P2: Students enjoy the new ice cream vending machine.
B8: Food trucks are popular in the South Bay.
P8: A flock of Sea Hawks tackles a Culver City running back.
High Tide
Redondo Beach, CA Redondo Union High School
Oct.1, 2010 vol.
edition 2
]www.hightideonline.org]
Safe School Ambassadors improve campus by Vanessa Alarcon
Safe School Ambassadors is a program that encourages friendly behavior on campus by empowering leaders from different groups and providing them with skills to prevent violence and bullying among their peers. Although this is the second year of the Safe School Ambassador program, it will not be able to be critically evaluated until it is in place for three years. According to Jeff Rosadini, the organization that started Safe School Ambassadors, Community Matters, requires the program to be in place for three years before it completes an evaluation of the program’s effectiveness. The Safe School Ambassador program has been in place at Adam’s Middle School for three years. According to Assistant Principle Erin Simon, the students at Adams took surveys on how safe they felt their school was. School officials found that after the Safe School Ambassador program, students felt safer and more comfortable at school. “[Students] are happy that other students are speaking out for them,” she said. Both Rosadini and Simon believe that some students have misconceptions of what the program is about. Simon does not want students to think that the program is only about snitching on other students.
“[Students] are happy that other students are speaking out for them.” –– Erin Simon According to Rosadini, it is not only about bullying. “It’s about creating a community of acceptance,” Rosadini said. Program participant Connor McCulloh, senior, says she enjoys the program. “It’s a good way to decrease the violence,” McCulloh said. The program is expected to be more effective this year because there are more students. The program has about 90 students, which is a significant increase from the program’s 30 students last year. “[The size] has increased about 300 percent. We are happy with those numbers,” Simon said. Students that showed leadership were nominated for the program and were trained. “[The training] expanded on things we already knew,” McCulloh said. “We don’t go around trying to find people fighting, we just make situations easier for other people.” In the program, students who have been chosen to become Safe School Ambassadors will learn methods of helping other students. “They meet with an adult to discuss tools [to] combat bullying,” Simon said. According to Simon, the program gets money from a grant from the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) and other donations, which it uses to fund training programs. RBUSD is one of the few districts in the country that has dedicated all of its schools to the program. “The program helps to fight and advocate for other students,” Simon said.
LMXXIV
Parking Predicament New reserved parking spaces cause conflict between staff and students by Allie Goldberg
New reserved parking spaces has sparked controversy between staff members, teachers and students. There are six assigned spaces for counselors in the Senior Parking Lot. Because of this, many teachers believe that they are not as highly valued by administration as the counselors are. Counselor Tiffany Straight was initially surprised by the controversy. “[The counselors] have had the parking spaces since as long as I’ve worked here,” she said. “It’s not like we’ve never had them.” According to Straight, the counselors do not feel superior to the teaching staff. “I do not feel in any way above anyone else. I understand that people feel unequal, [but] sometimes I feel that way,” she said. Straight explained that the spaces are critical for logistical reasons. “We have off-campus meetings during the school days. Overall, I believe there are more things within our workday that cause us to leave campus more than a class room teacher,” she said. According to counselor Arond Schonberg, this dilemma is creating an unnecessary amount of resentment towards counselors. “I never fought for my parking space,” he said. “It was just given to me.” According to Straight, the attitudes of many emails received from the teachers have definitely “shown some resentment”. “The teachers just want to feel equal,” Straight said. “I totally understand that. Sometimes there is a lack of understanding of the day to day responsibilities that we have.”
According to chemistry teacher Linda Dillard, if no staff members had reserved spaces, everything would be “more fair.” “It’s favoritism,” she said. “I get here most days between 6:30 a.m. and 7 a.m. and I cannot get a good space,” she said. Dillard explained that many teachers are forced to park in the drama lot, or the science building, in which the spaces are “extremely small.” According to principal Mary Little, there “should be enough spaces.” “There is enough space [on campus] for all teachers to park in a reasonable space,” she said. “This is just a process of change, its nothing new.” Little believes that the reserved parking spaces have no representation of the value she has for her staff. “Everybody here has an important role. We all work together,” she said. Little believes that the new debate is only a result of the construction and the school’s new additions. “The [administration] building changed the hub of the campus. Now we are just adjusting,” Little said. According to Little, new staff spaces were reserved on Tuesday and Wednesday, which should ultimately release some tension. “It was just the initial change inconvenience, it should be fine,” Little said. “We are going to find spaces for everyone to park. However, it may make student parking more difficult.” Many students are affected by the additional 26 reserved parking spaces that were added to the senior parking lot earlier this week. According to senior Christiana Marvray,
Staff Only. Half of the parking spaces in the Senior Parking Lot are now reserved for staff, relieving tension between teachers and counselors but causing an inconvenience for students.
