Orange & Black

Shutter Island

adviser — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:54:11 +0000

Shutter Island starring Leonardo Dicaprio, unveils the secrets behind the Ashecliffe Hospital located east of Massachusetts in the Boston Harbor.
Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane this movie follows the book scene by scene. When one of the Ashecliffe’s 66 patients turn up missing, two U.S. Marshals are called upon for the task of locating the dangerous patient before a violent storm sweeps across the island.
On an island where nothing can be labeled as normal, Marshals Daniels and Aule, will have to keep their wits about them before being committed to Ashecliffe for life. Martin Scorsese did a grand job transforming the thrilling book into a soon to be award-winning movie.
Being a person who has read the book, I was skeptical before going to the movie. I assumed most movies based on books are usually a disappointment, but I could not have been more wrong. Dicaprio captures the role of Marshal Daniels, and once you see the surprise ending you will understand why.

Administration Deals with Budget Cuts

adviser — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:43:43 +0000

With the budget status uncertain for the next academic year, School District 51 is bracing for cuts from the state.

Imminent budget cuts are nothing new to the school. GJHS was affected by a number of cuts earlier in the year; however, they were not substantial enough to affect the students.

“We took a small budget cut earlier in the year,” Principal Jon Bilbo said. “We tried to allow academic departments to retain their funds by optimizing the available money.”

Bigger cuts may be on the horizon. While academic departments may be safe for now, problems may arise if deficits are significant enough.

“The biggest issue is personnel,” said Mr. Bilbo of what might happen. “We are still waiting to get guidance from the superintendent (Steve Shultz).

With money becoming an increasingly large problem, students should be prepared for differences next year.

“We have at least 10 teacher retirements,” Mr. Bilbo said.

He also mentioned that the Early Retirement Package that the district has offered may entice some teachers to leave early, indicating that a number of teachers could take advantage of the opportunity.

If budget cuts are enforced, GJHS may not be able to fill all of the openings that retiring teachers will leave. In such a situation, fewer teachers could mean a larger student/teacher ratio as well as fewer alternative courses such as AP classes.

Until the budget is announced, though, nobody will be able to predict where money will be spent, and GJHS is left to wait.

“We have to sit back and wait,” Mr. Bilbo said. “By mid-March, we hope to have an idea what the impact is going to be.”

Arbor Longboards

adviser — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:29:54 +0000

Arbor Longboards are made out of Hawaiian KOA wood. They makes surfboards, longboards, and snowboards. Arbor is headquartered in Venice, California and has been 1995.
Arbor annually donates 5% of profits to one or more of the following organizations: The Nature Conservancy, The Surfrider Foundation, The Rainforest Action Network, and American Forests.
Go outside and enjoy the sunlight and the wind through your hair on an Arbor board!

Pay Attention to the Health Care Reform

adviser — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:21:37 +0000

While many people in America complain about the poor state of the health care system, what they don’t realize is just how lucky we actually are. After watching a series of documentaries about the health care coverage in poor areas such as Africa, many freshman Honors World Geography students are realizing the hardships that poor countries face.
“I don’t think that people realize how the turmoil in Africa will affect us. Everything and everyone is connected. It is only a matter of time,” freshman Katherine Gibson said, expressing what she has learned from the circumstances in Africa.
Many people in these countries are fighting serious diseases such as AIDS and malaria. Americans today may not realize that the problems we face may pale in comparison to the problems in third world countries such as Africa.
That’s not to say that health care in America doesn’t have problems. Many people don’t have access to simple checkups because their health insurance doesn’t cover it. The health care system also doesn’t cover people with pre-existing illnesses.
The overall health of Americans might not be as threatened as the health of African people, but we still face many problems. Obesity is a growing issue in America, as people are eating more and more junk food. As a result, America is facing bigger and bigger health problems. These problems may become astronomical if the people in this nation are not insured.
To combat these problems, lawmakers are considering adding a tax on candy and soda. Many Republicans feel this is an unneeded tax on the everyday lives of the American people.
Sophomore Ashley Funke does not think the tax is a good idea. “It’s absurd.Those are the best things people have in this life.”
While the tax may put a strain on everyday life, it may make people think twice about buying these unhealthy foods.
The students of Grand Junction High School and every other young person in the nation, needs to become more aware of the problems in the health care system and fight for a more efficient health care system that helps everyone.

