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Show AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Thursday. August 25, 2005 n'i tes! Page 4 I ' V J A N D IDEAS Renovations complete at Additions include 25 classrooms, three computer labs, greenhouse Sherilyn Frost Besides ( hanging grades, siiiiliiiis ;il American Fork High S( hool U-gan their i lasses on Monday with many oi her ( hanges in the s h'xil ili'-y Iffi last spring. Alicr otic year ol new con-'.t con-'.t ruction and p-modeling, Hughes (x-neral Contractors hand'-d over the keys to the ij'w wing mi Aug 17. Many teachers qui kly (x'gan moving mov-ing into their new lassnxims in anticipation ol the lirst day ot school, just a lew days laH'IV Willi a projected student UkIv ol I .MiO. the new building build-ing and remodeled rooms are a welcome addition. I he new building Imasts 2? ( lassrooms and three new computer labs The two-story building houses the business, social studies, math and foreign for-eign language departments. A new hand room was also part ol the new construction and was ompleted last spring. The band room has been in use all summer and director John Miller foresees many new and lasting mernor ic-s to be built there The old band room now houses the schools orchestra ami ercussion In addit ion to the new con-si con-si ruction, several rooms were r emodeled io create a new counseling ( enter. It is now Iik ated just across the hall from the main office and sup-I sup-I Kids four student counselors, a sei retary and the registrar. I he science rooms were also remodeled and in some ases. walls were kntx ked out to expand some rooms A new gr eenhouse was also constructed near the science rooms, which will te used f or hands-on classroom assignments as-signments and observation. Hie new AC biology teacher, I h an Blackball), plans to integrate the greenhouse into her curriculum. She plans to hav e her students grow the plants they will need to use for dissecting. Other tea hers, including Jay Allen and Mk belle ( rmond, also are making plans to put the greenhouse to good use. Further aesthetic tout lies have been completed including includ-ing new lighting that has brightened (he school. Iitrons and students will also notice new landscaping in the f ront ol the school. While mostly complete, some finishing torn lies still need to In- added. iik Imlmg shrubs and f lowers. Assistant principal Lynn (lei rati said. "'Hie contractors liave U-en gre.u to work with and we are really pleased with how everything has turned out." Alpine School District starts off with 54,000 plus students To handle growth, three new elementary schools start with construction nextyear Elisabeth Nardi The school hells have runtf. new notelMN)ks have ecn purchased pur-chased and ll is officially back-to-school for the fourth largest school district in the state All of Alpine School IXstnct's HI schools and grades began class Monday, except for kindergartners. kin-dergartners. who start next week District officials say they arc continuing to grow and their preliminary numlx-rs show that tlie distrid is bigger than its ever Ixt-n with more than 53-1 . M M) students cur rently enrolled. Jim Hansen, director of budgeting bud-geting and student accounting for the district, said more exact numU'rs won't come out until after Lalxr l)ay and official numlxTs aren't due until (X1o-ler (X1o-ler And while the district dx-s estimate how many students there will !x there are a lot of variables ih.it can change the exact number of students in attendance at-tendance One reason Is some FROM CLASSROOMS A N D EDUCATORS V'A V V... . V" jd I f vU V i.lf 1 -' "Vl J -3 7 v - AX Photos by FRANK BOTTNorth County American Fork High Cavemen students wulk down the stairs of the new school wing Monday afternoon on their way to the first lunch hour of the new school year. The new wing of the school is made up of math and language classes along with some physiology classes. Below, American Fork High junior Trevor Whit lock shows ohis new Adidas shoes to anyone who might be interested while, from left to right, seniors Amanda Dastrep, McKell Ferguson and Kuru Kuwukumi talk about their classes and the new school year. J IK! parents are in from out of state and don't know when schxl starts. Hansen said. Another thing that could affect af-fect sch(xl numbers is there are some new charter schxls in the area which will mean less children chil-dren in Alpine Schixl District atxiut M less, Hansen said. But even with charter schcxils being built, growth dx-sn't seem to Ixe slowing down. In fad. according to an Alpine Sclvxil District Special Hejxirt that was put out this month, the district estimates there will be an additional 2.093 students enrolled during the 20M-07 schixil year. That would mean the highest student population popu-lation for the distrid ever. But again, the district really won t know until that schixl year starts. Hansen said "We keep going and we are bigger than we were last year, so unless something hapns. we will Ix? bigger next year." he said "We make those projections projec-tions based on the birth rate i j ; . ,1 ,S to M of children. We know that the birth rate has increased every year since five years back." To handle the growing pains, three new schtxils are scheduled to Ix? built next year. The district dis-trict plans to build new elementary elemen-tary schools in Lehi, Saratoga Srings and Highland and they should be under coastrudion sometime early next year. Announced last year, each sch(x)l will cost between $9 million mil-lion and $10 million. The new schools will be the last financed through a S200 million Ixjnd approved ap-proved by voters in 19!r9. The 1999 bond funded eight elementary elemen-tary sch(X)ls and two middle schools, as well as additions and renovations to other schools all within the past five years. Hansen said there are some very full schrxds this year but the district adds portable class-rxms class-rxms to handle the overflow until the new sch(xLs are built. For example at Snow Springs Elementary, portable units there were never taken away after Saratoga Shores was built. But this year Snow Springs is again using those units and has about 1.2(H) students normal capacity capac-ity is H(K) to 1.000 students. rr x i i I I I M 7 -7 r , ? i ' ' If i It . - - f-i AFHS IM, .7, 7 i 1 trrr-rr New year, students set good, lasting Caveman Mason Porter NORTH COUNT