The Mariner Compass

By Akane Fujimura

  The Homer High School choir, swing choir, jazz band and band performed their Fall Concert on October 24, 2011 in the Mariner Theater.

  After 10 weeks of practice, the choir performed six songs, including “Lacrymosa” from the Mozart’s Requiem. It honored the 10th anniversary of 9.11.

  The song called “Dulaman” was absent, as Owen Duffy, one of the soloists, was absent that day. “He worked so hard on his solo part to prepare for the concert,” said Mr. Robinson, the choir teacher. Owen will have a second chance performance to perform the song in the Spring Concert.

  Members of the audience said the swing choir and the jazz band performed well. Tian-En-Liu, a sophomore in the jazz band, noted the “Moonlight Serenade” performance. “I think we did very well and the dynamic was perfect. We should perform together again at the next concert.”

  “We did way better than we did in practice,” Molly Duggan, a junior in the band said. “Especially in a song called ‘The Blue and the Gray’, the clarinets and the flutes pulled out together nicely, which was awesome. I really enjoyed the concert.”

  All the musicians started to work on the Winter Concert songs right away. It’s coming December 12.

On Saturday, October 29th, a string quartet exemplifying a divergence of cultures, will perform at the Mariner Theater.  The New York  based group– Sweet Plantain — originally consisted of Eddie Venegas (violin/trombone), Orlando Wells (viola), David Gotay (cello), and Romulo Benevidas (violin).  

Sweet Plantain’s performances are comprised of original compositions, modern Latin compositions and arrangements of classical chamber music for use by the group.  Although their arrangements preserve the integrity of classical string pieces, Sweet Plantain manages to seamlessly integrate contemporary music styles into performances.  Common, distinct cultural influences are evident, but no single genre is overly prominent.  Performance pieces that Sweet Plantain composed reflect the artists’ musical preferences and varying ethnic exposure, while still revolving around the classical training each member received, at one point or another.

Sweet Plantain is starting a tour of Alaska, commencing in Juneau.  The tour will consist of three weeks of performances and workshops, set apart by residencies in Fairbanks and Anchorage.  After the workshop and outreach programs at the Homer Senior Center, Sweet Plantain will head over to Seldovia, then up to Anchorage for a four day residency.  The innovative quartet is continuing their tour of Alaska in Kodiak, Cordova and finally Fairbanks for a second residency.  

Both Eddie and Romulo hail from Venezuela, yet attended college in the Tri-State area.  David Gotay grew up in the Bronx, where hip-hop and rap originated.  Orlando Wells is from New Jersey, he graduated from LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan.  Orlando went to S.U.N.Y. Purchase, later returning to New Jersey to attend the Mason Gross School of Arts in Rutgers.  Earl Maneein, another violin player, also performs with Sweet Plantain from time to time.  

Eddie Venegas and his highly talented cohorts strive to enlighten musicians across America, gaining recognition in the process.  Sweet Plantain, as a collective, thinks outside the box.  By teaching students to break from the confines of measures, intonation markings, and stanzas, the group has attained quite a reputation as mentors.  Techniques for sustaining a groove or pulsating rhythm, give students and members of the quartet room to improvise.  Passing on improvisational skills along with the ability to listen and learn from other musicians.

Time and time again, Sweet Plantain displays the value of their unusual teaching methods and innovative performances.  Each song has contrasting melodies varying influences from Jazz, Latin, and Hip-hop backgrounds.  Custom arrangements bring a ‘sweet’ flavor to classical pieces.  Their repertoire of genre defying compositions, has enlightened musicians all over the East Coast.  Now Sweet Plantain turns to Alaska, and other portions of America often neglected in tours, bestowing new concepts, philosophies, and performance skills upon Alaskans.  Or at least giving musicians in Alaska an opportunity to learn.

By: Kenley Kingrey

                Walking up the steps to the front entrance of Homer High School you can see trees, the bike rack, bushes, lights, and the other students walking into to the school.  Now something may seem different with the bike rack, why are there bikes that have our school colors painted on them?  What are the bikes there for?  And who uses them?

