Karthik Sreedhara

Dance forms, photos, paperwork for athletics, yearbook, payment to vendors and deposits for clubs and organizations—these and many more tasks keep Activities Office secretary June Lamm busy all day.

New assistant principal Kevin Mount is hoping to “make discipline a positive learning experience” as he transitions into a job he did not expect to have this year.

Jet packs, hydrogen-powered cars, virtual reality and a cure for cancer are some of examples of the scientific advancements students believe society will have achieved by the year 2020. Although more cautious in their predictions than students are, many researchers are also confident that science will have great impacts on society in the coming decade.

To showcase its rich cultural diversity, the school held its first Culture Day on Nov. 19 during lunch.

"Who in here does not have a Facebook?" asked 2000 SHS alumnus Andrew "Bos" Bosworth, who is now director of engineeering at Facebook. "That's okay, I'm not going to get mad at you," he said to the only person in the audience who had raised her hand.

When the first-period MAP class entered the new multimedia center on the first day of school, student were amazed by the brand new high-tech equipment. They ran to explore each corner of the building, from the green screen to the recording studio, in awe of the building's similarity to a real-life television studio.

Replacing decrepit water fountains, planting gardens and installing new cabinetry in the cafeteria are among the myriad of improvements the school's maintenance staff has been busy working on this year, and students around campus have taken notice. Just last month, the school installed new wooden cabinets, funded by the PTSO, in the cafeteria to replace the old trophy case, which has been moved to the gym lobby. According to plant operations supervisor Brian Moran, the main reason for this change was to increase storage space.

Every year, the school consumes an enormous amount of electricity and natural resources. In turn, it produces tons of solid waste, and a substantial amount of that waste comes from the classrooms, where many tests, quizzes, projects and assignments done on paper are tossed in the garbage rather than recycled. In the past few years, however, SHS has taken numerous measures to become part of the trend towards going green. A paper-less classroom?

Junior Annaliese Parker, frustrated with what she perceived as the restrictive system at SHS, transferred to Middle College earlier this year because she wanted more freedom. While on the campus of West Valley College this year, Parker has been able to take classes such as infectious diseases, human anatomy and counseling. Besides the required core classes—English and history—students get to choose what classes they want to take from a wide variety of courses, and even when they want to schedule them, as opposed to the high school's randomized schedules.

Juniors and seniors volunteering to drive for SafeRides began their work Dec. 12 on the night of Winter Formal and will continue to offer services twice a month on weekends. Senior Tiffany Mo, co-leader of the program, said SafeRides is more than just a taxi service for drunk students. “It is really for any Saratoga student who feels unsafe and needs a ride home,” she said. “Many of our calls actually come from sober students.”

Drugs. Weapons. Harrassment. It's not a good thing to be sitting in assistant principal Joe Bosco's office for any of these disciplinary reasons. The administrator may given a student minor penalties like a suspension, but in some cases, he is not as lenient. He has the power to recommend expulsion. But what really happens when he opts to enforce these extreme measures, whether it be a suspension or expulsion, and just how effective are these methods in stopping teens from causing trouble?

Every year, millions of people set goals to lose weight and lead a healthier lifestyle. Myths about certain foods and exercise methods, however, are often detrimental to those goals. According to AceFitness.org , one wrong myth among teens is that “I can eat anything and as much as I want just as long as I exercise afterward.” But after eating thousands of calories and exercising, people may find that an average workout only burns about 300-500 calories. Furthermore, exercise may increase appetite, leading to eating more after a workout.

New English teacher Suzanne Herzman has been enjoying the "intellectually stimulating" environment in her classes during her first few weeks. Herzman, currently teaching English 9 and 11H, has taught for the past 10 years at Albany High School, Scotts Valley High School and Branham High School. She was part of the International Baccalaureate program at Scotts Valley and enjoyed teaching there tremendously because of its emphasis on “critical thinking and making connections in the world beyond the text.”

New student Johannes Stimmer, who goes by his middle name Manuel, traveled from Munich, Germany, to be a sophomore this year, and is currently staying with the Bedard family.       Although he studied English at his school in Germany, Stimmer decided to come to the U.S. so that he could “study English and learn to do things independently,” he said.
“I thought it would be nice to be a foreign exchange student.”     According to Stimmer, adjusting to the school has been going well, even with all the differences compared to his school back in Germany.   

When new student sophomore Patrick Sobrak-Seaton was asked like other new students where he transferred from, he, unlike most others replied, "my kitchen table." Sobrak-Seaton, the first of his four siblings to go to high school, was drawn to SHS when he moved to Saratoga this year and learned about the Media Arts program. He originally lived in Felton near Santa Cruz where he was home schooled since by his mom, who received her teaching credentials in Santa Clara.