V SlAlf It's been a summer full of traveling, sleeping in, summer jobs and reading Harry Potter (at least for me), and sadly it has come to an end. Sleep will become a rarity rar-ity once again, especially for myself, since I have to be at school recording the morning announcements at too early o'clock in the morning. Oh yes, the upcoming school year has much in store for the American Fork High School student: new classes, teachers, opportunities, responsibilities and even a new building. Last Friday was sophomore orientation, and everyone there could feel and see the excitementhorrornerves ex-citementhorrornerves of the fresh arrivals. I could tell right then that this year is going to be one to remember. The sports teams are looking good. The drama department is planning some excellent plays including "Urinetown" and ALLSCHpOLS There will be no school on Monday, Sept. 5 due to the Labor La-bor Day holiday. AMERICAN FORK HIGH SCHOOL 'Hello' week activities welcome students back A "Hello" assembly will be held Friday, Aug. 26 to introduce intro-duce "Hello" week, which runs Aug. 29 through Sept. 2. The event sponsored by the student stu-dent body officers will feature several lunchtime activities and end with a "Hello" dance on Sept. 2 from 8:30 to 11 p.m. The dance will follow the football foot-ball game against East High at AFHS beginning at 7 p.m. I Yearbook and ID pictures Cory Adams Photography will take yearbook and ID pictures Aug. 30 and 31 in the English classes. All students should plan to have their picture taken regardless of whether or not they purchased an activity card or had senior pictures taken. AMERICAN FORK JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL Ninth-grade students to receive hearing tests Hearing testing for ninth-grade ninth-grade students will be held on Monday and Tuesday. I Yearbook and ID pictures Yearbook and ID pictures will be taken Sept. 1 and 2. Make-up pictures will be taken on Oct. 3. I New policies on absences To help ensure the safety of our students, parents will be required to come to the attendance at-tendance office to sign their student out of school. Students may not be checked out over the phone or with a note. GREENWOOD ELEMENTARY Book fund-raiser to begin The school-wide Gold C book fund-raiser begins today and will run through Sept. 8. Students will be bringing home a copy of the Gold C book and order forms. For your child's safety, please have your student talk with friends, neighbors and relatives rela-tives about the Gold C book rather than sending them door-to-door. I Early out every Monday Parents, please be reminded that every Monday is early out day and students will be dismissed at 2:30 p.m. in order to support the district wide teacher collaboration. I Hearing tests Sept. 8 Hearing Hear-ing testing is scheduled for Sept. 8 beginning at 9 a.m. and caveman of I want everyone in our class to remember remem-ber a feeling of Caveman pride..." JeffToone STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT "Beauty and the Beast." The band, as always, is looking forward for-ward to an excellent year. And the faculty and student council officers have been, and will be, hard at work throughout the year to ensure that everybody makes the most of their educational educa-tional experience and has a fun time doing it. At a recent regional Student Body Officer get together, former for-mer principal Glen Clark, the guest speaker, told all of the of will run all day. SHELLEY ELEMENTARY School welcomes principal Students, staff and faculty are pleased to welcome their new principal Cindy Grace. Previous to coming to Shelley, her assignments have been with the district office. I Early out every Monday Parents, please remember that every Monday is early out day. Track 1 students will be dismissed at 1:15 p.m. and track 2 students will be dismissed dis-missed at 2:30 p.m. BARRATT ELEMENTARY Kindergarten begins with 'Cookies and , Kleenex' Kindergarten begins on Aug. 29. Our traditional "Cookies and Kleenex" will be offered to all our new kindergartners and their parents. 'Back-to-School' night "Back-to-School" night will be held on Sept. 1 beginning at 6 p.m. Detailed information informa-tion will be sent home with . students. I Afternoon tea A Room Mothers' Tea will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 7 at 3:45 p.m. ALPINE SCHOOL DISTRICT New school boundaries Alpine School District will begin selecting boundaries in October for the three new elementary schools opening in the district with the 2006-2007 school year. The schools are located in Saratoga Springs, Highland and Lehi. Time line for the boundary selection was announced at the Aug. 16 meeting of the district dis-trict board of education. A preliminary meeting will be held on Oct 7, with the first official boundary committee meeting scheduled for Oct. 18. The second meeting will be Nov. 1, and the third on Nov 15. Options will be presented to the school board on Nov. 29. This will be followed by presentation pre-sentation to the Parent Teacher Teach-er Association presidents Dec. 5 to 16. A boundary open house will be held on these same dates, and the fourth official boundary committee meeting held on Dec. 19. Board members will discuss the options at their Jan. 10, board meetings with action taken at the Jan. 24 board meeting. Principals for the new schools will be named at the end of January. Naming of the schools will follow after staff and PTA officials are named. to provide memories ficers from around the region -that we are memory makers, and the most important part of our job as student body officers of-ficers is to make sure that we make everybody's high school memories positive ones. Student body President Jeff Toone said he thought the advice ad-vice was good. "We only go through high school once, and we should try to make the most of it," he said. "If everyone gets involved in the school, reaching out to each other, it will unify the school and make a big difference differ-ence in how people remember high school. It's not always the people that are remembered, but the feelings, and I want everyone in our class to remember remem-ber a feeling of Caveman pride when they look back 20 years from now." Monday morning 1,500 students stu-dents walked through the doors of American Fork High School, and when they leave they will carry with them a strong sease of Caveman Pride. POOR |