                The blue and gold bikes have been at Homer High and at the college since last spring.  The college gave them to the high school so that any student or community member will be able to use them throughout the day.  So they are here, but what happens to them throughout the day?

                “The blue and gold bikes are supposed to be community bikes.  They are locked up at night, and then unlocked during the day so that people can use them throughout town.  When they are done with the bikes they can return them to the high school or the community college, and will then be locked up for the night,”  said Mrs. Fisher, Homer High student council supervisor.

                So the blue and gold bikes are here for the students of Homer High to use, but are also here for any community member who likes to bike.  Students who bike have taken notice to the bikes and are willing to use them, but students that don’t bike most likely don’t know they’re there.  Biking is a great pass time and is a part of Homer’s pass time.

By: Phillip Whitney

Our maintenance budget is $0, nothing, nada, zip. When Homer High needs something done around the school, they have to submit a work order to the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Once the work order has been submitted, it enters a queue based on importance, a broken door ranks lower than a broken toilet. The work order is also based upon the cost to the Borough, a broken boiler is more likely to be fixed and not replaced.

The Boilers in the back room!

                While the school attempts to save electricity, and recycle, all the money saved gets poured back into the fuel tanks. The school spends about $1700 every two weeks, approximately $40,800 a year, said Diane Larson.  To save more energy the school would need replacements to all of our energy using items such as lights, and boilers. But to even begin doing that the school would need the funding from the Borough. The borough meanwhile will continue to use the same equipment.

The school needs new boilers, a new track, a new handicapped ramp, and a new roof. The school is being charged more for its fuel oil, than average cost, based on the soul fact that its boilers are so inefficient. The old track has been condemned and if it doesn’t get fixed or replaced them we cannot have home footballs games. The handicapped ramp does not meet federal code and is too steep. The roof is slowly being penetrated by the expansion and contraction of the wood shingles and if it doesn’t get replaced then the school will have a leaky roof. Dr. Gee has commented about all of these items and said that it’s either up for bid, or the work order is being processed. 

So the school is stuck, waiting for the borough to come up with the money necessary to repair and or replace equipment around the school. They cannot take action against this because neither of them have the funding for such improvements, but they will keep searching for the money, and any if not all the replacements will be several years in the future.

By Michael de Moura

Homer High School has, once again, deviated from the common path of American public schools.  Lofty academic scores and a varied selection of extra-curricular activities could no longer suffice.  Homer High’s administrative staff decided to raise the grading standards from a 60 percent passing grade to a minimum of a 70 percent in all classes.  Grading standards at HHS are now higher than any other public school on the Peninsula.  Requiring students to maintain a C-average manages to raise the overall precedence of Homer High graduates. Doctor Gee had this to say: “I care about the kids enough to push them… there is no excuse, because help is available.”

By altering the basis of a passing grade, Homer High School ensures every graduate receives a bare minimum of $2,378 per year in scholarship money.  All Alaska Performance Scholarships are applicable in any level of college, and even special interest job training programs, which prepare students for careers ranging from barbers to heavy machinery operators.   Graduating with a 3.5 GPA and an ACT score equivalent to a 1680 on the SAT entitles Alaskan students to $4,755 per year, on top of Honors program scholarships.  “Wouldn’t it be nice to walk across the stage and give every student a scholarship”, said Doctor Gee.

Students of Homer High already score higher on standardized tests, than the majority of Alaskans.  Motivating students to do homework assignments, raise daily grades and keep improving as time goes by, better preparing alumni for college.  The academic upheaval resulting from new grade requirements, will impact Homer High School and its registrants as a whole.

Some students may struggle to maintain passing grades, in the future.  However, all students with copacetic and adequate grades, alike, will enjoy immense benefits from the expectations established by “Raising the Bar”.  Out of the 51 football players, only two were ineligible this year.  An astonishing feat, accomplished in part by Coach Wyatt’s stern practice demands.  If anyone on the football team was not passing a class, instead of practicing, they would attend after school tutoring.