Advisory “is an Immense Waste of Time”

adviser — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:28:57 +0000

There are many good things about Grand Junction High School. Advisory class is not one of them. It is ridiculous that we have to have it. When we have advisory, the classes are shorter so we lose class time, valuable time that we could be using to learn. We also have a later and shorter lunch, which is generally not liked.
It would be OK if we would actually do something worthwhile in advisory, but most of the time we do stupid and pointless things, such as take surveys on how much we like our school or tests to see what we want to do when we grow up. These surveys and tests usually only take 10 to 20 minutes and we spend the rest of the time sitting there. It is an immense waste of time.
If students really want to take the survey about our school we can do that on our own time and there are required tests like the PLAN test that help us see what we want to be when we grow up.
When we have to go to our advisory class before an assembly, it makes us feel stupid, as though we cannot even find the gym on our own. The last time we had an assembly we were told to report to our advisory classes after eighth hour to walk over to the gym.
I have PE eighth hour, so I thought it was pretty pointless to walk all the way over to the W building and then back over to the gym when I was already there. I just stayed at the gym and didn’t go to advisory. When I got home I found out that the school had called my house saying that I was absent for advisory. It is absolutely ridiculous that they mark people absent when they are only in the classroom for two minutes.
The only advantage to going to advisory is when we are doing scheduling. It would be all right if we only had to go to do scheduling, but even then we have it way too much. It does not take five advisory classes to set up your schedule.
Grand Junction High School would be much better off without advisory class, or at least a reduced amount of advisory classes.

Cottonball a “Success”

adviser — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:12:58 +0000

On Saturday, February 27 Grand Junction High School Executive Student Council held the Cottonball Dance. Unlike in previous years, the dance was held at Bananas Fun Park Special Event Pavilion.
“I thought that overall the ticket system and hosting the dance in the pavilion was awesome,” Aaron Jenkins, sophomore class president, said.
Bananas hosts teen dances at the pavilion, but this was the first high school sponsored dance to occur there.
“I think the dance ran really smoothly, and there was a great turnout compared to the regular dances,” Justin Reed, a manager at Bananas, said.
Executive Council supervisor Rose Willet not only agreed with Reed that it ran smoothly, she also felt that the students did a good job representing their school.
“For the most part, everyone was well mannered and responsible, and we had a pretty good turnout,” Willett said.
However, some students felt that one part of the dance was not as spectacular as the rest.
“The disc jockey was kind of a disappointment. He played techno way too much at first, but once he started taking requests it got a lot better, and he did have an amazing light display,” Jenkins said.
Other than dancing and music, hosting the dance at Bananas did come with another benefit.
“I feel that the dance was a definite success because the students were able to walk around and maybe play some arcade games or different activities around the park,” Reed said.

GJHS Lady Tigers Enter Sweet 16

adviser — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:09:57 +0000

On Saturday, February 27 2010, the Grand Junction High School girls varsity basketball team played the Aurora Central Trojans in the second round of the class 5A state playoffs.
The girls took a 37-20 halftime lead. Jamie Derrieux scored 18 points, Paula Lage with 16, and Fawn Brady with 12 points.
They came out with a 60-38 win. Varsity girls face game number one of the Sweet 16 on Wednesday, March 3, 2010 against Highlands Ranch.

