Patrick Henry High School - Encounter Yearbook (San Diego, CA)

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Th Out ide Angle Sup up up School We need to focus on the aca- demics, seemed to be Tom Pay- zant's message to San Diego. As the new superintendent of the San Diego Unified School Dis- trict, Payzant set out to improve the academic situation in the city schools. One of his first moves was to place a 2.0 grade point average requirement on students who wished to participate in ex- tracurricular activities including athletics. Payzant also proposed a strengthening of the graduation requirements in the coming years. Included would be a com- puter literacy requirement in or- der to prepare students for the future. He did stress the impor- tance of subjects other than math and science. lf we go down the tech track and forget the humani- tites, we're going to be shallow people. We've got to have a bal- ance. Along with strengthening the graduation requirements, Pay- zant stressed homework and pro- posed a district wide homework policy. Parent involvement would be of great importance. Parents would need to work hand in hand with their child and receive constant feedback on the student's progress. Another area the Payzant felt needed improve- ment was teaching. Bothered by the 3070 failing rate on teacher competency tests the superinten- dent admitted, L'We can't solve teacher problems with moneyf' Payzant was disenchanted with how schools were rated aca- demically. We need to get off this bit of comparing school A to school B. He stressed a need to focus on the progress of the indi- vidual school from September to June. In order to improve test scores and the student's educa- tion Payzant referred to setting goals. ul think we ought to shoot higher than just being able to read a newspaper. By shooting Taking over Tom Goodman's job as superintendent of San Diego City Schools is not an easy job. Tom Payzant sets out to make several personnel, graduation and homework changes. Payzant speaks to Matt Siegal, Commissioner of Finance, about the ASB grading policy above. 216 The Outside Angle for higher goals he believed that student performance would im- porve. Every student can learn. Besides improving the basic education of students, Payzant had opinions on other issues. By visiting two to three schools a week, he quickly learned the problems and concerns of each school and the district overall. With regards to optional physical education for high school stu- dents, the superintendent point- ed out that the district had to be cautious that students would re- ceive some exercise. Faced with tight schedules of some students, he suggested placing several ac- tivities, such as athletics, that took up a period after school. Payzant favored integration and had no conflict with the courts here. He saw it as an op- portunity, not a problem. That mix is much more realistic. Al- though the superintendent saw the magnet program and Volun- tary Ethnic Enrollment Program as good starts, he did see a need for more. Payzant also stressed other aspects of integration. 'fWe must look at the quality at the end of the bus ride. We have to be careful not to find ourselves playing the numbers game. The new superintendents re- lationship with the School Board started well with an eight hour discussion about the future year. He did admit that, When you come to a new job you have a honeymoon. Payzant wondered when it would end. L'They say what they want and I like that, was his simple way of describing the board. Payzant made several administrative changes by res- tructuring many departments and unloading unneeded person- nel. School Shorts How severe was the sho age of math and science teac ers? California schools lost 64 math and science teachers ea year to industry. Nationwide t number of new math teache declined 77 C70 over ten yearsgl science teachers the drop-off w 63 070. And 30070 of those who 0 teach were underqualified. California dropped to 5C in the nation when it came to d lars spent per student. The : vere state budget probler didn't help much. Book-of-the-Month club i students? The San Diego Schc Board announced a plan to i quire each student to read o book a month, Enforcement this plan was seen as difficult I: i was kept alive.