Paul Story, an intervention counselor, and Mr. Gutzler are available four days a week until 4:30 P.M. to help students recover before grade checks.  Tutoring paired with intervention counselors, tasked to bring up failing grades and nullify excuses, are capable of ensuring that all students pass their classes.  So if anybody is having a hard time coping with new grading standards, there’s always concerned staff of teachers present to accommodate student’s academic needs.

By Matthew Meyer

Anyone who goes to HHS has seen these beams at least once while walking in the Commons. What most people don’t know is that these beams were not meant to carry the gigantic skeleton of a sperm whale. They were actually meant to support a third floor.

“Believe it or not,” stated Dr. Gee, “the third floor was originally supposed to be used for racquetball.”

There would’ve been four courts divided by walls, where the beams form an X. There would have been another hallway above the elevator. Students could have accessed this floor via vocational hallway stairs.

This project was not completed due to lack of funding, and it is unclear as to whether or not that the Borough will finish building the third floor.  When Pam Newton was asked, “if they were going to finish the third floor what would it be used for?” She replied, ”Realistically, we should put in a skylight and turn it into an astrology class.”

We can only imagine what it could be.

By Isabelle De Armoun

Photography around the Commons might catch your eyes and you might ask yourself: why are these photographs around the school? “Photo of the week” is why!

In the last couple years, Pam Newton, year book adviser, came up with a new way of using extra time that’s not being spent on the yearbook to decorate the school walls with student photography.

Every week Pam gives her students a theme to focus on for the picture of the week, for example; fall leaves reflection of an image. This week’s theme is mug shots. At the end of the week Pam looks through all the photos submitted and chooses the first one that sparks her eye. Then she frames the photo and hangs it around the school.

Not only is the photography displayed around the school but also in the yearbook. Pam says that organization, creative energy and drive helps the yearbook be the best it can. Goldie Shealy is the epitome of this, spending many hours organizing and planning the book, assigning jobs and let’s not forgets the amazing photos she’s known for. In Goldie’s eyes “a good photo is a photo with purpose “

Pam feels that the photography around the school gives kids a sence of pride and ownership about their school. Being able to see their friends and even themselves around the school ,groups of kids  gawk at the photos every time one is posted.

Sam Reinert, a junior says, that he “especially enjoys the photos that are school related”, he likes being able to see his fellow students and  it makes him even prouder to be a Mariner.

-By Kikilia Kojin

(Pictured: Megan Shover and Adriane Huff)

“It makes you want to . . . scream, cry, and hurry, and quit! Sometimes I want to pull my hair out. [The effects on my grades are] horrible. I usually fail [a test],” reminisced Debra Altman, a sophomore, who is personally associated with test anxiety.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 25.1% of children ages 13-18 have an anxiety disorder and 5.9% of children ages 13-18 have a severe anxiety disorder, including test anxiety.

What exactly is test anxiety? “It’s real. It’s a lot of internal pressure that students put on themselves. It’s a combination of two things: fear of failure and fear of letting people down. They get nervous, anxious. They start hyperventilating and getting scared,” explained Lin Hampson, the counselor.

“People don’t like to take tests and they start to freak out. They don’t want other people to finish before them. It affects them a lot. They won’t do well on their test,” shared Abby Gilliam, a junior.

Imagine the effect this has on students with the anxiety. Gilliam continued, “Stress goes up a lot. They have to totally change their schedule. It changes their attitudes.”

“High school is anxiety producing. It’s really difficult in class, particularly where test grades count a lot. It pulls grades down and it affects stress level horribly. You work really hard, show up to class everyday, really know the material, and then you come in and fail the test. It’s not good for anyone’s self-esteem,” observed Hampson.

According to Utah State university, “for some students, test anxiety is so intense that it negatively affects their academic success.”

So how do teachers adjust to situations where students are too anxious to do well on a test? “They pull them out of the classroom, away from the rest [of the students to take the test]. They also can schedule for a different time,” remarked Gilliam.

“They can provide different ways for a student to do well. Some teachers count homework or extra projects. Some teachers have alternate assessments, or book reports, projects, or they throw out the worst test score,” implied Hampson.

“Taking the test by your self won’t reduce the stress. For the rest of your life, there aren’t many tests. High school is the time of the most tests. College is less and at your job, there’s none. . .” concluded Hampson. Students with test anxiety can see negative impacts on their academic success, but if their teachers are informed, they will receive the help they need to be more successful in high school, so that tests aren’t an obstacle.

