Cecilia Hollenhorst

Though the school year’s end may seem a long way off, the marching band has already begun shaping its next season. Marching band leadership team members have been announced, including head manager junior Oliver Chen and new drum majors juniors Kevin Chen, Justin Hang and Michael Shang, who will join current drum major junior Bennett Lopez.

In Saratoga, St. Patrick’s Day seems much like a normal day, if only distinguishable by more green shirts and sweaters, but for Claudia Walsh, the child of two Irish parents, the day holds cultural significance.

Winter break ended early for members of the Winter Guard members arrived at school on Jan. 7 ready to practice and head to the first performance of the season. The Winter Guard performed a show entitled “Juxtaposed” at the California Color Guard Circuit (CCGC) Evaluation Show held at James Logan High School.

Bad weather followed the marching band from Folsom to Chino Hills, as they took on their final two competitions of the season, but bad weather could not stop the 220 students in the group from putting on their best performance.

Field Show: In the Beginning...

Field Show: In the Beginning... Competition: Cupertino Tournament of Bands Division: AAAAA Other Bands Competing: Homestead High School and Mountain View High School Overall Place: 2nd Awards: Woodwinds-1st, Brass-2nd, Percussion-2nd, Auxiliary-2nd On the first performance of the competition season: “The band has worked really hard since the beginning of the season. It feels great to have that work rewarded with a first place in woodwinds.” - Band director Seth Jones On the Horizon: “I'm really looking forward to completing our

While motivational speaker and writer Scott Lang has been invited to Saratoga High annually for six years to speak to the music students, this year he brought along a surprise: his new book, with an entire chapter centered around music department chair Michael Boitz.

The music department never seems to stop growing. This year, approximately 450 students will be participating in one or more of the musical groups on campus.

Homecoming. The word carries images of fun and celebration for students. It is supposedly a week to forget stress while showing spirit through dancing in quad days and cheering on the football team. But again this year, the dark cloud of SATs and major tests will cast their shadow on the days of festivity.

Designing jewelry comes naturally to senior Stephanie Poo, who has sold original jewelry designs and custom-made pieces for three years. She answered a few questions for the Falcon:

Inappropriate messages, a mysteriously changed grade and the resignation of 41-year-old teacher Ginger Parks in September from Plant City High School did not appear out of nowhere; it began with the Florida teacher “friending” a student on Facebook, illustrating the ever-blurring lines of student-teacher relationships.

Inappropriate messages, a mysteriously changed grade and the resignation of 41-year-old teacher Ginger Parks in September from Plant City High School did not appear out of nowhere; it began with the Florida teacher “friending” a student on Facebook, illustrating the ever-blurring lines of student-teacher relationships.

This year, more students qualified for the National History Day State competition than in any previous year. The state competition, scheduled for April 30 at the DoubleTree Airport hotel in San Jose, will be showcasing 16 different entries from 31 Saratoga students.

Junior Stephanie Poo looked at her planner on the night of Tuesday, March 8, her eyes widening as she remembered the two projects due on Wednesday, two quizzes on Thursday, an essay to write and a test on Friday, along with her normal Color Guard practice. Why so much work during a seemingly normal school week? It must be the end of another grading period.

What could an all-girls public high school in New York City have in common with Saratoga High? Judging by the experience of Hedy Yuen, junior Sofia Chang and senior Arthur Chang’s mother, more than one may expect.

Six people lay motionless in an Arizona supermarket parking lot, dead from the shots of a lone gunman. While most would first and foremost consider the immense tragedy of such an event, a surprising number of people shifted the focus of this massacre to politics after discovering the identity of one injured victim: Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat recently re-elected in a heavily Republican area.

Junior Kelly Leslie skates across the ice, passing the hockey puck to her teammate, and looks to a familiar face. As usual, her mother Theresa Leslie is busy analyzing the game.

The important history of John Steinbeck came alive when 37 juniors of the Media Arts Program (MAP) spent a day in the Salinas Valley and Monterey. The Nov. 19 trip gave students a chance to a visit a farm in the Salinas Valley and a scavenger hunt at Cannery Row in Monterey. Students missed out on going to the National Steinbeck Center, which was part of the trip last year due to both the added time it would take and the museum’s exhibit schedule.

Gaining a new appreciation for cultural diversity is even easier for staff members this year with the addition of a Brown Bag Lunch speaker series. According to assistant principal Brian Safine, the program is “a series of conversations between staff and groups of parents in the community” which finds different parents with specific ethnic backgrounds who are willing to discuss their culture with teachers during lunch.

At 18, Nicholas Brown almost died. Brown, a student from the University of Arkansas, slipped into a coma with a blood alcohol level of 0.68 last November. Brown had been participating in a pledge event at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house where he was allegedly forced to endure hours of verbal and physical abuse, as well as a challenge to drink as much alcohol as possible.

In a classroom, there are always the students who constantly talk, the students with hands shooting up to answer every question and the students who shy away from even the idea of standing in front of the class. To fix this imbalance, many teachers choose to use a participation grade. Although scoring participation can encourage students to engage in discussions, it is often harmful to the classroom overall.

Trying to find ways to help financially struggling school districts, a Santa Clara County Superior Court Civil Grand Jury recently suggested the combination of five of the smallest school districts in the area, including the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District. But the proposal has not been met with enthusiasm by members of the LGSUHSD board.

Every year, quad days and the Homecoming football game draw large crowds of spirited students, but this year, students may be occupied with much more than just Homecoming. Unlike most years, Homecoming takes place the same week as the SATs and the end of the six-week grading period, forcing students to choose between school spirit and academics.

Donna Goodlett, a former 4th grade teacher at Vintage Math/Science/Technology Magnet School, was one of the 6,000 teachers to be ranked on the Los Angeles Times website this past August. The rankings were based on a "value-added system" that judges teachers on the amount their students improve their standardized test scores. Goodlett's school specializes in math and science, yet her "effectiveness" score was said to be only "average." Although one might assume from the label she was given that she is a mediocre teacher, the truth is, there is no way to really know.