PHS News
Bulldog Edition, Winter 2012, Page 2
RUSSIANS
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host families. Miss Suslovic said, “It always seems obvious that people are people, but it’s easy to forget how alike teenagers across the world are”, when asked about what her experience was like hosting and getting to know the Russians. The experience for the Russian students was especially exciting, and one that they will never forget. “It was a really interesting experience for me because I saw many new things, I understood many differences, and I met various people”, commented Nastya Tyukina, a seventeen year old girl participating in the exchange program. One might imagine what the differences in terms of the schools are. Mikhail Bjork, one of the Russian students involved in the program said, “The atmosphere is a lot more formal, and we have to wear a uniform (just a no jeans and no vivid clothes rule). We write more, but speak less”. Mr. Bjork also mentioned how the classes at Portland High School were extremely enjoyable and how cheerful and friendly the teachers were. “It’s a pleasure to me that this program was started again, and lots of Russian and American stu-
dents can know something about each other and see the differences between life in the United States and life in Russia”, said Bjork. It was an honor to have such amazing students visiting Portland High School, and we couldn’t have been more thrilled to have them with us. Though they were only here for a short time, our Russian counterparts made a lasting, positive impression.
All 12 Russian students with their host families. (Kate Suslovic)
New School Board Representative
Newly elected school board representative for Portland High School, Chip Weber, stresses the importance of communication.
By ANTHONY LEWIS (‘14) Last month, students at Portland High School cast their votes for who should represent them in the coming year at the local School Committee Meetings. Once the votes were all counted, Chip Weber came out on top, and he will be this year’s student representative for Portland High. For those of you who don’t know him, Chip, a junior here at PHS, plays baseball and soccer and participates in the math team and photo club. He grew up in Portland and attended Lyseth Elementary and Lyman Moore Middle. I recently had the chance to sit down with Chip to talk to him about his plans for representing the student body
on a higher level of politics. Q. What made you want to be a student representative? A. As I’ve been through Portland High, and as I’ve met all the awesome people that come here, I’ve grown to love it. I really just adore the school, and I’m glad I go to Portland High rather than any other high school around here. So I want to represent everyone at Portland High to the best of my ability. I also feel that recently there was a bit of a lapse of communication between the school board and the school, and I want to make sure there’s a link, and sort of an open conversation between our school and the school board. I want to make sure that nothing “huge” goes over our heads without a comment. Q. What kind of power does a student rep have? A. Well, the official title is the ‘school
board student representative’, and each high school has one. When you’re a student representative, you’re a normal member of the school board, but you don’t have the ability to vote. I mean, you are encouraged to vote on decisions, but your vote won’t be counted in the final tally. You act kind of as a full-time consultant to the school board, proposing ideas, weighing in on issues...basically informing them of what the school thinks, and what you think, and how you predict their decisions will affect the school. You attend the Tuesday night meetings that are held, and you participate in discussions there. Q. Communication with the school board is obviously important to you. Besides that, did you have any primary goals you set out to achieve coming into the election? Please see BOARD REP., page 3
Weber will be helping the Board to develop policies to help more of the district’s students lern to succeed. (PPS)