OCR Text |
Show Guardian of Your Community News WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 2010 • B l MMHS Winter Drumline Jarrnan / TJie Sentinel GOING TRIBAL: Pictured above is Maple Mountain High's winter drumline team who recently hosted a competition on Saturday, March 6. Their show, titled "Tribal", earned a 77.8, placing second in this competition. Payson took first with 81.4, Ogden third with 76.10, Provo fourth with 69.54 and Roy fifth with 68.7. Their next competition is at Bingham High School on March 13. Nebo boundary review Christy Hardman Namon Bills / The Sentinel VOLUNTEER: Chad Hymas gets the help of an LHS student to make a point about treating others with respect. Hymas visits Landmark Namon Bills seconds later I found myself under 2,000 pounds," EDITOR he said. Nine years ago Chad His wife and two chilHymas made a choice that dren found him and called changed his life — leav- 911. It took eight emering him paralyzed. He's gency responders to lift the been making life-changing bale off of him. choices ever since. The former high school Hymas visited Land- basketball team captain was mark High School in Span- left with no use of his legs ish Fork Wednesday, March or hands, and limited use 3 to talk to the students of his arms. His dad visited about choices as part of his him and encouraged him Free by Choice world tour. to not allow his accident to He said, "If you've made keep him down. That took a a bad choice, you have the lot of work. opportunity to make differ"It took me 18 months to ent choices today." learn to push a wheelchair," Nine years ago Hymas he said. "Now I push this was working on a ranch, chair, no problem." using a tractor to stack oneHymas now travels the ton bales of hay. He said he world as a motivational got a warning when one of speaker, in addition to ownthe bales fell down. ing his own communica"I chose to listen to the tions company. warning and ignore it. Five Hymas told the students that their choices affect themselves and others. He spoke candidly about drugs, internet use and sexual abstinence. He encouraged them to step out of their comfort zone and help others. "Takers are a dime a dozen — givers are harder to find," he said. "Do you have the ability to give more than you take?" He said that despite his challenges, he's happier now than ever. He and his wife just celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary. They have adopted two children in addition to the two they already had. "Nine years since I broke my neck. Are my dreams coming true? Yes," he said. "Not because of my bad choice, but because I made good choices since." ics where appropriate," Nielsen said. "The only STAFF WRITER way we have to measure The Nebo District School that is by the number of Board held a public hearing students on free and reon Wednesday, Mar. 3 to al- duced lunch. It is hard to low people to discuss their draw boundaries to accomconcerns with the boundary plish that." change for Maple Mountain The district tried to take High and Spanish Fork High into consideration estimatSchools. The area in ques- ed growth patterns as they tion is from 1150 East to divided the boundaries, 2250 East from Highway 6 Nielsen said, to keep the south to Canyon Road. The schools balanced proporarea is also known as the Jex tionately in size. Subdivision. If the boundary "Students benefit from change takes place, it would smaller schools," Nielsen move about 50 students said. "They have more opfrom Maple Mountain High portunities to participate in to Spanish Fork High. extracurricular activities, "As we move forward, there is a better student to we want to assure we have administration ratio, and input from all the people more personal awareness who have a stake in that de- to meet the needs of the cision," said Rick Nielsen, students, as well as more room for them to learn." assistant superintendent. Nielsen said the district Nielsen said the district set goals when they first takes into consideration made the decision to split the challenges the kids and Spanish Fork High into two families face in being split other schools. The goals in their schools. They realincluded the following: a ize that it splits communicompetitive curriculum for ties, impacts friendships the students, a comparable and makes student class faculty and staff in each scheduling more difficult. school, and to upgrade ex- It also disrupts teacher asisting schools to keep com- signments and opportuniparable facilities. They also ties. wanted to have all the high The committee met schools initially in the same five years ago to draw the UHSAA classification as boundaries "to the best of 4A schools. (their) abilities," Nielsen "Other considerations said, but substantial changinclude the demograph- es affected the desired re- sults. When the economy fell, it impacted growth patterns. Developers that had planned to bring in large subdivisions walked away. Also open enrollment laws made estimations unpredictable and charter schools have become "part of the landscape." Due to these variables, Spanish Fork High student enrollment is "smaller than projected or desired," and the disparity between the student numbers in each school have created a need to realign boundaries for fall 20To instead of fall 2011. Many of the people in the Jex subdivision came to the hearing to express their concerns over the change. These students have been changed from one junior high to another with the recent boundary changes, and had thought their high school was secure. The district assured the community that the students already enrolled could stay at Maple Mountain if they so desired, and their siblings that would attend in overlapping years would also be given the opportunity to attend Maple Mountain. "This isn't about rivalry between Maple Mountain and Spanish Fork High. It's about what's best for the students," Nielsen said. «l saved big at Shepherd's!", BUY A SOFA GET THE LOVESEAT Shep CARPET & FURNITURE! 801.798.8777 77 EAST I N D U S T R I A L PARK DR. SPANISH FORK In stock regular priced items only. Offer good through April 15,2010. Check out page BIO for more Schools news! SHEPHERDSCARPETS.COM |