In the coming years I do have a few concerns for the Westborough High community.  A recent survey called the “Westborough Adolescent Health Survey” run by the MetroWest Healthcare Foundation found that although alcohol use by students has decreased by a few percentage points, other drug use has increased. The survey is the third in a series of surveys being conducted by the Foundation. The biggest news in the survey in my opinion, however, was that students who felt “life was very stressful in the past 30 days” has increased from the same survey conducted in 2008 from 22% to 34%.  I believe from my own personal experiences at the high school that the percentage may even be higher. Even if the percentage is accurate, I am concerned like the school district that this is unhealthy and will be leading to an environment in and outside the building that could lend itself to unhealthy choices.  I am sure the Health and Wellness Department will work hard to address this in its curriculum. Still, despite its best efforts, I am not sure exposure to the health and wellness curriculum will be enough to lower this percentage significantly.  Westborough High School is a challenging high school.  This obviously has given its students like myself many benefits, but this may be leading to some unhealthy side-effects as well.  I believe the best plan to help WHS students combat the stresses they face is by helping them find areas in their lives to reduce the stress, rather than strategies to simply deal with it.  One of the ways to do this is to make sure the school is offering alternative programming outside of the ones students are regularly involved in.  From academics, music, and sports, to other major outside of school activities, many students feel stress from the hard work that is required for all of these responsibilities that occur before, during, and after the school day. It is important that the student body find and participate in healthy activities to relieve stress.  I hope school administrators will be receptive to working with groups in the school community and inside and outside of Westborough to find options that might keep students out of stressful situations if possible. I also would like to see new ideas on programming and policies emerge that might make the day a little easier for students to go through. I know that WHS is currently working to amend the school mission statement in preparation for an accreditation review by The New England Association of Schools and Colleges.  I hope that in the amended mission statement concrete goals of creating an environment for students to feel a balance of success and less stress are reflected as a priority.

I wish the Westborough High School community the best in the many years ahead.

Myles Goldman  ’11

Lobby Observer Co-Editor-In-Chief  2010-2011

1. Start early, start early, START EARLY-  I can’t say this enough.  I am not ashamed to admit that I started at the beginning of the second semester of my sophomore year.  Starting your college search early, even as early as sophomore year, isn’t a bad idea in my opinion.  This is especially the case if you are starting the search from scratch like I did because you have no idea what type of a college you are looking for or what location you want the college to be in.  This doesn’t mean that during your sophomore year you have to spend money on a college search counselor or start spending money visiting dozens of schools.  It simply means that you should start thinking about the characteristics you want in your ideal college.  Every college has a website and one way to start is by spending a little time exploring the academic programs at schools you know of.  Another option is to spend a little money on a college guide book.  I found the “telephone” college listings books to be overwhelming, so I purchased the Princeton Review’s Best 368 colleges book.  (The latest addition is now called the Princeton Reviews Best 373 Colleges book.)  The quotes from students in the book and the focus on all the different aspects of college life – from academics to social life – made me think about what kind of school I wanted to attend and also helped me find some potential schools that might be good fits. 

2. Work on “The Essay” During the summer before Senior Year- Yes, it’s hot outside and the weather is beautiful (hopefully).  However, by working on your college essay during the summer you will thank yourself later when you have a lot less stress in October trying to make November 1st application deadlines while trying to complete senior course work and other outside of school activities.  The month of October is a month where some Senior teachers give their students some of the hardest work of the year because there aren’t many days off  and because they are trying to save the year’s less stressful work for the second semester.  You don’t necessarily have to finish the essay over the summer, but I would suggest doing a couple of drafts.  That way come the fall all you have to do is polish your essay. 

3. When visiting a college campus make sure to pick up a copy of a recent addition of the college’s newspaper- No, I am not just saying this because I have an affinity for student media or because I am the Co-Editor of this paper.  A college’s newspaper or other student publications can tell you a lot about the day-to-day life at the school.  Many times there are items and stories that the tour guides simply don’t have the time to or won’t tell you about.  For example, you can find out in the paper that there has been a recent string of burgularies of the freshmen dorms.  It isn’t always bad news, though, that the paper will tell you.  The paper might tell you about a new recreation center that is about to be built on campus or a recent survey of the student bodies favorite places to hang out.  Either way, reading one or two copies of the student paper can tell you about the school’s character and personality;  one of the biggest factors in your college decision.  If for some reason you don’t pick up a copy of the paper, then go online and google the paper’s name.  They likely have an online edition. (Turns out our paper isn’t the only one who likes the internet!)

