Lunch at SJHS is most students favorite period, even though some students do not like all of the lunches here.

According to Kaden Garcia, a student at SJHS, he does not like all of the food at SJHS, but he likes second lunch better because they have seconds.  A lot of other students, like Carter Shepherd, an eighth grader at SJHS, likes the food here and would eat it outside of school.  “I’ve liked everything I’ve tried here, but my favorite is the orange chicken.”  He also likes second lunch better because he likes to eat lunch later in the day.                

On July 1, 2014, schools nationwide put a policy in place that got rid of all the items in the vending machine that had high sugar, calorie, fat, or caffeine. This got rid of any candy, caffeinated beverage, and soda. 

“The federal government stipulates the type of products we can sell. They reduced the type of fat intake, sugar intake, and caffeine intake to reduce obesity, and diseases like diabetes,” said Mr. Van Ausdal, the principal at Springville Junior High School.

“Vending companies have been told what they can put in there by the school district,” Mr. Van Ausdal said.

The Integrated Science class, taught by Mr. Bass, a new science teacher at SJHS, did an ice cream lab on October 9 at SJHS. It was a reward for positive behavior, according to Mr. Bass. 

The best part was making it, according to Autumn Olsen, an eighth grade student in the class. “It is a chance to have students witness first hand the subject they are learning and do something memorable,” said Mr. Bass. 

The class made vanilla and chocolate ice cream by freezing the melted ice cream with liquid nitrogen. Students were able to experience phase change, expansion, contraction, loud explosions, and other cool physical changes.

There are a lot of new teachers here at Springville Junior High. But there are also plenty of old teachers from the old junior high, one being Ms.Dunn, an English teacher.  Ms. Dunn has been at Springville Junior High for four years. She graduated from BYU with her bachelor’s degree. 

The SJHS Cross Country team has been doing great in their meets so far this fall. The team practices every day. Sometimes they run around the field behind the school and other times they run around surrounding neighborhoods. There are 34 people on the team, 20 boys and 14 girls. “ The girls have won every meet so far this year; the boys have won all but one- they came in second, so we have done really well in our meets so far! We just have the district final left. We’ll see how that goes,” said Mrs. Bodily, the coach of the team.

The cross country team races at our school, Mapleton, Salem, Mt.Nebo, and Payson. “I love running and I have been running my whole life,” said Adam Krieger, a student on the cross country team.

Mrs. Bass, an English teacher at SJHS, has been an English teacher for 13 years, and has been teaching at SJHS for 9 years. 

“My favorite part of teaching is working with kids. I love interacting and helping others explore ideas, find new information, make connections, and share,” said Mrs. Bass. 

“It’s a little ironic why I chose to become an English teacher. I always felt like writing was my weakness. But as I learned how to become a better writer, I feel like I was able to change my story and make writing a strength. If I could figure it out, then why couldn’t I help others figure it out too,” said Mrs. Bass. 

According to Bonnie Cuthill, a lunch worker for SJHS, lunch working is a blast! She said her and the other lunch ladies have a lot of fun in the back in the kitchen. She said she does not get hungry while she is working because she can get a great variety of food during her own lunch break. She lunch works because it is a perfect job for a mom. She leaves when her kids leave to go to school, and when she gets home her kids get home right after her. She never gets bored because  there is always something to be done. Bonnie is in charge of the salad and the potato bar.

This year students have been given many electives to choose from. Some of the teachers have had to take on extra classes so that we would have many different opportunities to learn different skills. One of these classes is the Speech and Debate class.

“I love teaching this class. It is really fun to hear what all the students have to say and see their fun personalities,” said Ms. Neeley, the Speech and Debate teacher.

The Speech and Debate class is only half a year so they have to work hard and fast. In the first term they have been working on different kinds of speeches. They have done icebreaker speeches, a narrative speech, and are working on persuasive speeches.

For most people drawing means doodling and idle pencil scratchings, but in Ms. Wallace’s drawing class, things are taken to a whole new level. Ms. Wallace, the art teacher, has been teaching at SJHS for two years and loves to draw. 

This year not only did we get a new school, we also got many new teachers. Among these teachers is Ms. Piña, a seventh grade English teacher, and she is fantastic.

Different teachers have unique reasons they chose to be teachers for junior high students. Ms. Piña says, “I always knew that I wanted to be a teacher since I was in kindergarten and first attended school myself.” 

According to Ms. Piña, various experiences led her to realize she would not do well in an elementary school setting. As she went through high school she found that she loved English, so naturally she chose to become an English teacher.