By Mallory Drover

On September 24th, 2011, the Homer High football team made history when they beat Kenai for the first time in 19 years. The Homecoming game was an intense clash of wills, a battle that went into double overtime accumulating a 21-14 Mariner victory. Dozens of fans swarmed from the bleachers to congratulate the players on the field, and school spirit was never higher.

On October 15th, the Homer High football team faces their all time rivals, the Kenai Cardinals, for the second time at Chugach High School for the State Championship.

The cheerleaders raising their banner to support the Mariners during the Homecoming game against their rivals.

“The first time we beat Kenai in 19 years is the reason we’re going to state, and we’re also playing Kenai at state,” said ballgirl Kirsten Swanson as she talked about the upcoming game. “[The game] is gonna be close. It’s going to be really, really close, I honestly don’t know who’s going to win.”

In the existence of Homer High School, the Mariner’s football team has never gone to the State Championship. The team has gone to the semi-finals within the past few years, but never reached the championship. Coach Wyatt said “This is what they work hard for. Our program’s been in existence for about 25 years, and we’ve never ever been to the big show. This is the big show.”

As the pressure builds and the game approaches, players and fans alike prepare for the championship and reflect on how far they’ve come. “It’s about having that feeling that you were in the championship game, and if you win the championship game that’s just something that’s going to keep with you forever. You’re going to have a championship ring, and it’s going to be a great feeling,” said senior Deven Kennelty, receiver. “This is the first time that Homer was ever in the championship game, and this is the best season that our football team has ever seen. It’s very mind blowing that we’re actually there, and this team has worked very hard.”

Sarah D’Water, self proclaimed ‘superfan’ for the team said “This weekend is going to be incredible. We have the team with the biggest heart, and I think that it’s going to help them pull through. And they’ve got Hoss, who is a fearless leader and would, like, die, like, seriously he would die for those boys on the team, and I think that that’s what’s going to pull through for them.” As Sarah said this, her eyes were wide with excitement and she waved her hands around in illustration.

“We’re going to have to work a lot harder. Everyone has high expectations for us. It’s a lot of pressure, since we’ve gone this far,” explained Travis Smith, another player on the team. His friend and teammate, Brad Langvardt, agreed with the seriousness in preparation of the approaching game, “The coach is really serious this week. He doesn’t take any joking around. It’s kinda tough.”

With the championship in Anchorage staring the students in the eye, excitement and school pep is on the constant rise. In support of the team, Friday became Blue and Gold Day, and an inpromptu assembly was planned.

“I think that because they’ve had such a great season, that it’s increasing school spirit,” Sarah D’Water continued. “I’ve noticed that after every game more people are showing up, more people are getting pumped up, more people have school pride, they have pride in the Mariners and the football team. They believe that we’re capable of pulling off something like this. I am behind them 100% of the way. 110! This is the year we’re going to do it, because this is the most amazing group of guys, and this is it.”

                               By: Tabitha Drover

                     The school requires every student who drives and parks at the school to get a parking sticker. They start out the process by going to the office and get a parking permit paper, then they fill it out some information like the license number and get their parent to sign off, and then hand it into the office and get an assigned sticker.  

             But why go through this task? Some kids such as Monique Escolta, a senior, says  “I don’t even know what it’s for.” Kids have to go through this task and they don’t even know why.

                   However, some kids find it annoying but understand it’s to protect the school. Some kids even talk about how it can keep them safe and even if it’s an long and grueling process that it’s for their own protection.

  Dr.Gee, Principal, said “It’s all about your (students)  safety. We’ve had kids and adults that don’t attend this school on campus, doing things that are not legal. And we want to make sure this is a safe campus for you. So we are able to identify cars here, ones that do not have stickers, we contact the police and they can inform us the owner of the vehicle. That gives us an opportunity to do trespass warnings to keep them off campus, or allow them to be on campus if there is a reason.”
    Regardless of students opinion, the stickers will stay until Dr.Gee says otherwise.