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What’s Inside:
GreenHorn
The Award-Winning Student Publication of Springfield High School and the Tech Center 
Volume 29, Edition 4
H
earts were racing, adrenaline was pumping, and
 butteries were circulating in the stomachs of Springeld High School football players as theyloaded the bus early Saturday morning, November 8th. Nine hours later, the Springeld community would becelebrating its rst football state championship in over 61 years.“I was pretty nervous before the game,”senior quarterback Grant White said. “But it wasn’t alot more than just the usual nerves I get before everygame.”Coming into the game perfect at 11-0, theCosmos football players had their sights on a state cham- pionship, while the Windsor Yellow Jackets hoped for anupset. “Every single one of us wanted that title,” junior receiver Bennett Chevalier said. “Both teams foughthard, but it was obvious that we wanted it more.”The Cosmos' first possession, however,didn’t go as well as both players and fans hoped. A runwent nowhere and two passes to junior wide receiver Brandon Boyle couldn't do the job. “The rst pass lostyardage,” White said, “and the second pass only gainedve yards. We didn’t get the rst down, so I had to puntit back.”Junior defensive back Matt Mitchell made
Football Team Wins First StateChampionship in 61 Years
By Ashley Richardson
a big championship game debut when he intercepted a pass on Windsor’s rst attempt at a pass, and the Cosmosquickly took over the ball. “The interception was a key part of the game,” Mitchell said. “It was their rst playof the game, and after not getting a rst down on our rst possession, it brought the momentum back to us totry it again.”However, starting senior running back Ste- phen Miller went down early in this series, only 2:36
See
 Football
page 20
Top, junior Brandon Boyle cuts through Wasp defenders. Bottom, football
players celebrate their great achievement and Springeld fans show their
Cosmos pride during the championship game.Hate that
dirty water,
p. 6Obama, Manof Steel,p. 10Seniors andfootball,p. 18
19 December 2008
 
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Green Horn Interview
By Lauren Drasler
.
9th Grader JessicaOsceola QuestionsBussing Policy
Kelsey Christensen, Anthony Dana, Courtney Downing, Angelo Jardina,
Shena Lucero-Keniston, Jef Moore, Laurel Porter,
Emily Reeves, Ashley Richardson, Ember Rushford-Emery
GREEN HORN STAFF
Editor-in-Chief / LayoutEditorEditor
Photography Editor
Sports EditorTech News EditorTom Benton
........................
Ashley Fountain
...................
Lauren Drasler
.....................
Hanna Reeves
......................
Grant White
........................
Deven Blais
.........................
----------------REPORTERS---------------
O
ver the course of the past few months, busseshave been the topic of much discussion in theSpringeld School District. At the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, school ofcials changed the policy, due, at the time, to the rising cost of fuel. Bus-ses now run only to students who live two miles awayfrom school, instead of the previous 1.5-mile cutoff.As the price of fuel drops, and the weather turns colder,however, numerous concerns have been raised about thischange in bus transportation policy. Springeld HighSchool freshman Jessica Osceola has been a prominentvoice in this bussing debate. Osceola wrote a letter in November addressing issues and concerns she hadabout the change. The
Green Horn
recently interviewedOsceola about her opposition to the bussing policy, andasked her to talk about the letter she addressed to numer-ous school ofcials and state representatives.
 
What prompted you to write this letter regardingthe new bussing policy?
I decided to write the letter, after I heard my parents andfriends discussing the changed policy. I didn’t think it was fair to the kids who were walking the two-miledistance to school, and I wanted people to be aware of the safety issues, and the problems this new policy iscausing. I also think safety should always come rst,and with this change I don’t think that’s the case.
Are you immediately affected by the policy?
 No, I am not immediately affected, but many of myfriends are. They’ve told me some of their complaintsthey have about having to walk, and I don’t like iteither. I view this new distance as very dangerous,and unreasonable, and I think that it could cause a lotof trouble.
What goals did you want to accomplish by writingthis letter?
I just basically wanted to bring this issue to the atten-tion of the people. I felt that some people may not be aware of the issues, and I wanted to try and geteveryone aware.
How did you frst hear about this issue?
I rst about the bussing change, when it became publicknowledge. I heard my friends and parents talk aboutthe change at length, and I decided to write a letter tohelp raise awareness about the issues the change iscausing. At rst, I wasn’t sure I wanted to write it, butafter thinking about it, I decided I wanted to get myopinion out there.
When did you write this letter?
I wrote the letter in November. While writing it, I de-cided to do a lot of research on fuel prices and registeredsex offenders in Vermont, because I thought these issueswere important when addressing the possible concernsof the bus change. The letter was originally to get theattention of the school board, and I had hoped by writ-ing it, I would be able to get them to consider changingsome of the problems.
Who did you send the letter to?
I sent copies of the letter to the Springeld School Board,
The Eagle Times
,
The Message
, Mr. Wight, Congress-man Peter Welch, and Superintendent Frank Perotti.I’ve heard feedback from some of the people I sent theletter to. Peter Welch said he liked it, but because itwas a matter of the town, he couldn’t really do anythingabout it. Mr. Perotti also told me he would think aboutmaking some of the changes next year.
What changes do you see occurring since writingthe letter?
I’ve kind of seen some changes. My letter’s been innewspapers, and I attended a school board meeting,to try and get things changed. I’ve also heard that theadministration may be adding some winter stops, but allof the changes I’ve heard about are not denite.
T
his autumn, the River Valley Technical Center offered a trivia question challenge to TechCenter students. RVTC Secretary GretchenAustin-Ward developed the idea. “I came up with thetrivia question so that students at the RVTC could havea fun activity to do and at the same time show what theyknow about their school,” said Ward. The questions are posted on the bulletin board in the RVTC Atrium at the beginning of each month.Digital Audio and Video Electronics studentKevin Scott won the rst trivia question this fall: Whywas the Animal Cracker box designed with a stringhandle? Scot answered the question correctly: TheAnimal Cracker box was designed with a string handleso that you can hang it on a Christmas tree.Trivia question winners are rewarded withtheir name posted with the answer in the atrium. Theyalso receive RVTC memorabilia such as an RVTC water  bottle with pens and pencils.
RVTC TriviaQuestion Debuts
By Deven Blais
RVTC Horticulture student Billy Wheeler
trims evergreen bows to use for wreaths
in the traditional horticulture holiday sale before the holiday break.
 
