February 2015

ct Grand Ledge High School’s

The Comets’ Tale

The Sun Theatre is the perfect $2 night out

See more on page 7

Teachers take over Twitter See more on page 4

71 percent of students at GLHS get 2-3 less hours of sleep than they need

See more on page 6

Volume 47 Issue 5 February 2015 820 Spring St. Grand Ledge MI 517-925-5848

Now serving the bottom third

Photo by Mary Vu/The Comets’ Tale

A change in testing: the ACT becomes the SAT for class of 2017 Bry Leach ‘15 News Editor

Sam walks quietly into the crisply clean classroom on March 3rd with four pencils in hand, an extra eraser, a calculator with brand new batteries, and right out of the package black pens.

She finally feels prepared to take the big test she’s been told about her whole life — the ACT. Except when she sits down at her lonely table, it’s not the ACT. It’s the SAT. After a year of debates and no answers, on Jan. 6 the State of Michigan announced that there would be changes to the statewide test, coming in Spring 2016. “[The state] rebids contracts on a pretty regular basis, a standard contract is three years with two one year extensions, so [it can last] up to five years.” Bob Kefgen, the Associate Director of Government Relations for the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, said.

The choice was decided by a Joint Evaluation Committee (JEC) that was chosen by the State of Michigan. The JEC for this contract included a principal and superintendent from various schools across the state. JECs are chosen every time the state bids on a contract, so specialized persons can decide what contract is the best value — in this case, meaning which test had a better technical review score for the price of the test. The technical review score is in points out of 100, and rates each test in sections. No test that scores below 80 would be considered. In this case, the ACT scored 80 and the SAT scored 90. No other tests submitted bids for this contract.

Soon after the decision was made to switch to the SAT, ACT filed an appeal with the state, saying the state “informally” changed ACT’s contract length, which “unfairly benefited College Board, the producers of the SAT.” The state denied that appeal on Jan. 26, and in a letter sent to ACT, stated that the SAT offers “the best value to the state of Michigan for the required services.” The ACT, however, will still be used for their WorkKeys test, which is a job skills assessment test, previously done on the second day of Michigan’s three day testing program.

The recent changes for Michigan testing are the only major overhauls to the Michigan Educational Assessment Program in the past forty years. For 2015 testing, the state moved to the Math, Science and Technology Enhancement Program (MSTEP).

This meant moving tests from paper to computers, including a listening exam, and adding several hours of testing into juniors’ school schedules. The SAT is the next major change to the program, since the ACT has been a part of it since 2008.

In the same year that Michigan students will start testing with the SAT, the test will undergo a major overhaul. According to See SAT/ACT on page 2

Kindergarten teacher Kim Browning helps one of her students at Neff. Neff is the only kindergarten school in the district, which keeps class sizes standard and the curriculum the same. Keeping track of the students from the beginning can help the district follow and help the bottom third of students.

Photo by Sarah Clinkscales/The Comets’ Tale

Neff Elementary caters to all ranges of kindergarten students wenty-seven busy little bodies rush around the classroom. They’re busy matching numbers in numerical order up to 100. Neff kindergarten teacher Kim Browning bends down to help a student. He is one of the youngest in the classes, only four-years-old. Some kids quickly match all the numbers, and even help their neighbor, others need a little more time. One out of three kindergarteners will not be ready for school according to a study by Sesame Workshop. From their very first day of school these kids will already be racing to keep up with their classmates, and hope they will not be “left behind” by the state’s demanding curriculum.

Neff Elementary school is an all

kindergarten school in the Grand Ledge School District. Having one kindergarten school equalizes the class size and the curriculum. This makes it so that every kindergartner goes into first grade with the same basic skills and preparation. Neff is full day kindergarten, with a much larger focus on basic reading, writing and math. Browning believes the curriculum for young students is much more rigorous but that her students rise to the challenge.

In September, students start working on DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills). DIBELS is a series of short tests to make sure students are on track for their level of literacy skills.

“It’s so that we know where they are at from the very beginning instead of finding out that a child is really behind near the end

Jackson Vanderlaan ‘16

Staff Writer

The state of Michigan has decided that on top of the ACT that high school juniors need 11 and a half more hours of testing.

The new test is replacing the MME portion of the ACT and will be what the state of Michigan uses to determine how much money the school will get, much like what the MEAP test was used for in past years.

With little instruction on how to prepare, administration was left with the task to organize this brand new set of tests. One challenge was picking the test time and date within the window given to proctor the MSTEP. The AP exams, yet another high intensity test, also falls within the states testing window. This has several of the AP teachers concerned.

“The (M-STEP) test is ridiculous,” AP U.S. history teacher Fred Hutchinson said.

“It’s too long, the technology (Wi-Fi) will inevitably fail in the middle of the test, and the state was not thinking when they put it at that time of year. Students also have little to no incentive do well

on it.”

The problem of the AP tests are partially alleviated by testing AP students after their exam, or exams in some cases, are over.

But the potentiality of a hardware failure is still a very real concern.

Because the test has to be taken on computers, there are worries about whether or not the high school’s infrastructure will be able to handle the new format.

“The Wi-Fi has been a problem at the high school,” principal Steve Gabriel said. “The fear is that it could go down during testing. Right now we are looking at installing wireless hotspots to make sure that computers stay connected.”

While the district has a perfect MTRAx score, the evaluation that the state uses to determine techreadiness, the tech concerns are still prevalent.

“The high school score is based on three labs of 30 computers each with one dedicated Access Point,” director of technology Mark Deschaine said. “We intend to try to hard wire as many of the computers as possible to reduce the load on the wireless system.”

Hardwiring is when a physical

Sarah Clinkscales ‘15 Managing Editor

T

of the year,” Neff principal David Averill said. “If they are behind we can send them to our reading teacher Terrie Kosbar.”

To get a jump on students being prepared for Kindergarten is Kindergarten Roundup. Kindergarten Roundup is in March so that the school knows how many kindergartners are enrolling the next year. A huge part of Roundup is giving parents information about how to help their child at home: one of the most basic is reading.

“Kids who have a harder time in school sometimes haven’t been read to a lot or don’t have certain experiences,” Browning said.

The GLPS district is one of the last districts to have teaching assistants and LREs in elementary and Kindergarten classrooms.

This helps support kids and help make sure their needs are met.

LREs give extra support to chil-

dren with disabilities.

“A lot of people choose GL because of the special ed program,” Browning said. “We believe helping and giving the extra support to these kids early on so that they won’t be that much farther behind.”

According to a report, Kindergarten Skills at School Entry, 44 percent of kindergartners enroll with one or more risk factors based on their home life. A risk factor could be a disability, poverty, parents with less than a high school education, English is not the first language in the home or living with a single parent. These could all be stressers in a child’s life. The study suggests that students in the 44 percent have lower elementary readiness scores.

Browning helps kindergarten students match numbers up to 100. All students regardless of level, get adjusted curriculum to help their learning.

See BOTTOM THIRD on page 2

A step towards the future: moving standardized tests online cable is used to connect a computer to the Internet instead of using Wi-Fi. But all of that means nothing if the high school doesn’t have the room to test all of the juniors.

“We’re going to have to buy two more computer labs,” Gabriel said. “Which is a cost that was not planned for in the budget.”

That money will come out of the general fund, which means less money for repairs, less money for maintenance, and less money for any other unforeseen expenses.

Because the M-STEP is going to be what the state uses to determine funding for schools, there is a fear that since the new test means nothing to students they will not be motivated to do their best.

“Basing funding off a test that won’t directly affect students is just a recipe to have students not try,” junior Taylor McCrackin said “They need to base the funding off something that matters to students such as the ACT. Not to mention the fact that the M-STEP is in the same week as AP tests.”

The states testing window starts April 13.

Check out a practice problem provided by M-STEP

Clayton puts 18 books in a bookcase. He puts the same number of books on each self. Move groups of books to the bookcase to show how Clayton could arrange them.

Answer: There are six selves and 18 books.

Three books go on each shelf. Students must click and drag the books to the bookshelf to complete the answer.

Question from http://aware.22itrig.org/

Nw.

2 The expense of being an artist

The Comets’ Tale • News • February 2015

ACT testing Art teachers work with outdated budget for art supplies switch to SAT continued from page 1 Kathrine Davidson ‘17 Staff Writer

Kefgen, College Board is going to start testing students more on knowledge than their raw potential, although that will still be the root of the test.

“The SAT’s content is going to change,” Kefgen said. “For example, the SAT used to emphasize vocab out of context, like “Esoteric most closely means?” Now, it will be putting [words] into a sentence.”

Although the SAT is working on informing students, parents and educators what the new test will look like, much of the information that outsiders are looking for will not be available for several months.

“The first time we will see an aligned test is October 2015 on the PSAT,” Kefgen said. “College Board is making preparation materials available on Khon Academy, which is an open source online academy made to take classes for free for those who want to learn. [SAT] doesn’t want students to have an advantage who can pay for it.”

This work will be available in May 2015, giving future test takers nine months to prepare.

Kefgen says that the math portion of the SAT will also be expanded to include more math knowledge, such as algebra and trigonometry.

Kefgen has heard several concerns from parents, students and other school administrators, one of which being the test starting with the class of 2017.

“With the Michigan Merit Exam curriculum, it started with the eighth graders [at the time], so kids came into high school knowing what to expect,” Kefgen said. “When you do it midstream, students in tenth grade expect one thing — and then it’s not consistent expectations in high school.”

Some lowerclassmen have already been thinking about the ACT, and now must refocus their test preparations.

“I took a practice ACT, so now I feel unprepared [to take the SAT instead].” sophomore Aliyah Clark said.

Another concern that Kefgen expressed is the ability for these students to compete for spots in college, and potentially have to take both the ACT and SAT to do so.

“If a student is competing [for college acceptance] and can’t afford to take both tests that could have a negative impact,” Kefgen said. However, he does not think taking the SAT rather than the ACT will negatively bias colleges, and has faith that Michigan schools will be able to prepare their students in the next year.

“It shouldn’t’ impact the ability to get into college. We’ve been successful giving every student a test and prepping them for it — on the ACT, the average for Michigan went up every year.”

