Medina High School - Medinian Yearbook (Medina, OH)

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Looking Fine At 109 1984 will mark the 109th commencement held in a Medina Senior High School. It also marks the tenth birthday for this specific building. The present building was first opened to the public on April 21, 1974 and to the students the following Monday. The three section, 2000 person capacity building consists of a two story academic wing, a two level gymnasium and an art and music wing. The move to the new building had to be made in the middle of the school year. The fact that there were 1500 people crammed into a school originally built to accommodate 1000 students was reason enough for everyone to want the move, but there were also split schedules to contend with. According to Principal Augie Rios, seniors were in school from 7 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., juniors and sophomores from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and freshmen from noon until 5 p.m. Switching from the old high school to the new was not uneventful. The huge school safe had to be moved from one building to the other. This was accomplished by placing the safe on a dolly and, complete with a police escort, wheeling it right down the middle of Union Street. Mrs. Dorothy El- rick, head of the English department, remembers the little mouse that moved in with her and left its calling card on her desk. When asked if she would ever want to return to the other building, she said, “No, I would not go back to the old school perma¬ nently. However, I do get sentimental on extremely hot stuffy days when I rem ember that my room had — believe it or not — windows that opened. Even though a few bees and flies flew in, so did fresh air and a breeze.” Mr. Mike Davanzo and Mr. Rollie Platz remem¬ bered how the library was moved. “Students took arm loads of books, and sat in a certain order on a school bus. Then they carried the books into the new library in the same order and placed them on the shelves,” said Mr. Platz. After the move the math department found itself

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“I think that computers can do many more things than they are being used for now. The possibilities for use in schools are very great. They are now being used to make tests and help math students with problems and exercises when they are used to their full potential. Soon the teachers may not even be needed. Computers in the futu re will be used for most jobs that are tedious or repetitive and will contribute to many things as the technology of the country increases.” — Chad Miller (pictured at the computer) (A) Punk haircuts, perhaps the wave” of the future, are already worn by some students like junior Jenni Penton. (A) Although juniors Amy Ingraham, Lori Marchiano and Crystal Williams will not be old enough to vote in the 1984 elections, they gained valuable experience with democracy in action through their work in the Democratic Mock Convention. (A) “While the book (1984) has been on the shelves as fiction, it is now on the shelves as fact. Any of his predictions could be happening today. Instead of going towards unity, we are moving towards disunity. People’s rights are being infringed upon more than ever — the government could know all.” J. Valentine, Civics Teacher 1 — 1 Science Fiction would have never been studied in 1948 when George Orwell first wrote his book. Today Science Fiction students from Mr. Dave Kelley ' s class receive English credit for reading about the future. According to Mr. Kelley, 1984 is a scary reality. He said, “Unfortunately, the death of the individual is well underway. Consider the Soviet Union. Computers, modern surveillence techniques and society’s demand for order have accelerated our plunge into Orwell’s nightmare world.” (A) Gutenburg would have been amazed by the Compugraphic ACM 9000. The giant typesetter impressed Journalistic Writing students Sean Haney, Kimberly Beyman, and Lisa Argiry as they practiced on it for the first time. (A) 1984 7

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quite popular because Mr. Gene Haas (math teach¬ er who retired in 1977) brought all of the pencil sharpeners with him. This proved to be fortunate remembers Miss Marilyn Cross, math department head, “because no one had remembered to put any in here.’’ Miss Cross also remembers that the switch to turn the lights on and off in the cafeteria was located in the music (choral) room. Today this building houses 325 seniors, 402 ju¬ niors, 367 sophomores, and 414 freshmen. After a decade of hard student use, the building still remains in good shape. Replacement carpeting was added to the cafeteria this fall and walls were put up in the open science rooms to cut down on noise traveling from room to room. Mr. Rios has been pleased with the way the high school has been utilized in the past ten years. “The expanded facilities in this building have allowed us to present a full program. In particular, the new auditorium has been a real plus,” he said. The newest addition to Medina Senior High School, is the $720,000 stadium, named after Mr. Kenneth Dukes. A new stadium was deemed neces¬ sary in order to enable the sports department to grow along with the school itself. igg yjjg§g|g i