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Th Out ide Angle Who's on first?'l became Who's in charge? The Novem- ber Election began a long and heated run to fill the mayor's seat for the last 18 months of Pete Wilson's term. Wilson was elect- ed to the United States Senate, a very important step for the San Diego politician. But who would be next in line to guide The World's Finest City ? A special election and runoff were announced for March and April, The four lead- ing candidates conducted an in- teresting and varied campaign. The early forerunner was former city councilwoman Maureen O'Conner. Unlike her past cam- paigns, O'Conner spent plenty of money, a large percentage of which came from her husband, a founder of Jack-in-the-Box. lf elected, she would be San Die- go's first female mayor. Next in line was Councilman Roger Hed- gecock, a Republican like the rest of the major candidates ex- cept O'Conner. Bill Cleator was serving as deputy mayor during all of this and was the first to announce his entry into the race. He claimed to combine the quali- ties of a businessman with a poli- tician's experience. Then came Bill Mitchell. His campaign con- sisted mainly of a hundred mile walk from the North County to the border. Along the way he stopped and talked to potential voters and stayed at friendly homes of supporters. The race for mayor was unique when it came to the players and for only an eighteen month term they sure played to win. Majorette Marches, . From . .thes.Moviesi31 ' A drive-in that served wine, cheesefand hors 'T d'oeuvres? Sdcgadmission prices the gate? What was-going. on? Actually -iii was only for oneiriight. On Februar?-6,-the Campus Drive-irrolosed its doorsJThe drive-in was oneiof the few remaining in San Diegoxwhy? Apparently the-drive-in 1 movie fell victim to changing-economic .needs of society. ,The drive-in lwouidihetornidown and afS5 million shopping center would be the next feature, opening in November. e it V ' In order to honor the Campus' ,sea night, general. manager, Paul Russo, lowered the admissiorriprices to fifty cenits.,'That s was how much- a movie cost there when the drive-in opened in 1948. The Campus alsoxdecided togive away free popeorn-.to all the .movieLgoers., The .iwinegandeheese irri p arty--biefereg the-5 T l -movie was foriafseiect-groupof friends and rbusinessrnenj 7 , ' The double feature that night .was l'he Dark and f Dragonslayeia Bussocalled it,Q ti1e-end of an eraf J would happen tothe neon marching f?f1i:'QjQf2ffC that her ,baton on the baeksideof the screenafer 36 years? T A dismaniieci are seared. in is -warehouse unriilY.?iheyk:anid1-final-la 4 suitable location for fhelSan Diegoyiandrnark. A g it E45 .g.i ? 71 g f The Carnpusgrixre-in was' not tradition T.. ego to-disappeafQ.f1freai1Shoppers longerfbe 'aefeiiielfind 'bargains at Fedrnartf. The storesueere- bought by varieesfehains 'such asV,Targetl-fandgRalph's. 4 r i . Q 1 g 'New ,--. Sioeerp-ieeireil:ihrifeQe-T fdefisiiim-if A A New Lin up Frgm Z pp lin To Voodoo One day many students woke up to a new sound. It was no long- er the traditional Led Zeppelin, Pat Benatar and the Rolling Stones. lt was more like Wall of Voodoo, English Beat, and an oc- casional Chuck Berry. The for- mat change on the popular 91X FM radio station came as a shock to many. The station decided to change its Album Oriented Rock format to unew wave or techno- pop. The music was similar to that heard on Pasadena's KROQ. Apparently it went over well. Students welcomed the change, feeling that it was finally time for San Diego to experience what the rest of the world had been listening to for years. The station played a lot of the new synthesiz- er oriented music. Alisa Ohri felt that, K'lt's not a gumpy station anymore. Laura Somer went on to say, I love it. I think itls the best radio station in San Diego. Station management hoped that the rest of San Diego would feel the same way. Although the music changed, most of the disc jockeys stayed on. Some students noticed that most of them did not seem to know much about the new music. They did come up with several new characters such as Patrick O'Knarly who gave the morning surf reports. Take offs on Julia Child were also a regular morn- ing feature along with talk and commercials for BEVR network, the all Beaver lI.eave it to Bea- verj network. Overall the change was wel- comed. K'Let's hope they don't change back, said Michelle Hol- lander. Karen Levy had hope for other radio stations such as KGB- FM and KPRI-FM. HHopefully the competition will copy 91X in their precedent and we'll have better music as a result. San Diego Scenes If you wanted to call home from New York you would be calling a new number. Bell Tele- phone changed the San Diego area code to 619. There seemed to be too many phones in the San Diego - Orange County area. Two California Condor chicks pecked through their shells at the San Diego