Kefgen’s advice for student’s can be summarized by just a few words: “Keep trying, don’t let it get you down, try your best.

Teachers and principals want you to do your best. Take advantage of prep opportunities. You can’t control it, so you just have to raise to the challenge.”

Every hour, the art class works busily, each student keeping a quick eye on the time. Each one wanting to finish before the bell sings a song. It is always a race against the clock. Just one more stroke, shade or little detail. Yet the supplies are limited. A good amount of students cannot finish their project because the tool they need in order to do so lies broken in the trash. Many of the supplies soon reach this fate.

Lines soon form just to use one tool or another. This is what the art classes experiences daily.

While art supplies prices are increasing the art budget is solid as a rock, meaning the teachers cannot get any more funding than what they have now. Therefore teachers require students to help out by paying a small price for the class.

“If it is a jewelry class, I ask students to pay $15 for copper and brass, or silver which is $25,” art teacher Doris Thompson said. “If it is a ceramics class, it is usually $15. If it’s a drawing class and/or art 1, it’s $5.”

Students can choose to create more or stay at minimum in their art classes.

“You need materials and materials are so expensive, because I buy my own materials a lot, I spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars just on myself,” sophomore Alyssa Clark said.

Clark loves artwork, and enjoys art class a lot. She has pursued art for a while and has improved quite a bit. She is a natural artist, and constantly comes up with new pieces.

“It has impacted me because its something that I get to look forward to throughout the day,” Clark said. “Whenever I have art class I am like ‘Yay!’ but with all my other classes I am like ‘Wow this is horrible; worst day of my life.’”

Other students enjoy the class too. They want to lend a helping hand and improve the way the system works. For them art is everything.

“It lets me express who I am and people get to know me better through my art,” sophomore

Freshman Emily Glasgow creating a paper maché chicken in Art 1. Budgets in the art wing run tight so students must pay five dollars to create their projects. The money goes towards art supplies and tools that the students get to use.

Katie Twarozynski/The Comets’ Tale

Maddie Merkel said.

As a student, there is not much they can do to help, but that does not stop them from doing just a little bit to help out.

“The only way I can think of is donating some of my materials that I don’t use anymore or just donating $5 even makes all the difference,” Clark said.

Then there are the students that are only in the class to get their two art credits. Tools tend to get mistreated and not taken care of properly because they do not really care.

“You always lose some tools, some you lose to breakage, some you lose to theft, and some tools be lost because students are careless and sometimes it is because its deliberate,” Thompson said. “Like during class last hour, I had a student bend a little tool I have to use for enameling and they took the end and just folded

it in half. No one would admit to it, but I am assuming it was one of the kids waiting by the soldering tool for me to help them. So yeah there are always kids that break things and it is unfortunate, but that is just how it is.

Some students do not respect the material. And as I say in the classroom ‘They should respect all material and that we are here to create not destroy’, and that is my motto and I would like all my students to follow it.”

This can be costly. It happens quite often and overall makes everything seem like less.

“The tools are kind of crappy, because a lot of them are really old,” Metal and jewelry student sophomore Cassidy Clevenger said.

Teachers try to give their students the best tools they an offer but sometimes it is hard to stay within budget. Teachers often

improvise to provide for their students with workable tools.

“I try really hard to stay within budget, but sometimes I have to cover things myself with my own money, similar to most teachers, I would imagine,” art teacher Sarah Collins said. “I am currently trying to get an Art Boosters Club going so the entire district (elementary, middle and high school art programs) has access to funds in case they need more money than what their budget allows. I plan on having a few fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for this.”

Other departments in the school also have a specific budget. In the math department teachers have a budget of $50 to $100. In the English department teachers only get $50 to spend on school supplies for the whole year.

Students find the art program

rather important to them.

“The tools are kind of crappy, in the least, because they don’t give the art department like any money, and miss Thompson is always talking about me, and I just wanna donate money because there is not enough money for anyone, and we could definitely use better things,” Clark said.

Many think that the budget could use a nice boost. What they don’t realize it that it can be hard at times to get funding to pay for this. The money comes from the general. There are not many alternatives though to pay for the art program. Chipping in just a few dollars, like Clark said, can help a lot.

“It’s important because it allows students to express how they feel, and it allows people to show their artistic side, and they get away from all the academic stuff,” Clark said.

Teacher Kim Browning helping one of her students with math while in class.

Photo by Sarah Clinkscales/The Comets’ Tale

Bottom third of kids not ready for school continued from page 1 “There is a global statement I have noticed in my three years at Neff,” counselor John Coleman said. “I think the academic expectations are higher, and that there are more stressers outside of school that more kids are dealing with on a day-to-day basis.”

The bottom third in elementary school can reflect the bottom third at GLHS. Students who struggle from the very beginning are likely to struggle throughout their education, from middle school and into

high school.

At GLHS the bottom third is a large focus in standardized testing. GLHS principal Steve Gabriel wants to bridge the gaps between each school when it comes to instruction.

“We need to communicate better between schools,” Gabriel said. “All the schools need to be on the same page. There needs to be a consistency in curriculum and teaching.”

Browning’s classroom is full of energy and possibility. During

their matching numbers activity, Browning makes an exception for one student who can only reach 70. She recognizes that although the curriculum is meant to be equal for every student, that each individual kid has their own strengths and weaknesses.

There will always be a bottom third in any grade and in any school, but closing the gap is the goal that GLPS administrators hope to do across the board.

drive, so people who are scared to fly don’t think about that rationally - they are just fearful of that event, like not wanting to be in an elevator.”

However, 2014 was not even close to being one of the worst years for deaths relating to aviation crashes — 1972 came in first place, and the most recent year in the “Top ten worst years for deaths,” according to CNN, was 1996, in eighth place. In fact, 2013 saw the fewest deaths in flight accidents worldwide, which made it the safest year since 1945, when records started, although flight departures are generally increasing.

Senior Lucija Matkovic is flying to Mexico with friends for spring break, but has no fear of flying with her travel background.

“I have gone multiple times overseas to Croatia, so I have no

reason to be afraid of the plane going to Mexico,” Matkovic said. “[The only trouble] I have had is slight delays and I can honestly say I’ve flown over 25 times.”

GrandAir Aviation runs out of Abrams Airport on M100 in Grand Ledge. Their work mainly includes training pilots, but also flying private charter planes.

Many customers choose private flights out of concern for time and money spent. Although sources will debate whether private flights or commercial are safer, many agree in the convenience and luxury of private flights.

“Often we have companies that fly several employees to places and it can be faster and cheaper than flying airlines,” Helen Hagg of GrandAir Aviation Inc. said.

“Private charter gets rid of waiting in lines for security checks and gets the passengers to where

they need to be in the minimum amount of time, whereas if they went with an airline they may have several hours of layover or have to stay the night which costs more.”

However people choose to travel, Hagg thinks it is important to make decisions rationally and have trust in pilots, reiterating that flying is safer than driving.

“People may be wary to travel but they should know that the pilots are trained and tested to high standards and that safety is the number one priority for any pilot,” Hagg said. “Even though these recent tragedies have occurred people should not be afraid to fly. They should have confidence in the pilot who is flying because he or she has been trained for all kinds of emergencies and situations.”

Early in the month during third hour, principal Steve Gabriel meets with The Comets’ Tale to discuss upcoming events at the high school.

Photo by Mary Vu/The Comets’ Tale

Comet-in-Charge

Bry Leach ‘15 News Editor

The month of January was a busy one for administration at GLPS — preparations were being made for the MSTEP, new steps were being taken to promote Comet PRIDE, and plans for GLHS’ prom were being made.

PRIDE — Students noticed many new PRIDE posters around the school at the beginning of January. The promotion for school

spirit will continue into the end of the school year, although more lightly as administration’s focus is going towards MSTEP preparations for the junior class. However, another lesson will be held in the coming weeks, focusing on school safety and how to respond to an emergency outside of the classroom environment.

Prom - GLHS’ prom will be held at Spartan Stadium on Friday, April 17. School will still be in operation for the day.

Fear not for flying this spring break: flying safer than driving Bry Leach ‘15 News Editor

2014 was a tumultuous year for airplanes in the news. The world watched for weeks as many nations searched for Malaysia flight 370; the world was shocked less than five months later when another Malaysian plane, MH17, was shot down by a missile and found crashed in Ukraine. And just before ringing in 2015, AirAsia Flight 8501 was reported missing after crashing into the Java Sea. All of these incidents were highly publicized, and brought into question the safety of aviation and travel in general.

“A lot of times right after the disaster people are skittish,” Lauri Knutson of Knutson’s Travel Port in Delta Township said. “As far as air safely, it is safer to fly than

Located on M100 in Grand Ledge, Abrams Airport sits a 1977 Cessna 172N Sky hawk. A single engine four seat plane used primarily for flight training. In recent years flight safety has been under question due to missing and crashing planes although flying is safer than driving.

Photo by Bry Leach/The Comets’ Tale

Op. 3 The public’s opinion of your affection The Comets’ Tale • Opinion • February 2015

Gabby Cushman ‘17 Public Displays of Affection is a topic often brought up by Taylor Kennaugh‘16 With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, the hallways are both students and teachers. The school population either shudStaff Writer Staff Writer churning up more couples who are hugging, kissing, walking ders in fear or does not really care if they see a passionate make each other to class, holding hands — the whole deal. And really, out session in the middle of the hallway. Though there are thousands of opinions on the there is no problem with that. matter, we should respect the people that get queasy with your gross tongue exchange and The biggest complaint from people about public displays of affection is that it makes keep PDA out of the halls. them feel uncomfortable. But there should not be anything uncomfortable about a little Stop sharing your significant moments. Those memories should be shared by your signifsmooching in the hallways. Nobody is doing anything R-rated. If you really think it is icant other and yourself; no one else. Besides, there are rules banning excessive amounts that bad, just look away. What other people do in the hallway does not affect you. Just of PDA at the school. Getbecause something makes you feel ting in trouble for grinding on someone awkward, does not make it wrong. is not really the most fascinating story.

