years that Santa
award, “...but It was also an honor because our coaching staff worked really hard. I think it’s really great for our school to gain some recognition.” In his first year as an Owl, Lopes was strictly the head football coach; however, this summer he petitioned for a strength and conditioning program. Not only did Lopes take over this program, he continued to coach the football team as well. After completely revamping and reconstructing the fitness center with new equipment, Lopes began training students,
teachers, staff and faculty, and even families and friends. Within days of announcing the program and weeks of its launch, the program began to grow exponentially. What started as a handful of students grew to encompass entire teams and groups of faculty and staff members. Before he arrived at Laguna, Lopes attended Dos Pueblos High School where he played as the Chargers’ starting varsity quarterback for four years. After college, Lopes returned to his alma
Barbara has been in this condition. As of mid-February, Lake Cachuma (a major source of water for the county) stood below 39 percent capacity, and Gibraltar Reservoir was down to 1.4 percent. Residents of the city have been asked to cut their usage by 20 percent, with Montecito and Summerland home and business owners required to reduce their water consumption to 30 percent. The Central Coast Water Agency also recently announced that Santa Barbara county may not be receiving a delivery of new state water for this year, which will possibly create a catastrophe for Santa Barbara and the surrounding districts.
These restrictions do not affect all of Santa Barbara County. However, areas like Carpinteria, which has a large endowment of groundwater, will likely be less affected. Rainfall at the end of February brought almost six inches of water to the City of Santa Barbara and the surrounding area, but water rationing will continue to be enforced. Members of the Laguna community have been doing their part to relieve the drought: “I’m watering my outdoor garden less and I’m using my cat bowl’s water to water my indoor plants!” said Middle School English and Elements of Grammar teacher Ms.
mater as the varsity quarterback coach, but he had greater aspirations. Seeking a job as a head coach, Lopes took his talents to Laguna’s very own Chase Field, becoming only the second head coach in program history. Lopes knew he had big shoes to fill as his successor, Ray Robitaille, started the program in 1999 and has coached it ever since. After an injury-riddled first season, Lopes’ squad finished with a 2-5 record and not a single league win: disappointing to say the least. However, Lopes began strength and speed
training with the boys three days a week before school. When August came around, the team had gained only a couple new recruits. It looked like it might be another unsuccessful season to many, but the 2013 season was anything but unsuccessful. The undersized, undermanned Owls stormed into the CIFSS D1 eight-man quarterfinals for only the second time in program history with a much improved 6-3 record. Their run was cut short Continued on page 3
PHOTO: KYLAN TYNG
RUNNING LOW: Lake Cachuma, an artificial lake in the Santa Ynez Valley which serves as a reservoir for Santa Barbara and supplies water to 200,000 residents, is down 50 feet from where it was two years ago. Norgaarden. It is still unclear as to what the long-term effect of the drought will be.
Santa Barbara residents should continue to be mindful of their water usage.
eturning to campus for the first time in what feels like a lifetime, a new building catches your eye. It looks familiar, but you can tell from the façade that the electricity of something new is buzzing inside. Curious, you poke your head through the door and what you see astounds you. High schools kids revved with excitement, engineering robots, designing software and coding computers, among other feats. Having attended Laguna while the STEM expansion was just a fledgling project, you’re shocked at how it’s grown into a full-scale collaboration, complete with its own building. This is the ultimate goal of Laguna’s STEM expansion program. “A center for creative engineering and in which would be computer science workshops and actual engineering and designing going on,” math department chair Paul Chiment said. Mr. Chiment, along with Ms. Staci Richard, Mr. Dan Ary and, returning to Laguna, Mr. Zack Moore, will be spearheading Laguna’s plan to expand and integrate the STEM subjects—Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. “We initially will focus on introducing engineering courses and expanding upon our existing technology courses,” Mr. Moore said. He explains the plan for the STEM expansion in more detail: “There will not be anything ground-breaking next year, except for the new courses. Next year will be more of a planning time and a chance to conceptualize a K-12 STEM program. Long term, we will be looking to infuse STEM into every year of a Laguna education.” Reiterating the end goal, “we will create a Maker space on the Upper School campus that will provide engineering students the work environment to tackle more complex problems and projects,” Mr. Moore said. Currently, Lower School students are getting a taste of what’s to come. “Fifth and sixth grade students are taking part in a coding club. They are coding with SCRATCH Continued on page 4