it is important that there is sufficient space for teachers to park but it is also a major inconvenience for students. “It’s really frustrating for those of us seniors who work really hard and take a zero period and now we have to park farther away than ever,” she said. Marvray believes that parking permits need to be more taken more seriously. “The fact of the matter is the majority of students that park in the parking lot do not have permits,” she said. “There needs to be harsher penalties.” According to Marvray, parking in the lot for first period is “almost impossible.” “Last year I used to get here at 7:40 and I had to park all the way at the end of the lot and now there are construction workers parking there,” she said. Although an inconvenience for students, the tension between the counselors and the teachers is alleviated, according to Vice Principal John Newman. “Teachers now should be able to find adequate parking,” he said, There were 30 reserved staff parking spaces last year, so there are 26 new reserved staff parking spaces that will be taken away from the students. According to math teacher Amanda Morton, it is unfair to jeopardize student parking. “It’s not fair to take spaces away from
students, and its also not fair to not provide sufficient and convenient parking for teachers,” she said. According to Newman, there are enough spaces for students and staff who have parking permits. “I counted the number of available spaces, and I know how many people have purchased parking permits. There are more spaces than permits,” Newman said. Overall, Newman has calculated that sufficient parking is being provided for both staff and the students. “It may not as close as people would like, but there are enough spaces,” he said.
Parking Lot Spaces–– Drama Lot:
Total Spots: 94 Spots are available to students and staff.
Science Lot:
Total Spots: 34 Spots are reserved for staff only.
Senior Lot:
Total Spots: 126 Staff Reserved: 56 Counselor Reserved: 6
Old Administration Lot:
Total Spots: 55 Spots are reserved for staff only.
Measure E Bond stands in the way of improvements Locker shortage to be dealt with by administration by Danny Garzon
Nearly 100 students have been left without lockers. Assistant Principal John Newman attributes this shortage to difficulties in finding available lockers. Newman, along with the Information Technology (IT) Department, plans on developing a comprehensive way to find all the mismatched, double-booked, and empty lockers on the system. According to Attendance Clerk Maria Vint, each student must be checked one by one in the system in order to find students that either have two lockers or have a locker assigned and no longer attend the school. “The process of going one-by-one through each student is time-consuming and tedious,” Vint said. Junior Megan Riggle recently transferred from Mira Costa High School and does not have a locker. She feels as if not having a locker is both detrimental to her health and her grades. “I really hate [not having a locker]. I feel like I should have one, even if I am a new student,” she said. Riggle says that her backpack can easily weigh up to 15 pounds and that sometimes
it can cause fatigue and pain. “I’m carrying at least 15 pounds on my back every day and at times, I come home with a sore back,” she said. As for broken lockers, Newman feels that there is no proper fix. “I’ve had our maintenance department and our locksmith look at the lockers. We would have to spend thousands of dollars in order to adequately fix them,” he said. New lockers were supposed to be installed ten years ago, with funding provided by the voter-approved bond Measure E. However, Measure E ran out of funding before the project was completed. The recently passed Measure C Bond could provide funding for new lockers, since there is a surplus of money due to projects coming in under budget. But the Measure E project has yet to be closed out by the Division of the State Architect (DSA). “Right now it’s in litigation, it’s up to the lawyers to determine when we can [install new lockers],” Newman said. “We were ready to add new lockers this summer and we couldn’t, now we’re working on a way to do the lockers before the close out [of Measure C], we hope to be able to get it done.” Newman strongly discourages against students sharing lockers. “I say to students, ‘Don’t share lockers only use the lockers assigned to you, don’t give out your combination, and don’t leave anything valuable in your locker’,” he said.
Lawyers are in litigation to get money for air conditioning in history building by Bethany Kawa
Locked Up. The shortage of lockers causes an inconvenience for students with a heavy load to carry around all day.
What is a Bond?
A bond is tax-exempt money issued by a city, state, county or other government for the financing of public interests. The Measure C Bond is a bond that provides funding for classroom and school facility improvements throughout RBUSD. The Measure E Bond is a bond that was approved in November of 2000 in order to modernize and update all the classrooms throughout the district.
Students and teachers have complained about not having air conditioning in the 800s building. According to assistant principal John Newman, air conditioning and lockers were part of Measure E, which was a bond passed about ten years ago. Measure E covered the costs for the renovations of the 200s, 300s, 500s, 700s, and 800s buildings, air conditioning, and lockers. However, after the renovations of the buildings, there was no money left for air conditioning or lockers. “We cannot get air conditioning for the 800s building until we get more money. Right now, lawyers are in litigation and are waiting for close out [of Measure C],” Newman said. Once the lawyers reach close out, the school will have enough money to complete the Measure E project. As for now, the time to get air conditioning is unknown. “I would love to say next summer, but it won’t happen until they reach close out,” Newman said.