Walking into the school library this year, students will find a new and improved resource to take advantage of—the newly renovated Research and Writing Center. According to Principal Jeff Anderson, the renovation was funded half by the school and half by the Saratoga High Foundation, a parent group that helps support the school. According to district application support analyst Julianne Yeaman, the old computers were “outdated” and crashed often. There are now 62 new Dell PC’s running on Windows XP in the center.
Saratoga High currently offers 76 clubs, half of which may be cut this year if everything goes according to plan. Due to the numerous inactive clubs, the Associated Student Body (ASB) reached a conclusion to reduce the number of clubs after Club Day.
The ASB’s goal is to consolidate and minimize clubs, especially those that have disintegrated or become inactive since their time of formation, according to ASB president Ketaki Shriram. The ASB refused to comment on specific clubs they plan to cut.
This year, English teacher Erick Rector has stepped up to coach the speech and debate team in hopes of bringing much needed stability to the program.
The popular nighttime event “Celebrate Saratoga” has been replaced this year by a daytime festival known as “Taste of Saratoga,” to be held on Sept. 20.
Rather than a street dance, this year’s event will be more similar to an art and wine festival. By making this change, the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce hopes that Taste of Saratoga will create a better business environment, while continuing the fund raising effort begun by the Street Dance.
Usually teachers try to help students succeed and stay in school, but it’s different for new math teacher PJ Yim. He dropped out of Boston University for four years before graduating because he had to figure out what he wanted to do.
When most people think of paper, they tend to think of the plain white or loose-leaf lined paper kind. Senior Grace Wu is not like most people. To support her hobby of journaling and crafting, Wu splurges on all things related to paper: magazines, books, notebooks, journals, scrap booking papers, posters, prints, postcards, stationery and more.
Switching schools means leaving behind best friends and hoping to find a place to fit in, a difficult task with the presence of high school cliques. Moving to a different country presents its own problems of language, culture and a general uncertainty of a new place.
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 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.
Over the next few months, many students will meet and begin to develop a strong relationship with the newest guidance counselor, Dona Feizzadeh.