Several SJHS students and teachers celebrated the start of spring and the end of winter by going to the Color Festival. The Color Festival was held on Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25 at the Sri Sri Radna Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork, Utah.  The point of the Color Festival is to celebrate the end of winter and the start of spring. At the Color Festival, attendees buy chalk that comes in  many different colors and throw it on others.  People in small groups are seen singing, dancing and throwing colors on each other.

Mrs. Erica Persson’s dance class salsa danced with Mr. Michael Parker’s Boys P.E. class at the end of March. Mrs. Persson thought that the boys and girls would have fun dancing together, and she was right! According to Caden Swendson, a ninth-grade student at Springville Junior High School, it was fun because a lot of the kids thought that they were too cool to dance, and that made it really funny. Caden also said his favorite step was “when the boys got to spin.”

There are a lot of different opinions about dancing. Some like it and some don’t. Sometimes it’s a fast learning process, and sometimes it’s slow. Caden said, “Some steps were fast and easy, but others seemed impossible.”

Mrs. Courtney Droz, a ninth-grade counselor, is very interested in counseling at SJHS. “I enjoy working with the students here, they’re all amazing and wonderful kids, and I love to get to know them.”  Claire Bunnell, a ninth-grade student, is always at Mrs. Droz office. According to Claire, she loves to go to see Mrs. Droz and talk to her, because she is so chillaxed, nice, and you could tell her anything you want.

Mr. David Rencher is the Introduction into manufacturing teacher, also called woodshop, at SJHS.  Mr. Rencher, said, ”I really love working with my hands and working with the problems that come with that kind of work.” Mr. Rencher has spent his whole teaching career at SJHS; he has been here for 20 years. Mr. Rencher, got his Master's and Bachelor’s Degrees both at BYU. “Woodshop is one of the things I did really well when I was in junior high,” Mr. Rencher said. 

A new assistant principal has just come to Springville Junior High School. Mr. B.J. Wright was assigned to come to SJHS by BYU. He has taught third and sixth grade at Wilson Elementary School in Payson. According to Mr. Wright, he had the opportunity to be an intern principal at Riverview Elementary in Spanish Fork, as well as Lehi High School, in addition to here at SJHS. 

Did you ever wonder how the journalism class writes their articles? At Springville Junior High School, we have a school newspaper. That’s thanks to Ms. Tiffanie Miley, teacher of the journalism class at SJHS. The journalism class is in charge of writing articles and taking pictures for the newspaper. Ms. Miley created the system used to write an article. If the articles are well-written enough, they can be entered into the Springville Independent News, and maybe published in the next issue. Here’s how journalism students a journalism article.First, the student starts out with a brainstorm. They figure out what they already know, what they need to know, and who they can interview.

On the morning of April 5, Springville Junior High’s eighth-grade Chamber Orchestra students were practicing with the New Horizons orchestra at Springville High School. The New Horizons orchestra is composed of older adults that are just learning to play string instruments.The concert followed that very night at 7:30. First up was the Chamber Orchestra, then New Horizons. After that they played a couple of numbers together. 

This annual concert was conducted by Dr. Sam Tsugawa and Mr. Andrew Dabczynski. Dr. Andrew Dabczynski is Professor of Music Education and director at BYU; he is also co-author of “String Explorer,” a musical theory book used by SJHS orchestra students.

Springville Junior High School has a Chinese class. The class is for eighth and ninth graders only.  According to Bethany Allen, ninth grader at SJHS, everyday when class starts, the “president” of the class, goes and rings the gong. Everybody bows, then they say, “lao-shi-hao”, which means “good morning teacher” in Chinese. Then everybody sits down. Bethany said, “I like being in the Chinese class because who else can say, ‘I know Chinese’?” Hannah Bray, ninth grader at SJHS, said, “I like the Chinese class because we do lots of cultural stuff, we eat food, and have parties!” 

As spring break drew closer, students and staff at Springville Junior High started planning on what to do for the week long break. “This year I went to Bear Lake with all of my husband’s family,” said Mrs. Koriane Maughan, English and dance teacher here at SJHS. “We went swimming, golfing, and played games.”

Spring break was on Monday April 9th and continued through the rest of that week. It ended on Friday, April 13th. According to Taylor Stubblefield, an eighth grader here at SJHS, her favorite memory from spring break is camping. “Swimming and camping are my favorite things about spring break,” said Taylor.

Students at Springville Junior High School attended the State Archery Competition in Salt Lake City during the month of February. The competition was held February 11,2012 in a grand hall at the Salt Palace. According to Mrs.Kelly Anderson, P.E. teacher at SJHS, this was the first year SJHS was able to attend a state competition for archery. “Over 200 students statewide went, 17 from our school, and it was killer fun!” said Mrs.Anderson.