Purpose of Parking Permits Revealed Students Wonder Where Parking Permit Money Goes; Answer Uncovered
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The Stampede is now online. Visit us at centralstampede.com! central Volume 19STAMPEDE Issue 1 Portage Central High School Portage, Mich. Oct. 4, 2013 Purpose of parking permits revealed Students wonder where parking permit money goes; answer uncovered BY HATTIE FOLEY [email protected] Parking Fees: Photo Editor Every year, students who own a car are asked Portage public high to pay a price of $20 in order to be able to park in the campus parking lots. Students pay, but then schools lead the way are left with uncertainty about what exactly that money is contributing to. Senior Devin Bilek is one of many students who isn’t too pleased about the fee to park in the $20 school lots. Portage Central “In my opinion, I don’t think we should have and to pay to park at all,” Bilek said. “Since we do Portage Northern though, I think it should be used to benefit the $5 students directly in some way.” Battle One major concern of students is knowing Creek where the money goes and if it is going to a valid Lakeview area of the school. Despite opinions on where students feel the $0 money should go, the money will continue going Loy Norrix to an extremely important aspect of high school: and graduation. In the past, the Portage school district Kalamazoo Central has taken care of the bulk of graduation expenses, but not anymore. “The district used to help fund our gradu- ation,” Principal Eric Alburtus said. “Now it’s $0 really all on us.” Mattawan High As of last week, there are about 400 registered School student drivers, an amount which brings in about Source: Local high schools $6,000 on average annually. No student is exempt from paying this fee, despite affiliation with clubs and extracurriculars such as National Honor So- ciety or Student Council. According to Alburtus, in the past school leaders have talked about using free parking as an incentive for students, but this has never been put into place. All of the profit from the parking fees goes directly towards graduation because of the costs of renting Wings Stadium, lighting, chairs, sound systems and other necessities. According to Alburtus, the overall cost of the event is around $7,000 to $9,000. When asked if the parking fee will be sticking SCOTT SOLOMON/STAMPEDE around for the time being, Alburtus said, “With LINED UP: The parking lot fills up every day with cars of students who all paid a $20 parking fee, the this economic climate, I can’t even imagine that HATTIE FOLEY/STAMPEDE highest rate in the area. in the future.” What’s Inside... page Beverage page Football page of choice: Fall play team Coffee or preview still rolling 5 tea? 8 undefeated 10 2 news Oct. 4, 2013 Locker shortage poses problems inBrief Too many freshmen in building, not enough lockers Pledge of Allegiance opportunity BY RACHEL BATES [email protected] As a new state law, students will now be Focus Editor given the opportunity to recite the Pledge of Al- legiance every morning at 7:35 a.m. This will take No one could have guessed this building could place in front of the school at the flagpole by the have too many students; after all, the building was main entrance, not the student entrance. In case built only three years ago. of bad weather, people should report to the gym This school year’s huge freshmen class has cre- at the same time. ated an issue involving the number of students- to-lockers ratio. Freshmen who are new to the district, who enrolled after orientation, wouldn’t New computer lab have had lockers unless a temporary solution was A new computer lab has been added on created by administrators. Principal Eric Alburtus the third floor. The lab was previously used by and Student Activities Director Kent White were students taking online classes and will now be both a part of the decision made. available for teachers to check out. This lab is “It wasn’t really a good message to send to the for teacher check-out only and is not permitted freshmen,” Alburtus said. “Welcome to PC: We for students unaccompanied by a teacher. The have nowhere for you to put your stuff.” change has been made due to the dwindling Several Student Ambassadors, mostly from number of online class students because of yearbook and Student Council, were asked if they ineffective class options. were willing to give up their lockers for these new HATTIE FOLEY/STAMPEDE freshmen. “I was totally impressed with the people that CROWDED HALLWAYS: An abundance of new students equates to not enough lockers for everyone. Register for PSAT test immediately said ‘yes’ when we asked,” White said. with the new locked door policy, if Mrs. Grand Although the situation has been resolved for On Saturday Oct. 19, juniors are encouraged Some of the students that were asked were isn’t in the classroom, we can’t get our stuff.” now, it’s only a temporary fix. The school has been to take the PSAT. The test starts at 8 a.m. and seniors Sarah Gonser and Claudia Caranci, both These students have been rewarded with free looking into buying more lockers to put where the costs $20. Students are allowed to sign up start- involved with the yearbook. popcorn for the first semester of the school year other 40 would have been placed. ing Sept. 28 in the counseling office. Sign up as “Mr. White called us and told us they were for being willing to help the school. “The old school had lockers jammed in every soon as possible because space is limited. The short a few lockers and asked if we could put our “We will give those students our undying nook and cranny; we have never run into a prob- PSAT is an optional but greatly encouraged test stuff in the yearbook room,” Caranci said. “Most gratitude for what they’ve done,” Alburtus said. lem like this,” Alburtus said. “We will probably for juniors because of its scholarship opportuni- of us said yes; it wasn’t really a big deal.” “We would like to do fun things for them, like the have this same problem in three or four years. ties for students with a good score. A good score Yearbook students who gave up their lockers free popcorn.” Over the years, it changes.” on the PSAT can help earn scholarships from area have come up with a system for storing their be- Approximately 40 lockers were taken out of For now the situation is under control, and the employers such as Pfizer and Eaton and is a great longings during class. Each student has their own the blueprints of the school, to save money in the school will continue to discuss what to do to com- way to practice one’s standardized test taking. labeled bin to put their books and other school budget. It hadn’t been a problem until now. pletely solve the problem in the future. Freshmen and sophomores are allowed to take supplies in during the school day. “When the new building was being built, a “It’s really a good problem to have; I was sur- the test, but they will not receive a scholarship. “It can be a little frustrating to Mrs. Grand, be- majority of the decisions were made within the prised in a good way,” White said. “We were able cause if we forget anything, we have to interrupt school,” Alburtus said. “Lockers were one of the to make it work without inconveniencing any- her class to go in and get it,” Gonser said. “Plus decisions made on the outside.” one.” Merit scholarship semi-final- ists announced Five seniors out of 21 local high school New security measures implemented students were recently named semi-finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Allison Bartz, Jacob Naranjo, Alexandra Peirce, Gen- Introduction of locked-door policy causes controversy evieve Sertic and Katherine Wu are among 16,000 students nationwide who will compete for 8,300 BY SCOTT SOLOMON seminar, students frequent- tion, which currently resides scholarships worth more than $35 million. The [email protected] ly come in and out of the in the state senate. Although five students obtained semi-finalist standings Editor-in-Chief classroom, making it more Alburtus does not know exact- by scoring in the top one percent of high school of a problem. Kubinski also ly how many more drills there students on the Preliminary SAT, an assessment Starting this year, there is a new district policy feels slightly restrained by will be, he does believe the completed during their junior years. Scholarship which forces teachers to close and lock their doors the new policy. amount will increase. finalists will be named in February. during class, resulting in various opinions from “It makes me feel a little Alburtus realizes the im- staff members and students. In addition, due to claustrophobic,” Kubinski portance of the drills, but also state law, more disaster drills may be required. said. realizes how valuable the class Yearbooks, senior ads available The new policy about doors being closed is Senior Shivam Patel is time is that would be missed district-wide and is aimed to keep students and not a fan of the new policy. by more drills. for purchase staff members safe. This new policy comes in “I think it’s dumb, be- “Is it good to drill, to do fire the wake of the Sandy Hook Shooting where 20 cause when you come in drills, disaster drills, lockups The yearbook this year costs $60 and the students and six staff members were murdered.