Austin High School - Comet Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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Chris Damon created graphic art for Project LIvesaver sponsored by Mr. Schenk ' s classes. Dwayne Gaslln 06ATiOMAL M ' S) - I Michael Bergin and Will Fitzgerald 9l In The FanUstlcks. il pfrfo ' ' eWoiW stirs, ft t(iWii«| iWstf m nW ■,df Iksloy ws of Hers , plans lallo ' date. Replacing the present AISD Graduation requirements and the AISD Academic Excel- lence Graduation Plan were the General Graduation Plan, the Advanced High School Program, the Advanced with Honors, and the revised AISD Academic Excellence Gradua- tion Plan. Under the General Gradua- tion Plan, a student must ac- quire four units of English or language instead of three; in mathematics he must have three credits instead of two; and one half credit of economics which was never mandatory before. Under this plan the student must graduate with at least twenty- one credits. In the Advanced High School Program, a student must have the same number of mandator) ' classes as the General Graduation Plan. In Controversial House Bill 72 resented by students and faculty. By HEATHER BROVSKY i t education reform bill railed House Bill 72 triggered criticism, controversy, and conflict, and caused major changes in Texas schools. It also caused teachers to retire or resign from teaching. Stric- ter policies and higher academic standards were the goals of the education reform package, invoking more strict rules on participation in ex- tracurricular activities, on ab- sences, implementing teacher testing and mandatory tuto- rials, and raising grade re- quirements. But many teachers and students were not pleased with the reforms. I resent the fact that (legis- lators) are using schools as guinea pigs, said Leyla Cohl- mia, chemistry teacher. They ' re playing around with kid ' s lives - and that hurts. One casualty of House Bill 72 was veteran teacher Jean McMillan. After a 35 year teaching career in Texas pub- lic schools, McMillan an- nounced her plans for an early retirement, leaving the pro- fession at mid-year in Janu- ary. She said that House Bill 72, compounded with per- sonal reasons, was, for her, the last straw. There was no- thing in House Bill 72 that of- fered me an incentive to stay , said McMillan. In Dallas, teachers call it ' House Bill to Retirement. ' McMillan was one of three SFA teachers who retired at the end of the first semester. We are in danger of losing our veteran teachers, said Principal Jac- quelyn McGee. I ' ve thought seriously about retiring my- self, she said. I think about it every day. In fact, also at mid-term media instuctor Don Lawson retired to seek a private Media occupation elsewhere. Many other teachers were dissatisfied with House Bill 72, saying it added to a grow- ing frustration and decreasing morale among teachers, in ad- dition to dehumanizing edu- cation. Students are not as- sembly line products, said drama teacher Larry Preas. Honors government teacher Brian Schenk said, House Bill 72 and it ' s application have systematically de- moralized and discouraged many student-advocate teachers and administrator. I feel that the heart of a great school has been replaced with a disinterested mechanical transplant. liH

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Editor s Journal where voters April 4a8 Students and leac a Snow Day makeup days. April 5 Easter Holiday April 6 City and Bond Elections hel approved the moving of Aqua Festival I Shores and sewer bonds. Registered voters also elected incumt ent Mark Rose for place one; Sally Shipman for ptace three; and John Trevmo and Charles Urdy for places five and six. Ron Mullen and Frank Cooksey were scheduled for a run-off election in May. and lor place two Smoot Carl-Mitchell and Shyra Darr and place four George Humphrey and Gilt ert Martinez were to join the April April 9 AISD trustees approved expanding the career ladder lo include librarians and speech therapists. April 11 Red Jacket officer try-ouls April 11 The education reforms, such as the no- pass-no-play rule for extracurricular activities, more money alloted lo teacher career ladders, suspension as a discipline tool, and a rule that disallows an overburden of teacher paperwork survived the Texas Senate. April 11 Eric Clapton at the South Park I April 16 Reagan personally took the blame for the storm of controversy raised by his plans to visit a Nazi cemetery during his European (rip to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe. He said he would visit a concentration camp in hopes of reminding the world lo never forget the Holocaust. April 19 Reagan agreed to visit Bergen-Belsen death camp in West Germany m May to compensate for his German relations visit lo the Bilburg cemetery. April 23 During the PTSA Breakfast. Del Moberg, Bill Glover and Tom Wiley were announced as the 1985 Outstanding Teachers of the Year. All three of the teachers received a cash reward along with a PTSA April 25 Senior Talent Show Aprij 27 The Austin Cleen Sweep ' 85 was sponsored by April 27 President Reagan said i that he was willing to meet with ! Gorbachev at the United Nations i public interview irsary Celebrations April 30 TAPS testings MAY With House Bin 72 and all Us reforms, I ' m glad lo be getting out o1 school at this lime - that