4. Have Fun!- Sure, there are many stressful moments in this process.  However, make sure you’re enjoying the search as well.  This process is an opportunity to think about your future and what that future will look like.  From receiving lots of colorful booklets and pamphlets in the mail about many different schools to actually seeing college campuses, the college search is exciting.  Maybe the most fun part in my opinion is after you have been accepted to a few schools.  At that point try to attend the accepted student days if you can because not only is it cool to have the schools try to “win you over” by giving you free lunches, exciting speeches, and tours but they provide a ton of information as well.  

If there is one thing I learned from the college process, its that there are many awesome schools all across the country.  It’s hard to go to a bad school.  Rather, the question is which school is best for you.  I wish anyone about to start or in the middle of the college search the best best luck!

Officer Dapolite deserves a lot of credit for organizing tomorrow’s assembly.  For several years some student leaders and others in the community have suggested the type of assembly we will see tomorrow.  However, no one has seriously acted on these positive and thoughtful suggestions until Officer Dapolite started working on making tomorrow’s assembly happen.  For his efforts, he deserves the community’s thanks.

I hope that everyone in our community comes out of the event with a stronger appreciation for how quickly lives can change forever in just a few moments.  I also hope that as a student community we will begin to alter some of the decision making that has put us at risk for the situation that will be shown tomorrow.  This should show us that our student body  has to find more alternative ways to relax besides “risky behavior.”  We are a smart student body, and tomorrow’s assembly should allow us to fully understand that the risks associated with drinking and DUI aren’t rewarding or fulfilling.

Today is election day in town.  There are two highly contested races for School Committee and Board of Selectmen.  I know this is not an original statement but if you are registered to vote please do so.  If you are not registered to vote, then go check to make sure someone you know who is has done so.  It is easy to take for granted the freedoms we have living in The United States and in Westborough.  However, world events from the past couple of days should remind  us that our servicemen and women are working hard to protect the freedoms we hold dear.  The least we can do to honor their service is by taking a few minutes to go to a polling place and vote.  The polls are open from 8 in the morning until 8 in the evening, so there should be a way to carve out a few minutes for everyone to participate in this civic duty.

And now I am going to insert a shameless plug.  If you haven’t had a chance to research where the School Committee candidates stand or are on the fence about which ones to vote for, check out the interviews I did with all three candidates on the Lobby O website under the video section.  I promise they will be helpful.

Another important item on the ballot today is the three questions voters are asked after making their candidate selections.  These questions are non-binding.  They are meant to provide state legislators feedback on how the town feels about these issues.  They are:

1. When applying for Massachusetts state-funded tax benefits, should proof of  U.S. Citizenship and legal residency in Massachusetts be required from the applicant?

2. Should a person be required to provide proof of U.S. Citizenship and legal residency in Massachusetts before being allowed to register to vote?

3. Should a person be required to provide a photo ID before being allowed to vote?

These questions have been discussed on a national and state-level.  I know many people have many thoughts and opinions on these matters.    Don’t miss this opportunity to voice your opinion!

 The class officers of the 4 graduating classes came together to organize lunch competitions Tuesday through Friday.  At each of the three lunches volunteers from the four classes competed in games like a pie eating contest and peanut butter and jelly sandwich stacking.  This game consisted of contestants making and stacking peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches before eating them in a race to see who could eat their stacked sandwhiches first.    There was a different game for every day of the week starting on Tuesday.  Sophomore Class President Joy Cho was the mastermind behind the idea, but the four classes each sponsored one of the lunch game competitions.  It was nice to see the four class leadership teams working together to create a spirit of community.  I could feel the atmosphere in the lunchroom chang to one of fun and excitement on the days the competitions took place.

Congratulations to Joy and the other class leadership teams for running this successful event and adding a new twist to this long-running WHS tradition.  Plus, the Senior Class (who won the competition lunch games and gained a point in the standings) thanks all of you for giving us the opportunity to earn one of the deciding points!

At the beginning of the month the freshmen class began the Pennies for Patients drive.   Buckets for each of the four graduating classes were placed in the lunchroom and the cafeteria.  The goal of the drive is to have students place pennies (or any other type of coinage or dollar bill) in their classes’ bin.  All of the money at the end of this month will be donated to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The class with the most money in their jar will be rewardedwith a pizza party.

Even though this worthy fundraiser  has been going on for weeks, there has not been much support for it.  Most of the jars only appear to have a handful of coins and dollar bills.   This fundraiser has been going on for the entire month and yet there has barely been a whisper from the student body.  We should be able to do better than this!

If everyone in the building contributed just one penny to their class’ jar, then that alone would raise approximately $11.00 towards cancer research.  Now, how hard is it to donate one penny?  Better yet, if everyone donated a nickel, then the school would raise approximately $55.oo towards this worthy cause.

