Joliet West High School - Alpha Omega Yearbook (Joliet, IL)

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e During the gifted trip to the United Nations, Mike Carlson, John Bittermann, Dan Arnold, Shashank Soni Beth Kransberge Jacaway, Tony Columbus, Mrs. Diane Malon- ' ey, Mike Marmer and Nancy Zinneman visit New York City tourist attractions. Filled with Valentine flowers, teacher's mailboxes are an example of the work of S.P.O.71 4 Alpha li., After placing second in state wrestling, Junior Dean Magro stands among the 185 pound winners. Junior Dave Wittkofski and Senior Steve Richardson anxiously await their chance to antnr thn namn Advanced Journalism students, Eric Ftuden and Meg Powers, read weekly news and sports items during period two on Friday. up-.-5-,

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Before the school board meeting at West in September, Central students picket the probable closing of their school. N K 'gmt ff 3 Q V is nigga: A elif ettre District Faces Budget Cuts g This is it - the year of the budget cuts. The week before school started in August, students began to pay their 330.00 activity fee, instituted by a vote on April 14, 1981. Upon paying their fee, students received activity cards, which entitled them to free admission to all home athletic events, a free yearbook, and six issues of llger Tales. The activity fee, paid by 9570 of the student body, and the funds raised by the Save Our Schools Committee made extra-curricular activities possible. As soon as school started, students noticed the changes in the atmosphere. The fifth subject option was eliminated for everyone, except seniors and students in music. This meant most students had at least one full period study hall. Rather than being in a study hall, some students became runners, media center assistants, and lab assistants. In addition -to the elimination of the fifth subject option, levels were changed to A and regular, weighted 1.2 and 1, respectively. Driver Education was also affected by the budget cuts. It was offered to half the sophomores as a full year class. The remaining sophomores had to take it in summer school or during their junior year. Freshmen felt the effect of the budget cuts in Freshman Seminar. Each period, one teacher monitored the entire group of freshmen in the Little Theatre. Budget cuts were of primary interest to the athletic programs. Across the district, the number of coaches was cut by 2Oofo. Freshman sports were also cut: but to compensate for this, freshmen played on the sophomore team or sophomore reserve team. Sports' budgets were also cut drastically. The boys' budget decreased from 825,000 to 37,800 and the girls' budget from 315,000 to S6.000. Staffs and faculty were also reduced. Forty-three teachers and six administrators were released from the district. Nineteen teachers from West were releasedg also, Assistant Principal Dr. Richard Samlin's contract no longer included the summer months. Secretarial, custodial, and cafeteria staffs were also reduced. At the October board meeting the school board received the marketing survey submitted by Marwick, Peat, Mitchell, and Company of Chicago and acted upon it, closing Joliet Central for the 1982-83 school year. This closure caused controversy in the communityland created opposition to the school board. Some concerned citizens formed the Save Central Committee and, on November 3, helped to elect write-in candidates Arlene Albert and Ford C. June to the school board, along with Marshall Crandall and Berverly McNiff. This was thefirst time in the history of District 204 that write-in candidates received a greater number of votes than those already on the ballot. To accomplish this, the Save Central Committee placed ads in the Joliet Herald News and held rallies, which taught citizens how to correctly vote for write-in candidates. Other board members were Francis Holmquist, R. Joseph Huff, and Ernest Tonelli. Three of the newly elected board members, Albert, June, and Crandall, along with Francis Holmquist, voted to reverse the previous decision and open Joliet Central for the 1982-83 school year. Other reversals included the extension of Dr. Samlin's contract to twelve months, and a limited reinstatement of the fifth class option second semester. To avoid scheduling problems, students were allowed to elect one class, during their study hall period. 3

