For many years, students have been designing the yearbook for Springville Junior High School. According to Ms. Rachel Neeley, yearbook advisor, SJHS has the yearbook so students may look back on their junior high years and remember them. 

To get into the yearbook class, students fill out an application that asks questions like why they want to be in the yearbook class. Ms. Neeley and the current yearbook class will interview the applicants and pick seven to ten students to be in the yearbook class. According to Ms. Neeley, the class is small because its easier to keep track of assignments and she gets to know the students better. 

Springville Junior High School has started a new program called advisory. Advisory is 20 minutes between third and fourth period on Mondays where students will stay in their third period teacher’s classroom.

During that time, students are able to plan where they will go during Quest Time for the week. It is also a time when the teachers can teach the students lessons on how to become responsible citizens.  According to Mr. Ken Van Ausdal, principal at SJHS, during advisory students are able to get extra help and learn social skills. Advisory also helps students adjust to junior high.

On October 7th, six Springville Junior High School students named were called up on stage during an assembly to receive an award for being great students.  Mason Merrill and Miriam Burrell, ninth-grade students, Sarah Rawle and Oakley Call, eighth-grade students, and Lela Packard and Jake Rowland, seventh-grade students were named “Super Knights.” 

In eighth or ninth grade students have an option to take sewing. Students get to make tons of fun and helpful things such as pajama bottoms, a school bag, and an apron. Katya Fullmer, a eighth-grade student at SJHS, said, “I enjoy sewing a lot, and it’s one of my favorite classes.” Mrs. Diane Bird, the sewing teacher at SHJS, said, “Sewing is so fun and teaching it to kids is great, because it teaches them to do something with their hands.”

At Springville Junior High School, a new thing is happening in the P.E. classes. Mr. Michael Parker, boys’ P.E. teacher at SJHS, came up with the idea at a disk (frisbee) golf tournament and decide to try it out at SJHS.   His classes are participating in a tournament where the best disk players go against each other to find out who is the best. Mr. Parker got three green suit jackets and whoever wins gets to wear the jackets and be king for a day. He hopes that it makes the boys and girls compete harder in class. He did it once with an old Springville High School jacket when the boys played badminton.  According to Mr. Parker, the kids loved it, and everyone played harder to get the jacket.

How would you feel if you learned how to play an instrument when you have collage students learning with you?   Well that is what happened with the seventh graders in Dr. Sam Tsugawa’s orchestra class.  Cody Page, a member of the seventh -grade apprentice orchestra class, said, “It’s nice to learn with students who are learning with you.” 

The idea to get new pictures and banners in the hall came from our very own Springville Junior High School principal, Mr. Ken Van Ausdal. According to him, the school needed to show more school pride, and the pictures and banners in the halls do just that. Mr. Van Ausdal thought they would help reinforce school rules and ideas. 

The pictures in the north hall give advice are things like “What is bulling,” “Why cheating is bad,” “Why is it important to respect the rules,” “Why teachers assign homework,” and many others. Mr. Van Ausdal found the posters in a magazine during the summer and thought they would be good to put in the halls.      

Stacy Stapel and Mckenzie Reidhead are ninth graders at Springville Junior High School who are on the Springville High School’s volleyball team.  Everyday after school Stacy and Mckenzie have volleyball practice at the high school.  Every Tuesday and Thursday, they have volleyball games. Lauren Ostler, ninth grader at SJHS, is a manager for the high school volleyball team. She collects the volleyballs when the teams are done practicing, and at some volleyball games she helps keep track of who goes in and who comes out.       

Springville Junior High has just had an exciting Red Ribbon Week. It was the week of Fall Break, the 17th-19th of October.  Every year, the service learning students plan Red Ribbon Week for the entire school. Red Ribbon Week is here to keep kids from taking drugs. During Red Ribbon Week, students were able to dress up, get candy, and enjoy living a drug-free life! 

Last week was Red Ribbon Week, and we had something new at the school. In addition to pajama day and nerd day we had a wall. The wall represented our united stand against drugs and violence. According to PTA president, Mrs. Wendy Chipman, if we can reach and make a difference to one kid then the Red Ribbon Wall is worth it.

Mrs. Chipman, said, “I really hope that it reminds kids that drugs are real and bad and that we can fight against them and stay away from them. The younger we can teach kids this, obviously the better.” We need to realize that drugs can kill people and we should stay away from them at all costs.