Speaking in front of a lot of people Even if you’re not at school, but in public in general, keeping those moments primakes me feel awkward, but you do vate seems like the best for all of us. not see me running around trying to Showing it off is rude. You can make end all public speaking. That’s because other students sad or angry by reminding it’s a ridiculous reason for trying to put them of their single status. Thanks a lot. an end to something. Seeing a couple But seriously, people get jealous of happy kissing on the way to your class is not relationships easily. Whether they are in going to cause you any physical harm, a rough relationship or no relationship at so suck it up. all, others are going to look at your PDA Another complaint about PDA is that and think that you are showing off when a couple will block the flow of traffic you are not. You do not want to become through the hallway. Honestly, this is known as “that person that makes out not very often. You are more likely to with their girlfriend other in front of my locker every morning”. I know I for sure find people blocking the hallway for would not want to be remembered for different reasons, so why pick on the sharing spit with someone. So lessening couples kissing above that huge group your spit swapping could save you a of people standing around a locker. rough patch in high school.

There’s no reason. Case in point.

Rarely do you have someone say that Another absolutely ridiculous reason they do not really care about seeing for opposing PDA is that it makes couples tongue wrestling, so do not lie to you feel lonely since you are not in a yourself. It has at least made you uncomrelationship. When something makes fortable once. You have averted your eyes you feel lonely, it is not an excuse to at least once. You have laughed about it oppose it. Should we put an end to all with your friends at least once. So that romantic movies next? Does it make is the reaction you will get from others if you feel too lonely to watch any couple you constantly show PDA, which I do not think anyone would want. kissing on a television show, because I Now, this is not to say that even being guess we better stop airing that show close to your significant other is not also. If you really feel that bad about it, good; mild PDA is fine. A quick kiss on go out and find yourself a relationship the lips, holding hands, normal hugs and do all the cute couple things your(not long embraces in the middle of the self. I bet you would not have a problem hallway that will make me late for my with it then. next class), and minor stuff like that is With Valentine’s Day coming up soon, more and more couples are taking the opportunity to show how much they The thing about PDA is that people perfectly normal and generally accepted. appreciate each other. Hand holding, hugging, and even kissing increases as couples get into the Valentine’s Day spirit. only have a problem with it if they are not It’s the movie make out sessions and the Photo by Alexis Velasquez-Mayhew/The Comets’ Tale participating. So if they are single, PDA other gross gestures that bother people, is the bane of their existence. But as soon especially if it is daily. as they are in a relationship PDA is the PDA is obviously not going away anytime soon. And nor should it go away; people deserve to show that they are happy in their relationship. But best thing ever. So obviously people are not that upset by it if they are willing to do it when they are in a toning the visuals down just a bit will make the whole situation easier for the couple and the bystanders in relationship. the long run.

Couples should not feel guilty for kissing their partner in the hallway. PDA is a part of relationships, and people should be okay with that. Just let the couple be happy and enjoy their time together.

Still looking for a soccer field make-over

Erik Seelman ‘17 the lack of facilities has led Guest Writer to a negative light being Bumpy field, shown on the field. We rocks in the had a giant rebounder wall with parking lot, black spray paint saying “GLPD trailer as a small SUXS.” This stayed like that for a storage area, no while, until we got the money for running paint and painted over it. water, porta johns as bathWhen the old building went rooms, bees flying around in the down, so did the bathrooms that small amount of unlined trash were there with cans it. Now during home games, we have. These are some of teams like Forest Hill Central, the conditions at the varsity DeWitt, and Okemos have to soccer field at GLHS. The field, use the porta johns instead of named “Boughton,” use to have regular bathrooms. Just reeverything: from concessions to cently, the water was turned off running water. “temporarily” in the middle of Ever since Boughton’s conour season at Boughton and has cessions were torn down due never been turned on since. So to black mold, the high school now whenever we had practice teams don’t have bathrooms, with 60 other kids we all had to storage, and just recently obshare about six gallons of water. tained running water.

Try doing sprints in 90 degree Two years ago, athletic weather, with barely any water director Steve Baker rented a that people brought from home, trailer as Boughton’s temporary when the sun is beating down on storage facility. Already the everyone, with no shade. trailer has been broken into, Not only are the conditions concessions money has been bad, but they are dangerous as stolen, and a window has been well. We have a broken. This is the only time dumpster and a trash can near Boughton field has been broken the players’ areas, and all the or vandalized. Not to mention, time they are filled with

bees and wasps. We have pregame meals (Jersey Giant subs) before every away game, and every time we eat it, the bees start swarming us, landing on the food and in the food.

These conditions need to change. No complex of Grand Ledge should have to deal with all of these conditions.

I don’t want to have to spend my four years at Grand Ledge soccer with ruined conditions because our soccer balls were stolen or the goals broke, etc.

Something needs to change and it needs to happen fast.

On Feb. 24 the Grand Ledge community will vote on the upcoming bond. In this bond, there will be changes for soccer.

Two grass soccer fields will be added. We will also get concessions, running water, a new press box, bathrooms (which we desperately need), and a storage facility. If the bond pass, the community will be more inclined to come to our games to support us, which can generate more money, more players, more followers and a better reputation for the Grand Ledge soccer community.

With the new bond up for renewal, the soccer players are ready for it to pass. The bond will help support a new concession stand, bathrooms, and the overall look to Boughten field. Adults and students above 18 can vote on February 24.

Photo by Katie Twarozynski/The Comets’ Tale

Staff and student cooperation will make transition to M-STEP easier Editorial Missing one period of class can easily set a student back, but missing a total of eleven and a half hours of school, a little over nine and a half classes, will completely alter students’ schedules. This year, the state of Michigan has changed the MME test to the M-STEP and that means putting the junior class

onto computers to take lengthy tests instead of being in class.

Students at GL will be placed in the archery range to take the test in large groups. During this difficult transition what needs to happen is cooperation from both teachers and students because of the amount of class missed to avoid setting students back.

To get all the students on computers in the archery range the

Mission Statement The Comets’ Tale, a newspaper produced for and by students of Grand Ledge High School, will provide the student body with information pertinent to events, activities and issues that affect GLHS students.

high school will be changing out teachers laptops for new ones.

The old teacher laptops will be used just for online testing, which means there is no need to update them. In addition, the archery range will get a mini makeover to look more inviting.

Juniors will take the M-STEP test after AP testing due to great planning by administration.

Many juniors are in AP classes

Editors-in-Chief

Sarah Sims Jake Thomann

Managing Editor

Sarah Clinckscales

Business Manager

Mary Vu

Copy Editor

Katie Twarozynski

News Editor

Bry Leach

and this is their first experience taking AP exams so on top of studying for these tests, they have the added pressure of the M-STEP. It will benefit students greatly to take the M-STEP later since they will be much less stressed during testing windows.

Altering lesson plans will most likely be unavoidable with students in and out of class during the testing period. Teachers will

Staff Writers

Austin Blatt Amy Case Gabrielle Cushman Katherine Davidson Alicia DeGroat Micheal Glasgow Taylor Kennaugh Bobby Mitchell Angela Pontius

have to make the best out of the situation, even if that means more individual work and less group projects and class discussions. Although, teachers cannot let their lesson quality suffer, or cut out important items because of this test, we are confident that GL teachers will adapt.

Asking one fourth of the school to sit in a computer room for eleven and a half hours

Savannah Wear Nathan Werner Michael Wilson Alexis VelasquezMayhew

Adviser

Sara-Beth Badalamente

during the school day seems like an impossible task, especially while it is so near the AP testing window, but GLHS will manage.

It will be difficult and stressful for both teachers and students but it is not the school’s choice to have this test, and must make do with the available resources and time.

Letters to the Editor are encouraged by The Comets’ Tale staff. Letters may pertain to an article written or simply act as a form of student expression. All letters must be deemed publishable by the Editorial Board including the adviser. They should be 200 words or less but may be edited for content of length. All letters to the Editor must be signed. To send a letter to the Editor students may drop them in the publications room (room 113).

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Twitters for teachers

The Comets’ Tale • Entertainment • February 2015

Katie’s Korner: “The Longest Ride” book review

100 GLHS students were polled on their opinions over teachers creating Twitter accounts after their technology professional development on Jan. 19.

82% said they would not follow teachers on Twitter

Katie Twarozynski ‘17

Copy Editor

With an upcoming movie being produced, now is be the perfect the time to dive into Nicholas Sparks’ latest novel, “The Longest Ride.”

The story is a mashup of two storylines; the love story of a young college woman and a cowboy, and the survival of an old man after he is injured and trapped in his car after crashing.

The novel starts out with 90-year-old Ira driving on a snowy night. He cannot see where he is going and eventually drives off a cliff and crashes into a tree.

Not only does he break his collarbone and arm, but Ira is rendered unconscious.

When he starts to come to, he sees a blurry vision of his deceased wife Ruth. As time passes, the two talk about their most happy memories to keep Ira distracted from his trapped state.

The young college woman, Sophia, and the cowboy, Luke, have a different story.

Luke rescues Sophia from her ex-boyfriend when he was seen harassing her at local bull riding party.

Sophie is eternally grateful for the intervention, and spends the night talking to Luke. The two make plans to meet again and the more time they spend together, the closer the two become.

Near the middle of the novel, the plot line turns from an everyday love story to a nail biting ride. Luke has been suffering from concussions with his farm work and bull riding and the relationship with his mom is becoming tense. He makes a lot of money through riding his bulls but after each ride, he continues to put strain on his head. For Luke, continuing to ride will be a matter of life and death.

Sophia has to find out about Luke’s fate after he gets another concussion, causing further damage to his brain. She breaks up with him and will only get back with him when he decides to quit riding.

The only way to keep his mother’s ranch, though, is to pay the bills and that requires him to compete.

Does Luke come out clean and with the win or will he struggle and collapse, never to wake up again?

Meanwhile, Ira is trapped in his car. His wife encourages him to keep focused and do whatever he can to survive because it is not his time to go yet.

Will Ira escape his peril or will he be doomed to the car crash and join his wife after death?

I would say that the “Longest Ride” has been one of the greatest books I have read in a long time. Nicholas Sparks has been known to write sappy love stories that have tragic endings, but this one ends slightly different.