Zoo. It was all done in an effort to pre- serve the endangered species. What would happen if dur- ing a Clipper game the roof came falling down? Well, it became a definite possibility when it was found that the San Diego Sports Arena had structural problems with the roof. There was something else to watch on t.v. KUSI started on the air in September. The new channel, 51 lcable 93, aired re- runs, local sports and news. The Marines needed a few good Big Macs. The first fast food restaurant to open on a military base opened on Camp Pendleton Marine Base just north of San Diego. For the birds: Sea World's penguin exhibit finally opened. The Penguin Encounter was 28,000 square feet and cost 57.5 million. When it opened in May, some called it, a monument to seven years of unparalleled pen- guin research. The enclosure was 280 inside with 10,000 pounds of ice pumped in each day. Local 215

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Th Out ide Angle i ' - '25-iiviq More locks in th Library? lt didn't take long to get it passed. Implementing it might prove more difficult but super- intendent Tom Payzant felt it was worthwhile. The establish- ment of a MCH grade average requirement for students want- ing to participate in extracurri- cular activities was not unique. The Los Angeles School Dis- trict had enacted a similar rule while Morse High School had independently adopted the rule two years earlier. The raising of the grade point average from Will more athletes be forced to study more or are they already making the grades? Another incentive is ex-Patriot quarterback Matt Kofler's establish- ment of a scholarship for athletes with high grades. 1.5 to 2.0 on the 4.0 grade scale affected not only athletes but students who wanted to participate in music, debate, student government and dra- ma. Payzant justified the rule by saying that, Ml think the 'C' average is a reasonable request which says that students must fare well academically if they want to take part in extracurri- cular activities. The requirement may not have affected students here as much as at other schools but Commissioner of Boys Athlet- ics, Nick Alcorta enthusiastical- ly endorsed the idea. 'lIt's fan- tastic. I don't know if it will help athletics but I do think it will help the student athlete. A Huck Too Hot? I When you take a book off the sheif and say you don.'t like the ideas in that book, then that is censorship, said attorney Ann Brick. All across the nation many schools banned books from their library shelves. Go Ask Alice, a diary of a teenage girl who fell into drugs and committed suicide, was the most frequently censored book in high school libraries. J.D. Sa- Iinger's Catcher in the Rye, Judy Blumels Foreverf' John Steinbeck? Of Mice and Men, Huckleberry Finn, Catch- 22 , and evn such books as Laura Ingalls Wilders 'little House in the Big Woods , Shakespeards The Merchant of Venice , and Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter had been banned from shelves. 3 Most of the books mentioned above were in the Patrick Henry library. Many books such as, Of Mice and Menfg' The Scarlet iLetter'7., i'The Merchantof Venice , Huck Finn , and Catcher in the Rye , were regular reading for students. Cheryl Cook, a senior, commented, f'The banning ofthe books mentioned is utterly ridiculous because of the fact that the students could obtain the books fromgany other source. It is the parent's place to censor books andnot the school critics'. Cost Cutting Do you remember sixth grade camp? Security person- nel absolutely everywhere all the time? Well, memories were all that was left to students after severe budget cuts in the San Diego Unified School Dis- trict. Early in September the school board slashed S20 mil- lion from the school year bud- get. School Board president Bob Filner felt that, 'LThe bud- get decreases the quality of ser- vices. . .Ithink the children are ultimately shortchangedf' He went on to say that, We will be hurting the future of our soci- ety. Many students felt the same way. Programs that were cut in- cluded sixth grade camp, music programs in elementary schools, elementary schools themselves and various athletic programs on the high school level. Many students participat- ing in athletics were required to sell such items as M8cMs to con- tinue playing. Budget cuts affected the school security forces. Head of security Al MacPherson worked with a smaller staff that was unable to patrol the park- ing lot and campus at night as much as in the past. The janito- rial staff here was also cut from 17 to 9. Maintenance engineer Lloyd Freet said that, If more students would show a little more spirit by throwing away litter and by not cluttering the walls and desks with graffiti, it sure would make things easier for everyone. Cuts were also noticed in the fine art department along with the fact that paper was limited throughout the school. Education 217