is before it can do any more damage. Yet. with all ot this graduation, finals and no exemption from finals stuff. I feel like House Bill 72 is getting the last laugh al the seniors ■ expense. SHANNON CHANDLER, senior spoke of HB 72. May 1 TAPS testings for better forergn relations across t May 3 Dedication Day ended the tentli anniversary celebrations lor tlie lakelront campus. May 4 SAT testings May 4 City voters returned to the polls lo elect Frank Cooksey, mayor. Smoot Carl-Mitchell, place two, and George Humphrey lor place lour. May 6 SFA ' s All Sports Picnic convened on the campus ' polo grounds. May 6 Pat Traverse with Warrior appeared at the City s perlormed live at the Frank En May 10 Reagan came home to America alter his ten day trip to Europe. His advisors were discouraged that ict only slightly thwarted the May 14 Senior Class Ollicer and Student Council Presidential elections were held. May 15 Joan Armatrading at the City Coliseum May 15 Frank Cooksey was sworn in as Mayor ol Austin at Auditorium Shores in front ol over 1000 supporters. May 15 The state House ol Representatives gave t approval to a bill requiring Texans to wear •alety belts ' riding in the I the market 19.66 points from May 21 The Texas House voted drinking age Ire does not lorlei highway lunds. March llrst high ■m tion towards the federal de- ficit was beyond necessary. Probably the most account- able aspect of the announce- ment was Ronald Reagan ' s absence after the cabinet brief- ing of the plan. He was re- ported as having troubles with some of the suggestions. Although Reagan realized that the tax reform would gen- erate much debate proceding his campaign promices, he al- lowed the Secretary to issue the news. He later stated he would carefully review the proposals and consider con- gressional and public opinion and reaction. He was ex- pected to outline his choices in his State of the Union ad- dress in January. For the President ' s second term, tax reform and budget deficit issues were to go arm and arm. Congress regarded the deficit their number one priority. Even Reagan ' s economic advisers were virtu- ally unanimous in thinking that the deficit represented fu- ture danger. Reagan obviously was ex- pected to make critical choices on the issues, and on the budget he already refused to propose cuts in social security and major cuts in defense spending. Beyond these two constants the staff could not predict which programs the president would support. School joins worldwide concern Just before the Christmas holidays, SFA students joined others throughout the nation in raising money for the starv- ing people of Africa. The orig- inal goal was to raise $1 per attending student, or around $1600, but the results turned out far better than expected: $2,504.66, The Austin High Fund for Africa was a project con- ducted by the geography and Asian Studies classes. Alice Davis, teacher of these courses, said that while the geography classes were studying a unit on world hunger, the idea for the pro- ject emerged. After studying the subject a couple of weeks and being exposed to so much news coverage of the situation in Ethiopia, they decided to do something tangible to help. Many projects were plan- ned to spark student and com- munity interest in the fund. Collection cans, posters, and name tags with slogans to en- courage contributions, such as Feed an African child for a month for the price of a slice of pizza and a coke were con- structed by the classes. Money was collected before school, during lunch, and during second period, and a videotape of Band-Aid , a music video performed by several British rock musicians where all profits from sales were dedicated to Ethiopian relief, was shown during the 15-minute break period. Also, TV Channel 36 and the Amer- ican-Statesman covered the SFA project to alert the com- munity of the school ' s activi- tites. The spirit of giving in the Christmas season enhanced the awareness of the incredi- ble intensity of the problems in Africa. The media has in- sured that Americans were re- ally hit in the face with the reality of world hunger. No longer could it be considered just another problem in coun- tries far away. During the fund drive, the students were made aware of the startling seriousness of the hunger problem. Experts estimated that 20 million people die of hunger- related causes each year. Meaning 40,000 starving people die every 24 hours or 28 people die a minute. More people died of hunger related causes in the past five years than in all the wars, revolu- tions, and murders of the past 150 years. These facts were shared by the geography classes with their fellow stu- dents to inspire contributions. The students were also as- sured that the money was going directly to the African Red Cross where every cent would be spent on relief, none on administrative costs. Responses from the stu- dents were overwhelming. Because feelings of generosity were at their peak and be- cause of the intense publicity everyone knew it to be a legiti- mate, urgent and good cause. Editor ' s note: The concern for u m j k ' - Africa ' s situation did not die within the school after the Christ- mas spirit diminished. It was in April when the senior class talent show lipsynced a final perfor- mance to We Are the World originally sung by a number of America ' s finest rock stars. The- seniors were either assigned a per- former to imitate on the gym floor or placed on the stage to hold up a banner that read, AHS for AF- RICA. The senior talents dedi- cated the touching performance tc all the people who contributec money in December, and pre sented T-shirts with the slogan printed on them to predominant students and teachers of th(. movement. Mandate offers graduation plans Students entering high school during the fall of 198 were faced with choosing be tween four new graduatioi plans due to a new state mar