The book gave me a sense of happiness at the end instead of leaving me feeling depressed and angered that Sparks would play with my emotions in another one of his stories. Get ready to have a wild ride while reading because this story will bring out all of your emotions, from the happiest to the saddest.

Photo by Ubisoft/Assassin’s Creed Unity Illustration by Jake Thomann/The Comets’ Tale

Top four unfinished games released in 2014 Looking back on last year, there were several different highlights for the gaming industry. The survival horror genre made a comeback with strong titles like “Alien: Isolation”. Popular remastered games, particularly “The Last of Us: Remastered”, were released with positive feedback. However, 2014 was not exactly the perfect year for gaming, with one particular issue standing out the most for me and many others: unfinished games being released.

Let’s take a look back on some of the biggest unfinished games of 2014.

Jake Thomann ‘16 Editor-in-Chief

53% said they didn’t like teachers having Twitter

What is your favorite tweet by a GLHS staff member?

“When they tweet Vines that they made.”

- sophomores Selicia Hernandez and Maddy Merkel “When Mr. Gabriel tweeted a picture of the Grand Ledge Wind Symphony on stage at the Michigan Music Conference.”

- junior Maddy Dachtler “When Mr. Gabriel tweeted a picture of himself in a Christmas sweater.”

- senior Mariah Fabiano

Released with multiple bugs and glitches, including a bug which would delete character faces.

Photo from Ubisoft/Assassin’s Creed Unity

Players found hidden files in the PC version of the game which supposedly resulted in higher quality graphics when enabled. Led to controversy over the idea that the graphics were intentionally downgraded.

Photo from Ubisoft/Watch Dogs

A peek at their playlist 1) “Days Are Gone” by Haim

2) “Fallen Leaves” by Chris Travis and Bones

Launched with unplayable multiplayer, which was one of the biggest selling points for the game.

Photo from 343 Industries/Halo: The Master Chief Collection

3) “Leaving Nara” by Alt-J 4) “Le Temps de l’Amour” by Francoise Hardy 5) “Brother” by Mac DeMarco 6) “10 Dollar” by M.I.A Autumn Lyons

7) “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” by Jimi Hendrix 8) “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin 9) “The Prowl” by Ben Overbeek 10) “Bake a Cake” by Lil Debbie

Even weeks after launch day, Driveclub’s servers refused to cooperate with players, resulting in unplayable multiplayer.

Photo from Evolution Studios/Driveclub My highest hope for this year is game developers will realize that releasing unfinished/unplayable games is not the right way to go, and ultimately delaying the game so it can finish is what needs to happen to make customers happy. Do not make unfinished games a status quo; finish the game, fix the bugs before release, and make it playable on launch day.

Game logos illustrated by Jake Thomann/The Comets’ Tale

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Between the blurred lines The Comets’ Tale • Student Life • February 2015

Nathan Werner ‘16 Staff Writer

While there are many complaints about there being a lack of parking and unfair tickets given out at the high school, the school does has plenty of parking available for students.

“I can’t remember the exact number,” officer Christopher Chester said. “But there are a lot. Sometimes students may choose to park in an area not designated for them, like the teacher’s lot at Neff. We do receive complaints from the staff at Neff about the parking issues, however, the number of complaints vary from week to week.”

Some students say that they park in the teachers parking lot and that it should be allowed due to the lack of parking for students on the side of the school.

“Even if you have a parking pass they will ticket you if you park in teacher parking lot,” senior Gianna Ferraro

said.

Some students may come to school late or in a hurry, causing them to get a ticket for parking in a place where they are not supposed.

“Students don’t park in the proper areas some of the times,” Chester said.

“They will go park at the Neff teachers’ lot, especially if they are running late, because it’s closer to the school than parking far away at the truck lot. I do get complaints from staff members that students are parking over there, or over in the administrators’ lot.”

The winter also causes problem for students in the parking lot, making it harder to see proper parking spots and harder to drive around in the parking lot.

“If we are paying for parking, the parking lot should be shoveled and salted,” Ferraro said. “Also, the way the parking lot is designed, you can’t see and cars are always pulling out

in front of each other.”

Although the snow makes it harder for students to drive and park, the school does not have many problems with how the students park during the winter.

“I do not get a lot of crazy parking complaints, especially when snow is on the ground, because the students try to park the best they can!” Chester said.

Even when they know they are not supposed to, students will park at the places they are told not to.

When they do they will be talked to by officer Chester and may end up receiving a parking ticket.

“When I talk to somebody for the first time, I find out who it is then I call them down and talk to them about it,” Chester said. “If it is somebody that we have had plenty of complaints about, they will most likely get a ticket from me.”

Courtesy Photo

Best friend, worst enemy: siblings Angela Pontius ‘16 Staff Writer

Junior Mark Flanigan drives his 1999 Jeep Cherokee to school every day.

Photo by Bobby Mitchell/The Comets’ Tale

Monthly Motors: Mark Flanigan Bobby Mitchell ‘15 Staff Writer

Most kids want a monster truck when they grow up and get their license, but not many actually get that dream to come true. Junior Mark Flanigan has about the closest thing that you can drive on the road to a monster truck: a 1999 Jeep Cherokee that has been lifted and is on mudding tires.

Flanigan’s Jeep is one that stands out in a parking lot of stock vehicles, it has a five and a half inch lift, with 33 inch tires and freshly painted axles, red coil springs and red differential covers, and a brush guard, it is an aggressive looking machine.

“I rock crawl with it and go mudding, go through snow,” Flanigan said. “I sometimes enjoy daily driving it. It’s kind of a pain, it needs an alignment and gets death wobble, which I get over 45 mph when I hit a bump.”

It is not the best daily driver.

It gets approximately 14 miles per gallon, and can not be driven over 45 mph but especially in the winter it makes sense to drive this, Flanigan has not gotten stuck yet.

In the future Flanigan is considering getting new bumpers, axles, and moving up to 37 inch tires. He is also thinking about painting it purple and maybe swapping in a Chevrolet LS v8 when he gets everything else done to it.

Running around the house like a madman, looking for your car keys. You have looked under the couch, in your bedroom, and even the washing machine. At last you give up, asking your mother if she has seen them. Her reply makes you angry.

“Your sister borrowed them.”

Siblings. Those people who spend time harassing their brothers sisters and always trying to do better than one another.

Some siblings out there think they have it bad, but there are plenty of individuals who simply choose to tell their friends they are an only child.

In reality though, there are siblings out there who get along with each other just fine. Sisters Erin and Amanda Bradley portray this every day when they come to class together.

Senior Erin and junior Amanda Bradley are both students at GLHS and have been attending school together since Amanda started kindergarten. Even now that they are in high school together, both girls enjoy sharing classes with one another.

“We are in choir together,” Amanda said. “Even though were not the best singers.”

The girls get along great together in choir and enjoy sharing a hobby.

Aside from singing with her sister, Amanda’s favorite thing about her sibling is that she is there for her physically and emotionally no matter.

But to every upside, there is a down side. If Amanda had to pick out one thing she does not particularly like about her sibling having the same teachers at school.

“I always get compared to her by teachers,” Amanda said.

It is hard some times to be constantly compared to older siblings by teachers, especially when Erin and Amanda have been going to school together for so long.

Junior Rachel Gute is the

youngest of three. For the most part, Gute gets along great with her older brother and sister, but as soon as you put the three in the same room tension can start to arise.

“When we were in grade school it was a lot worse,” Gute said. “But as each one went off to college and such, our relationship has gotten a lot better.”

On a typical day, the Gute siblings find themselves arguing about life decisions. College is usually a strongly discussed topic as well as their career choices later on in life.

Although Gute and her siblings are not always on the best of terms, she would never want to spend life as an only child.

“I can’t imagine my life without siblings,” Gute said. “They have helped shape me into the individual I am today.”

Some parents choose to only have one child in life though.

Senior Elisabeth Grace Billman Benveniste is one of those people.

“My favorite part of being an only child is not having to follow in the footsteps of an older sibling,” Billman Benveniste said. “I can pave my own path, make my own precedent, and fail without feeling like a failure.”

Having no siblings has its perks when it comes to achieving your own dreams. Sometimes a person gets lonely though and Billman Benveniste wishes someone was there to support her as she gets older.

“There are a lot of times I wish I had a sibling,” Billman Benveniste said. “ Especially with divorced parents, it is incredibly difficult going through life with nobody by your side and nobody you know will always have your back.”

Living life as an only child is a difficult journey for those who do not have anyone to relate to in their own personal life.

Not everyone has the same difficulties or responsibilities as an only child. The oldest sibling is usually takes on a leadership

role when teaching their younger siblings how to act.

Junior Emily Magoon, the older sister to youngest sibling Makayla.

For the most part, the sisters get along well. Since the sisters rooms are right next to each other, it’s really the little things in life like living next to one another that grind Magoon’s gears.

“She can annoy me, I can annoy her,” Magoon said. “You know, that vicious cycle.”

Like all other siblings in the world, Magoon and her sibling have their good and bad days.

Although the Magoon sisters do not always see eye to eye, Emily feels that her relationship with her sister has shaped her into the individual she is today.

“I’ve come to realize this,” said Emily. “Once you spend a good portion of your life with someone, all the good outweighs the bad and I am happy I have a little sister and that I am there for her.”

Whether you have siblings or not, they are definitely an added bonus and a great support system.

Yes, they butt into your business, but only because they care about you.

“I have a little sister and I am there for her,” Magoon said.

Top: Senior Erin Bradley and sister junior Amanda Bradley have fifth hour choir together.

They enjoy having the class together because they enjoy having the same hobby and something to bond over.

Photo by Alexis VelasquezMayhew Bottom: Junior Emily Magoon and her sister Makayla play in the colorful fall leaves with their dog. Although they fight and get on each others nerves, Emily knows she will always have her sister and her sister will always have her.

Courtesy Photo

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The Comets’ Tale • Feature • February 2015

A complex relationship Teens do not get enough sleep at night for school Savannah Wear ‘15 Staff Writer

For senior Kara Krupp, perhaps the most difficult task for her in the day is to get out of bed and to school on time.

