April2009

Volume 14 : Issue 8

SchoolSportsFeature

Our very ownAubrey Carr is“Miss Teen Earth!”Relay for Life was ahuge success!NHS Baseball stillgoing strong withundefeated season

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www.TheTalonTribune.com

CarolineKaltenborn&ChristinaCarlson

Co-editorandstaffwriter

Students,donotgettoocom-fortablewiththeblockschedul-ing.Startingnextyear,allC.C.P.S.highschoolswillbegoingonaseven-periodschedule.Ingeneral,eachclasswillbearound50minuteslongwithnocookiebreakinbetween.Stu-dentswillstillhavefiveminutestomaketheirwaytoclass,buttimewillhavetoberegulated.Thepermanentscheduleisstilltentative;however,theT.V.an-nouncementsareplannedtobeaftersecondperiod,andlunchafterfifth.“Theexactscheduleisstillcomingtogether,butwehaveagoodideaofwhattimeeachclassisgoingtobe.Also,thegraduationrequirementfor theclassof2010andbeyondis26credits,whereastheclassof2009onlyneeds24credits,”exclaimedvice-prin-cipalMrs.Costin.Thescheduleischangingforthethirdtimeinthepastfouryears,whichmakesitdifficulttoplanforfutureclassesandensurethecorrectamountofcreditsrequiredfor graduation.“ItiscomplicatedtoknowwhatclassestotakeandhowmanyIneedtotakeinorder tograduatewithmyclassbe-causeeachyearthescheduleschedule,soIamexcitedfornextyear.We’llhaveshorterclassesandlessconfusion,”saidjunior ColeEastman.“Also,thereisa betterchancethatIwillhavemyfriendsinmyclasses.”Clearly,schoolschedulingisatouchysubject.Itisalmostim- possibletopleaseeveryone,astherearesomanyconflictingfeel-ings.“Theidealschedulewouldbealongerdaywithclassesevery-day,sothatyoucouldstillhaveclasseseverydayandenoughtimeineachclass,”suggestedsopho-moreSarahZundel. Nevertheless,NaplesHighwill behavingaseven-periodschedulenextyear.Fastenyourseatbelts, NHS.haschangedforme,”declaredsophomoreMeganShultz.Afterlastyear’schaosandcontroversyregardingthesched-ulewiththedistrictschool board,noteveryoneispleasedwiththefinaloutcome.“Iamnottoohappyabouthavingsevenclassesnextyear becauseitisgoingtobereallyhardtokeepupwithallthework,andIamgoingtohavesomuchmorehomework,”com- plainedjuniorLexiStarcher.Althoughmanystudentsareunhappyabouthavingsevenclassesinoneday,othersarere-lievedthatthe86-minuteblock scheduleclassesarebeingelim-inated.“Ireallydonotliketheblock

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Tentative2009-2010schedule

Five NHS teachers go out with a bang

Hannah Cardenas

Editor-in-Chief

For the class of 2009, this year signifies the end of our highschool career and departure fromthis stage to new beginnings. Thisyear is also bittersweet because of the five teachers retiring from Naples High; many of them after decades of bleeding gold and blue. No matter what has been mutteredabout them out of stress or frus-tration, it is undeniable that Mr.Maxwell, Mrs. Demarest, Mr.Miller, Mrs. Hayes, and Mrs. Stor-rar are a huge part of Naples High,and will be missed.Mr. Maxwell, a Naples Highgraduate in the Class of 1970, isthe band director that’s been earn-ing us straight superiors for the past 17 years. He started his teach-ing career with 14 years at LelyHigh School, one year at GoldenGate Middle School, one year atCoral Springs High School, oneyear at Fort Myers Middle School,and one year at Estero HighSchool; all before bleeding blueand gold.How he came to love NaplesHigh is an interesting story. Dur-ing his freshman and sophomoreyears, he went to Immokalee HighSchool. Although they cycledthrough two band directors, bothof them refused to teach black stu-dents, leaving Maxwell, a drum-mer, out of luck. During his junior year, he was finally allowed to play, but the band already hadseven drummers. Maxwell, anavid track runner back in the day,ran into the then-band director of Naples High at a track meet andasked if he could join the NaplesHigh School band. The director said that if he could arrangetransportation, he would be onthe roster. Young Maxwell proceeded to hitch-hike the30-mile trip to and from Naples Higheverymorning and night;sometimes even ontomato trucks andfarm trucks.“I never misseda day of school,”he claimed.Anotherinter-esting and well-known featureabout Maxwell is hislove for Batman. Butwhy Batman? Batmanis a regular person whorisks his life to help oth-ers, like firefighters and policemen.“He wasn’t bit by aspider, he’s not a mutant,he’s not from another planet; he’s just a regu-lar person risking hislife to help other people,”he summed it up.Mrs. Demarest’s positive atti-tude has helped many of us

