On Thursday and Friday, May 10th and 11th, the SJHS track team left school to compete in the district track meet. The meet was held at Salem Hills High School, and all junior high schools from Nebo School District participated.  According to Anna Gurney, an eighth grader at Springville Junior High School, she likes to see schools compete and see who is best.

SJHS did very well at the Districts!  According to Mr. Strong, long jump coach at SJHS, they placed third overall, set many first places and also set a few district records.  Mr. Strong also said, “In some ways, District Finals is what we work towards all year. Everyone is really trying their hardest to do well.”

Springville Junior High School recently held the monthly Super Knight Assembly. During Super Knight assemblies, two students from each grade who try their hardest in school and are also well behaved receive the Super Knight award. Ricky Moala, a Super Knight in eighth-grade here at SJHS, said, “It felt really good because I know that I did my best in all my classes.” The Super Knights of April were ninth graders: Jacob Rasmussen  and Anna Bunnell, eighth graders: Ricky Moala  and Cheyeann Peterson, and seventh graders: Sean Makin  and Ally Brunson.

Front, left to right: Rachel Dockstader, Cassidy Bowers, Sarah Mitchell, and Betsy Vega.  Back, left to right: Camryn Rouse, Bianca Trujillo, Lexie Pendley, Becca Dickinson, Dr. Rhodes, Luanei Mulipola, and Katie Johnson.

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On April 23rd and 24th, an accreditation review team came to Springville Junior High School. They gave SJHS a very good report! According to Mr. Ken Van Ausdal, SJHS principal, they told SJHS that they were impressed with the wide variety of stakeholders involved in the process, the school leadership, and that the report from SJHS to the review team was professional.

Mr.Shawn Hatfield, science and biology teacher at, has taught at SJHS for 20 years. Mr.Hatfield teaches everything from cells to biology and plants to worm dissection.

According to Cooper Halladay, eighth grader at SJHS, cutting open a worm is harder than most people would think. Mr.Hatfield’s first period science enrichment class had the gross opportunity to dissect worms on April 26, 2012. CJ Haynie, seventh grader at SJHS, said, “Worms are more complex than I thought.” 

There is a brand new P.E unit at SJHS! The administration asked Mrs. Kelly Anderson, PE teacher at SJHS, one thing she wanted to teach, and she picked archery. This is the first time SJHS has done archery, and the students are very excited to learn a new skill. The PE department used grant money to buy the equipment they needed for archery.  Mrs. Anderson, said, “It’s been fun to see the students get excited about archery.” 

Sarah Christensen, eighth-grader at SJHS said, “It feels good shooting the targets and getting a good score.” Most kids seem to like archery, so the school hopes to continue this sport in the coming years.

On April 23, 2012, Mr. Greg Shields, an eighth-grade U.S History teacher here at SJHS,  started teaching his students about the Civil War. Mr. Shields got all dressed up for his lesson by wearing a navy blue Civil War uniform. As students entered into his classroom, they were surprised by his appearance.

Jailena Santiago, an eighth grader, said, “When I first saw Mr. Shields outfit, I thought he was going to play a joke on us.” Tanya Garibay, an eighth grader here at SJHS, said, “I thought he looked handsome in it.”

At Springville Junior High School, staff and students celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week at the end of April. Teacher Appreciation Week was a week where students and PTA parents did activities to show how grateful they are for their teachers. This activity was put together by the PTA parents.

Mrs. Wendy Chipman, the SJHS PTA president, helped with most of the planning for Teacher Appreciation Week. “I planned the drawing, prizes, and thank you notes,” said Mrs. Chipman. She was also involved in giving all the teachers bagels and smoothies.

Every year  Springville Junior High School’s orchestra and many other schools go to Utah Valley University one day in May for a six hour long festival. In this festival, many schools perform and are judged on their performance. After the performances, the judges go up on stage to help the orchestra improve. “It’s an opportunity to go and be judged on all of the work you have done over the year. It’s a good learning experience,” said Alyssa Oman, eighth grade orchestra student at SJHS.

Springville Junior High School’s boys and girls choirs recently performed in the Nebo District Intermediate Choir Festival, along with four other schools: Mapleton, Spanish Fork, Mt. Nebo, and Payson Junior High Schools. Mrs. Leslie Walker, choir teacher at SJHS, said, “Each choir sang three songs. Then the judge came up and helped the choirs with a particular thing that he thought they needed to work on.” This choir festival was held at SJHS in the auditorium. 

The Service Learning students at Springville Junior High School have just finished a big project at SJHS. The students cleaned and fixed up the courtyard at SJHS. According to Mrs. Adrienne Murray, service learning teacher at SJHS, she was excited to help the school and the students with their service project. Tyler Johnson, Bailey Bird, Jacqueline Bradford, and Christopher Esklund were in charge of this project. These students planned and designed the landscape.