With a day to go the freshmen class is in the lead!  Will you help change that?

Mr. Tretter says he made this proposal after hearing from teachers and community members that the school year doesn’t have enough continuity.  Now, I will agree with Mr. Tretter  that this school year’s schedule has at times lacked flow.  However, I believe a large portion of this can be attributed to the 4 snow days we had in January.  The days missed are no ones fault but they essentially wiped out the month of January at the high school beyond taking midterms.  Many years in Westborough we only have one or two snow days, and they are spread out throughout the winter months.  We should not let this difficult winter influence future school calendars when we may not have another winter like this for years.

More importantly, we should not eliminate religious holidays from the school calendar because in today’s fast paced world religion is an outlet for some people to “take a deep breath” and refocus.  By eliminating religious holidays from the calendar, administrators, teachers, and students will be forced to choose between their religious health and their jobs.  As a high school student who cares about academics, it is difficult for me to miss a day of school for anything.  I don’t want others in future years to have to choose between observing their religious holiday and falling behind academically.

Besides, in the years that calendar continuity is an issue, curriculum half -days are a major factor.  This year there are five curriculum half-days.  There was one scheduled in October, one in December, one in February, one this past Monday, and there is one more scheduled for May 2oth.  This doesn’t even include the teacher curriculum day in mid January.  If we are going to discuss continuity in the school schedule, it is time we discuss what occurs on these half-days.  Our understanding as a community of what transpires on half-days after we go home at 11:00  is a vague idea that the teachers are discussing the curriculum and learning new teaching methods.  

It’s as though trade secrets are being discussed after the students go home and no one wants them to be known.

Mr. Tretter says he will  bring up the issue of continuity in the school calendar next year.  When he does,  I hope the community and the School Committee are willing to discuss all of the times school is not in session.

I hope everyone has a good vacation.  Shortly after we come back, look for the Lobby O to be out in force recruiting new readers!

-Myles

I am very excited that the Superintendent has chosen to look into this possibility.  I believe WHS and Gibbons students would be more effective students in the classroom with a later start time.  Too often many Westborough High students have to make a choice between having at least 5-6 hours of sleep or making it to school on time because they didn’t go to bed until midnight or later.  For many this dilemma comes from a schedule after school that includes 4 hours of homework and some combination of several hours of extra curricular activities and or work.  When you do the math, add 7 -9 hours from 2:00 and you get 9:00 -11:00 that students are finished with their activities, work, and homework on any given night.  Notice, I didn’t even mention dinner or that it is nearly impossible for someone to keep going on a schedule like this for 7-9 hours straight.

I realize there are problems with ending school later.  The issue of arriving on time to far away athletic contests comes to mind.  I’ll admit I don’t know an exact solution to this problem,  but I do feel confident that with- excuse the pun- “outside the box thinking” by Westborough school administrators and maybe even the MIAA (Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association) a solution can be found. 

 Additionally, starting school later will not completely solve the struggles of Westborough teenagers attempting to balance their hectice schedules and find time to sleep.  A later school start time may lead some to simply move their schedules one hour forward, staying up later into the night.  This is why I also think study halls and a school philosophy of less homework and extra curricular activities should be considered. 

I hope this is the start of our school community adressing the many times overlooked problem of overscheduled and sleep deprived students. 

What do you think?

-Myles

I was dissapointed, however, to find that on Monday the 10th 11:00 went by without WHS observing the moment of silence with the rest of the nation.  Other schools in town like Mill Pond and Gibbons did observe the moment of silence.  Now, if two schools in town with younger aged students, some of which are as young as 4th grade, can recognize a national tragedy, then we should have as well.

Even if for some reason 11:00 was not considered a good time by administrators, then why could we not have observed the moment of silence at a different time.  After all, it’s the thought that counts.  Besides, we miss numerous periods throughout the year for events like the winter concert, the teacher-student volleyball game, and the Thanksgiving game pep rally.  Now, don’t misunderstand me.  I like these events and I feel many of them add to the spirit of our school and community.  My point is this: if we can spend several hours in total during the year celebrating our school, then we can spend one minute remembering a national tragedy and an attack on our country’s democracy.

Still, as much as I was disspointed there was no moment of silence, I was even more upset by the lack of student reaction to the tragedy and missing the moment of silence.  The students I spoke to said that they either didn’t know about the tragedy or that observing the moment wasn’t that important because we probably didn’t know any of the victims. 

So is that what we believe as a student body?  “If an event or tragedy doesn’t affect me or someone I know, I shouldn’t care much.” 

I certainly hope this isn’t the case, and I want to know what you think. 

-Myles