Austin High School - Comet Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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from a tuition increase, ap- proximately 25 percent, would be alloted to financial aid. The Texas Public Educa- tion Grants Program would handle this financial aid pro- gram for higher education in Texas. SFA teachers retire T ' m the kind of teacher that puts ever ' thing into my teaching, commented Ver- nice Smith, English teacher. .Along with Smith, Charlie Davis, vocational education counselor, and Jim Dumas, math teacher, retired from their educational careers at the end of the school year. I ' ve enjoyed working in the schools in general. Austin High ' s a good place to be, recalled Davis, whose career m education has spanned 35 years, 16 of them at SFA. All three reflected on their j , years of teaching as being re- ' l| warding and agreed that being a part of SFA was an unforgetable experience. I ' m going to miss teach- ing. ..the kids, Austin High, and especially Jacquelyn McGee, said Dumas, who has taught math at SFA for 12 years. I ' ll miss my friends. Smith, having been an En- glish teacher for 19 years, de- cided last year that she would retire. I ' ve given 150% of my- self, she said proudly. But it ' s a great love for kids that has kept me from feeling how much I gave. She is one who believes that teaching is not only taught from the book, but from the heart. I think the greatest tribute, the kind of action that makes all of my work meaningful, was when a student of mine th at had made an ' F ' in my class came to me after school had ended, and thanked me for all that I ' d taught him, recalled Smith. Sometimes 1 wonder if my teaching has North Hill given to family memorial for a beautification project. By SARAH ENGLAND X hanks to Helen and Charles Morton, SFA ' s North Hill was the subject of a beautification project that fi- nally took advantage of its strategic position and natural assets. The plans included the planting of over 100 native Texas trees, shrubs, and flow- ers, and the construction of a wall for people waiting for the buses and an area for holding classes outdoors. All of the plants and funds for construction were donated by the Mortons as a memorial to their daughter Jane, SFA class of ' 60, who passed away in 1964 from a brain tumor. The first time I came to the new Austin High building I looked out the library window and saw that rocky hillside and thought, ' wouldn ' t it be nice to make that beautiful, ' said Mrs. Morton. We wanted the memorial to be somewhere where her friends would be reminded of her. The two ideas just came to- gether; helping Austin High and Janie ' s memorial. On Sat., March 23, about 50 students joined in to help clear away weeds and rocks and plant trees and flowers. With the help of most of the football team taking out their frustrations on the shrubs, the job was completed ahead of schedule. The volunteers were organized by Kim Curtis and Rod Edens and the whole affair was supervised by Brian Schenk. The Mortons treated the volunteeers to a lunch catered by the Pit Bar-B-Q. Prior to the meal, everyone held hands in a circle to sing the school song, Loyal Forever . R

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1 Editor s Journal to this system no later the Sept. 1, 1985. Aqua Festival location moved The annual problem of overcrowding at Auditorium Shores for the Austin Aqua Festival finally led 79% of Au- stin voters to approve a bond issue to move the festival to a permanent location at Lake Long. With the cooperation of the City Parks and Recreation Department, the unde- veloped parkland at Lake Long will eventually hold three large amphitheatres for entertainment, a children ' s play area and restroom facilities. The 3,000 acres of land will provide festival goers the ad- vantages of more parking facilities, more room for people, and more room for booths and activities ' areas. The Lake Long location was planned to accomodate all the events that previously were held on Auditorium Shores. The three major events that will not be moved to Lake Long are the River Raft Race on Town Lake, the Land Parade down Congress Av- enue, and the Night Water Parade on Town Lake. Although the new lake loca- tion would be somewhat of a disadvantage due to the lengthy drive, the city will be actually be saving cost be- cause permanent facilities created. Shuttle buses will also be operated during cer- tain events for those who do not wish to drive to Lake Long. The site will not be moved until 1986. Marcii in Geneva Reagan ' s national security advisors questioned what should be the opening U.S. bargaining proposals at the Geneva arms-control negotia- tions in March with the Soviet Union. But it was apparent that without new agreements in Geneva, both countries could find themselves trap- ped in a potentially destabiliz- ing race. The President and his cabinet responded to this challenge. Notably, never be- fore has Reagan given such an ambitious mandate to stimu- late superpower strategic thinking. Yet, he refused to use Star Wars or the MX mis- sile as a bargaining chip for the Geneva talks. Rather, limiting intermediate range nuclear arsenals in Europe would be discussed. Editor ' s note: Possibli the Republican negotiators realized that the quest for international ac- cord on arms-control could try American patience to