KUGR-TV Network

By Darinka Morfin- Staff Writer

Are you safe in your own classroom ? In a recent interview with some of our very own Newark
Memorial teachers and students. We asked for their thoughts on the schools carpets. “It’s
nasty,it's shabby, it's really dirty, and old. It bothered me,cause I really care about the
environment i'm in, it's a second home and I also know that the kids have to be in here and it
just seems a little disrespectful to me even towards the kids”, said Mrs.Rojo who by the looks of
it, agrees that the carpets are not in good conditions. “The carpets are so 1970s, some reek,
they probably have fleas under them. They are bad for the kids,”
said another teacher, when the same question was asked to students, Senior Charesse
Navarez burst out with “Disgusting”, and “Gross” added Senior Caroline Gonzalez. When asked
about the state of the carpets Vice Principal Mr.Holm said
no new carpets will be installed any time soon, hopefully in the future, because they will
eventually get old and will need to be replaced. The school's main priority is the kids education,
money is going towards better technology and supplies. Carpets are not the main focus.

How much school spirit do you have? Spirit week has been going on at NMHS ever since the school opened back in 1983. During spirit week, each grade level chooses a theme in which they will create a performance that includes dance, props, and costumes. While dressing up is fun and shows which students have the most spirit, everyone’s favorite part of Spirit Week is the skits. Each class must choose a theme to go off of for their skits/dance off. These skits give students the opportunity to bring out their competitive sides as well as imagination and battle it out on the dance floor in order to win best performance. Students devote countless hours into this one week of performances. Since 1983, classes have worked hard to prepare for the day of the week that they perform their skits. Clearly, spirit week has become a tradition at NMHS as many other schools share similar traditions. However in 2012, tradition changed. Unfortunately, students had begun taking advantage of the sleepless nights devoted to the skits and the performances soon became too much to handle. For the best interest of the students, the skits were taken away despite some objection from students. In return for the change in Spirit Week, we were given an activity to do which was dodgeball. Students were given the opportunity to create teams with other students from their class. With those teams, each class would compete with each other. The overall winning team would then compete against a dodgeball team composed of teachers. It seemed students did enjoy the whole dodgeball idea however it did not compare to the tradition of Spirit Week. The following year, each class was given the opportunity to choose a movie and have an incorporated dance off (including a small skit) against the other classes. Each class performed their dances in one assigned day and the winner was then revealed at the homecoming game. The dance off between each class has seem to stick with the students, so they will be continuing it this year. Spirit week is a tradition that will never die despite the changes we have faced in the past couple years. It is a week where school spirit is demonstrated and brings all students and teachers together.