Speech and Debate Prepare to Travel to State

adviser — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:05:14 +0000

On Feb. 26, the GJHS Speech and Debate team went to Moffat County High School in Craig for the district competition. The Tigers sent 10 team members to the district meet and seven of them qualified for state.
Of the seven were Natalie Pipe and Katie Repetti in Public Forum Debate, Andriana Coleman and Sierra Simons in Original Oratory, Logan Lally in United States Extemporaneous Speaking, and Jack Wright and James Osmundsen in Humorous Interpretation.
The team went to the district meet without its coach, Mr. Anthony Myers, who had been ill for the previous week. Ms. Rosemary Jennings, a language arts teacher at GJHS, filled in for Myers.
The team will next go to the national qualifier competition in Pueblo on March 5 and 6. Then on March 12 and 13 the team will compete in state at Castle Rock.

Girls Tennis Begins

adviser — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:58:58 +0000

The first practice for the Grand Junction High School girls tennis team was Feb 22. Practices began with challenge matches to determine which spot the players will be on either the junior varsity or varsity team.
There are 11 spots plus one alternate spot on the varsity team. The rest of the girls play for the JV team, which has an unlimited amount of spots because no one is cut from the team.
“We are going to expect a lot from each and every player this year, they will need to compete and work hard,”Coach Carol Elliott said,
Elliott has high hopes for the season.
“Our goal is always to take first at regionals and to be district champs. The expectations are always high,” Elliott said.
Returning varsity players Maddy Hayduk, Emmie Madison, Sammy Weinberg, Margeaux Prinster, Madison Gurley, Kylie Pond and Alex Proietti are under a large amount of pressure to make transitions from last year.
“There is a possibility we could lose our league match winning streak this year. We have a whole new line of singles players and also new doubles players. The goal is always to be league champs; I sure don’t want our previous streak to end, so I am hoping the girls can step it up and keep a competitive edge to remain league champs this season,” Elliott said.
With only seven returning varsity players the newer players on varsity will have to find their competitive mentality to contribute to the team.
Anna Magenis, Kaitlin Cain, Jillian Arja and Stephanie Skinner are the new varsity doubles players. They will join Nikki Arja and Emma Hold, who will be swinging up to play varsity as well.
“The girls will have to adapt to the new level of playing if we have any hope of beating Cherry Creek this year, which is a 5A team we are always looking to beat,” Elliot said.
Along with Denver teams, the GJHS girls are looking forward to competing against rival teams in the valley like Fruita Monument and Central.
“Both Fruita and Central have an even amount of talent coming back on their teams. Fruita is going to be the stronger team and the team to beat as well,” Elliot said.
With a tough season ahead, the GJHS tennis team is setting high goals in hopes of continuing its winning streak and having success at the state championship.

Winter Olympics

adviser — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:06:53 +0000

The Olympics of 2010 are taking place in Vancouver, Canada. Due to lack of snow and temperature rising, people are strongly disagreeing on the location of the 2010 Olympics. Experts say that the Vancouver 2010 games are the warmest Winter Olympic Games yet.
Sophomore Abby Dailey believes that if they changed the location, only more chaos would follow. “I think that so much planning has already gone into it and to change the location would probably do a lot more damage than the weather is causing in Vancouver,” says Dailey.
Vancouver will be hosting the Olympics from Feb. 8 to Feb. 28. Fans are mostly concerned about the participants safety. People are debating on whether the location for these Winter Olympics was right to do, but people tend to over exaggerate.
Since the beginning of the Olympics, residents of Vancouver have been ecstatic and full of energy. Vancouver has never had the experience to host any type of Olympics ever. But when the weather created a downfall for the chance, citizens were angry and fearful for the Olympic athletes.
Erin Lielkoks, a freshman at Grand Junction High School, believes all is trying to do their best in this situation, “I think that the venue has been plagued by a lot of problems and the organizers are trying to do their best.
Since tragedies have been occurring, the organization has been trying their best to prevent any more incidents. If the location were to be changed, the uproar of people’s disagreements would be unfavorable. Therefore, they need to keep the peace between the locals because they have been waiting for this event for a long time.
The Olympics brings together nations in tranquility and the chance to compete against one another. For the host, taking away this privilege would be devastating. So we must allow Vancouver the honor to host the Winter Olympics of 2010.