Jazmin Valdivia, a student in the dance class class at Springville Junior High, is very interested in dance.  Jazmin dances because she loves it. “I dance cause it’s a form of art, and I love all types of art,” said Jazmin.  Jazmin started dancing when she was six years old, and still is going.  Justino Lopez, also a student attending dance at SJHS, is loving dance class.  “I like the dances that I’m learning because the teacher, Mrs. Maughan, is very awesome, and I think that they’re really active,” said Justino.  Justino chose dance as an elective because he wanted to get better at dancing.

If you would like to learn a different language, understand Spanish soap operas and finally be ahead of “Dora la exploradora”  then the Spanish class is right for you. Spanish is available to all grades, for seventh graders it is only an intro course but you can take Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 eight and ninth-grade year; in these courses you will go more in depth into the language. 

At Springville Junior High School, Mr. Ken Van Ausdal is the principal. Mr. Van Ausdal came to be the principal at our school last year and has been an administrator for 15 years. He’s previously been the assistant principal at Eastmont Middle School, West Hills Middle School, Butler Elementary School, and the principal at Salem Elementary School. According to Mr. Van Ausdal, being a principal is challenging, but, at the end of the day it is rewarding. He said, “It’s exceptionally rewarding to see you’ve helped a student.”

Mrs. Monica DIstefano is the Springville Junior High eighth-grade counselor.  She has always loved teens. “Adolescence is a great time. You learn a lot of new things and make memories,” she said. She loves kids and all kinds of people. She likes to be a counselor, and has been counseling for eight years here at SJHS.  What she likes about counseling the most is the fact that you never know what is going to walk into her office. She deals with all kinds of kids with all kinds of attitudes.

Peer Tutors at Springville Junior High School are really getting into helping others. According to Claire Davis, eighth-grade peer tutor, peer tutors get to help other students with spelling, writing and understanding the questions students are asked. Peer tutors also help the students in their homeroom with new words and writing in their journals. Claire also said, “Its fun to help the kids. We get to do a lot of fun stuff, and the students we get to help are so sweet and usually so bright and happy!” 

Mrs. Brenda Bales is our attendance secretary here at Springville Junior High School. According to Mrs. Bales, she has worked at SJHS for seventeen years!  Mrs. Bales said that her favorite thing about working here is “the kids, they keep you young,” and remind her of when she was a kid.

Springville Junior High School is starting their annual track season this month.  A lot of students participate in the track. Seventh, eighth, and ninth graders are able to sign up and take part in track meets. The track team practices every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, after school starting on March 8th, and at 4:30 on Wednesdays at Springville High School.  The practices last at least an hour, sometimes they may last up to an hour and a half. The first meet is on Friday March 30th, at Springville High School.

At Springville Junior High School, there is a system that the school has during both lunches in the lunch room, this is the wheel spin. Kids here say that the wheel spin is super fun. Tyree Strong, a seventh grader at SJHS, says, “During the first week the wheel spin was wildly popular.” 

If you get your stamps for the wheel spin, you can get really cool prizes, like soda, candy, money, a backpack, an iPod, or an iPod gift card. You can earn stamps by coming to school for a whole week, and being kind and nice to other people. 

As students are hearing, rugby is now being played at Springville Junior High school in the boy’s gym. Coach Blanchard, a student teacher from BYU, thought it would be fun to play touch rugby in P.E.  Coach Blanchard, was the one that started rugby at SJHS, and not just that, Coach Blanchard got lots of boys into playing rugby.

Garrett Bradford, an eighth-grade student in P.E, said, “I enjoy playing rugby cause it’s fun.” According to Devon Zabriskie, also an eighth-grade student in P.E, he is excited that rugby is at SJHS. “I love rugby because it is fun, and active,” said Devon. Mr. Michael Parker, teacher of boys’ P.E, hears from lots of students that rugby is so fun, and that they enjoy playing it.

Mrs. Koriane  Maughans’ ninth-grade English classes recently performed a Greek play for their classmates. According to Mrs. Maughan, her classes were reading Homer’s Odyssey and learning about Greek mythology, so they acted it out. Mrs. Maughan said, “We ate nectar and ambrosia (the food and drink of the gods), and they had a good time watching everyone. Each group had props, dressed up, and really performed their plays well