News

The first quarter comes to an end with only 4 full weeks of school

November 16, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Heather Campbell

Staff Writer

Out of the 10 weeks in the first quarter of school, there has only been 4 full weeks of school, Monday through Friday, or 3, if you are a senior.

School started on a Friday. The following week was the first of the full weeks of school. The week after was interrupted by Rosh Hashanah on Monday and Tuesday. On the Wednesday, the week after, was Yom Kippur. September ended having only one full week of school.

October had a promising start. For the first week of October, there was school everyday. Although a power outage on Thursday, the 4th, ended the school day early, Columbus day was the first day of no school in October.

If you are a senior, then the following week wasn’t a full week of school either. Senior breakfast took place on the Wednesday, giving them the 17th off of school. The number full weeks for students at SLA totals to 3, unless you are a senior, then it is only 2.

The week of the 22nd in October was another full week. But Hurricane Sandy prevented school from occurring the following Monday and Tuesday.

November 6th marked another day of no school for Election Day. But teachers made sure take advantage of it by sending out students to interview voters. Veterans’ day was observed on Monday, the 12th, making it another week of school that was unfull.

In total, there have only been four full weeks of school for students. If you are a senior, than it’s always been three weeks.

The inconsistency of full weeks of school has been affecting the work of both students and teachers.

“It’s made the benchmark season probably a little more stressful for students,” stated Math Teacher Erin Garvey, “Especially since we had days off right during the benchmark season.”

On the other hand, the days of school have helped students with their workload.

“It’s made it better because I’ve had more time to work on things.” said Senior Andora Myftaraj

With Thanksgiving holidays on the 22nd and 23rd, the first week of quarter two won’t be a full week either. If this trend of no school continues, students and teachers will be penalized by having days taken away from Spring Break. However, reportedly, if the school district declares these days as emergency days, it may not affect our Spring Break afterall.

In short, the lack of consistency has affected us all. As Senior Jenn Wright stated, “It’s been hard to get into a routine.”

Combatting the filth at SLA

October 23, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Teachers and Students agree: SLA had been getting dirtier.

Many people at SLA have been overheard talking about some of the “trouble spots” in the school. Common spots to find litter are the pool and the ballrooms, where students leave packaging and food from lunch.

Things get more extreme in places like back stairwell, where people have left litter, extra chairs, and other messes. Even in the bathrooms, weaves, unsanitary napkins, and other trash have been found on the floor and in the sinks.

The littering has resulted in some gross consequences. Senior Winston Wright has a tale about bugs.

“During the beginning of preseason for soccer we wanted to use first floor bathroom in the morning but couldn’t because there was like 4 or 5 cockroaches running around,” he said.

As popular as SLA is, there are constantly visitors viewing our school and speaking with students. Staff is concerned about how the school looks to outsiders.

“As somebody who has to give tours all the time, it’s embarrassing when the school’s not at its best,” Said ILP Coordinator Jeremy Spry.

“The truth is that the majority of the school is clean most of the time there is just some trouble spots–everybody finds it gross but no one tries to change the culture, we are living in our own filth.” Said English teacher, Mrs. Pahomov.

In response to this problem, Health and Fitness Teacher Mrs. Martin thought of an idea to keep the school in tact and cleaner: have the students take care of the space in which they must work every day.

SLA’s new Space Adoption program officially started on the first day of school, where advisories picked…

Advisories must now clean up that space and make a sign posted there, encouraging others to keep it nice.

“You are not the new janitors for that space,” Ms. Pahomov said. “The idea is that you help beautify it, and convince others to keep it nice. Plus you have to remember that every space in the school belongs to an advisory — if you mess with it, you’re messing with them.”

One of the biggest problems at SLA is with trash and leftover mess from lunch. It’s not really noticeable to students since it’s such a normality to them now. The cleaning ladies are then left to clean up the student messes. Their job is to clean the school in general, not to clean after the disrespectful students leaving their trash behind.

SLA students seem to have some mixed feelings towards the project.

Senior Alex Johnson said,” Somewhat at first I believe it will help, but well see how it ends up as the months go on.”

“I think this is just a step towards becoming the best school we can be,” Mrs. Martin said. “When you have limited resources, your people are the best resource.”

Written by Isabela Supovitz-Aznar & Jamie Murphy

SLA goes to the cloud

October 23, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

New Tech Assistant Heather reimages a laptop in room 301, the new techlab.

By Sam Lovett-Perkins and Dalena Bui
Staff Writers

This year, SLA has adopted a new system of distributing computer programs to student machines – and this system has many students confused.

In previous years, laptops would have all the needed applications installed when they were distributed to students on the first day of school. This year, students must look at a menu on Moodle, full of applications, and choose which ones to download.

This new procedure left many students wondering: why?

According to Technology Coordinator Marcie Hull, the change reflects evolving methods of sharing.

“A lot of people are migrating to cloud or mobile,” she said. Students need to “learn how to download those where you find them and then install them onto your computer. You get to make everything available and also tailor that machine to your use.”

The process of wiping and updating laptops is a yearly routine for tech coordinator Marcie Hull and her tech room assistants. Students may not realize it, but long hours are spent over the summer in the updating and reinstalling of each individual computer.

This year, to streamline the process, Ms. Hull tried something new by allowing students to get individual applications. “For now, some are online, and some are on a USB key,” she explained.

