News

SLA Times Out

March 22, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

Last Tuesday March 12, many students were marked late due to the ID scanner being flipped according to SLA Time. Normally, this wouldn’t be troublesome, but SLA Time has not been itself recently.

After Daylight Savings Time began on Monday the 11th, the clocks were just one hour behind. After that was “fixed” on Tuesday the clocks were set to normal time, so the 5 minute buffer was forgotten by mistake.

Senior Heather Campbell said,“To be honest I didn’t even notice that anything had changed.” Unconcerned, she usually gets to school around 8ish.

Rumors swirling include that Science Teacher Matt VanKouwenberg changed the clocks because of his tendency to be late.

An even better one was the the Superintendent Dr. Hite visited and told us that is was illegal to have the clocks set 5 minutes later than normal time, as per SLA Time.

None of that is true and in reality, around midweek, IT people from the District did visit SLA, but on a completely unrelated problem. However, the door to the room with the clock controls was shut behind them. The sole key was with Principal Lehmann in Prague where he was speaking at a conference

Attempting to get things back to normal, the clocks were then set 5 minutes slower than normal time really throwing everyone off.

The time warp has caused a bit of difficulty for students and teachers. Students who are used to regularly walking into class right in the nick of time were late which caused a disruption. Those that normally arrive early are now almost late.

Though teachers at SLA are a bit more flexible than teachers at other schools, no one is happy about students coming late to class. Because SLA doesn’t have a bell that sounds at the end of a period, the unique schedule relies solely on SLA Time.

For the majority of the week, the clocks stood 5 minutes earlier than regular time and people were beginning to adjust.

On Thursday the clocks were reset to the classic SLA Time.

“Even I was a little bit late to class, I just keep expecting it to be fixed.” English Teacher Larissa Pahomov said.

Peace Corps. Coming to SLA

March 19, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Nomi Martin- Brouillette

Staff Writer

On Thursday, March 21st, two representatives of the Peace Corps will be coming to talk to the SLA community about the Peace Corps.

The meeting was arranged by member of the Community Involvement Club, freshman Michelle Friedman. Friedman went to the Peace Corps. website and requested a visit from representatives, and soon after received an email from Colleen Daley and Paul Masuti, two former Peace Corps. volunteer’s, saying they would be coming to SLA.

Senior Sam Lovett-Perkins, who founded CIC for his capstone says, “Part of my club’s idea was to teach about global issues and to offer resources to student to get interested. I thought that inviting a peace corps. volunteer would get students interested in the club, and teach them about global education value.”

“The Peace Corps takes people from America and sends them to countries that need help out with education and medicine and technology for two years.” says Friedman.

During the presentation, the former volunteer’s will talk about their own experience in the Peace Corps. and answer any questions anyone may have about the organization.

Sophomore Nikki Adeli, who is part of CIC club say’s “I’m excited to get involved in any open opportunities the representatives might bring to the school. It will be a fun experience!”

If you are interested in coming, the meeting will take place Thursday, March 21st, during both X and Y bands in the library. All those interested are invited and encouraged to attend.

Senior Trip: Going Nowhere

March 8, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Sam Lovett-Perkins

Staff Writer

On Thursday February 21^st Sseniors at Science Leadership Academy found out that their Senior Trip was cancelled during an all-grade meeting due to a lack of paying participants.

At a cost of $80 per person and a deposit of $40, Seniors had the option to attend a day trip to The Great Wolf Lodge in the Poconos. Out of a grade of 117, only 14 students paid the required amount.

Senior Sasha Sapp was amongst those who paid. “We’d be going to an indoor water park and I honestly was really excited.” She added, “I just want to be with everyone in a way that we’re just not in our cliques, I’d like a bit more togetherness.”

This begs the question, why did only a handful of people pay?

“I didn’t actually give it a lot of thought”, said Senior Tucker Bartholomew, “…for the most part I forgot about it because most of my amigos weren’t talking about it”. This issue of forgetfulness seems to be the main reason as even Sapp agrees, “I got my first deposit, but I forgot about my second…I feel like I need to be reminded more”

The issue of timing affects SLA school-wide. “This class is not unlike any other. SLA in general isn’t very respectful of time lines and due dates,” said Health Teacher and Trip Sponsor Pia Martin.

Now that the date for that trip has passed, Ms. Martin has given seniors another option– to create their own. “First decide what’s the budget, we always come at it from the money point first. Then look at what you can do in the city because that trip slip needs to go nowhere.” She emphasized, “The turn around time can be tomorrow.”