For students at GLHS, the school day begins at 7:45 a.m., precisely fifteen minutes before a teenager’s internal clock is set to wake up at 8 a.m. Partially due to such an early start to the school day, many students face a huge problem: not getting enough sleep. When about 90 percent of the student body took a survey about scheduling preferences in the fall of 2013, approximately 68 percent of those students stated that they would rather start the school day at 8 a.m. or later. Due to many health detriments of sleep deprivation from having to wake up early — along with a probable improvement in student performance — many students and staff at GLHS agree that school should start later than 7:45 a.m.

“I think that people would do better in school if they got a full night’s sleep,” senior Lexie Shinderle said. “That way they could focus better and be more alert during lessons.”

There are many health risks for students who lack catching enough z’s at night.

Decades of sleep research has confirmed what parents and administration know: it is hard for teenagers to wake up early in the morning. According to the Sleep Foundation, most teenagers need an average of nine hours and fifteen minutes of sleep each night in order to function properly. When a survey was taken of about 100 GLHS students in Jan. 2015, 71 percent said that they average about 6-7 hours of sleep on a school night, 2-3 hours less than they should be getting.

“You would think teenagers

stay up late at night because they just want to, but that’s not even it,” Licensed Registered Respiratory Therapist Lisa Maidlow said. “It’s just more related to the cycles of light and day.”

According to researchers, teenagers’ biological clocks shift after reaching puberty, making it difficult for teens to fall asleep before 11 p.m.. So, logically, even if a student falls asleep at eleven, they would still be required to sleep until at least 8 a.m. in order to get a full night’s sleep for school the next day.

“Since teenage kids are more attuned to the phases of light and day, they would be better to start school at about 8:30 in the morning as opposed to when they do now,” Maidlow said. “The problem is, because so many kids are involved in so many extra curricular activities and have so much homework, the system will probably never get changed.”

This lack of sleep that is connected to such an early start to the day has been found to be linked to numerous short term effects, which include bad moods, a deterioration in learning ability, being wearier, being less alert, having to disburse greater effort to learn and an increase in sleep crashes (the Sleep Foundation).

According to Maidlow, sleep deprivation in teenagers has also been linked to many cases of teen obesity.

Unfortunately, there are also many long term effects that come with sleep deprivation: the loss of REM sleep may result in memory loss, a decline in information processing, increased irritability and anxiety, decreased socialization and humor, mental fatigue, decrease in creativity and a decline in the ability to handle complex tasks. In other words,

sleep deprivation causes teenagers to not be able give 100 percent of their effort and attention while at school, both academically and socially. If GLHS were to switch to a later start time, perhaps many of the health risks to students could essentially and eventually disappear. Krupp frequently experiences many effects from not getting enough sleep at night.

“Sleep deprivation makes it harder for me to focus,” Krupp said. “It also makes it easier for me to become depressed and in a bad mood.”

Just as it is important for students to be of good health, exceptional academic performance is essential as well. According to research about teenagers’ sleep patterns, “out of all of the times in the school day, 8 a.m. results in the poorest scores, since the brains of the kids are not fully functional at this time” (“Pediatrics” by Martha Hansen). This holds true for Krupp on days where students do not have to wake up as early for school.

“I usually feel more alert on days that we have a 2 hour delay because I get a little more sleep and find it easier to focus,” Krupp said.

Starting school at a later time is something that numerous schools across the nation have adopted into their school district. In terms of teenagers’ sleep schedules, the sleepwake cycle of adolescents is a biological, rather than a cultural, phenomenon, according to Maidlow. Teens all over the world need the same amount of sleep, and they need it at the same times. Although changing the start time of the school day may not necessarily be an easy task, doing so may benefit each sleep-deprived student at GLHS.

Sophia Ruark ‘16 “I never seem to be on top of my schedule when I don’t sleep enough. I just feel like I’m not accomplishing as much as I would if I had more sleep.”

Nick Bays ‘16 “I don’t get enough sleep having to come to school. Sometimes I fall asleep in class.”

Random students at GLHS took an online survey concerning their sleep schedules. This is what they said: “How much sleep do 5 hours or less 18.64% you get on 6-7 hours the aver71.19% age school 8-9 hours 10.17% night?”

“How many hours of homework do you do each night?”

5 or more hours

5.08%

3-4 hours

15.25%

1-2 hours 49.15%

Less than 1 hour 30.51%

“Has your phone ever interrupted your sleep at night?”

Yes

50.85%

No

49.15%

5 naps for all occasions

The power nap

10-20 mins

The NASA nap

26 mins

The bad nap

30 mins

The slow-wave sleep nap

60 mins

The full sleep cycle nap90 mins

Best for getting straight back to work

Proven by scientists to improve pilot performance 34 percent and alertness by 54 percent.

Best for a day you’ll be working after-hours Causes “sleep inertia” (a sleep hangover) for up to 30 minutes before restorative benefits kick in. Best to avoid, if possible.

Helps cognitive memory processing, remembering places, faces, and facts. Best before a big presentation or important meeting.

Helps creativity, emotional memory, and procedural memory. Best before an impending project deadline or a big test.

Information from educatorstechnology.com

About 138 schools or school districts in 44 different states that have successfully changed the start time of the school day to later. Information from startschoollater.net

Ft. 7 Hot spot hangouts for GL students The Comets’ Tale • Feature • February 2015

Hot spot #1 Angela Pontius ‘16 Staff Writer

Students favorite hometown coffee shop and hang out would have to be Biggby Coffee on Charlevoix Street in suite 110.

Open seven days a week, Biggby offers students a place to chillout in quiet atmosphere. A lot of students come to Biggby to study for an upcoming tests and to focus on homework.

The majority of Biggby’s staff consists of many familiar faces. Many GLHS graduates choose to work at Biggby because they are familiar with the area and enjoy seeing peers they went to school with. Also, they love to drink coffee.

For those who do not enjoy the taste of coffee, Biggby offers a variety of hot and cold

beverages.

Elizabeth Becker loves to go to Biggby in her free time.

“My favorite thing about Biggby is their strawberry and banana smoothies,” Becker said.

To go along with your beverage, Biggby sells home made pastries and bagel sandwiches.

The smoothies and pastries are fresh and delicious, but what makes this coffee shop superior than all the rest is their legendary coffee. Biggby uses the finest selection of coffee beans and each cup is microroasted every day. Biggby is definitely the students happy place.

Photos by Angela Pontius/The Comets’ Tale BEAN BRAND

COFFEE

Hot spot #2:The Sun Theatre Hot spot #3: Jersey Giant

A $2 date. Whether you are hanging with your special someone or chillin on your own, the Sun theater is a great place to visit.

Right in the heart of downtown Grand Ledge, students find that the sun theatre is convenient place to see movies and hang with friends.

Junior Jordynn Huffman loves going to the Sun because it is cheap to get into the theater and you can eat lots of buttery popcorn.

“The ticket are affordable and the popcorn is great,” Huffman said.

“Also, the Sun plays relevant movies.”

The theatre offers matinées and seasonal passes for avid movie goers and with two showings each night and refills on popcorn, teens love to hang out here during the week.

Overall, what students enjoy most about this hotspot is that hometown atmosphere. Like Biggby, The Sun theatre has a staff of young high school students and is maintained by local residents.

Photo by Angela Pontius/The Comets’ Tale

What juniors are up to this weekend

Amanda Bradley

“Watching Friends on Netflix.”

For over 30 years now, Jersey Giant has been a family owned and operated lunch hashery. GL students love to go to Jersey for lunch and after sporting events.

A bonus about Jersey Giant is it is a cheap and convenient place to hang out with friends and eat some tasty cold cuts.

Freshman Ethan Helfrich likes to go to Jersey and order his favorite item on the menu.

“My favorite sub is the Mega sandwich,” Helfrich said. “Its super long and comes with a bunch of stuff on it.”

The price of each sub ranges from $3-$7 and costumers can choose to get a meal that includes a fountain drink and a bag of chips.

Like all the other hot spots, Jersey Giant offers a friendly environment. The staff is pleasant and the food is very satisfying. GL Students will continue to go at Jersey Giant for many years to come.

Photo by Michael Wilson/The Comets’ Tale

1. Maybelle’s in downtown GL for coffee

2. Sun Theatre for $2 movie

Athena Lievense

3. The Island in GL

“Hanging out with friends.”

Must see movies coming up at the Sun theatre • American Sniper -Free to all veterans -Showing for two weeks starting Jan. 30 • Taken 3 - Showing for one week starting Feb. 13 -Cost for each movie is $2

Whether how old you are, everyone loves the zoo. Potter Park Zoo is a 102-acre lot located on South Pennsylvania Avenue in Lansing.

At the zoo, you can see mammals like the Grey Wolf, Red Panda, and Arctic Fox. If you are more a reptile kind of gal, Potter Park has a whole house dedicated to them.

During the school year, GL students like to attend the zoo in the spring because the weather is warm and the scenery is nice.

When the weather is nice out, sophomore Jamie Keating loves to go to the zoo and see her favorite animal, the penguins.

“Seeing the penguins is definitely my favorite thing to do,” Keating said. “Their really cute.”

The penguins are a fan favorite by many students because of their unique behavior and basic color combination.

If you are interested in visiting the zoo, Potter Park is open all year round and is a cheap and affordable attraction to see in Lansing.

Photo by Angela Pontius/The Comets’ Tale

Six local dates $6 and under

Matt Parker

“Listening to Brittany Spears.”

Hot spot #4: Potter Park

4. A parade or festival

Grand Ledge

5. Rent a movie from Family Video 6. Go to Lick-Ity Split

GL students favorite films of 2014 9% The Amazing Spiderman 2 20% The Hunger games: Mockingjay part 1

20% The Maze Runner

26% Fault in Our Stars

25% Guardians of the Galaxy

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The Comets’ Tale • Student Life • February 2015

Building maintenance technician Toby Kennaugh takes the cover plate off of one of the more than 110 T-stats in the high school hallways, locker rooms and bathrooms.

As soon as the box is opened, Kennaugh will check the supply air going to the thermostat.

The boxes need to be checked when hallways have no heat or when nearby classrooms have no heat or air conditioning.