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, 2 . 2 -L1 L .afi- While in the Yellow Submarine, Reader's Theatre members Tim Zeman, Mike Brason, Sheree Scholar, Ann Zobal and Scott Ward hear the backHring and expect to be sunk. lllini-8 Ends lts Last Season This is it - the lllini-8's last year. As an off-shoot to the budget cuts, the Illini-8 saw its last season. Beginning the 1982-83 school year, Joliet Central and Joliet West will be unofficial members of the South Inter-Conference Association. Joliet East will be an independent. All three schools will have to earn at-large state berths to enter post-season competition. SICA will make schedules for Joliet Central and West, while Joliet East will be able to make its own schedules. Despite the budget cuts, the school year rolled on. After a discouraging football season, Varsity finishing with an 0-9 record, word was released that we had actually won a game. Bolingbrook had to forfeit because of an ineligible player, so the Varsity football record stood corrected at 1-8. Records were not so bleak for everyone, howeverg the gymnastic team recorded an outstanding season. Entering post season competition with a 13-0 record, the gymnasts accumulated 106.45 points to also win the district tournament. Lead by its four individual qualifiers, Kerri Lang, Beth Morrow, Kari Blessing and Sharon Bell, the team placed fourth at sectionals, but no one advanced to state competition. 'Also posting an outstanding record, the wrestling team pinned down first place in conference, districts, and sectionals. Ten wrestlers placed first, second, or third at districts, enabling them to enter sectional competition. At the Normal Sectional, seven wrestlers qualified for state competition: Joe Bales, Phil Daniels, and Dean Magro with firstsg and Brad Peterson, Wachtel Barnes, Keith Spreitzer, and Tom Anderson with thirds. The defending state champions placed tenth in state competition. Dean Magro -placed second at 185 pounds and Brad Peterson placed fourth at 98 pounds. Change and reorganization affected other facets of student life as well. Student Council members began S.P.O.T., Secret Pals of Teachers. ln the fall, teachers received questionnaires. lf they wanted to participate, they returned the questionnairs and received a Student Council member as their S.P.O.T. About 75 teachers participated, and received cards, flowers, and other little gifts from their S.P.O.T., and on April 26, a banquet was held at which the teachers discovered the identity of their S.P.O.T. According to Mrs. Linda Padilla, Student Council advisor, S.P.O.T. functioned as a bridge between students and teachers, and kept the lines of communication open. Another innovation was the Advanced Journalism Broadcast second semester. Because Tiger Tales was only issued every six or seven weeks, the newspaper staff thought a weekly broadcast of news and sports was needed to report timely items. The first five minutes of second period each Friday, News Editor Meg Powers a d Editor-in-Chief Eric Ruden reported the current news an sports. Changes were also encountered in the gifted program. Students considered for the gifted pr gram had an IQ of at least 120 and a 3.50 cumulative gra e point average, along or a teacherlcounselor with outstanding entrance exam score recommendation. According to P incipal Leroy Leslie, toward a classroom statewide, the gifted program move atmosphere to help students develop heir intellectual abilities. Twenty-five minutes a day for eight wieks, Mr. Harry Mathers instructed a gifted math class for fres men in probability. Mr. Herman Jongsma also taught a gifted program at the three A level biology in microbiology and freshmanlsophomore level. During classes, gifted students participated genetic labs. First semester, Mr. Jongjma chose students from his classes and developed a progra for the gifted students' labs. Second semester students began working those labs. From March 17 to 21, Mrs. Maloney's eleven junior and senior students participated in the National High School Model Americans at the United Nations in New York. Each school at the UN role played a different nation: Joliet West was Colombia. After months of preparation, which included learning Colombian policies, caucusing, debating, and much more, the students spent four full days acting as Colombian diplomats. They were evaluated on their understanding of policies and their role playing of diplomats. New to the gifted program was Mrs. Bonnie 'Fritz's Advanced Placement class. Gifted seniors were eligible to take this class, which helped them score higher on their English advanced placement tests for college. From January 5 to May 17, the 21 seniors met on Tuesdays and Thursdays during period 9. Private conferences were held from 7:30 to 8:15 on Wednesday mornings. Another first was the Citizens Study Committees, designed to study certain aspects of the Joliet High School operation and make recommendations to the School Board. Begun on March 1, ,1982, each of the four committees contained 18 people. These committees, the education program committee, the school and community relations committee, the facilities utilization committee, and the attendance center characteristics committee, contained students, parents, concerned citizens, district employees, and an administrative liason. They met twice a month in the major committees and more frequently in subcommittees for study sessions. Pam Galowich and Eric Ftuden represented West students on the facilities utilization committee and the educational program committee. ' 5