The main issues are the restrictions that come down form the School District. “The District has hoops that we need to jump through,” Ms. Martin said citing issues as the number and cost of adult chaperons, knowing the certification of the lifeguard on duty, and making sure ever student has a ride home.

For seniors who are still pushing for a senior trip outside of the city, Ms. Martin suggests looking at pre-approved organizations and packages such as School Wide Travel or day trips to DC or New York.

Timing is the main factor, if the senior trip is going to happen it must happen soon. Seniors are “up against Prom and Graduation, these are costly things” stated Ms. Martin. With price and timing being a major factors the possibility of a trip seems fairly slim.

However, Ms. Martin reminded seniors of the point of senior trip “Mr. Bey, Mr. Lehmann and I are of the mindset that if you guys don’t want it we’re not going to force it, but we’d like to do something to celebrate you guys.”

Trapped: SLA students forced to eat in the Cafe

March 1, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By: Sara Nesbitt

Staff Writer

On Tuesday, Feb. 26th, the students of SLA were forced to do something very different.

Usually, during X and Y band lunch periods, students are allowed to lunch on the second and third floors, most popular spaces being the second floor ballroom and “pool” area.

But on Monday afternoon, Principal Lehmann put an announcement in the advisory memo that all students would be restricted to the Cafe for lunch on Tuesday,

The reason? The students had littered too much around the school the previous day.

This punishment had been threatened by the school before, but this was the first time…

So on Tuesday, 75-100 students were packed together in the same constricted area, compared to a typical day.

What were the students’ thoughts?

“It sucks,” said Junior Matthew Marshall. “We have been able to eat wherever we want, for three years and now we are being restricted to one space with everyone else.”

Most students interviewed agreed with him. The students who normally use the cafe were annoyed that it was crowded, and the people who never sit there were annoyed they were forced to relocate.

“It’s stupid, chaotic, and it’s not going to make a difference,” said Sophomore Aaron Tang.

Sophomore Nikki Adeli also stated, “Sitting here isn’t that bad, but it’s nice to have the option for freedom.”

Most students blamed the freshman for leaving trash around the school. The freshman–just didn’t blame anyone.

Knowing the punishment was only for one day, the students weren’t too upset.

At the end of the school day on Tuesday, Mr. Lehmann made an announcement that the punishment was over, as long as we kept the school clean.

“I’m frustrated that they had to be punished for not cleaning up, but I’m glad the students responded well.” he said.

Student petitions to re-enroll at SLA

February 26, 2013 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Screen Shot 2013-02-21 at 9.19.55 PM — A snapshot of the Facebook page created to petition for Angelina Pingitore’s return to SLA.

By Leah Kelly

Staff Writer

Friends of Angelina Pingitore, former SLA student, have created a petition to get support to convince the administration to admit her after she became pregnant and decided to leave SLA at the end of freshman year.

After transfering to a cyber school for the 2012-2013 school year, Pingitore hoped that she would be able to return to SLA as a junior. However, because she officially unenrolled from the school, her place was lost and could not be “saved” for her.

This was a bitter disappointment for Pingitore, who believed she had a good chance being able to return to SLA.

“I told Ms. Siswick that I will have to do a year of homeschool but after that, I would want to come back to Science Leadership,” Angelina told SLAMedia. “I was told that there would be a great possibility [of coming back].”

Ms. Siswick, however, does not recall mentioning the possibility of Angelina returning to SLA.

Ms. Siswick implored that the situation has nothing to do with Angelina in particular. “It’s not a personal thing; she did well at SLA and we liked her. This is primarily about numbers.”

“Right now, we don’t have a space,” Principal Chris Lehmann said, “and if a space becomes available, we will have to evaluate her along with every other student that’s applying.”

The school policy is that that empty spots in a class are immediately taken by students who want to transfer in.

“We get dozens of calls for spaces, so whenever we have a space we fill it,” explained Lehmann.

In response to this situation, Angelina has decided to do one more thing to attempt to get back into SLA. Sophomore Alexis McCormick, Angelina’s best friend, made a petition for SLA students to sign, and is encouraging students to write letters to Mr. Lehmann and the staff about why they want Angelina to come back.

Their goal was 200 signatures on the petition. As of now, they are 75 signatures above what they had hoped for.

“I also made a facebook event called ‘Bring Angie Back’,” said Alexis, “where past SLA students are able to post whether or not Angelina should be able to come back to Science Leadership Academy.”

If Angelina is not accepted into SLA for the 2013-2014 school year, she is going to attend her neighborhood high school, Northeast High School.

“I guess we’re going to have to wait and see with our fingers crossed,” she said.