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Editor ' s Journal and While Game was played j May 23 The I House Park stadium. May 23 U.S. House approved a fiscal 1986 budget plan that retained cosl-oMivmg increases for Social Security and targeted spending May 24 At the Wyndam Hotel, seniore congregated f their prom night. May 24 Underclassmen took their first period final. May 26 Baccalaureate Service was assembled in tl May 26 Commencement Exercise Tonney Burger Center. May 28-29 Third through six period final May 29 The 1984-85 school year hw addition to the mandatory credits, he must have three credits of science, one credit of fine arts, and two credits of foreign language. Twenty- two credits were needed to graduate under this plan. The only difference be- tween the Advanced High School Program and the Ad- vanced with Honors was that at least five of the total re- quired units should be desig- nated as Honors courses. The Academic Excellence Graduation Plan enabled stu- dents who graduate with the completed requirements and a grade point average of ninety to be recognized and distinguished on their trans- cripts. Dropout rate feared More than two million American high school stu- dents have dropped out of school before graduation. According to a study by the Office of Research and Evalu- ation in the AISD, 18 percent of the district ' s teenagers did not graduate from high school. The national percent of dropouts was almost 30 percent. With the new education policies included in House Bill 72 and 246, many educators in Texas feared that the drop- out rate would increase. Since the reforms moved toward higher standards and a more specialized curriculum, the bill could be ultimately re- sponsible for student discour- agement of secondary educa- tion. Although the implemen- tors of the bills felt the reforms would not alter the dropout rate. Superintendent John Ellis and Principal Jacquelyn McGee agreed that the new policies would deter school at- tendance. They felt that some students would choose not to make the adjustments ex- pected in the bill, and avoid the pressures within an ad- vanced academic curriculum by skipping class or dropping On the other hand, experts claim that teenagers drop out for reasons beyond school re- lated pressures. Studies indi- cate that some students would rather seek financial satisfaction with a full-time occupation. Others simply dislike school and are at- tracted to off-campus in- terests. Soft drinks regulated In accordance with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulations, only sugar-free drinks were made available from vending machines serving students. In addition, these drinks were only available to students when the cafeteria was not serving food. The AISD has tried several times to satisfy these require- ments. All carbonated drinks, sugar or non-sugar, were re- moved from the schools and replaced with Hi-C fruit drinks, which are non-carbo- nated but do have sugar. Then sugar-free carbonated drinks were put into the machines and the Hi-C drinks were removed because of their sugar content. Foods and drinks with minimal nutritional value could not be sold in the cafeteria machines during mealtimes, but during lunch the cafteria sold sweet foods such as doughnuts, cookies, and fried pies. Also, nearby at the school tennis courts, there was a machine which serves sugar drinks. These machines were locked during breakfast and lunch, and students could not miss class to get a drink from the vending machine. Editor ' s Note: When viewed as a whole, the soft drink policy implemented in the AISD was somewhat useless because it could be weakened by the accessibility of drinks nearby. The policy should have been carefully revised to achieve a compromise between students ' wants and USDA re- quirements. Heavens as a battleground Due to advances in defen- sive technology, new weaponry was planned to be deployed in space. After Christmas the world ' s atten- tion was given to Washington ' s Star Wars m Van Fitzgerald plans to develop space-basec: antimissile systems and anti satellite weapons. While Washington ' s ac tions were closely observed the Pentagon maneuvered prevent cuts in defens spending until 1986. Thi stategic spending victoryi kept the U.S. in a public mod| characterized by strength arii determination despite tb| ever-increasing deficit. 1 The USSR reacted ij Washmgton ' s actions witi great concern for the succes of renewed arms talks. Sovi! leaders said there was no r{ tional alternative than nego ations to maintain peacef; coexistence. They conclud that banning weapons space would begin the pii cess in halting the arms raij however, if the U.S. plann; tests, the Soviet Union wo | match the efforts, therefoj continuing the race of nuci; arms.