the point of affecting the 1988 presidential election. When the public showed its deep concern for threatening technology that could ultimately cause assured destruction, the party probably saw that their ad- ministration could no longer abs- tain from creating arms treaties. It was time to try to give the vot- ers what they wanted most: peace and international security. Cheerleader elections Sixteen students competed for cheerleading positions on March 20 in front of the freshmen, sophomores and juniors. Eight were elected to lead the school spirit for the following school year. The 1985-86 cheerleaders elected were: Surrenden Angly, sophomore; Suzanne Be- nevides, sophomore; Mary Gilbert, junior; Melanie Milner, junior; Kino Moore, sophomore; Suzanne Skruggs, juior; Kelli Weedon, junoir; and Millay Wood, sophomore. Sophomores and juniors who tried out needed to have a physical exam, a report of citizenship by their teachers, and a grade average of a 70 in all of their courses for the six weeks period preceeding try- outs. Students who had at- tended Austin High for more than seven semesters includ- ing the ninth grade were in- eligible to try-out. Before try- outs are held, a review com- mittee determined the eligibil- ity of the applicants who prac- ticed jumps, cheers and chants during a two week clinic taught by veteran cheer- leaders. After the applicants were reviewed as eligible they partiscipated in the try-outs. On that morning the candi- dates presented two chants and a cheer in small groups, then the senior cheerleaders gave a goodbye cheer. A few seniors who disreguarded a stategically scheduled meet- ing found their faces wetted with happy tears as their classmates tumbled on the gym floor for the last time. Crime Prevention Week After completing a course in Street Law, Student Coun- cil President Philip Jabour felt that the council should stimu- late crime awareness to the student body. Crime Preven- tion Week was planned for the last week of March, and the project was sponsored by the Student Council under Emily Swiff as head chair. The project included infor- mation about home safety, personal safety, and traffic safety. A day of prevention demonstrations, distributing information, and visits by members of the Austin Police Department (APD) was dedi- cated to each aspect of safety. On Tues., March 26, home safety was the theme. To in- form students about home safety, members of the APD came during lunch to display various locks and alarms for the home. Property records were also avail able for stu- dents to register their valuable items in case of theft. Wed- nesday was dedicated to per- sonal safety . Activities in- cluded a rape prevention film shown during the student council meeting that morn- ing. A karate expert gave tips on self-defense during lunch. Crime Prevention Week con- cluded on Thursday with traffic safety . A crash simulator was the main attrac- tion. On this machine, volun- teers were carried down a short ramp at about five miles per hour and stopped sud- denly to experience the sensa- tion of a car collision. Swiff commented that the student community should under- stand that buckling seat belts can literally save lives. She explained that 98 percent of last year ' s automobile-related fatalities were the result of a person not wearing a seat belt. Since New York had im- posed a law requiring seat belts to be worn, the state re- ported 38 percent fewer fatalities. As a growing con- Pat Roach is belted Into a crash simulator by Michael Jones. Mary Gilbert chats for cheerleader ( tlons. cern spread due to the alarm- ing statistics and the success- ful law results in other states, Texas legislators were consid- ering making seat belt buck- ling a law as well. Texas boosts tuition Texas had a billion dollar deficit due to higher educa- tion. While trying to limit budget reductions, the Legis- lature proposed to increase tuition to make up for $569 million of the state ' s deficit. The proposal would raise the tuition from the current $4 per semester hour to $24 per hour by 1994. Tuition would be increased at the rate of $2 per school year for resident students if the proposal pass- ed, increasing the fees as fol- lows: 1985-1986 school year, $6 per semester credit hour; 1986-1987, $8 per hour; 1987- 1988, $10 per hour; 1988-1989, $12 per hour. A portion of the revenue 1 ■ to Hm

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Editor s Journal gone up in smoke but they (students) love me so much that it makes teaching worth- while. Although each of the three had decided to retire before House bill 72, they all agree that this is not a bad time to leave. It (HB 72) gave me a boost to get out of the field, admit- ted Dumas, who had been thinking about retiring for a couple of years. HB 72 has probably done education more harm than anything that has come out of the legisla- ture. After contributing their tal- ents to public education for many years, each of the retir- ing teachers planned to either develop a private business or perhaps relax in the coming years. Funding for MX passed Two votes by members of the U. S. House of Represen- tatives were the ones needed for the House to approve President Reagan ' s MX mis- sile funding plans. Appa- rently, the two legislators reacted to the president ' s in- sistence to use the MX as a negotiating wedge at future arms talks in Geneva. This