Grafton Globe Newspaper
Winter 2020 Edition
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Bitter is the fallen snow
Of summer’s rains reborn How Mother Nature mustn’t know Of its acquired scorn. Arrival by the dark of night An endeavor kept to eve But soon we meet that dreadful sight Of beauty we shan’t perceive. The sorrow in its deathlike chill Do we now disdain Its figure proves it now but ill That it shall not remain. This year's homecoming games had surprising outcome, with the seniors coming in second to the juniors. Here’s what some students of different grade levels around the school had to say about homecoming week and the games themselves:
How did you feel going into homecoming? Senior: I felt really good! I had heard that a lot of the people in our grade had practiced and that there were tryouts to make sure that everyone was good enough. I was also really excited about the homecoming dance coming back, even though it turned out bad in the end. I felt like out grade was good and that we would win the competitions that took place on Friday. Junior: I felt good, I know that it was rigged anyway, so the same outcome would end up happening each year. Sophomore: I felt fine. I wasn’t nervous or anything so I expected the same outcome as with what usually happens. What was your reaction to the dance coming back? Senior: I was overjoyed! I felt like we could make a better dance happen and that it would be lots of fun for each grade. I think it is cool that our grade got it back for everyone to enjoy. Junior: I was honestly really surprised that they were able to pull it off, seeing that the last one was not that good. and a lot of people got in trouble as well. Sophomore: The dance itself could have been better but it wasn’t awful for my first homecoming dance in high school. Do you feel like homecoming is rigged? Senior: I think a lot of people think it is. I always believed it was until this year. I feel like they announce all of the grades in order from least to first, starting in last with the freshman. But when they announced seniors as second place, I was crushed and so was everyone else. Junior: I feel like homecoming is rigged because every year the seniors seem to win somehow, even if there isn't full participation in the grade throughout the whole week. I still feel like even though us juniors won, that still may have been rigged in some way. Sophomore: Maybe not this year, but for the most part the seniors seem to win. It seems that there are some ways that seniors can rig the events themselves but this year that was not the case. Do you feel like many of the teachers miscount for participation? Senior: I think a lot of teachers do, which is unfortunate. I know in a lot of my classes the teachers were not good at remembering to do it, or would count kids twice because they didn't know what they were doing. Some of them even counted kids that came in late. Junior: I think so, in a lot of my classes the teachers seem to do it by themselves and not mention it, so I am hoping that they are doing it accurate. Sophomore: I think so because a lot of teachers seem to not count exactly. Senior Question: Are you upset about the outcome? I mean yes, it's our senior year and not winning the competitions kind of ruined it for me. Also the juniors kind of rubbed it in our faces which was unnecessary. Junior Question: Are you surprised about the outcome? I never thought that we would actually win that. It has been rigged for years, with the seniors winning every time, so it was really cool that we won and hopefully will next year. Sophomore Question: How did you feel about the outcome of the homecoming games? I wasn’t mad at the results or anything about the results with my grade losing. I’m kind of indifferent to the results of the homecoming games but it was interesting to see a different outcome than expected. Freshman Question: How was your first hoco experience? I think it was so fun! A lot more crazy and exciting than I thought it was going to be. I went into it thinking it was just a dance and a spirit week, but it was a lot more than that! The student parking lot has been a popular area of attention this school year, so I decided to sit down with Mr. Pignataro to talk about the situation. We talked about the details of the student parking lot and the process of how parking permits are given to the students.
So how exactly does the school add new parking sports? Well since the beginning of the year, no parking spaces were added physically, but spaces were still given out to students even after the parking lot was full. Mr. Pignataro explained this process: “Physically we didn’t add any more spaces, they were spaces that were already existent, so what we did is we recounted [the number of unoccupied parking spaces] because we have to make sure that the staff for both the middle school and high school all have a spot, and once we determine that number, then we work our way from there.” After a recounting of the parking spaces is done, they can add more parking spaces from there, as Mr. Pignataro explains: “We need to go out there for probably 3 or 4 days and see how many open spots are there over that period of time. If we find that that there are some spots that are always open, then we can add those spots in.” Mr. Pignataro plans on checking the parking lot during the week of Halloween to see if there are any open spots. And if there are some open spots, he will give those spots to the students that had requested a parking permit, but could not get one because the parking lot was full. Mr. Pignataro emphasized the importance of doing this by bringing up the fact that many juniors will now be starting to get their licenses soon, so there will be a large increase in students that need a parking permit. Another thing that I brought up was the pavement area behind the middle school cafeteria. That pavement area is currently completely open with a lot of space, and I wondered why the school couldn’t just build a parking lot there to add more space. I asked Mr. Pignataro about this and gave me 4 reasons why that couldn’t be done. He explained: “Reason number one is safety. If there was ever an issue at the middle school or high school, could a fire truck get around? If there are so many cars over there, it would just be a safety issue. The second issue is about deliveries. Trucks need to be getting in over there, so that’s why we can’t have people parking there. The third reason is for our special education vans that come in the afternoon, they were having a lot of difficulties getting back there because of the number of cars. The fourth one is that we have the buses going to the back of the building, so we need to have that area clear.” Mr. Pignataro made it very clear why a parking lot can’t be added there. Fire truck entrance, truck deliveries, special ed vans, and the new bus routes all stand in the way of a parking lot addition in that area. I talked to Mr. Pignataro about students parking in the parking lot without a parking permit, and he told me that since the beginning of the year, he has caught ten to twelve people parking without a permit. He anticipated that there could be a chance that number increases, as he will go out and check the parking lot again in the coming weeks. The penalties for parking without a permit are as follows: a warning on the first offense, a $10 fine on the second offense, and on the third offense, the car could get towed. He explained the main problem of kids parking without a permit, as he said, “The kids that paid for a spot get angry if someone else is parking there that didn’t pay for a spot.” I asked if a situation like that happened this year, and he told me that it hasn’t happened yet this year, however, it has happened in previous years. Mr. Pignataro gave me some great details about the parking situation this year, and he made the entire process a lot more clear. Students might expect an increase in parking spots soon because he will check the parking spot to see if there are any extra spots. So if you are a student that couldn’t get a parking permit, don’t lose hope because you may be getting one soon. Football
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February 2020
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