Category: News

  • Student Store Offers New Options

    A regular feature at Poly, campus vending machines are now owned and operated by the Student Store in a joint effort between the Activities Office and the Student Store. All-Sports drink machines and Snapple machines have also replaced the Fruit 66 and Gatorade machines.

    Student reactions to this switch are generally favorable.

    “It’s a nice change because I like the options better than the Fruit 66 beverage selection,” said senior Meghan Boterenbrood.

    The vending machines offer cheaper prices with water, Snapple, and All-Sports drinks only $1.00.

    “It’s a better investment all around,” said Student Store assistant Gianna Grisolia.

    The popularity of the cheaper prices was obvious the second day of school with lines at multiple vending machines.

    “Now, the vending machines are more accessible to students, and they have drinks that everybody drinks before and after P.E. and sports, all available at affordable prices,” said senior Breanna Wu.

    Last year the student store raised $4,000 in funds for the school. The added revenue from the vending machines should increase the profits.

    “The new vending machines offer a great healthy selection of beverages that are perfect for fueling us throughout the day,” said junior Ashley Andrews.

  • Cuba Welcomes Poly Jackrabbits

    Daniel Adler and students from his AP Economics class journeyed abroad to the forbidden country of Cuba from June 18 to June 26. The group of 30 spent six days in Havana and two days in Trinidad.

    The trip was planned by Distant Horizons, a travel company that has been located in Long Beach since 1985. Since direct air flight from the US to Cuba is not allowed, the group landed at Mexico City as their intermediary destination to and back.

    From roaming author Ernest Hemingway’s house to swimming in the Bay of Pigs, students had the chance to visit Cuba’s many historic sites including a memorial commemorating the 1953 Cuban Revolution, which brought rise to Dictator Fidel Castro.  They also spent much time interacting with the locals and learning Cuban culture.

    “The most fun part was playing baseball with the high school students in Cuba,” said Mr. Adler.

    Students attended seminars at the University of Havana and listened to speakers discuss the situation of their country and the problems they face. Some speakers were United States expatriates and defectors.

    “One would talk about how the United States needs change, and then another would say that it’s Cuba that needs to change,” said AP US History teacher Patrick Gillogly, who joined Mr. Adler on the trip. “It was an interesting mix of tradition and change.”

    Hiding behind the beautiful beaches and breathtaking scenery of Cuba reveal a country in distress and a firsthand lesson in economics. A victim of a U.S. financial and commercial embargo since 1960, Cuba has suffered in respect to their economy. Tourism remains the country’s most important revenue stream.

    “Our tour guide who lives there [in Cuba] talked about ration cards and how what the government handouts are not nearly enough to survive, let alone live comfortably,” said senior Aida Ylanan.

    The country is still recovering from the Special Period, a severe economic depression after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Soviet Union accounted for a large majority Cuba’s imports and exports, leaving it extremely vulnerable after their fall. Although Cuba is still a communist country, a large portion of the population is pushing for progressive measures and reform. Some private businesses have even received government permission to open.

    “I wanted my students to see an alternative economic system and judge for themselves how well it worked,” said Mr. Adler. “Regardless, the people are the same as us.”

  • New Schedule Dissected

    For the 2013-2014 school year, Poly is implementing a new bell schedule.

    This year’s bell schedule is a mixture of both the traditional and blocks structures.  In a traditional schedule, there are six class periods in a day that last for the entire school year. In a block schedule, students are able to focus more on a few classes rather than spreading their time amongst six or seven classes each day.

    In comparison to last year’s block schedule, this year’s modified block schedule allows all students to receive the same number of instructional minutes in either six or seven periods.

    Students who have periods one to six will meet in each class everyday as given in a traditional schedule.

    As in last year’s block schedule, students with the modified block schedule will alternate between their gold and green block periods; however, there are a few changes featured in the modified block schedule.

    On gold days, students report to their first period.  Nutrition is followed by seventh and ninth period. After lunch, students will go to periods five and six.  On green days, students will report to eighth and tenth period instead after nutrition. Periods one, five, and six will remain the same.

    “The new modified block schedule is a little bit confusing. It will take time to adjust to these new changes,” said senior Nia Salapare.

    According to the new bell schedule, school begins at 7:50 A.M. and ends at 2:40 P.M.—ten minutes earlier than last year’s start and end times.