Once opened with the supply air checked, Kennaugh will get a reading of air pressure supplied from the thermostat to the heat valve. Just by fixing or working on these small silver boxes in the walls around the school, Kennaugh can greatly affect the hear or air conditioning depending on where the T-stats are.

Junior Devin Guilford

Freshman Korey Hamilton

What has your warmest classroom been?

Mrs. Chihoki Coldest?

Mr. Huard The most extreme classroom you’ve been in: Mr. Ellsworth: cold or hot each day What has your warmest classroom been?

Mrs. Staperfenne Coldest?

Mr. Shaltry The most extreme classroom you’ve been in: Archery room: about 40 degrees

Degrees Fahrenheit 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Room 113 Room 112 Room 315

73 54 74.5

Room 321

74.5

Room 317 Room 120

71 74

Room 418 Room 323 Room 602

Photo by Mary Vu/The Comets’ Tale

Girls Barthroom by room 233

76.5 74 52 56

Maintaining temperature stability

How building maintenance technician Toby Kennaugh cools and heats the school Amy Case ‘16 Staff Writer

Math teacher Candace Karrer was in the middle of teaching a probability and statistics lesson when junior Brendan Barry commented on the burning smell in the classroom. Karrer responded in agreement. What happened next is hard to believe.

“Another student carefully, so as not to disrupt the lesson, says, ‘Umm … Mrs. Karrer the heater is smoking,’” Karrer said. “I turn to my right and the Univent was emitting some serious yellow tinted super stinky smoke. So I ran over there and start removing stuff I have stored on top and then the smoke really started coming out! So I said, ‘pack up your stuff, we’re going to the cafeteria!’ I called secretary Cindy [Bouchard] and told her the heater was on fire.”

Bouchard immediately called maintenance while the class re-

located to the cafeteria for class.

“I taught them their lesson via walking around and telling them what to write in their fill in the blank note packet,” Karrer said.

“The students were pretty shell shocked but they did take notes pretty well regardless.”

Building maintenance technician, Toby Kennaugh fixed Karrer’s heater as soon as he could and the problem was not as bad as one would think—one thing went wrong which caused a chain reaction “Mrs. Karrer had a bearing go bad on her blower, which over worked the motor and caused the transformer to overheat and melt/smoke,” Kennaugh said.

“I replaced the bearing and transformer.”

Most of the heating systems in the high school are approximately 20 years old. This is the main cause of the problems students deal with everyday.

Hot or cold; sweating or shiver-

ing. These are the main two extremes that GLHS students have been feeling throughout their school day. When students move throughout their classrooms, each room has a huge difference in, even from walking to classes through the hallways. Students do not know whether to come to school in sweatshirts or tank tops—some are seen even wearing their winter coats all day.

Kennaugh, is the behind the scene super-hero who has been running around the high school trying to fix all of the heating and cooling problems caused by the old systems. He is more than qualified to fix these systems, having went through many aviation maintenance classes in the Marine Corps. and at Lansing Community College.

“The temperature is so erratic because of the age and degradation of the system,” Kennaugh said. “There are multiple components in each univent. If any one

Learning the language

Official school-wide sign language club formed Sarah Clinkscales ‘15 Managing Editor

Her daughter Hope has a mild hearing loss and learned Pigeon sign language, a mixture of speaking and ASL. Hayes Middle School special education teacher April Welton started learning ASL when she was 18 because she was working with mentally impaired kids. Then, after Hope was diagnosed at two-years-old, she took more classes at LCC. Monday, Jan. 26, was the first day of the new American Sign Language (ASL) club and Welton is the club’s advisor. Her goal is to teach students ASL in a relaxing way for anyone who is interested.

Sophomore Caitlyn Wells and freshman Jordan Vissel, are joining the club because they are interested in learning sign language so that they can communicate better with LINKs like Hope.

Sign language is useful with small children for simple things. One of the biggest challenges about learning ASL is the speed of communicating.

On the first day Wells and Vissel learned the alphabet, days of the week, and things they were interested in like emotions and colors. ASL is a different universal language, but unlike learning a foreign language, it has a different set up and doesn’t have words like “is, the, and a.”

Hayes Middle School special education teacher April Welton teaches the members of the GLHS sign language club the sign for the letter “R”.

ASL University states that public schools that do not have traditional sign languauge classes are called “hearing schools.” Now that GLHS has a steady, approved sign language club, the school is more diverse.

Photos by Alexis Peterson/The Ledge

those components doesn’t work properly, it throws the rest off.

Which equals ‘hot or cold.’”

The heat when students walk into Karrer’s room is instant and they feel like they are melting, however, that is not the hottest classroom. Temperatures were taken in 18 different classrooms around the school. The warmest room recorded was E2020 teacher Michelle Hartman’s room that was read to be 75.56 degrees Fahrenheit.

On the other hand, some classrooms make students feel like they are inside an igloo.

Video Production teacher Tracy Clark’s room was measured at various times throughout the day.

During first hour Clark’s room was 51 degrees Fahrenheit and it later warmed up to 67 degrees after students’ body heat warmed the room.

Everyone who has an art class also feels the pain. Art teacher Doris Thompson’s room has been

as low as 54 degrees.

“Yesterday [Jan 13] it was 57 degrees, and it got up to 61 degrees with the students body heat,” Thompson said. “Today [Jan 14] it said 51 degrees, so I decided not to put the students through the chill again. I checked the temperature at the beginning of fourth hour and it was 55 degrees. Toby [Kennaugh] said they were going to try and clean out the pipes in the art rooms next Monday when the students are gone, to see if that helps out.”

The art rooms were so much colder because there was clay dust blocking air flow and the transfer of heat to the air from the univents.

“Dave Jolley (another technician) washed the coils on Monday,” Kennaugh said. “[There has been] a very noticeable difference.”

Slowly but surely, the temperatures in the high school are stabilizing. Kennaugh and

his fellow building technicians are working as quickly but efficiently as they can. This year alone, they have had to fix almost every heating univent system.

The art teachers and students are very thankful to the high school technicians for helping their room temperatures stabilize.

The average temperature is now around 70 degrees.

“I have probably worked on close to every univent this year,” Kennaugh. “I ran a few hundred feet of new pneumatic supply line to a few areas, to try to get adequate air pressure to the control systems in the univents. With that new air pressure, I had to adjust just about everything to the new pressure. But, even with the better pressure the system doesn’t like the change in seasons. I have to go in and give them a little assistance to change from cooling to heating and back to cooling (I’m sure) come spring.”

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Time to Take Out the Trash The Comets’ Tale • Feature • February 2015

Mike Glasgow ‘16 Staff Writer

Lots of things can happen that could make a facility look unattractive. At GLHS, that thing is litter in the student parking lot. It is a problem that not only looks bad but also costs a lot of money for the school district, and it has not gotten any better.

Officer Christopher Chester has seen students litter. Most students he catches are putting trash on a friend’s car to be funny, but when their friend comes out after school, the last responsibility they want is to take care of someone else’s trash. They brush it off and drive away.

In the case that students are caught littering, their parking passes can be taken away, they can be fined, or they might have to pick up litter in the parking lot during lunches. Officer Chester even recalls the truck lot having to be closed one time due to the amount of trash.

“They barricaded it off so the kids couldn’t park there,” Chester said. “So they lost their parking privileges. If you’re going to litter in the parking lot, that’s a crime. If you don’t want to treat where you park well, you’re going to have your parking space taken away.”

One big problem with the litter is the cost it takes to have it picked up everyday.

“It costs anywhere between $80-$100 [each day] for my employees to go down and pick up trash every morning,” GLPS maintenance supervisor John Piper said.

Piper works to keep the school district looking clean, so the public does not get a bad idea of GLHS during sporting events, choir concerts, or any other event at the school.

“If you compare our school to the rest of the schools in the state of Michigan, we have one of the most beautiful facilities,” Piper said. “And I’m confused on why kids don’t take pride in their school and take care of it.”

Litter has been an ongoing issue for years. While the amount of trash in the hallways has decreased, there has not been any improvement on the parking lot.

One source of the problem might be that campus is open during lunch times.

“I don’t know, maybe we should try closing down campus at lunch,” Piper said. “When I went to the back in the ‘80s, we had a closed campus and never left the school. Maybe close campus for a day and see how these kids will like it, and maybe they’ll take a little bit more pride in it knowing open campus is a luxury.”

There are consequences that come with littering, and it is a crime in Grand Ledge. City ordinance 130-6 says, “No person shall dump, deposit or place any filth, garbage or refuse on the ground or premises of another, without the specific permission of the owner thereof.” Police like officer Christopher Chester can write tickets, and students can even lose their parking pass.

“This is actually a crime,” Chester said. “Most of the time if I just talk to them in person I’ve never had to write a ticket. So, usually

During lunch students often go out to local restaurants and when they return bags and trash end up in the parking lot. This ongoing issue causes the school district money and makes the parking lot look bad. The truck lot was closed once due to a large amount of litter.

Photo by Alexis Velasquez-Mayhew/The Comets’ Tale just talking to the kids and telling them to pick it up works.”

Litter is a problem that the school hopes to eliminate over

time. Responsibility will be a big step towards solving that problem and building off the progress that has been made with trash in

the hallways.

“You guys are grown-ups now, you guys take care of yourselves, so you guys should be responsible

enough to take care of your own garbage,” Piper said.

Total tardies/absences from first trimester from the 2014-2015 school year

Seniors were disappointed this year to find out attributes like 4.0s and extracurriculars were still not enough for their dream schools.

Photo by Alexis Velasquez-Mayhew/The Comets’ Tale

Deferred

When almost perfect isn’t good enough.

Katie Twarozynski ‘17

Copy Editor

Senior Sarah Clinkscales has five generations of family members who have all attended Michigan State University. Her cousin was accepted last year and is currently attending the school.

It all makes perfect sense for Clinkscales to become a Spartan.

But she got deferred.

Even with an early application, the swimmer, managing editor of the school newspaper, AP class taker, is on a wait list.

Many factors are at play for students not being accepted for early admission to their dream schools. Race, gender, and family background can make a college choose to defer the student, even if they are the best candidate, i.e high ACT score, high GPA, etc.

