Editorial: To Fund or Not To Fund

In one corner, it has been a well known fact for years in Hopkinton that the town highly favors their high school sports teams, more specifically the baseball, soccer, and field hockey teams. Besides those, there are twenty other high school sports that are supported and funded with part of the school budget. Many students take advantage of the availability of these many sports, and most of the school’s population is made up of athletes of some kind.

In the other corner, the arts department resides, barely funded but yet full with nearly as many students as the sports department, if not more. The arts department includes theater, music, and fine/studio arts, and has never had as much funding as other departments in the school. The department is too small and is shrinking with every budget revision.

And....fight.

The problem with the excessive funding to the sports department is that despite how good many of these athletes are, there is a very slim chance of any of the students making a job out of their athletic ability in the future. The world of professional athletes is not very big, and many of these students will inevitably enter a different field once they get to college. With the arts department, there are many more possibilities for a profession and by far a lot more job opportunities. 

So if the students in the arts have a better chance at learning a worthwhile career, why are the sports so overly glorified? Why is the sports budget large enough to water its fields and wax its gymnasium floor constantly, while the theater department is forced to buy their own set materials and costumes out of their own pockets each and every year? The right thing would be to increase the funding provided to the arts programs and possibly take away some of the sports funding. The sports department does not necessarily need all of the money it has, so why not give the excess to the arts? That would seem to be a logical action, but yet the town and the school manages to cut the arts funding even further with each town budget meeting. It’s high time that this changed, because the starving artists shouldn’t be starving.

EDITORIAL: Dress Code

Dress code is where the school has a set of rules for students, where there are limits for students apparel. Lately in schools teachers have seen students not following school dress code, such as wearing their pants low showing their under garments, or wearing short skirts that don’t meet the middle finger length rule.

Kids complain all the time about not wearing what they would like to wear to school, and they say that different schools are easier going about the dress code. But in fact, they are wrong. Other schools have very similar rules as in our school. In comparing Kearsarge Regional High School, Concord High School and Hillsborough- Deering High School, research shows that these local school districts have the same dress code as Hopkinton High School. They all do not allow halter-tops or spaghetti traps as an example of the similarity of the dress code guidelines. But then again some students are correct because it depends on the teacher.

Individual teachers enforce the dress code at a different approach, but students feel that it should be enforced consistently on clothing choice from the students point of view.

Star Student

By D.Seabury

Once a month teachers select a couple of students who show social and academic excellence. Those students are then voted on by the faculty to become "Star" Students.

Two names are picked, one from Middle School and one from High School. The two “Star” students for November were Tess Hamilton, from High School, and Ireland Tawney, from Middle School.

Mr. Kelley states, “It’s a way I can get to know the students.” He started the student of the month because the students that are all-around good students deserve to be acknowledged for their hard work.

Penguin Plunge

By Zachary Calley

The Penguin Plunge is held in February at Hampton Beach, and students from different cities attend it. We have anywhere between four to eight students attend this event from our school. “This year is going to be great,” says Mr. O'Dougherty who does the Penguin Plunge every year. He says that it’s a good experience for those who attend it because you make new friends and hang out with the friends you have now.

The Penguin Plunge is in the winter and the temperature is often ten below. There are at least four of our students that regularly attend the Penguin Plunge and their names are Peter England, David England, Charlie Bartlett, and Paige Cook. New faces have been popping up also.

The Penguin Plunge is a great opportunity to help the Special Olympics. The road to get to the Plunge isn’t an easy one. The first step is that the participant has to raise the money needed by getting sponsored.

Peace Club

by J Jones

Among the many organizations at Hopkinton High School there is a club known as Peace Club. It has been going on for years now, but it is feared by some that there is a possibility of it ending with this year’s graduating class. A reason for that concern stems from the apparent lack of interest in the group. Those who have attended know that it is a club to be valued, a place where fellow classmates can come together and discuss current events or issues in the world involving many other things such as global/environmental issues. Also, it gives students a chance to be involved in any protests or rallies they are passionate about. The club has even been known to go on the occasional hike to truly appreciate the world we live in or just enjoy a nice stroll. Whatever the reason Peace Club is a perfect excuse to share one’s thoughts, munch on some quality snacks, and relax.

