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Prom Grinding Rule in Place
April 9th, 2012Kathleen McAleese
Staff Writer
Prom is a magical time for some high school students. For seniors, it’s the final bang in their high school careers. Westford Academy has a strict grinding policy and administrators stand behind their decision that there will be no grinding at prom. The rule in the past has been that no grinding is accepted, and if students are caught dancing in an inappropriate fashion, they will be asked to leave.
There is one problem with this, though: this year’s prom is on a boat. If students are caught grinding, they can not be thrown out of the event, so the new question is what will administration do for prom? Prom chaperones will cross that bridge when they get to it.
“All students are expected to adhere to the rule that is in place,” said Principal Jim Antonelli.
Students have been reminded again and again that the rule is in place. No student will go uninformed of the rule, and the deans and Antonelli will make sure of it.
The rule has been presented to the students, and they know the consequences.
“There is a time and place for everything. I have been chaperoning at WA dances for thirty years and the grinding that went on was not appropriate,” said Mr. Parent, “I completely stand behind administration’s decision.”
WA students know the drill on this grinding issue but as for visitors accompanying WA students to prom, they will be spoken to prior to the dance. There will be no exceptions.
Chaperones will be on and around the dance floor, keeping a close eye on students’ activities.
Although there has been a rumor about a time-out room for students caught, this will not be put in place, unless grinding becomes an issue.
Any inappropriate dancing will be handled on a case-by-case basis. Administration does not anticipate that the dancing will be an issue.
Brian Poon: the new Poseidon
March 22nd, 2012By Kathleen McAleese
Staff Writer
Brian Poon, a Westford Academy swimming superstar, is one of the most well known freshman athletes at WA. The winter sports have now come to a close and Poon has been presented with the Westford Academy Most Valuable Swimmer Award at the winter sports banquet, held on March 13th. He was in Wisconsin for a meet for his Phoenix club swim team and was unable to receive the award since he was there.
Poon has broken more swimming records and is now at a whopping sixteen records broken; twelve for Massachusetts, and four for WA. As a freshman, this is a feat that few have accomplished.
Four years from now, in 2016, Poon has the goal of becoming an Olympic swimmer for the United States.
“I will have to attend practice and work hard,” said Poon.
Poon’s peers have been a huge support for Brian, some nicknaming him “Poseidon.”
Much of the student body, especially the freshmen class has a great respect and admiration for Brian, a stand out athlete and role model for his class.
“It is a joint team effort to succeed,” said Poon about his swimming. Although he is a star swimmer, swimming is a team effort and he plays a major role in his Pheonix swim team and for WA.
Although very talented, he is modest. “Conceited people are not good role models,” said Poon.
He wants to be a good role model for others, and he is inspired by Michael Phelps and his dad, who has instilled good characteristics into his son.
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The Spring Epidemic
March 21st, 2012Kathleen McAleese
Staff Writer
An epidemic has struck the students and teachers of Westford Academy, this disease has no known cure and is thought to be irreversible. Spring has arrived and everyone is feeling the buzz of excitement that comes along with the warm weather.
The atmospheric change that comes tagging along with spring has everyone excited and always seeming to be in a good mood. Energy from the sun almost brings us all out of our annual winter hibernation. Almost everyone is outside doing something: yard work, sports, or just sitting on the deck, sunbathing. People are deciding to open the windows, letting the warm, fresh breeze flow.
For most, the spring brings wonderful things: flowers, tans, shorts and tank-tops, and, less than wonderful things like declining grades.
There are still more than two months of school left so no one can have their head in the clouds completely. It may feel like late June, but it isn’t.
The fact that some kids already don’t care is a frightening thought to some teachers. Students all need to realize that some sort of rebellion by a lack of work and effort is not going to work, don’t try.
This year, the spring fever epidemic is worse than ever before. At this time last year, we still had snow on the ground, but now, people are already in spring mentality.
With eighty degree, sunshiny days, the last thing anyone wants to do is sit inside and do homework, but we are all still in school and teachers, although also feeling the spring fever, teachers are not accepting any slacking.