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 Features
C
hanges are part of nearly every new schoolyear. Perhaps one of the biggest changes in theSpringeld School District for the 2008-2009school year involved a new bus policy. With the priceof diesel climbing to nearly $4 a gallon or more duringsummer, many school districts across America soughtways to save money on transportation. Springeld wasno exception in this search to economize.The bus policy change occurred after theSpringeld School Board approved an updated Trans- portation Policy on August 4th.Under this new policy, the number of bussesrunning to and from Springeld schools was reduced, bus routes were re-directed, and students were requiredto live farther from the school they attended in order toride a bus."The school board changed the transportation policy to allow the school administration to make thechanges,” said Springeld Superintendent Frank Pe-rotti. "The Transportation Coordinator [Martha Tarbell]worked with the bus company and made recommenda-tions to me. I made the nal decision taking into accountcomments and information from the board, principals,and parents.""I was told to implement the bus change after the updated Transportation Policy was approved," saidSpringeld School District Transportation Coordinator Martha Tarbell. "Currently, [under the new policy] wehave eight 77-passenger busses in total. The rst runof four busses goes to the high school, and the secondrun of eight busses go to the elementary schools and themiddle school. There are also two 19-passenger specialneeds busses that run to all the schools. We are currentlyrunning four high school routes."“We made this change to help the districtsave with the rising cost of fuel,” Tarbell added.Once the number of busses was reduced,eight busses ran to the middle and high school in onerun, and those same eight ran to the three elementaryschools. Because of this new policy, bus routes are dif-ferent as well. Under last year’s policy, students living1.5 miles from the high school were eligible to ride the bus.The current policy states that a student nowmust live two miles or more from SHS to ride the bus.Students in grades K-5 now have to live 8/10ths of amile away from school instead of the previous 6/10ths,and students in grades 6-8 now must live 1.5 miles awayfrom school instead of 1.3.“I can no longer ride the bus because of thenew policy,” said sophomore Alanna Parker. “I live1/10th of a mile away from the cut-off. My suggestionfor the district to save gas is to have students go to schoolfour days a week, instead of ve. It would save a lot of money.”Parker continued, “I think it’s pretty silly Ican’t ride the bus anymore. Right now [in the autumn]it’s not a problem for me to walk, but I don’t want to
Bus Runs Redirected and Reduced
By Lauren Drasler
have to walk up hills in the winter to school. Plus, other kids may not even be able to walk that distance, and if they can’t nd a ride, what then?”According to Tarbell, this new policy af-fects about 80 students throughout the district. "After reviewing my student data base, I found about 53 [reallyonly about 40 because a dozen or so were not using the bus regularly] high school students and 41 students ingrades K-8 are now not able to use the bus because of this new system," said Tarbell. “The exception to thisrule is students who have health concerns and cannotnd means of transportation to school.”Most students, unaffected by the new bussing policy, were tolerant of the change. “The bus changehasn’t really affected me that much,” said sophomoreAmanda Porter. “My bus ride’s always been really long(45 minutes in the morning and an hour and a half in theafternoon) because I live in Weatherseld.”“The only real change I’ve noticed is thatwe have a lot more people on the bus this year,” Porter added, “especially when we have sports people beingtransported to Riverside for games and practices.”Representing a rural school district, Spring-eld faces a unique challenge concerning transporta-tion. "Districts that need to bus children are at a greatdisadvantage from urban districts," said Perotti.However, an estimated $30-$35,000 is savedwhen the district uses fewer busses. "Some states, like New York, fund transportation at 90% of the cost,”Perotti added. “Vermont does not and then uses the costas part of the spending formula that increases the taxrate. Double penalty for just needing busses."Although the bus change appears to be goingsmoothly from an administrative point of view, some parents have voiced concerns about this change and theeffect it’s had on their children.One of the most common concerns parentsappear to have involves the bus exchange at RiversideMiddle School.Previous to this change, students in grades6-12 rode the same busses, and elementary students wereseparate from the older students. Elementary schoolstudents made their bus exchanges at Park Street School. Now students in grades K-8 are on the same busses, andthe high school busses run separately.Perhaps the most outspoken critic of the new bus arrangement is Bonnie Duquette, whose 7th grader attends Riverside Middle School. “My rst concernwas the amount of time my son spends on the bus sincethis change,” Duquette said. Bus routes last year ran between 25-50 minutes. This year, with the extendedroutes, they range between 35-70 minutes, according to
See
Bussing 
page 23
Superintendent Frank Perotti saysthe district saves over $30,000 by 
running fewer busses; Transportation
Coordinator Martha Tarbell estimatesthat reduced bus routes affect about
80 students in the district; parent
Bonnie Duquette, presenting a bus pe-
tition this autumn at Shaws, worried
that students spend too much time on
 busses in the new bus schedule and will walk too far in winter.
Economic Measure Draws Criticism
of 00

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