Illicit photos on Facebook could
damage student reputations;
affect futures.
Look inside for the Cub Edition!
Journalism II students
produce their own newspaper.
Boys' Basketball succeeds
in preseason; looks to
start League strong.
— page 3
— page 7
— page 11
Published Since 1921
Officiai Student Publication of West Linn High School
January 2010
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Volume 98. Issue 4
Yearbook staff wins NSPA All American award
L exi W elp & M ary W ood _______
The Green and Gold
Yearbook staff earned a
prestigious All American
award from the National
Scholastic Press Association,
one of the highest honors
in the country for a school
publication. They submitted
the 2009 yearbook for judging
in November, and received
a score of 4,440 points out of
4,700, as well as four marks of
distinction.
"It's quite an honor because
they have an extensive grading
section that judges refer
to," Glenn Krake, Yearbook
adviser, said.
Yearbooks submitted for
this competition are evaluated
on a very exhaustive scale,
including areas like coverage
and photography. Those
who win the award are then
published in a book that comes
out at the end of the year.
The staff was praised for
having a "surprising" amount
of photographs, but was also
given constructive criticism to
help them improve the future
volumes of the yearbook.
"In some ways, it's a
tool," Krake said. One piece
of advice they were given
was to include more male
students on the staff to provide
more coverage, and they're
encouraging more people to
become involved.
While they are glad to
be in the competition to
compare their work to that of
other yearbook staffs, they're
striving to make the yearbook
outstanding in competition,
but also something students
will enjoy.
"It is really great knowing
that all our hard work and
determination paid off; and
it drives us to make the next
book as great as the last," Carly
Feke, co-Photo Editor, said.
Even though they won this
award, the competition isn't
completely over for them. All
American Award-winners are
invited to a special ceremony
in April where the NSPA will
announce the finalists for a
special Pacemaker award,
which is only given to 25-30
school yearbooks annually in
the United States.
"I think we found a good
balance of a book that people
enjoy reading and still does
well in com petitions," Krake
said. Krake hopes this award
will help people recognize the
yearbook staff more.
"Sometimes students don't
appreciate the hard work that
goes into producing a book,"
Krake said. The staff often
comes in to work outside
of class time and dedicates
countless hours to creating a
quality yearbook.
"There would be
assignments we would have
to finish that would take
two weeks," Natalie Snyder,
co-Editor-in-chief, said. "We
would dedicate our time
before school, after school, and
on the weekends."
This year, the staff plans
on meeting a March deadline
instead of producing the usual
fall yearbook. The books
should be out by the end of the
school year, and a supplement
that can be taped into the book
covering spring events will be
available in the fall.
Photo by Carrie Guy
The Green and Gold yearbook staff won a prestigious All American award from the National Scholastic
Press Association. They scored 4,440 points out of 4,700 and earned four marks of distinction.
WLHS earns national recognition for excellence—again
C hrisann K im
For the second year in a
row, WLHS earned a Silver
award from "U.S. News and
World Report" placing us in
the top 561 high schools in the
nation. Overall, over 21,000
high schools were evaluated
for "America's Best High
Schools" honors.
"I am thrilled for our
students, teachers and
our community. This is an
outstanding recognition
for others outside of our
community to know that we
are an outstanding school.
The award is about the
hard work our teachers and
students put in on a daily
basis," Lou Bailey, principal,
said.
Only nine other high
schools in Oregon earned
the Silver award. Awards
were based on performance
expectations, performance of
less-advantaged students, and
college preparation.
"This award validates
the hard work our teachers
dedicate themselves to do
for and with our students,"
Bailey said, "We have won the
Silver award now two years
in a row, which indicates
great consistency within our
school's academic program.
Siifjgy In a ra __________________
continued on page 2
New server creates initial headaches, but expected to be beneficial
G unnar W olfe ________________
Despite recent technical
difficulties with the
computers, the new server
upgrade will be beneficial
in the long run according to
Curtis Nelson, West Linn-
Wilsonville School District
Director of Information
Services.
"The server is faster, higher
capacity, centrally located in
an 'always on' environment.
As it settles into place, this
will make the entire end-user
experience better," Nelson
said.
Over the past month,
the network has, at times,
malfunctioned or been very
slow. This is due to a change
in servers over winter break.
The server is where all files are
kept, and it is not an easy task
to transfer such a large amount
of files.
There have been some
problems with the changeover,
but the change in servers had
to be made, as there were only
four gigabytes of space left in
the old server. The old server
Photo by Libby Kara
Over winter break, the district switched over to a new central server
housed at school district headquarters. Each section of the server has
a greater capacity than the old server at WLHS which had less than
four gigabytes of space left prior to the transfer.
was out of space and out of
Amanda Rucker, junior, said.
warranty.
"It's hard to get anything
The new server is used
done."
for the entire district, rather
There have been problems
„ with students and staff not
than each school having an
being able to access files,
individual server. This will
drives appearing in different
make things easier, according
places for different users, and
to Nelson, as all the files are
at one point, students having
now located in the same place.
access to all other students'
Although in the long-run it
will be an improvement, there
files.
are still bugs that need to be
The district technology staff
worked out as the computers
has been working countless
have yet to function 100%
hours to make this transition
properly. This has caused
as smooth as possible.
frustration and headaches for
"With technology, there
many students and teachers.
will always be problems and
It has been even more
bugs that need to be worked
problematic because the school out," Angie Hammond, WLHS
relies so heavily on computers.
Technology Department
Chair, said. "The entire staff
"Sometimes you have days
worked through the summer
where you really need to
and winter break to get this
quickly finish work and you
technology to work. It wasn't
have to try computer after
easy."
computer to see if it works,"