December 21, 2011
The official student newspaper of Lower Merion High School since 1929
Volume 83, Issue 4
State government pushes new educational reforms J. Zollman/Z. Schlosberg
Class of 2012
On October 26, the Pennsylvania Senate approved Senate Bill 1, which uses taxpayer money to fund vouchers for students already enrolled in private schools. This bill, along with others, has been the cause of heated controversy. Tuition vouchers allow for students in failing school districts the opportunity to attend higher-achieving schools by paying the tuition costs of private or religious institutions. With the passage of Senate Bill 1, more taxpayer money will fund vouchers for students who already attend private and religious schools, instead of students who need the vouchers to leave a failing public school. Some feel that this new bill will be detrimental to the improvement of education. Baruch Kintisch, Director of Policy Advocacy for the Education Law Center, argued that the new legislation is a “giveaway of public,
taxpayer dollars to private and religious institutions, not a serious effort to help improve public schools or improve real opportunities to learn for our public school students.” Furthermore, according to the National Education Policy Center, there is “no clear, positive impact on student academic achievement” for pupils who used money from publicly funded voucher programs to transfer to private schools. “There’s no immediate impact on Lower Merion in terms of vouchers,” said LM Superintendent Dr. Christopher McGinley. “The bill…
would affect schools that are failing, and our schools are very successful. [Also], the cost of going to school in Lower Merion is more than twice what the voucher bill would fund.” Teacher evaluation has also been a hot topic over the last few months. Many states have begun implementing programs that evaluate teachers based on their students’ standardized test score performance. Supporters of this type of policy feel that it would be necessary for weeding out subpar teachers, while critics argue that it forces teachers to “teach to the test” and that standardized tests were not designed to evaluate teacher performance.
See EDUCATION, page 3
Small group Sophomores babysit to benefit class counseling begun at LM Haorui Sun
Gilad Doron
Class of 2012 LM is offering several small counseling groups, giving students a chance to improve mental health while spending time with others. Since the beginning of the second marking period, both LM and Harriton have offered small group counseling services to students in order to promote positive mental health. Both schools instituted this program to help students who experience problems in learning, attendance, behavior, health, and academics. School Counselor Stephanie Brett, in coordination with LM’s Student Services, Student Assistance and the Referral Team, leads all these new counseling groups. “Individual students would come together to explore personal and social concerns on issues like grief and loss, student stress, substance use—and maybe have students make greater connections within school,” said Mental Health and Wellness Counselor Stephanie Brett. The new counseling programs consist of a multitude of small groups that give students a chance to learn important skills that deal with the stresses from school. One group is called “Chill and Spill,” in which students learn additional strategies on how to stay cool, reduce stress, and worry less. Another group being offered is the “Student Assistance Support
See COUNSELING, page 3
their respective rooms and groups for their first activity, played a Class of 2013 few ice-breakers with their group, and started on their activity. The stations, each lasting half an hour, were designated to a specific On December 3, LMHS rang with the chatter and laughter of room on the first floor, and included different activities such as children as the class of 2014 held its biggest fundraiser of the year: puzzles and games, teacup crafts, and friendship bracelets. Open Parents Night Out. The event, described on flyers as “a fun night gym was comprised of students leading the older children in games filled with movies, board games, open gym, arts and crafts and including dodgeball, soccer, and basketball in the main gym, and more,” lasted from 5:30 to 9:30 pm, and was considered a great the smaller children in games including Duck, Duck, Goose and success, with around seventy children present. When asked about her experience, sophomore Shana Hart said “I’m having the best time of my life…these kids are beyond cute and this is bringing me back to my childhood memories.” While all proceedings were under the careful guidance and planning of Spanish teacher Allison Mellet and math teacher Brian Feeney, the students of LM did the majority of child supervision. Volunteers, dressed in red and orange, were assigned to either stations or groups while sophomore class officers Melana Dayanim, Andy Scolnic, and Arman Hassan floated around, providing help and advice where needed. Dayanim said that the event was an eleven on a scale of one to ten, and that “all the parents who walked out were raving about what a great idea this is, and how we should do this every week… we’re really happy that this is a success, Photo courtesy of Shana Hart because we put a lot of work into this.” Students, visiting kids gathered in the gym during night of fun. Scolnic heartily agreed, proudly showing off his new friends, Sam and Elliot, while Hassan was interrupted Simon Says in the auxiliary gym. At 7:30, all the children were led mid-interview by a flying shoe and ran off, inquiring, “Which fel- into the LGI for popcorn and a showing of The Incredibles until it low threw that shoe?” was time to head home. Prior to the event, volunteers were told to never let children Parents Night Out raised roughly $1,400 for the class of 2014, wander alone and to make sure that the children were having fun. and was a fantastic evening for parents, student volunteers, and They were then briefed on their assignments and the setup; chil- children alike. In fact, the sole disgruntled person to be found was dren had been organized into groups based on ages and each group seven-year-old Zach, who grumpily declared that he was sick of had a schedule consisting of four half-hour activities, a snack of being “out” in dodgeball; until a jailbreak was announced and he pretzels, and a movie. Upon arriving, the children were shown to perked up and cheerily tottered back into the game.