This year, senior Susanna Keilig, runs the club. When asked about the issue about years to come, she stayed positive and did not seemed to be phased at all. Instead, she talked about the goals for the club this year. These goals range from simply having good conversations about things going on in the world and watching interesting documentaries to more ambitious things like participating in at least one rally. Doing community service and helping out local organizations is also something the Peace Club is hoping to accomplish.

Other goals address the Peace Club population problem as well. "When there's only four people showing up to meetings it's hard to come up with things," comments Mary O'Neil.

"No one really knows what we're about," says Becca Shatney.

According to Ziggy Chesley, "When people think Peace Club they think hippies smoking in a field or Woodstock where they don't shower." Maybe the club is misunderstood, but the group members are looking forward to spreading the good word about the club by increasing awareness within the school and hoping to recruit more members.

Regardless of size, Peace Club keeps up the positive attitudes and just keeps on keeping on. The students involved were even talking about making a new name for the group to hopefully eliminate all the prejudices and negative connotations associated with the current one. It is not yet known what the club is to be called, but they are focusing more on something revolving around youth activism. No one can predict what will become of the club in the future, but one can only hope it sticks around.

"I think his year will be a really strong year for Peace Club," notes Erin McAuliffe.

Hopkinton High School Exchange

By Morgan Holden

Each year Hopkinton High School takes part in the year long journey with several wonderful exchange students. This year we have four students joining our student body: Christopher Mara on from Ecuador, Laura Walter from Germany, Ahmad Ab from Kuwait, and Fredrika Kok from Germany as well.

I was personally able to sit down with each student and talk to them about themselves and how their stay has been so far, and they all had a considerable amount to say. “I like to play soccer and tennis, I as well play bass and I am in three bands back home,” says Christopher, a senior at HHS “I love to play jazz band here and I also like my photography class."

Laura, a junior who comes to us from Stuttgart, Germany (which is two hours from Lindau, where our German class resides for the exchange program), is joining our Nordic ski team this year. “I’m going to do Nordic this winter it’s going to be nice since I’ve never skied before, and this place seems to have quite a bit of snow so it will be fun. Laura also enjoys her host family and going on trips around New England over the weekend.

Ahmad, a junior at HHS, also had much to say. “My name is Ahmad but some people call me A.B., I play a lot of soccer back home and I love steaks here! I also like talking to people and building house models out of wood." Ahmad also said, “I would also like to say that Hopkinton is a great and wonderful place and is full of wonderful people."

Hopkinton High School is lucky to share the journey that each of our exchange students are on, and I encourage you all to approach and meet them if you already haven’t!

Hopkinton's Move To Get Bigger Stopped Because Of Size

By Matt Gleason

Hopkinton School District came up a short in its bid to add Dunbarton to the District. Hopkinton would have doubled in size and moved up from Division III to Division II. The District would have added 150 kids and, according to superintendent of Hopkinton Schools Steve Chamberlin, this would have meant a new building. The bid to make Hopkinton a regional school fell short because of lack of space, as a new building would have meant increasing taxes and the Hopkinton or Dunbarton taxpayers would not have been up for that.

According to Hopkinton's Superintendent the idea has been in the works for 11 years now. Dunbarton’s lease with Goffstown School District ends in 2014. "It would have been a great idea to join the two districts and expand and grow as a district," said Chamberlin, "but it won't happens this time around." Dunbarton is already looking at other options including Bow School District.

Hopkinton is going to need to keep its eyes open because if numbers start shrinking, teachers will lose jobs and it would be harder maintain a level of education excellence.

No School

By Nate Glanville

School closing happens when there is large accumulation of snow that causes the roads to be too dangerous for the school buses or for parents traveling to drop off or pick up the kids. A school closing can also happen because of a Hurricane, causing the roads to be flooded with water.

When planning a school closing, many wonder who decides to have school or not? The one who decides to have school or not is the Superintendent. Usually most Superintendents decide to cancel school early in the morning. The Superintendent alerts the bus companies and notifies the drivers that they don’t need to show up for work. Superintendent Steven Chamberlin says, “Canceling school is very tense. The call is tough; it disrupts so many people's day. The condition of the roads, the forecast for the day, the timing of the storm that is what we look at.”

School closings are by determined how big the storm is, and depend on how long before the road crew plows and sands the roads. On the other hand, a flash flood from a hurricane is another story because buses can’t travel in deep water, so they turn for alternative routes and deal with debris. So in the end school is meant to be canceled because of dangerous weather and the superintendent has a good reason to close school for everyone's safty.