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School District Seems Indecisive With Plans To Shift the Schedule

May 26, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Leo Braveman

Staff Writer

Back in March I first heard talk about the school having a pushed back schedule for next year. Immediately when I heard this I was surprised and not really looking forward to any type of delayed schedule

As of now, our school officially starts at 8:15, making any unexcused arrival after that marked late. Next year, Philadelphia schools are scheduled to shift to a 9AM start time (the change does not affect any schedule changes such as no advisory, changed Wednesdays ETC, making for a simple schedule pushback). According to Principal Lehmann, our schedule will most likely begin at 9 AM.

When I first talked to friends about it I heard excitement about the plan. Many students were understandably excited to wake up much later, and liked the overall idea, feeling that it would allow for more sleep.

Although I agree that it will be nicer to wake up late, I see the overall effect of the plan to be awful for students and even teachers with any type of extracurriculars.

In terms of my own day, I enjoy going to the gym after school, maybe a couple days of the school week. But on days that I have advisory, it would cause me to get home anywhere from 7-730PM, making for a huge inconvenience for when I would normally have dinner, and force me to start homework later than 8PM!

But this significant day change of course does not only affect me, any students who wish to play a sport, or even spend time with friends after school will experience the same issue, with possibly having to commute much further than I do.

I see some of the logical reasoning on why the school district wants to push back the day, but I am concerned that with still not enough time for long activities before school, and students getting home much later the effects could be hurtful and inconvenient.

Hopefully, after a year of this crunched afternoon schedule students will find ways to manage, there is still a possibility that the plan can change but nothing points towards that being definitive.

As a final note, the day I planned to publish this article the school district abruptly canceled the plan. I do not know more on this but am looking forward to hopefully having the same schedule.

Students React to Mask Mandate Changes

May 5, 2022 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Biran Mahmoud, Leo Braveman

Staff Writers

**Since the mask mandate was lifted students now have an option to not wear their masks**

After an entire school year, the masks came off — for a few weeks

When mask mandates were first lifted by the district on March 9th, the effects of students wearing masks were not immediate. We noticed that when this happened, most students kept their masks on, while fewer took their masks off.

We started by asking program manager Jeremy Spry about the effects and new emotions of the mask drop. “Masks are not something anyone wants to be wearing,” he said, referring to the discomfort. He told us about how his own opinions have shifted.

“There are places where I still feel uncomfortable like in grocery stores I will still keep my mask on,” Mr. Spry explained he feels different in the office where he stays around mostly the same people. Mr. Spry also recognized how people might feel about their own individual situations. “If I was a classroom teacher I would probably feel differently.”

This interview was completed before the school district returned to mandatory masks for the week following spring break, only to have Philadelphia drop its mask mandate the week after that.

Although the school district announced its plan to reinstate the mask mandate in march, many students including us were surprised to hear this news shortly before returning to school.

We asked the school nurse, Chris Banchs about the new mask mandate and his knowledge relating to it. The first time he heard about the mask mandate returning was “around 2 weeks before the spring break”.

“I took it seriously, I was very sure that we would all be wearing masks when we came back Monday”.

After we learned more about the effects the re-imposed mandate had on him personally, it went pretty smooth for him. Because Nurse Chris wore his mask whenever he was “around colleagues and peers” it made for a relatively easy adjustment.

After interviewing nurse Chris we became more interested in finding students and negative aspects of the returned mandate.

Responses were mixed

“I feel like it makes sense, it’s just kind of annoying” Said Junior Jave Kelman.

But he wasn’t the only one who agreed in terms of covid but still felt the annoyance. Freshman Dove Smith told us that it made sense to him, but “I had to adjust because it was obviously hard to breathe in and I used to break out with acne and stuff”.

After telling us about the annoyances Dove was sure to explain: “I’ve gotten used to breathing in masks now and adjusted in that way”.

All of the changes have not been easy, especially for some, but with all things considered our SLA community has done a good job of always working together to move past inconveniences.

Made in America

June 9, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Caroline Pitone

Staff Writer

Made in America is a famous music festival that happens every year in Philadelphia. The area in which it happens is near the parkway. In Made In America there are 3 stages that people perform on. There is usually a performance happening every second of Made in America. There are tons of food trucks with many different foods you would never think of trying. There is access to rides and games to pass the time. This is a 2 day festival that provides over 20 performances with tons of different genres like rap, r&b, alternative, etc.

The tickets go on presale, before the lineup is announced for around $150. After the pre sale the tickets can skyrocket to hundreds of dollars. Now looking at the price tag you might think that these are ridiculous prices, but when you see how many performers you get for this price it is well worth it. Now, the lineup is the most important thing. The lineup could go either way, amazing or horrible, you never really know.

“The lineup is disappointing” says Autumn Jerman who goes to Wissahickon High School.

I asked a current student what they thought about Made in America last year.“I liked the lineup last year, I didn’t think I would like lil ui but it was good!” I then asked her what she thought about the lineup for Made in America of 2017:“I think the lineup this year is bad…the previous years were so good, now its kinda wack.”

