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Coral Reef Sr. High
May 2012
Senior Activities
Not without cost and deadlines, Seniors work to meet their obligations
Staff Writer
Iti Mehta
Paying for senior activities has started. It started
with paying for the senior breakfast, which was
$35. Other senior activities, such as grad bash,
are also right around the corner and they are
expensive. It is a hassle to come up with the
money to attend senior breakfast, grad bash,
prom, and graduation and it is a hassle to be
eligible to go to all these events.
Eligibility requirements: pay all
obligations, complete the minimum required
75 hours of community service, and not be over
the absence limit, especially the unexcused
absences.
The hours requirement should be done
by now, since the last day to turn in hours was
Friday January 20, 2012 for seniors. Obligations
should also be paid by now, since students with
obligations were not allowed to buy senior
breakfast tickets.
As for the absences, senioritis should be
on a hold right now, since those who are close
to the maximum absences allowed should not be
absent anymore if they plan on attending senior
activities. For those seniors who already have
senioritis, complying with all the eligibility rules
is hard.
After all the eligibility criteria are
matched, the next thing to worry about is money.
After all, senior activities do cost a lot.
As a help to seniors, this year the school
made it mandatory for all seniors to sell at least
one magazine subscription. A lot of students
ended up buying that one magazine subscription
themselves. The more they sell the better. For
example, selling three subscriptions gets a senior
an extra graduation ticket, which is another thing
Teacher pay tied to student performance
Teachers whose students do not take FCAT will be evaluated on the school’s overall reading scores
a lot of the graduating students want.
Depending on the amount of subscriptions
sold, a senior can get tickets to prom, grad
bash, and other senior activities for free. Not
only this, but the magazine initiative is also
supposed to make the senior activities better,
such as the decorations, etc.
Tickets to the graduation ceremony. Students
are given only five tickets for the event. Those
who want more have to find their own way,
such as through friends.
While the senior’s plan how they are going
to get the money, such as through parents, here
is the cost: $35 for senior breakfast, $135 for
grad bash, and $75 for prom. The grand total
is $245.
After the money for tickets, there is
money for clothes. The cost of just the tickets
does not seem to be a hassle. It is the addition
of dresses, shoes, tuxedos, hair, nails, and
makeup that makes the total amount huge.
Business senior Courtney Taylor says senior
year is “the year to live life and be broke.”
In the end, it is all about the excitement,
the fun. It is the last year of high school for
seniors. It is the first and last time they will be
going to grad bash or to senior breakfast. Prom is
their last memory of high school. “Enjoy life! It
doesn’t come twice,” says VPA senior Alejandro
Alvarado.
Staff Writer
Kassandra Marin
Recently in the state of
Florida, Governor Rick Scott,
signed a bill that would implement
the policy of merit pay in the state
of Florida.
Merit pay is basically
performance-related pay, teachers
who “perform their jobs effectively”
will be provided bonuses. Most of
their performances will be based
on the performance on the students,
for example how well the students
perform in the classroom as well as
how they perform on standardized
tests such as Advanced Placement
tests, International Baccalaureate
tests and the FCAT.
There has been a lot of
controversy amongst the teachers as
to how this will affect them. Some
pros of merit pay are that it might
be able to lead to better educational
outcomes, apparently 50% of
the schools with such reforms
outperformed the other schools
in math and 47% outperformed in
reading.
Another pro is that it
contributes toward the student’s
achievement; schools that used
merit pay were better able to attract
teachers than schools with no merit
pay system. Another pro
of merit pay is argued
that it can alleviate
teacher retention rate.
However even
though the system
argues that there are
pros, with pros there
comes cons, there are
various disadvantages
to this new program.
For example, according
to critics it will create a
low teacher morale and
increased competition
between teachers.
Also, it has been
said that the system
will waste time and
money while trying to
administrate the merit
play plans. And finally,
there is little to no
evidence from research
that this new merit pay
program will even lead
to student achievement.
According to TOK teacher,
Mrs. Scott, the system itself is
faulty, for teachers who’s course of
study or curriculum has irrelevant
to a standardized test or does not
culminate in a standardized test, their
pay is determined automatically by
the FCAT, this is not fair since they
Mrs. Kirchner works closely with her class for the FCAT review. Among
other teachers, her pay will be tied to the results of her students.
do not teach core subjects that relate
to the FCAT.
According to her, it has been
shown that in other states who have
already started to implement merit
pay, it has in no way improved the
system of education. She states that
in order for the system of education
to be improved, instead of using
money to conduct these standardized
tests and administrating the merit
play plans, the money should
be used to offer a higher pay to
new teachers, this will give them
a higher incentive to climb the
ladder, knowing that they have the
opportunity to make more money in
the long run, much comparable to
that of lawyers and doctors.