Of course teachers are feeling this buzz; they do have lives out of school. You don’t see them come into school without a lesson plan though, do you? If teachers can pull through this spring fever then students should also be able to. Most teachers have been teaching for longer than all of us have been in school; they understand the fever.
It is just the start of spring, and even though the weather gets you feeling like its the last day of school but newsflash: school ends at the end of spring, not the beginning.
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Katie Enos to be commemorated
February 2nd, 2012
Kathleen McAleese
Staff Writer
Katie Enos was a beloved friend, daughter, sister, and classmate. After Katie died, she donated several of her organs to people in need. Her family recalls that Katie thought it would be ridiculous for someone to waste their organs if someone out there needed them.
Katie was killed after a car struck her on June 29, 2010. After her organs were donated, four people’s lives changed drastically for the better.
Katie was pictured in the Donate Life Rose Parade float, which is a float that remembers organ donors, both alive and deceased, who have donated their organs to save a life. Katie met all the requirements for being pictured on the float, being that she was a deceased organ donor. The Rose Parade took place on January 2, 2012 prior to the Rose Bowl, a historic college football game.
The theme for the parade was “Just Imagine…” and Donate for Life represented this as “Just imagine… one more day.” The float was in the shape of a clock, representing both the passing of another day and the lifetime that the donors have been able to elongate after their own passing. Katie was shown at the twelve.
Katie, like all other organ donors on the float, was pictured in a florograph, a picture made up of all organic materials. Katie was joined on the float with seventy other florographs of organ donors, and twenty-eight organ families, families of the receiving organs.
In the parade were ninety one attractions, such as bands, walkers, and dancers, forty one of which were floats. All of them were going along with the theme of “Just imagine…”
The Rose Parade proved to be much more than a football game, as it was both a celebration of past, and present lives, all touched by the generosity of a donor.
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Winter Sports
December 22nd, 2011The seasons have changed and winter sports are beginning to get in full swing here at Westford Academy. Included in the winter sports category are swimming, basketball, indoor track, Alpine skiing, gymnastics, Nordic skiing, wrestling, winter cheer and ice hockey. This winter season is packed full of sports.
Some coaches have been coaching their sport for a number of years, including Philip Archambault, coaching WA boy’s indoor track for seventeen years. The boy’s track team is anticipating a successful season. Many boys are returning to run for the team and also a lot of new boys are starting to run for the team this year. Archambault hopes that the boys perform well at the Dual County League Championship.
Most impressive coaching longevity is Ed Scollan, who has been head coach for the boys’ varsity basketball team for twenty-six years. Scollan has the simple goal of game-by-game improvement. The solid team is lead by co-captains Matt Ellis and Ryan Jann, and includes several strong seniors and juniors. “We need to be ready to play each game never taking any opponent lightly. The DCL has some terrific teams with many talented players,” said Scollan.
As for the girl’s basketball team, coached by Russell Coward, the coach of four years is expecting to make it to the DCL Large and the state tournament. The team looks strong and has several star players returning, including Megan Kibblehouse, Hannah Hackley, and Sam Hyslip. “We have a very difficult schedule this year, so I expect we will have our ups and downs this season,” said Coward.
The girls swim team is also looking forward to a successful season, with many record-breaking swimmers expected to shine this year. These swimmers include Counteney Martin, Tori Weinstock, Jen Marrkand, and Kelly Huber. Last year, the team was only thirteen points behind rivals Lincoln-Sudbury. Coach Caitlin Klick foresees the season “being very competitive in each meet that we enter. With such a small group, the girls will have many chances to swim several races each meet, giving them each a better shot of qualifying for the Sectional and State championships.”
Coach Todd Fletcher of the WA girl’s ice hockey team is yet another team coming back from a great season last year. Their main goal is to make it to the MIAA state tournament again this season with the help of last year’s star players, including Stephanie Aro, Kim Lizotte, and Ali Difonzo on offense and Nicole Larsen, Katie Lowe, and Erin Mealey on defense.