Clinkscales is one female student who was not only disappointed, but embarrassed at the deferral.

“My whole family was proud when my cousin was accepted to MSU,” Clinkscales said. “I feel like they were disappointed in me since my whole family went there.”

This year, MSU broke their record on how many kids have applied there. Usually the school sees around 30,000 applicants.

This year, however, the university had 50,000 potential candidates to choose from.

“MSU accepts only 7,000 students a year,” Clinkscales said.

“With an extra 20,000 students who applied, I feel like I would have had a better chance at being accepted last year.”

Central Michigan and Western have both accepted Clinkscales, with CMU offering her a substantial amount of money in scholarships. MSU always seemed to be the right for her, but since the deferral, she has been a little leery.

“Right now, I think I am going to attend CMU,” Clinkscales said. “Getting scholarships is an important piece that will help me out in college. However, if MSU does accept me, I think I will go

there.”

University of Michigan has also changed their early acceptance policy. Instead of choosing the best candidates, they go along the lines of who seems the most interested in going to the said college by looking through their essays and seeing what other colleges the student applied to or sent their ACT scores to. The change is being set in place because many students are choosing Michigan as their “safety school” if they do not get accepted at the Ivy League schools they applied to.

“We have been trying a new program this year when taking early acceptances,” UofM head of admissions Deborah Green said.

“We want to make sure our early admission students really want to attend this school and will feel proud being a Wolverine.”

According to Green, the problem with Michigan’s old setup was that the college would over accept too many freshman applicants, thus leaving not enough space for the new students to live. With the new grounds being set, a change of acceptance rate from 65 percent to 33 percent will be seen.

“Several thousands of students were deferred from early acceptance to general admission,” Green said. “There was an increase of about four percent on the freshman class in 2014. These numbers were scary and needed to be cut down.”

Most schools have not changed any ways that they have accepted early admissions. The problem this year is that more and more kids are speaking out about deferrals since they are usually not talked about. Deferrals are not rejections. The rest of the rejections or acceptances will be announced in April with the rest of the general admissions results.

For a deferral there is still hope for an acceptance, but with the facts behind the deferrals, many students were deeply angered and will probably majorly reconsider what school they end up attending next fall.

T

AU

AE

Freshmen

174

131

312

Sophomores

229

173

352

Juniors

224

181

273

Seniors

247

249

327

Overall

874

734

1,264

Science teacher and banquet supervisor Michelle Hamilton watches over students getting food at the 2015 GLHS junior/senior banquet. Some students were not allowed to attend banquet because of the school attendance policy that is being enforced more closely this school year.

Photo by Alexis Peterson/The Ledge

Cracking down on absences Taylor Kennaugh ‘16 Staff Writer

She had everything she needed. Her outfit was bought and paid for. She had the perfect red heels picked out. But senior Kaitlyn Martin was not able to go to junior/senior banquet. After being sick, and other unforeseeable circumstances, she exceeded the absence limit and could no longer go.

“At that point, at the end, it honestly wasn’t fun or worth it and I didn’t feel any resentment really,” Martin said.

Student attendance at GLHS has been a big focus the past two years. Due to the policy, there has been a much stricter approach to student participation in school sponsored events such as sports and dances. With this stricter policy, there does not seem to be an excessive amount of students affected by it, as ticket sales for

banquet this year were similar to sales of previous years.

Science teacher Michelle Hamilton was a huge part of making banquet happen this year. She helped set everything up, kept track of ticket sales for the event and checked students’ attendance records. In order to make sure students purchasing banquet tickets were eligible, Hamilton worked with dean of students Maria Capra to get students’ attendance checked prior to them buying tickets.

“Students who have seven or more absences in one class period are not eligible to attend [school-sponsored events],” Hamilton said. “Unless it is in one class period and they attend a Saturday school.”

Saturday school, which usually runs three or four times a trimester, is an option for students to make up class-time hours. This is a new opportunity this year,

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and is helpful for students that still want to participate in school events, but have a lot of absences.

Although by relying on these sessions, students still run the risk of not being allowed to participate, as the Saturday sessions are limited and only count for one class.

“If a student has seven or more absences in more than three or four classes, they would not be eligible to attend the event because each Saturday school applies to only one class,” Capra said.

So even with the added help of Saturday sessions, students with over seven absences in three or more of their classes would not be able to participate in school events. Overall, the policy seems to be doing a lot more good than bad. In the past year there has been a significant decrease in absences, which makes it seem like this policy has helped to motivate students to get to class, or at least the students who want to partici-

pate in school events.

“The attendance data from before the penalty until this year shows that we have had a significant number of decreased absences,” Hamilton said. “So I do think it has motivated students to come to class.”

Others have mixed opinions on the policy. Senior Sydney Fenska, who helped sell tickets for banquet, is one of those people.

“I think it is definitely a way to get more students in school and it lowers how many students skip,” Fenska said. “But it also forces more kids to come to school sick and get others sick because they do not want to miss school when they already have other absences.”

Love it or hate it, GLHS is cracking down on student attendance and their ability to participate in extra events with high absence rates.

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Students’ top songs The Comets’ Tale • Feature • February 2015

100 GLHS students were polled on their opinion of songs. The Comets’ Tale has compiled playlists of the top results

Most Played Songs 1.

“Shake It Off” Taylor Swift

“Uptown Funk” 2. Mark Ranson & Bruno Mars 3. “Blank Space” Taylor Swift

Least Favorite Songs 1.

“All About That Bass” Meghan Trainor

Best Lyrics 1.

“Blank Space” Taylor Swift “Riptide” Vance Joy

2.

“Shake It Off” Taylor Swift

2.

3.

“Anaconda” Nicki Minaj

3.“Bohemian Rhapsody” Queen “Let It Go” Idina Menzel

4.

“Riptide” Vance Joy

4. “Call Me Maybe” Carly Rae Jepsen

4.

5.

“Rather Be” Clean Bandit

“Lips Are Movin” 5.

Meghan Trainor

“Superheroes” 5.

The Script

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Sp.

11

The Comets’ Tale • Sports • February 2015

Off the sideline and on the court Cheer is a sanction sport during the winter competition season

Alexis Velasquez-Mayhew ‘17 Staff Writer

Step into my office: with Austin Blatt

Wow, what a catch!

How did Dez Bryant do that?

Can you believe that on the biggest play of the game Romo just threw it up like that, and he caught it?

Dallas is definitely going to scor… wait a minute.

McCarthy threw the challenge flag? Why would he?

That is clearly a catch. I guess Green Bay has nothing to lose here. Lets see what the ref has to say.

“After further review, the receiver did not complete the process of the catch.”

I would like to thank the NFL for the use of instant replay. Under Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3, Item 1, or as some call it the Calvin Johnson Rule: “If a player goes to the ground in the act of catching a pass (with or without contact by an opponent), he must maintain control of the ball throughout the process of contacting the ground, whether in the field of play or the end zone — If he loses control of the ball, and the ball touches the ground before he regains control, the pass is incomplete. If he regains control prior to the ball touching the ground, the pass is complete.”

Yes, the rule is dumb, but it is the rule. Thankfully, the technology the NFL has implemented overruled a bad call on a bad rule in a big game.

But the Cowboys should not act like it is a big atrocity to be on the wrong side of a bad call.

Just ask the Lions if picking up a flag is against the rules.

The technology the NFL uses to reviews plays is good, but it is not great. I understand that reviewing every single flag would be arduous and unneeded, but if a referee has the gall to pick up a flag, then it should be reviewed.

Detroit fans feel the sting of a call that should have been reviewed. Now a Dallas team that benefited from no instant replay against Detroit, feels the sting of having instant replay bite them right in their Texassized keester.

As a fan of the Lions, you could call me biased, but the expansion of instant replay is the highest it has ever been.

Technology is used in the NFL; I just think it could be used better.

It was halftime and the GLHS boys’ basketball team left the floor. The student section finished their cheers; blue and gold gear filled the stands. The energy was practically vibrating the floor. But there was one thing missing: there were no girls cheering “big blue” or “fire up comets” the entire game. This is because the cheer team only does sideline chants during football season. Many want to know why.

One main reason, there is simply no space since the basketball team is crowding the floor, the only space for a cheer team to go is right in front of the crowd. The first few rows would be unable to see the game over the cheer team. The other is that they compete in the winter.

“I think everyone needs to understand that competitive cheer is a recognized Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) winter sport, the same as basketball, gymnastics and wrestling,” competitive cheer coach Susan Horak said.

The team practices five to six days a week to learn three separate routines that focus on specific skill sets, such as standing back tucks, back handsprings and front

walkovers. The girls practice from 3 p.m. to 5:45 daily unless they have a competition. The team competes for league championships, regionals and a state title to represent Grand Ledge, same as other winter sports like wrestling and basketball. It would be more than difficult for these competitive athletes to schedule themselves to be at a basketball game in addition to practices and competitions. The girls compete every Saturday from now until the end of February.

“I do enjoy sideline, but I enjoy competitive because it’s different,” freshman Emma VanDeusen said. “On sideline, we are just the cheerleaders, but during competitive, we get to be recognized as sport and as athletes.”

Competitive cheer is an extremely demanding sport which takes just as much practice as any other. There are over 350 competitive cheer teams in the State of Michigan.

Other than football, competitive cheer has the largest attendance of all other sports in the state. In the beginning of mid-December, the GLHS team started competing twice a week at League Meets and Invitationals in addition to practice and another day of tumbling instruction. Some girls, like Dakota Hart, even take private lessons.

“I do tumbling outside of cheer so I can get ahead and have the top skills,” Hart said.

And the lessons have paid off. So far this season, the girls have broken records twice.

“We’ve broken the round three records with the highest score of 289 and then 295,” VanDeusen said.

The second time they broke the record, they had to battle back because one of their teammates broke her hand the night before the competition.

“So on the bus, the round three girls went over and over the cheer and when we got out there and still stuck it out,” VanDuesen said. “The girls were super excited and I just thought ‘that was crazy.’ Everyone was so nervous because we were down to eight people.”

While, football sideline cheer may be appreciated and look fancy and fun, there is just no time to do it. The cheer team focuses all their time to accomplish their high goals, without the extra stress of “firing up” the boys basketball team.