poder hablar español muy bien

. Out of her 37 years of teaching, 28 of those years have been dedicated to Naples High. After college, shespent two years teaching bilingualthird graders at Lake Trafford El-ementary in Immokalee. She spentthe next seven years as a part of the faculty of Pine Ridge MiddleSchool, where she was the onlyteacher in Collier CountyteachingSpanishto middleschoolers. Shemoved from that position to her dream career of high schoolSpanish in the year 1981 amidthe cancellation of middleschool Spanish courses. PineRidge parents were so upset at thisdevelopment that they demandedthe return of a Spanish curriculumfor gifted middle schoolers, and itwas returned the following year toall Collier County middle schools.Unfortunately for them, Mrs. De-marest had found her home at Naples High and has taught Span-ish here ever since. She has also been the head of the SpanishHonor Societyand the Relayfor Life teams, as well as enrap-turing her students in the cast andchaos of “

Destinos

.”“It’s been amazing to see all thechanges,” she said about her ca-reer as an NHS teacher. She hasseen it all. She watched Naplesturn from a “college prep school”to a larger school with a more di-verse student body. In the 80s, shewas witness to a school popula-tion of 900, amidst warnings of closing down NHS for good. Thetownspeople refused to let theonly school in the district close,and—in Mrs. Demarest’s words— we’ve grownever since. In themid 90s, she lived through atime she calls “portablecity,” when the school wenow know as our ownwas constructed andthere was a huge dis- placement of classes into portables during the con-struction. She has lovedher years here and has en- joyed watching the finearts department blossom— especially the theatrical aspects.She summed her career say-ing, “It’s been quite an interest-ing ride.”So why is she retiring? Theanswer is the DROP program; aretirement program that allowsteachers to earn retirement pay-ment for five years if theyagree to stop teaching at theend of the five year period.Because of her agreementwithin this program, she willleave with a “pot” of money gar-nered over her last five years, aswell as getting retirement pay-ments.