One of the first things new student junior Reina Muroka noticed when she first arrived in California was how amazingly dark it was at night. “In Japan, everything’s all illuminated. It's really bright. You come here at 8 [p.m], and everything’s all dark,” she said. Muroka transferred here this year after her father got a new job. She was formerly a student at the American School of Japan but had also previously attended international schools in Hong Kong and Shang Hai.

Former English 9 and 11H teacher Karen Van Putten originally planned to return to the English Department this fall after working to help new teachers in the district for two years. However, she recently accepted a job as assistant principal at Fremont High School.

Must haves in Saratoga: Juicy sweats and Seven jeans. Must haves at a high school in Mexico City: surgical masks and an abundance of hand sanitizer. With the outbreak of H1N1, also known as the swine flu, schools all over the world are taking precautions to keep education safe from the dangerous virus.

It was April 2007 when girls’ basketball coach Mike Davey first strolled across a promotion for the “Sport Court” at the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Final Four while chatting with his father, then-Santa Clara University head coach Dick Davey. At that moment, the solution to several years of gym space issues and overlapping seasons for SHS basketball and volleyball players hit him: Right then he knew the school had to build the “Court of Dreams.”

As soon as college acceptances came out in March, many students started to notice an absence of seniors. Many missed class and spent spring break at colleges in order to make a final decision as to what college they would attend—a decision would forever impact their future.

Many seniors are learning a tough lesson this spring: college is tougher to get into as a result of the tight economy, and state budget cuts.

Video games cause violence. Video games cause the stunting of brain growth. Video games cause obesity. It seems that video games are causing an apocalypse, and according to anti-video-game activists, gamers are wasting their time and money.

The school will be hosting a real DUI trial with a convicted criminal for the first time at the McAfee Center on Mar. 13.

A schedule that would make every day a block day and eliminate the “Monday problem” is under consideration for next year. The proposed schedule, according to assistant principal Brian Safine, would be an A/B system where students would alternate between periods 1, 3, 5 and 7 and periods 2, 4, 6 and 8 on consecutive school days. Some weeks a class would meet three times, while the next week it would meet twice. The periods would continue to be 95 minutes long., and a fourth tutorial would be added to the week.

The school will hold its first Challenge Day in two years on March 17. The diversity program challenges students to “become better people” and forces them to address issues such as stereotypes, cliques and tolerance, according to assistant principal Karen Hyde.

Students who log into the official school website saratogahigh.org next spring will be in for a surprise—a newly redesigned Saratoga High website. Media Arts teacher Tony Palma, principal Jeff Anderson, tech guru Julie Grenier, and librarian Kevin Heyman have been working with the company Educational Networks to create the new site.

In the last weeks of the presidential election, network TV stories on Democratic candidate Barack Obama were 36 percent positive and 29 percent negative; by contrast, coverage of Republican candidate John McCain was a whopping 57 percent negative and 14 percent positive, according to a new study published by the Pew Research Center. This perceived bias has caused many to question whether the media had an unfair influence in this election. The statistics clearly point in this direction. According to a Harvard University analysis, 72 percent of Americans said that the press is politically biased in favor of liberals.

During an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Oct. 19, retired Gen. Colin Powell formally announced his support for Sen. Barack Obama in his race for the presidency. In endorsing Obama, Powell became the highest profile Republican to add support to the Democratic ticket.

On Sept. 10, while most Saratogans were just getting into bed, the world’s largest particle accelerator roared to life underneath Geneva, Switzerland. Skeptics thought it might doom the planet, but most scientists saw it for the advance it was.

New librarian Kevin Heyman, who is replacing the retired Tibor Szalay, hopes to inspire students to become skilled researchers and to become as passionate about research as he is.

New U.S. History and U.S. Government teacher Margarita Lozano is making some history herself. She is the second female teacher in the department in many years.

New World History and U.S. Government teacher Margarita Lozano is making some history herself. She is only the second teacher in the department in many years. (The other is Kim Anzalone.) Raised in the Los Angeles area, she earned a bachelor’s degree in history at UC Santa Barbara, and a master’s degree in secondary education and her credential from Loyola Marymount University. She was inspired to become a history teacher because of her love and fascination with history. “I love history,” she said. “I’m one of those history nerds.”

New librarian Kevin Heyman, who is replacing the retired Tibor Szalay, hopes to inspire students to become skilled researchers and to become as passionate about research as he is. Heyman grew up mostly in Los Angeles and earned his Bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in library science at San Jose State University. Upon graduating, he started his career as a history teacher at Mount Pleasant High School in San Jose.