sort of congressional reinforcement for the peace through strength image was attacked by the Soviets. Al- ready the Soviets had reiter- ated during Geneva talks in March that there could be no agreement to limit offensive nuclear weapons until the Star Wars missile defense scheme was halted. In addi- tion, since the gaining legisla- tive support on the MX be- came more apparent, foreign relations advisors saw future negotiations between the superpowers in further jeopardy. After the April vote, 219- 213 in favor of releasing $11.5 billion for 21 more MX misiles, the support behind the MX was clear. Consequently, those opposing the MX plans explained their intentions of putting a lid on the deploy- ment of more MX missiles. Their goal was to limit the number of MX missiles to 40 rather than the President ' s proposed 100. Although the administra- tion battled over the MX de- ployment and production, the superpowers still made a point of propaganda and pressure toward negotiations. The Soviets were angered by the support for the MX but they were led to believe that domestic and Western pres- sures would lead Reagan away from the increase in the MX and the Star Wars plans. And Americans saw that the Soviet economy falling to the extremes of nuclear negotiations. The danger was if both nations were wrong the only yield from Geneva would be terms, as in weapons to human lives, for bargaining devices. Day extended at school Beginning next fall, AISD high school students will be experiencing a sch ool day ex- tended ten minutes longer than the current day. The cur- rent official dismissal time of 3:55 p.m. will be extended next year to 4:05 p.m., but classes will still begin at 8:55 a.m. The longer high school day is a result of an extension of the AISD elementary school day, which was too short to meet the state requirement of seven hours. Extension of the elementary day made an ad- justment of the busing schedule necessary, thus af- fecting the length of the sec- ondary school day. High schoolswill have to in- dividually decide how to han- dle the extra time, and SFA Principal Jacquelyn McGee said she planned to brainstorm with a teacher council in order to make the decision. Possible ideas con- cerning distribution of the ten minute extension include ad- ding time to the passing period (time between classes), extra lunch time, and ex- tended periods. But McGee not be good use of the time. McGee said the only major affect of an extended day will be adjusting the schedule. She does not expect it to affect school rules, alter the quality of the educaton students re- ceive, or result in the hiring of more faculty. Nor will there be any personnel expense or budget cuts for SFA as a result of the extended day. Supreme Court defeats school prayer Ever since the U.S Supreme Court prohibited public, re- cited prayer in public schools in 1963, efforts to put God back in the classroom only resulted in controversial de- bates. After the narrow defeat of a voluntary prayer constitu- tional amendment in April, 1984, the pro-school prayer campaign undoubtedly resur- faced upon the re-election of President Ronald Reagan, a strong supporter of school prayer. Reagan said in an ad- dress to the House of Repre- sentatives, I believe that the God who blessed this land of ours never deserved to be ex- pelled from our schools in the first place. In January, some members of Congress proposed an amendment that would per- mit a time of prayer during the school day for those who wish to participate. Public polls indicated that a lop- sided majority of Americans favored such a constitutional amendment to add a tone of morality within public school. Critics said that voluntary school prayer could embar- rass those who did not partici- pate. Principal Jacquelyn McGee said she believed in the constitutional wall separating church and state, and she feared that the amendment could be greatly abused. She added that stu- dents who desired to pray in school have always had their own individual freedom to do so. Critics argue that the First Amendment protects the free exercise of religion by saying ' Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, ' meaning the gov- ernment cannot favor or persecute religion. Therefore, the government should not take action in religious areas. No spring thing The short-lived Spring Thing tradition was cancelled this year. Since House Bill 72 strickly Robert Nicholson and Whitney Ayres con- tribute to the Fine Arts Fest Weeic . Counselor Gaylord Humberger and Mar- cos Meacham Speak against HB 72 at a student forum in May. hmited the number of school day interruptions. Principal Jacquelyn McGee decided to discontinue the SFA spring celebration that previously took place on a single day dur- ing school hours. According to Brian Schenk, social studies teacher and Student Council sponsor. Spring Thing evolved from a Senior Carni- val held during sixth period in 1977. In 1979, the idea be- came the school-wide Spring Thing, held during fifth and sixth periods, under the spon- sorship of Student Council. Within the next five years, students became so involved with the celebration that Spring Thing was considered a tradition similar to Home- coming and Dedication Day. McGee always supported the idea of getting students in- volved, and Spring Thing pro- vided a wide variety of ac- tivities for the student body u s h