Champaign High School - Maroon Yearbook (Champaign, IL)

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With its face lifted and highly polished during the summer months, and new concrete steps replacing the old. the school build- ing awaits the coming of youth. years to serve as a lieutenant in the Army Air Forces, was back to take up the teaching of math- ematics and to relieve Miss LeSure who had filled in during the previous year. Although known to the members of the graduating class, both the sophomores and juniors were meeting Mr. Clark for the first time. And very quickly the students were hearing that he was one of the most intensely patriotic members of the faculty, that he had previously coached the CHS track teams, that he was a math star, and that he was one of the two CHS teachers who were born outside of the continental United States. His birthplace is England, while that of Mr. James Johnston is Scotland. Mrs. Jessica Clark, last year dean of girls at a Los Angeles, Calif., high school and who had accepted a position as commercial teacher here while at Urbana last summer to visit her mother, was meeting the local students for the first time. From the start, Mrs. Clark proved to be a most gracious and sympathetic teacher, and was immediately popular with the rank and nle of the student body. As had been the custom from time immemorial. every student was handed a transcript of classes at the first organized meeting, told to copy the same, and to attend at the hours indicated. Noted immediately was the change made in the daily calendar with the home room period coming at hour four. And it was at this period that the bulletins were passed out and the teachers pointed out changes that had been made. It quickly dawned on the students that the afternoon dismissal did not come until 3:55 p. m. To further impress this change, each stu- dent was handed a petition by which he could ask to be excused at the end of the ninth period if he so desired. Filling out of the petition implied that tardiness in all forms had been abolished and that it was considered highly illegal to be late to classes. As an outgrowth of this rule and to enforce attendance to all violators at the tenth hour, a special teacher-student board was formed. Meeting on alternate Thursday afternoons, stu- dents who had run afoul of the rule were given an opportunity to appear to plead their case. The plan worked exceedingly well, greatly reducing the number of tardinesses, and with only a minimum assignments made to the tenth hour class. Miss Opal Cunningham presided over the period. There was, of course, the usual howling by the boys and girls whose actions always brought them to the carpet, but the percentage of students involved in the tenth hour controversy was very small. As in the past years, the Bulletin stressed the non-eating of candy in the corridors and the wandering about through the building at the lunch hours. Many forgot these warnings in the weeks to come. But school was, by no means, a series of stringent rules with threats of disciplinary action from the oiice. And it carried on, geared to the chief business at hand-education. 10 The Maroon

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.fs I, -. sd ? 5. Hs? co-TS 'NPN While the school season of 1944-45-our fourth war year-may reasonably be listed with other war casualties, it had its points. Students must work and teachers must weep through such emergencies: inspirations falter and routines fail but some good is bound to come out of the overall adventure. Time alone can give the true perspective-and as pseudo historians it is our sole purpose to record only a few of those events which. for the moment, appeared important in the daily life at Champaign Senior High. As with all things, true or false, the term had a beginning-in this instance on Septem- ber 6 for the students, although the teachers started one day earlier. That first day wasn't too bad-as it turned out-with all classes reduced to half measure and the day ending at noon. It was a boisterous, good natured sort of a day-meeting with old friends and classmates, and, to be sure, expressing the proper concern for the incoming sophomores. On that Hrst day, registrations showed 750 were entered - the smallest number on opening day for a number of years, The armed forces had reduced the ranks of the upper classes, several of the seventeen years old lads signing up for the navy: there were also the usual number of the older boys and girls who had previously registered but who at the last minute had changed their minds in favor of carrying on jobs. There were a number of newcomers, a later check showing that students from California, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri had entered senior high, and of course, dozens of other high schools from various sections of the state were represented. Among the teachers. several friends of past years were missing. Mrs. Amy Turrell who had taught the parents of the present generation at senior high and who had retired at the end of the past year, and Miss Elaine Ingstrom, teacher of commercial subjects who at the last mo- ment elected to remain at her home in Marseilles. In the shops. Mr. Homer Dremann, popular instructor of auto mechanics, was not among those reporting on the opening day. Neither was Miss Grace Wilson. only woman teacher on the industrial education faculty who had taught the architectural and mechanical drawing classes. Early in the summer, she had been granted a leave of absence and had enlisted in the WACs. Adjustments and shifts in the shop classes put substitutes in the places made vacant by Mr. Dremann and Miss Wilson, and similar shifts among the academic teachers made unnecessary the replacement of Mrs. Turrell. Instead, Mr. William Clark, who had been on leave for two The Maroon 9

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While there wasn't too much emphasis upon study the first day-and a certain amount of laxity and freedom was granted by the faculty in deference to the difficulty in making adjust- ment from the vacation to school days-it was quite evident that the faculty expected at least the normal amount of work from the student body. They said as much. About fifty per cent of the books that were to be used during the term, were provided by the board of education with the student entering into a contractural agreement to pay one-third of the cost per year. This was the first time in the history of the school that the plan Was tried out, and it met instant approval. The afternoon of the first day was 'Afree - as was the following Thursday and Friday with all of the teachers attending the annual county institute at the University. But on the following Monday, classes started in earnest, and to continue Without let-up until October 13 when the teachers were again called into institute session. By the time this institute date rolled around, the band had been organized and function- ing, and Mr. Riley and his musicians presented the musical program held as a part of the meet- ing. And as was to be expected, the instrumental sections were exceptionally well received. In the meantime, the sophomores had been well initiated into the mysteries of senior high school with special hazing masters directing the tortures of sitting on the fountain-with the water turned on in full blast-the barefoot march up and down the front steps, and the impromptu singing called for at unexpected times. The Maroon had been revived also, with the entire senior class promising to carry on the sales campaign necessary to determine the percentage of student support that could be counted upon. Pat Shoemaker had been named managing editor, Barbara Sands, business manager, and Joanne Bresee the advertising manager. Pauline Dolan, as editor-in-chief of all student publica- tions, was in charge. SENIORS: Barbara Sands, vice-president: Ruth Gorman, secretary: Pete Fletcher. president: and Nancy Holmes, treasurer. JUNIORS: Shirley Bash, vice-president: Jim Hall- beck, president: Dorothy Armstrong, secretary: and .lane Bowen. treasurer. SOPHOMORES: Margie Kemp, secretary: Dorothy Stinson, treasurer: Shirley Mcllvain, president: and Jeanne Bresee, vice-president. The Maroon 11