News

The speech and debate team has come along way since the beginning of the year. With steady coaches and a more bonded team, the newer members have been able to achieve impressive records in varsity tournaments.

Costa Rica is an ethnically unified country where 98 percent of the population is white or mestizo, a person of mixed American Indian and European. On the other hand, the United States is diverse and ranges from white to Hispanic to Chinese.

These two different cultures mixed to form an experience of a lifetime when six Costa Rican students arrived in Saratoga on Jan. 19. Teenagers from both cultures were able to bond and compare their different lifestyles over the next three weeks.

In November, junior Zach Jacobs painstakingly used both an accompanist and a recording artist in a makeshift studio in a church. With several microphones pointed at him, he played his euphonium, a brass instrument, to make the audition CD for “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band Concerto Competition.

Marriage hysteria has beset Saratoga High, with two teachers announcing engagements. During winter break, economics teacher Todd Dwyer tied the knot with his long time girlfriend Lupita Chavez. In the science department, chemistry teacher Kathy Chang accepted a proposal from her boyfriend.

Free on Sunday, Jan. 18, and looking for a musical experience? Go watch members of the Santa Clara County Honor Band perform a concert at Gunn High.

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.

The Business for Life club started two years ago as the brainchild of junior Charles Sun and senior Paul Stavropoulos. Ever since then, the club has had big success, especially with the debut of two classes of the Introduction to Business course taught by Kirk Davis last year. Sun and Stavropoulos now want to head in a new direction by changing Business for Life to Investment Club.

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.

Twenty-five yearbook students from Redwood Middle School and adviser James Conn got a taste of high school journalism when they visited on Friday, Nov. 7. Trekking from their school to Saratoga High for fifth period, they had the chance to see the Talisman staff in action.

ASB officers hoped to increase the head count at Winter Ball, which took place on Dec. 13, by holding it in the Large Gym, lowering bid prices, decreasing pressure on students to bring dates and allowing semi-formal attire.

Their hopes, however, were not fulfilled, and attendance fell short of what they expected. they had aimed to get a turn out of at least 500 but ended up with about 400 attendees.