Stephanie Anderson has coached the Westford Academy gymnastics team for the past two seasons. This will be her third. The team came in fifth place last year at sectionals and is looking forward to going back and coming in at least fourth. “I am also hoping to break the balance beam record, the one that has not been broken since 1993,” said Anderson. The coach is expecting Erin Auger and Caroline Liu. They are hopeful about their first meet on December 22.
Bob Carter, the coach of the boy’s hockey team has been at WA for sixteen years. Several new players have joined the team and also many returning players are in the mix. The team plays other teams in the Merrimack Valley League. The captain of the team is Pat Houghton and the co-captains consist of Justin Pawlowski, Matt Brett, Ian Speliotis. As a team, they are looking forward to the season’s challenges.
As the season begins to start, all of Westford Academy’s teams are looking forward to successful seasons. Whether the teams accomplish their pre-season goals or not, all the teams are looking forward to a fun, competition-filled winter.
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Code Monkey Review
December 5th, 2011
Recently produced by WATA, “Code Monkey” is an hilarious comedy. It had the crowd roaring with laughter. Starring Nick Nudler and Leah Detolla, the play is about an intern who works at Notanevil Drug Company and falls head over heals for a lab assistant, Laura (Detolla). When Laura gets kidnapped by the evil boss of the company, Tom, the intern, goes to rescue her.
The cast of the production included thirty-eight students, most of whom were in the ensemble.
The plot is built around a set of songs, all written by Jonathan Coulton, and was written and directed by Dr. Luke Jorgensen after he discovered Coulton’s music. Jorgensen said he was fascinated by the “theatricality of the songs and set about to write a show that would feature this music.”
Everything from the ushers’ outfits to the program were done well. One complaint from several of the audience members was that the sound was very low. Also, even the actors admit to a lack of plot in the play. However, the great singing by Nudler, Detolla, Jillian Frankel, and Chris Kandra, and the rest of the cast balanced out the imperfections.
Code Monkey was a very strange play, with outrageous makeup and plot. Nothing about it was low-key.
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Remembering Magistra Dale
December 1st, 2011By Kathleen McAleese
Staff Writer
Maria Dale, a beloved Latin teacher at Stony Brook Middle School, died in her home on November 23 after battling cancer. Mrs. Dale taught Latin at Stony Brook here in Westford since the beginning of the 2008 school year. In her time there, she touched a number of hearts and established herself as a great teacher.
Many students remember her as the nicest lady and a person who was easy to talk to, even if they didn’t take Latin. “She always made my day brighter,” reminisced WA freshman Conor Hanly. Whether she taught a grammar lesson or the class played a Latin game, most all of her students looked forward to her class. In fact, some students enrolled in her class for the sole purpose of having her as a teacher.
Many students that did not take Latin remember her for her very prominent English accent. Born and raised in Hitchin, Hertfordshire in the UK, she moved to the States once she was out of high school. She married her husband David, and then had three children: Tristan, Julia, and Zoe.
As a former student of hers, I remember her as a very lively personality. She always seemed to be wearing a smile. She was a teacher I could go to with a question about anything and she always had the time to talk. She was loved by our class and we were still in contact with her while she was out sick.
Our class has been touched by a very generous soul. Thank you, Magistra Dale.
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Spirit Rally Inspires Frosh Feelings
November 15th, 2011Kathleen McAleese
Staff Writer
Some freshmen find it highly unfair that seniors rank supreme at WA, while some freshmen find it to be all right. Many feelings poured out of some members of the freshman class after the spirit rally last Friday. Everyone expects seniors to win everything. From Penny-Wars, the spirit week costumes, and especially spirit rally activities, seniors annually rank supreme.
Freshmen are obviously unfavored by all upperclassmen, but does it really matter? In reality, it doesn’t. Freshmen will eventually have their turn to dominate all underclassmen. However, some freshmen are angry at the fact that freshmen are practically forbidden to win anything at all.