For students who need step-by-step instructions for downloading apps, check out this related Features Article.

Some students had problems with downloading, because some links didn’t work, or the downloads took hours.

Ms. Hull acknowledged that the servers were overloaded with so many students trying to download at once. “However,” she said, “there is a plan in effect to get a server built in SLA that students can connect to and download applications quickly.”

There is also now a divide between students who have the re-image and those who do not.
“Computers that lacked enough memory to be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion stayed at the old image with Snow Leopard,” Ms. Hull explained, “because the new OS simply would not fit on the internal memory of the laptop.”

This divide disappointed some students. Junior Sara Nesbitt, whose laptop was not updated, says she’d rather be up to date with current technology.

“I like having some of the applications,” she said, “but I’d rather be up to date than have all the old applications.”

Possibly the biggest difference between those with the update is the disappearance of Microsoft products such as Word. It is neither included in the re-image nor the online distribution.

“We did not have a license for Microsoft Word, we never did. We were using it illegally… I didn’t know,” said Hull.

While this distribution process might be faster, it is not without it’s flaws.

“it’s good we don’t have all those unnecessary applications, it’s not wasting space” said Senior Marly Utzig. “But I don’t know what applications I need or what they do.”

Looking towards the future, Sophomores and Juniors may wonder whether this new process will become the norm.

While nothing is set in stone, Ms Hull has confirmed that it “is dependent upon what the freshmen laptops will be” next year.

Reaching a new Hite: Changes in our School District and at SLA

October 22, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Dr. William R. Hite Jr. is the new superintendent for the School District of Philadelphia.
Image courtesy of the School District website.

By Jesús Jiménez

Staff Writter

“SLA is shutting down.”
“The School District hates us.”
“We’re not receiving enough money”.

These are just a few of the rumors that continuously float around the hallways and classrooms of SLA every year.

In a school district like Philly’s, many students are constantly hearing about budget cuts, layoffs, and maybe some debt here and there. But when a community is as friendly as SLA’s, no one wants the school to close or lose their friends and teachers.

Misinformed students play a large role in the creation of these rumors. Some believe the school district picks on SLA when teachers try to organize ambitious field trips, while others believe the SLA community fundraises the school’s $3 Million for the budget on their own.

The panic in this situation no doubt is going to create a few exaggerations. As long as educators and families are unaware of how the SDP will deal with those problems, this panic will continue to spread year after year.

In an interview, Principal Chris Lehmann was quick to dispel rumors of bad treatment from SDP.

“The opposite is true,” he said. “They’re trying to give the kids the type of education kids at SLA get.”

Rumors are not helped by regular turnover at the School District’s top levels. Arlene Ackerman, who last year took a $900,000 buyout from the SDP, filed for unemployment shortly after. Following Ackerman was a “Chief Recovery Officer,” Thomas Knudsen, who has suggested borrowing $300 Million to pay off the SDP’s debt and wanted an additional $112 million through closing schools. His idea was to layoff more people in order to make up for what the district couldn’t pay off.

However, this year is different. William R. Hite will be serving as the new Superintendent for the School District of Philadelphia.

Exactly who is William Hite? Before coming to Philly, Hite was a superintendent in Maryland. While working on noteworthy achievements, he has helped improve Maryland’s second largest school district and help it receive nationwide recognition for making AP classes more accessible to students.

Mr. Hite’s experience as an educator has allowed him to take new challenges, and he’s hoping to give Philadelphia the education system it really deserves.

Mr. Lehmann believes Superintendent Hite’s mission is critical to the future of education in Philadelphia.

“He understands that he has to work with what has happen and work with our structure. He’ll see and observe and then take that and use vision to help move us forward.”

When asked what specific challenges Mr. Hite faces ahead, Principal Lehmann said this “ … Profound financial crisis. Navigating through that crisis and getting us through those times.”

However, Lehmann is confident about the future with Hite. “Everything that I’ve seen from him so far, is that he’s the right man for the job.”

Refrigerator Mysteriously Appears in Bathroom

October 6, 2012 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

By Jenn Wright

Staff Writer

The refrigerator now sits in the hallway on the fifth floor.

A mysterious refrigerator was found early this week in the men’s bathroom on the fifth floor.

It has been confirmed that the refrigerator in question belongs to Spanish Teacher Mark Bey and Physical Education Teacher Pia Martin.

Unknown to Mr. Bey, the freezer door stood ajar in his classroom over the summer, leading to a block of ice forming inside. With a floor drain in men’s bathroom, the solution was to let the ice melt there.

The sudden appearance of a kitchen appliance in the bathroom drew a lot of attention from students.

Confusion met Senior Tucker Bartholomew Friday afternoon, “…I felt strange and thought I was in an episode of The Twilight Zone.”

Reactions from students included mock elation from gentleman thinking they’d acquired a personal fridge to “Eh, it’s SLA. Nothing out of the usual.” as Senior Alex Johnson put it.

Other students were more surprised. “I don’t think it’s classy to have a fridge in the bathroom.” said Junior Jamie Murphy.

Now that the refrigerator is done being defrosted, it has been moved into the hallway and awaits its return to Mr. Bey’s classroom.

Contact Jenn Wright at jwright@scienceleadership.org

cover photo credit: Tucker Bartholomew