Made in America gives opportunities to learn and hear new music that you wouldn’t usually listen to.

Song Review: Strip That Down

June 9, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

MeyMey Seng

Staff Writer

On May 18, 2017, Liam James Payne released a new song called Strip That Down. Many people know him as a member of the biggest boyband, One Direction. After five years of producing songs and going on tours, the band decided to take hiatus, lasting one year.

With this hiatus, all of the boys have chose the same path which is creating their own individual music. Coincidentally, each member chose a different genre to base their album off on. One Direction usually produces pop songs, and the other boys have explored R&B, electronics, acoustics, and rock. Hip-hop was what Liam decided to choose which shocked many people.

Before releasing his song, Liam has posted many teaser clips of how the song may sound. Honestly, most recently I have favored Liam and love his voice. Also, pop is my favorite genre of music but recently, I have been getting interest in hip-hop which gave me a silly thought: he knows what kind of music I want to hear!

When my phone notified me that the lyric video was posted, I immediately slammed my thumb down to click it. My first reaction was that the beat was good but then I did not enjoy the lyrics. The lyrics “But your love, it hit me hard, girl. Yeah, you’re bad for my health. I love the cards, that I’ve been dealt” felt very out of place and almost as if it was all smushed together. I felt like it sounded generic and it didn’t make me jump as much as I had anticipated. Also, the record company’s design of the lyric video was not my favorite, although I appreciated the purple, gold, and grey theme of the it.

Of course, even though the lyrics did not have the meaningful lyrics that I hoped for, Liam’s voice was still pleasant. A quarter way until the end of the lyric video, there was a verse that was sung by Quavo that I enjoyed more, mostly because the lyrics flowed a bit more smoothly. The thing that surprised me was that Ed Sheeran, an artist that I enjoy a lot, helped write the song. Knowing that two amazing people worked with one another in writing this song, it should be a lot better.

The music video came out on June 2, which I liked a lot more. The choreography was done well, especially knowing that the band was not focused on dancing. Something that I loved that they including clips of him laughing at the camera. It struck that fangirl part of me and after listening to the song a bunch of times, it got onto me. So apart of me finds myself going back and listening to this song because I have to give it one thing, that it was very catchy.

For the rest of the songs in his album, I definitely hope that things spiral upwards and has a more unique sense into it. According to Liam Payne, hip-hop was always a genre that he has wanted to go into. Although, with all of the different music tastes that the other boys have, not all their ideas would be able to be produced. Also, after producing his song, he admittedly said that it does feel nice having all of the control of the song.

Chance The Rapper

June 6, 2017 by lpahomov Leave a Comment

Ella Petersen

Staff Writer

When I was invited to drive to D.C. with my best friend to go see one our favorite artists on Sunday, I couldn’t say no even though I knew I had a pre-calc test waiting for me the next morning, committed to babysitting Monday night, and had a benchmark due Tuesday. But it was so worth it.

The past couple years have been really big for Chance The Rapper. Last summer he released his newest album “Coloring Book” and this year he made real history at the Grammy’s, being the first person to win that doesn’t sell physical copies of their music. He’s unsigned to a label and he always releases his music online for free, he combines gospel and rap to form a new genre of music.

After three hours in the car we were finally there. Jiffy Lube Live, a venue right outside of DC, was packed to the brim with 23,000 people.

“I’m not used to performing in front of this many people,” Chance confessed to the crowd. “The fans that have been there forever know that I started out broke.”

He opened with “Blessings” definitely the most spiritual song on the album. “I’m gon’ praise Him, praise Him ‘til I’m gone.” He had the crowd repeat that hook for a good while and confetti poured over us. I knew that we were in for a great performance.

Chance is known for being a huge fan of Chicago, the city where he grew up. So it was no surprise that he had a huge Chicago skyline on the screen in the back of the stage while he performed “Angels” and “Summer Friends,” songs about his beloved city. He jumped around and danced while “CHICAGO” ran across the back screen. He explained that his favorite verse on the album was the second one on “Summer Friends” and had us help him sing it.

The mood changed when he performed “Juke Jam,” a song about going to the roller rink with a girl as a teenager and the whole stadium was lit up with phone lights. After that it was “Smoke Break,” a tale of two people who need some time to just stop and reevaluate what is going on between them.

He also threw some Kanye West songs in the mix. Chance helped produce Kanye’s most recent album, “The Life of Pablo”, so we were able to hear a few of his renditions that night. He performed “Waves” and “Father I Stretch My Hands Pt. 1” as well as his verse on “Ultra Light Beam” while pictures and videos of him and Kanye played in back of him.

“I’m gonna turn the lights off and when I turn them back on I want it to be a party,” he said. And then “All Night” came on, the most upbeat, party song on the album. The stage lit up with fireworks and smoke machines while colorful shapes played on all screens.

Finally, he played “Sunday Candy” and “Cocoa Butter Kisses,” two of his oldest songs on mixtapes he made before he was popular.

Overall, he really made me proud to be a Chance fan. The crowd was very happy and lighthearted; his really positive energy was extremely contagious. I am really excited to see where he goes next and so proud to see how far he has come.