The Varsity Competitive Team has earned three first place trophies and one second place at this season’s invitationals.

The girls are expected to take third in the league when they were projected to take fifth.

The GLHS Varsity cheer-leading team had a competition on Jan 21 at Webberville High School. The team performs their round three, which includes advanced stunting and tumbling. At the Webberville Invitational, the Lady Comets finished with a score of 692.7.

Courtesy Photo

East Lansing transfer signs with Olivet college Defense player Jacob Hunter plays against the Shamrocks at the Cherry Bomb championship game.

Hunter will play college lacrosse at Olivet next year.

Courtesy Photo

Sarah Clinkscales ‘15 Managing Editor Monday, Dec. 1, senior Jacob Hunter made history at GLHS for being the first boy lacrosse player to sign with a college.

Hunter’s journey to Grand Ledge has been focused on lacrosse.

He went to East Lansing high school for his first three years but moved to GL for the lacrosse team.

“This is going to be a good year,” Hunter said. “We have a lot of team chemistry and a lot of talent.”

Hunter was first scouted during his freshman year. While playing for local team Power Play, after the game his coach told him that other coaches were asking about him. Hunter was playing at the U-19 level as a freshman, right along side bigger and more experienced players.

So the fact that other coaches were interested in him showed

that he had talent and potential to take lacrosse even farther than high school.

“My love for lacrosse was revamped when I played for Power Play,” Hunter said. “The team was amazing. We had super team chemistry. The team brought back my love for the sport.”

One of the biggest challenges Hunter thinks he’ll face in college lacrosse is the added stress and playing with people who will be older than him.

“There will be pressure on me because I’m a recruit so I’ll have to step up and be a leader my freshman year,” Hunter said.

“You know, like ‘Jacob you have to be out on the field if there’s one minute left and we’re killing a penalty and we’re only up by one goal’. I have to be that guy my freshman year, and that’s pretty daunting.”

Hunter was the first boy signed

in GLHS history, and this year Hunter signed on with Olivet.

“Being signed at this high school is pretty funny because I haven’t even ever practiced with the Grand Ledge lacrosse team but I was the first person signed,” Hunter said laughing.

Hunter was torn between signing with Tufts or Olivet, but ended up deciding to sign up with Olivet for four years because he was guaranteed a spot on their team.

“I still feel nervous, I get jitters, and that’s how I know that I still want to play this sport,” Hunter said. “When I start playing I just fall into rhythm.”

Starting next year people can see Hunter playing college lacrosse at Olivet. And Hunter will always be in GLHS’s proud history of athletic, academic, and artistic success.

Gymnastics team twists, turns, and returns to the top

1. Sophomore Janelle Hall goes into a switch kip on uneven bars. A switch kip is a skill that changes your direction. Hall preforms this event often at meets. Hall scored 8.575 on bars and 9.025 on floor against East Lansing.

2. Sophomore Ireland Bebee does a tuck full on the balance beam. Tuckfull is when a gymnast jumps and does a full turn in the air. Bebee joined gymnastics this year with only tumbling experience, and dnot Bebee competes all around this year.

2.

1.

3. The team congratulating sophomore Carsen Perry for her beam routine. It was her personal best.

4. Rachel Hogan going into her dance routine. Floor is one of Hogan’s best events. She finished first. Her first place score of 37.375 pumped up the team and tied into their winning score of 139.

All photos by Garrett Dale/The Ledge

3.

4.

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The Comets’ Tale • Feature • February 2015

12

Meet GL. “Stories of success from GLHS” Vol. 2

Hello.

Meet Sophia.

Artistic talent flourishes been with Sophia since she can through junior Sophia Ruark. remember.

Between her music and her art, “When I was younger I always Sophia has been impressing her found art class really interesting peers and teachers since middle and I just loved looking at art all school. the time,” Sophia said. “When my As a kindergartener, Sophia’s dad would have business trips, he parents enrolled her in a suzuki would take my sister and I, and class for piano. The suzuki meth- we would always end up spending od is a Japanese technique for a day at a museum. It was always teaching music that is based off really inspiring.” of being in the right environment Sophia finds inspiration from for one to learn music. After years many artists, but she notes Georof playing, Sophia realized her gia O’Keeffe as a favorite. love for the piano in sixth grade.

“As far as I remember, she was “After a while, people started one of the first [artists] I learned hearing me and choir teacher Mr. about,” Sophia said. “In elemenArmstead started hearing me, tary school she was my art teachand they were all really encour- er’s favorite artist. I remember aging about how I was doing and seeing her painting, [Cow’s Skull the things I was playing,” Sophia with Calico Roses], this year I said. “I think all that encour- ended up doing a few paintings agement made me like it more and sketches in my art class based because I wasn’t really used to on that concept.” hearing those things about me Sophia does not always paint on playing.” traditional “canvases” — she has Soon, Sophia realized that her painted a mural on her friend’s talent could earn her money by bedroom wall and often uses waaccompanying singers as well as tercolors on people’s bodies. opening the door for volunteer “My best friend Kyla is also an work. Sophia started volunteer- artist and we come up with crazy ing at Sparrow Hospital, where ideas of stuff to do,” Sophia said. she plays the piano for patients “Once we painted a galaxy on her and their family. She has been bedroom wall — just spur of the touched by the appreciation for moment — it was a long project, her music that she has seen by we probably finished it over the those grieving; some people have course of three or four days. I given her food or gifts to show [also] did a painting on her back, how thankful they are. it was basically the same thing, “[A man] gave me this token she was like, ‘Hey it would be rethat he got from his wife when ally cool if you gave me a tattoo she was in the hospital,” Sophia on my back, except in watercolor.’ said. “He said she enjoyed my pi- So I just looked up some pictures ano playing so much, she was in of angel wings and got to work, it a lot of pain and it made her feel took maybe an hour and a half.” a lot better. I first hand experiSophia’s favorite part about art enced the power of what music is signing her piece when she is can do for people.” finished.

Along with playing music, “I never sign them until I feel I Sophia finds time to paint and have finished the piece, for some sketch, a hobby she also picked pieces I never want to sign them” up in middle school.

Sophia said. “I feel like I can’t be“In about seventh grade I was cause I’m not skilled enough to sitting with my sister reading finish it yet or I didn’t have the books, and the one of the books time to put into it so I just don’t I was reading was about a bionic sign them, but I have pieces that I girl, and the cover had her face didn’t sign for two years and then with these designs all over it and I did sign them.”

I ended up sketching her face,” Although Sophia doesn’t plan Sophia said. “It turned out quite on making her art or music a cawell and I really liked it, so that reer, she plans to continue sharlead to other stuff.” ing it with others as long as she However, her art intuition has can.

Story by Bry Leach/ The Comets’ Tale

Hello.

Meet Shelby.

Tons of young writers aspire to get their book published. And college junior Shelby Pontius has done just that. The 2011 GL grad got her first children’s book: “The Little Pumpkin” published last fall.

“The Little Pumpkin” is about a little pumpkin and his grandmother trying to get through the Halloween season. With Halloween approaching, Pontius was inspired to make her rough draft a children’s book. Writing the story only took her a short time. It was putting the book together that took some effort. It was back and forth with the illustrator trying to get the right pictures.

“I unfortunately have very little talent with drawing so I worked with my cousin, Tyler Volk, whom is also a graduate from Grand Ledge High School,” Pontius said. “He did a fantastic job illustrating all of the pictures as well as coloring the cover.”

The book is available for purchase at Barnes and Noble, and at lulu.

com.

Growing up on a farm, Pontius has a love for animals grew. They have 28 goats, two horses, two rabbits, two dogs, and four cats. Her love for animals helps her decide what major she should take.

“Fisheries and Wildlife is about our natural resources and ecosystem management,” Pontius said.

Pontius attends MSU, and is majoring in Fisheries and Wildlife.

She plans to pursue a career in this field. In her free time, she plans to write more children’s books about the environment to help kids learn more about the place where they live.

“I take a lot of super cool classes like Fundamentals of Fisheries and Wildlife, Biology of Mammals, Plants of Michigan, and Wildlife Research and Management Techniques,” Pontius said.

With a love for animals comes a love for helping others, Pontius spends her days working as cook and server at Ingham Regional Assisted Living.

In a family of five, four of the five family members are writers. Pontius enjoys reading and writing, and her favorite thing about writing is seeing other people enjoy it.

Story by Katherine Davidson/ The Comets’ Tale

Hello.

Meet Booyah Snowboard Co.

Long time friends and snowboarders juniors Steely Carter, Andy Kreager, Connor Horstmanshof, Connor Merryfield and Neal Mulder have taken their passion for snowboarding and created their own brand and business, Booyah Snowboard Co. After only a few weeks the idea became reality, with help from Kreager’s dad and his screen printing shop.

The company started as a personal project but became a business after their screen printed sweatshirts started gaining attention.

“We made shirts for ourselves at first, and then people wanted them so we were like ‘hey we could make some money off this,’” Carter said. “We take their orders and order the sweatshirts Thursday and we get them the next day on Friday and we go into the shop and print on them after school.”

Even though the brand was created by and for snowboarders, the clothing has gained a wider demographic of students.

“There’s been a lot of people that have no affiliation with snowboarding whatsoever buying our stuff” Carter said. “I don’t know if it’s just out of support for us or if they actually like our stuff,” Carter said.

“It’s weird just seeing people walking around wearing your sweatshirts,” Mulder said.

Since they have started, a variety of different goods have been added to their catalog. They now have screen printed short-sleeve/ long-sleeve t-shirts, windbreakers, and snapback hats. The t-shirts, sweatshirts and windbreakers all come with the mountain logo on the upper left breast of the shirt, and a map of Michigan on the back, in any color imaginable including camouflage and tie-dye.

Even without a huge profit so far, they have high hopes for the future.

“The bigger the better,” Mulder said.

In addition to new clothing and hard goods, Booyah fans can get hyped for a possible video edit soon. From a group of friends yelling booyah to each other in the snow, to a team on the rise, Booyah Snowboard Co. is going to take the snowboarding world by blizzard.

Story by Michael Wilson/ The Comets’ Tale