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New Schedule for

‘09-‘10

April 2009

News

Jon&Kate plus 8

Millie Szilagyi

Staff writer

All my life I’ve searched, yearned for aTV show that incorporated all of my fa-vorite things into one. Jon and Kate plus 8is a reality series on TLC that follows thelives of the Gosselin family. The Gosselinfamily consists of Kate, an over-organizedand loving mother, Jon, the laid back father,their eight-year-old twin girls, Cara andMadelyn, their four-year-old sextuplets,Joel, Alexis, Collin, Hannah, Aaden, andLeah, and two German shepherd puppies,Shoka and Nala as they live it up in Penn-sylvania.Jon and Kate Gosselin met in 1997 at a picnic.“I never believed in love at first sight, but this came close, said Kate.They were married in 1999. Kate wasdiagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syn-drome, meaning she was not able to get pregnant. The couple decided to use fertil-ity treatments. The twins were born in Oc-tober of 2000.Cara and Mady Gosselin are now eightyears old. Mady is an attention-seeking,fit-throwing wild woman with somescrewed up teeth and a real temper. “Nomatter what, I’m always going to disagreewith you,” Mady once said to Kate. Carahowever, is the opposite. Cara is a moth-erly, loving little girl who likes sports and playing with the sextuplets. The sextupletswere born in the summer of 2004.“My favorite sextuplet is Leah, becauseshe’s so little and cute! I just want to cud-dle her!,” said sophomore Blake Brooks.Leah is the littlest Gosselin sextuplet.She’s almost as adorable as me, but she’shalf my size!Collin Gosselin is a frantic organizer,like his mom. He loves trains, bikes, andalways notices when his mommy gets her toenails painted.“Bye mommy, I love you. I’ll take careof the kids,” Hannah Gosselin.Hannah likes to fold laundry, be a biggirl, and play with her toy horses. She’s al-ways there to help her mommy and haslong, beautiful brown hair.Aaden is a little zoologist, he wentthrough a phase where he played a differ-ent animal every day. He has a magnetic personality, there’s a light in his eyes be-hind his glasses.“Me a elephant!,” said Aaden.Joel always seems disoriented and fallsall the time! He’s super cute and says theweirdest things.The best is saved for last, Alexis Gos-selin. Alexis is the sweetest, most angeliclittle girl I’ve ever seen. Alexis makes theshow. She always has a smile on her faceand something outrageous to say. She lovesalligators or, “Aldegators,” and almost criedwhen she found out her plastic alligator wasn’t real. She always makes a scene andmakes me laugh.I would like to make it clear, Jon andKate Plus 8 is the greatest TV show in his-tory, combining all of my favorite thingsinto one half hour and adorning it with aclever title. Jon and Kate Plus 8 is on Mon-day-Friday at 5:00 on TLC. If I don’t getmy daily Gosselin dosage, I go insane. So please watch this show, keep up the ratings,so that I’ll never in my life have to go onJon and Kate Plus 8 withdrawal.And what about her new hubby Mr. Freyd- berg?“He’ll be fine. I’ll be here next year as avolunteer; helping with Relay for Life andwith blood drives. I will come have lunchwith him.” Next on the list is Mr. Miller, residentrock star and all around awesome guy. He’s been gracing Fridays with rock n’ roll triviahere at Naples High for 31 years! A JohnsHopkins University graduate, he has taughtevery form of science from chemistry to physics, ranging through all the various de-grees of difficulty. Before gracing thesehalls, he taught at Staples High School inConnecticut and at Gulfview MiddleSchool for five years each, bringing histotal career to a whopping 41 years. In1978, he started the first AP Physics pro-gram at Naples High. He was also the spon-sor of the Jets Club (a science engineeringtech club) for 14 years, a Scholar Bowlsponsor for ten, and even coached tennis in1987.“I couldn’t have asked for a better highschool situation,” he said about his GoldenEagle years.He’s going out with a bang, though.Many students witnessed the first lunchhour concert of Mr. Miller and the RoyalGuard! Covering a plethora of British rock hits, it featured songs by Ozzie Osbourne,The Who, and the Spice Girls. This was histhird and final lunch hour concert, but thefirst involving students. It’s better to burnout then to fade away…Mrs. Hayes, resident world and Ameri-can history teacher, is retiring after a 20year stint at Naples High and a 34 year teaching career. She has worked at bothLely and Barron Collier High Schools andat a high school in Gainesville. Besidesteaching history, she has been a dramateacher, an Interact Club sponsor, and shehas sponsored the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes—spanning allfour years. She also looks back fondly onher year as a track coach. Back in 1976, alaw was passed forcing all high schools tohave female teams for all traditionally malesports. Naples High, desperate for a track coach, signed up Mrs. Hayes, someone whohad never run track in her life.“It is a wonderful experience that keepsyou young,” she said of her time here.So what’s she going to do now? She plans to travel the globe with her husband.She anticipates her journey to

Petit Le Mans

(a car race held in Atlanta), NewYork, Paris, Rome, and a Mediterraneancruise from Barcelona to Greece. So don’tfeel too badly for her!Last but not least is Mrs. Storrar, whohas been within the educational field of work for 35 years. The Gator (a.k.a. Uni-versity of Florida graduate) first taughtmath at East Naples Middle School for nineyears, followed by another nine years atLely High School. She then took a 12 year stint as the Assistant Principal of NaplesHigh. Those 12 years capped up a 30 year career, and she decided to retire at theyoung age of 51 to travel with her husband.She spent six months traveling the WesternUnited States in an RV, spending twomonths in Alaska. When she retired, she began the Naples High Retiree BrunchGroup, a group of ex-NHS teachers whomeet monthly six months a year to social-ize. Three years ago, she returned to NaplesHigh because of her love of teaching.Over the years, she has sponsored boththe freshman and senior classes, as well ashelping with the Academic Booster Cluband Project Graduation.“I really love being here,” she said of her 15 years at Naples High. Our beautifulcampus and pleasant student body causedher to choose blue and gold over Gulf Coast, which is actually closer to her home.“You don’t realize how nice things are untilthey’re gone,” she said about her previousreturn. Maybe we’ll see her again if she can be dragged away from her time off in her house in North Carolina.So as some of us throw our caps and therest of you burn your algebra books (or atleast you want to!), five of these teachersare leaving this stage of life to pursue newgoals.

The entire Gosselin family posing for a fun family photo

A passionate reviewby a true fan

Retirees continued from page 1