The James Logan Courier

By Alyssa Pimentel, Courier School News Editor

Since the beginning of the school year, it's been apparent that the sizes classes at James Logan have dramatically increased. Last year's standard class size of thirty-five students in non-freshman classes, already an increase from the year before, went up to the forties in many cases, while some classes had dramatically fewer students. With that many students in the large classes, it was difficult for teachers to maintain the same level of quality in their teaching. To even out the differences and thus reduce the size of the largest classes, Logan administrators added new classes to the academic schedule Monday, and stocked them with students from crowded classrooms.

By Alexys Cran, Courier Staff Writer


Riding your bicycle instead of driving your car to school or to work can help you save money, lose weight, stay healthy, and help the environment. However, according to the Cascade Education Foundation, only 25% of the U.S. population rides their bicycles and 16% of American teenagers ride theirs to and from school. Although not all students should ride their bikes for transportation to school, if the percentage were to increase then pollution would decrease, teenagers would be healtier, and save their parents a lot of gas money.

By Eric Brown, Courier Music Editor

The mood at the Fox Theater on the night of Wednesday September 16th was far different from that of many shows. The atmosphere was decidedly British, from the bunches of fans hammering back beers to the eccentric man running around the general admission floor area draped in the British flag. The reason for the unique buzz in the air was the headlining band, Britain’s own Arctic Monkeys. Supporting their August release Humbug, the band’s stop in the Bay Area was a wild and exhilarating show, despite it’s occasional signs of the Arctic Monkeys’ youth.

ACTIVITIES
Anyone interested in playing boys soccer should see Coach Sills in Room 73 and attend open field after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Our Welcome Back Dance is tonight from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. in the Pavilion. Presale tickets are being sold in Colt Court during lunch for $10, or $8 w/ASB sticker. Buy your tickets now so you don’t have to wait to buy one at the door. You must have your ID card to purchase tickets and get into the dance.

Cross Country on the track after school. Don’t miss a great experience!
esday 9/29, Wednesday 9/30, 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. every day. Job application in Room 63. Pick up during 4th & 5th period lunch. See Mr. Richberg.

By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer

UNION CITY - The New Haven Unified School District has initiated the process for naming the new Performing Arts Center at James Logan High School, and the entire New Haven community is invited to submit suggestions.

Construction is expected to be completed in January on the Performing Arts Center, a $28 million facility promised to New Haven voters as part of Measure A, a $120 million bond passed in 2003. The centerpiece is a 599-seat theater, and the facility also includes support facilities and an educational wing to house music and drama classrooms. The Center could be open for school events as soon as February. A formal grand opening, being coordinated by the New Haven Schools Foundation, is planned for May.

By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer

About 70 people attended a special meeting of the Board of Education on Tuesday night to discuss safety at James Logan High School.

The Board received a report from Chief Academic Officer Wendy Gudalewicz on the decline in the number of suspensions and expulsions during the past five years. Although the trend is encouraging, there is concern because of the disproportionate numbers of Latino and African-American students who are being suspended and/or expelled.

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an Irish American Jazz Age novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. Fitzgerald was the self-styled spokesman of the "Lost Generation", Americans born in the 1890s who came of age during World War I. He finished four novels, left a fifth unfinished, and wrote dozens of short stories that treat themes of youth, despair, and age.


Read This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald, one of four of his books available free from Project Gutenberg.