But when does the fun turn into bullying? The seniors have been notorious for taking advantage of their reign, but at events like the spirit rallies, it is totally expected. What the seniors do and how they treat underclassmen could not be referred to as bullying, but maybe as disrespect. The seniors are not to blame for what they do, all senior classes in history have picked on the frosh. Everyone knows that freshman traditionally get the short end of the stick but what is so wrong with that? Next year the freshmen will have their chance to discriminate against the future ‘frosh’ and in three years, we will be the seniors, the kings of the castle.
This type of freshmen discrimination shouldn’t have students questioning the spirit rally rules and regulations. If rules change now, when this year’s freshmen become seniors, the last thing they would wish for is for the freshmen to win anything at all. The freshmen are supposed to get poked fun at and teased. It may not be fun for us now, but it will be fun for us for the next three years to lean on the new freshmen classes. After all, “the freshmen experience” wouldn’t be complete without the promise of a little fun.
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Freshmen girls kicking it up to WAGS
October 17th, 2011Kathleen McAleese
Staff writer
Meghan Thomasch, and Emma Katz are two freshmen playing on the WA varsity soccer team (also referred to as WAGS by the two). The girls, both placed in the varsity group at the tryouts, and were very happy to find out that they each had a fellow freshman to pal around with. The girls had been friends prior to the season, having been involved in travel basketball and other soccer teams together in the past.
The girls, both being freshman, are treated somewhat differently from the other girls. “We have to do more little jobs and chores,” said Thomasch, “Oh and we are always on equipment duty,” said Katz.
Thomasch, and Katz usually had a common denominator in their responses. They were both very nervous initially and they did not really know what to expect.
“At first it was kind of intimidating to play with the older, upperclassmen, and they seemed to talk to only each other. We seemed to never be included at first,” Thomasch said.
The girls also both agreed that they felt most welcome around the senior, Mackenzie Brewer. They agreed that she was one of the friendliest girls on the team and that even though she was a lot older, she didn’t care about talking to the freshmen. She wanted everyone to feel welcome. Brewer was also said to give great advice, on the field, and off.
Although Katz is happy about making varsity, she agrees that it was a large step, never playing on freshman or the JV team. She also feels like some freshmen shouldn’t have been on the freshman team but there were no spots on the JV team, even though a lot of girls have the skill to play JV.
“Our team is very close,” said Katz, but it wasn’t always like that, according to the two. Katz explained that, “As the season went on, everything got a lot less awkward… and now we are so close… before, it was like ‘Yeah I’m on varsity’ but once you start playing you are actually on the team, not just having the title.”
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Welcome Mrs. Woodward
September 26th, 2011By Kathleen McAleese & Haley Verre
Staff Writers
Q: What prior teaching experience do you have?
A: Before teaching at WA, I was a General Ed./ Special Ed. teacher at the Crisafulli School, and before that I was a substitute teacher within the system.
Q: What college(s) did you attend? What did you major in?
A: I went to the University of Lowell and Middlesex. At the University of Lowell, I majored in psychology and at Middlesex I got my associates in legal secretariat studies.
Q: What dos your job at WA entail?
A: Numerous things. It depends on who I am with at the time. Sometimes I am with a group of students and sometimes I am with an individual and basically giving them academic support and sometimes emotional support.
Q: What has your WA experience been like so far? Why?
A: I love the staff, the kids are great. I have had no problems at all.
Q: How was your first day here?
A: I was a little nervous. It’s a big change from fourth graders to high schoolers. I didn’t know what to expect… I didn’t know what was expected of me.
Q: What is your favorite part of your job?
A: I love this job a lot. But I think going home and feeling like it’s a very rewarding type of job.
Q: How do you feel about the high school age group? Have you ever taught another age group?
A: It’s funny, I thought it would be a lot different but they’re not. Fourth graders love to hug and you have to have your head constantly spinning just to keep track of them. High schoolers are a lot more mature, obviously, but I like to call them little kids in big bodies.
Q: Do you have any hobbies outside of school? What are they?
A: Well, I’m a mother, I have five children. And I really love sports. I am a big Red Sox fan.
Q: Did you grow up in the Westford area? What is your favorite part about it?
A: Yes, pretty much. I am a graduate of WA and I came back. I love the sense of community and how everyone is looking out for everyone else.
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