Weston McEwen High School - Paws and Claws Yearbook (Athena, OR)

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ACADEMICS The school year 1973-74 started with a new school curriculum and several new teachers. The trial merger brought additions and changes in all departments. One of the subject areas that was greatly expanded was business. Nine courses were offered in the business field; new to the curriculum were consumer education, world of business, shorthand, and the secretary-accounting cluster. One new teacher was added in this area and Weston-McEwen now has a business department comparable with many much larger schools. In the Fine Arts new courses were added and some of the older activities reached new heights. The Highland Lassies became the Highland Lassies Pipes and Drums, and they went on to win several first place ribbons and trophies. The band and stage band added new members with the merger and chorus and guitar 6

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cooperation that was evident. The students of Weston and Athena are very lucky to have parents and citi- zens like this in their communities. Other students in other towns are not that lucky, and the student body would like to thank the people of Weston and Athena for their effort and interest. The benefits of the new program to the students were many and varied. A new student lounge was added along with a hot lunch program at the high school. The increased number of students in the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior classes allowed more competition in classes and more in- terest individual activities and clubs. The high school population. Fresh- men through Senior, at Weston and McEw'en went from 80 and 130 re- spectively to a population of 145 in the top three grades at the high school. The newf school’s population makes it one of the larger in its league. With the increased school size the opportunity for increased school cur- riculum, increased activities, and in- creased participation on the part of the students came into being.

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became new classes. Two periods of art were offered and a new class, arts and crafts, was added to the cur- riculum. The English department this year expanded their course offerings to in- clude 31 different one semester time slots and 17 different classes. In the drama department a three act play was produced for the first time. The Home Economics program was on a one semester basis with child development, food service, advanc- ed clothing, and home decorating ad- ded to the curriculum. The home economics department was also largely responsible for bringing the hot food program to the high school. The social studies department went to one semester classes with 7 dif- ferent history classes and 6 different modern problems classes being of- fered. Sociology and Psychology were offered for the first time. The vocational education depart- ment was expanded this year. In ad- dition to the vocational agriculture and metal shop classes being offered, woodworking and automotive repair has been added. In the math and science depart- ment the main area in improvement is that some courses that had been offered every other year are now of- fered each year. Computer program- ing was added this year. In Spanish the highlight of the year was of course the three week trip to Mexico over spring vacation. 22 stu- dents had been looking forward to this for two years and their dreams came true. The work experience program is steadily growing at Weston-McEwen. This year there were between 15 and 20 students involved in all types of on the job experience. Weston-McEwen has 14 teachers and around 150 students. The cur- riculum here at W-M will stand up against that of any small school in the state, and our curriculum com- pares very well with many much larger schools. 7