Closed Campus Lunch

By:Brianna Brinckman

Sparta High School's current policy of closed campus lunch stirs mixed emotions within the community of Sparta.

Starting two years ago, Sparta High School decided to close open campus lunch for the incoming class of 2013. Principle Sam Russ states, "I am not taking anything away, just not giving to those who have never had." Russ truly believes that closing lunch is benefiting not only the students academics but their health as well. "I looked at the student records of those who are not allowed to leave during lunch and found that they have better academics, less tardies and unexcused absences," explained Russ.

Russ goes on to explain that the school has to serve healthy foods. "All schools in Wisconsin are mandated by law on what they can and can't serve. They provide a good healthy selection for a price that cannot be beat" continues Russ. As of now, Russ is debating to close lunch for the whole school by fall of 2012 or to allow open lunch for juniors and seniors only. "We currently have the capacity to hold three classes in the cafeteria, the only concern is the amount of time it takes for the students to get though the lunch line" adds Russ.

Sophomore Jake Hutchinson disagrees with the plan to close off lunch for the whole school. "I think it would be fair to close campus for freshmen and sophomores, but I don't like being crowded at lunch. I feel we will not have enough time to get the whole school through the lunch line" states Hutchinson. Senior Dakota Betts agrees with Hutchinson's statement. "I think juniors and seniors should be allowed to leave during lunch, but it's nice not having traffic and lines of underclassmen at the local restaurants" says Betts.

One restaurant being affected by this policy is the Subway located at 801 West Wisconsin Street, Sparta, Wisconsin. Subway has always been a popular spot to eat at during the 28 minutes of lunch. "With the exception of homecoming week, this year has been slower during the lunch hour with high school students," states Jon Hetland, the owner of Subway.

He goes on to say that he also disagrees with the policy of closed campus lunch. "As students get older they should be given more responsibility to prepare them for after high school. Since a lot of seniors are 18, which is virtually an adult, it's hard to take away the option to leave for lunch," continues Hetland.

He also talks about how the students help benefit Sparta's local businesses. Hetland states, "High school students are a good part of the lunch business and always have been because they provide daily service to the local restaurants." Hetland and Hutchinson agree with the thought that if students wanted to skip class, they would skip whether released at lunch or not. Hetland states, "If punishment is necessary, punish the students who break the rules, but not everyone because most students don't skip."

The Styles of 2010

By: Desiree Harr

Students reveal new styles for the year of 2010 for the Sparta High School. The styles range from boy fit jeans to skinny jeans, t-shirts to layers of shirts, flip flops to converse, hairstyle up to hairstyle down, and no accessories to accessories in 2010.

What do the students at Sparta High School think is the new style of 2010. A junior, Jonah Delgado, says, "I think the new style is classy but comfortable." From the interviewers everyone may figure out that the boys and the girls have different views of new style. Along with the changing style is the hairstyles changing. Jonah Delgado says, "Mohawks/Fohawks have hit the soccer tam while nicely combed or short for the rest.".

The style that is in for girls is a little different than for the guys in 2010. Senior, Becky Guldenaar, say, "Most girls are starting to bring back the skinny jeans.". Bringing back styles hoping they stay longer, Becky Guldenaar says, "I think that since this style has been in before and not last long then it will last longer this time because more people wear it this time then last time.".

Styles changing constantly, there will be a new style before we know it. Knowing the fashion? No one will ever know until it comes to the time to change. Fashion starts telling the personality of the people.

Blast the Blugolds

By: Maddie Munger

This year's homecoming was a great success. It was filled with excitement, spirit, and class battles. The class battles included window painting, float building, class skit, dress up days, and spirit!

Senior Nicole DeSmidt, who was on the float building committee, said, " This year we're going make the best float of all four years." "We're going to put our heads together and make a great float that our senior class will love and other spartan fans also," continued DeSmidt. The seniors made a very creative volcano on the football field that included smoke coming out of the top.

Another battle that happened during homecoming week was the class skits. The skits were performed in front of the student body, and people sure did enjoy them. The seniors did a skit portraying So you think you can dance, the juniors did a jeopardy reenactment and the sophomores had a dance off. The students and faculty were very pleased with all of the skits. Josh Bolden, actor in the senior skit, said, "It was a lot of hard work at first when we had to pick out the parts people will play and the music to dance to, but the crowd seemed to really enjoy our skit."

All the spartan student's new and old seemed to enjoy this year's homecoming. They're excited for next year to begin again so they can start planing on how to beat the other classes.

Dress Up Days 2010

Sparta High School has recently ended their homecoming week, which in Sparta includes everything from assemblies, to the ugly men, to the homecoming football game. First thing Monday morning homecoming week started off with the dress up days. Dress up days at Sparta High are when kids and faculty members get to dress a certain way according to the specific day of the week. Senior, Amanda Thurston says,"Dress up days are always the best part of the whole week." Not only does Thurston enjoy dressing up for homecoming week, but so does her fellow students and teachers.

Teacher at Sparta High, Donna Kemp says,"A lot of people dressed up; about 77 percent of students in my class were dressed up all week. The only thing I would change about dress up days is that students should get out of class five minutes early instead of ten. Otherwise it's not enough time to be focused on school work. However, I love dressing up. It's a very good idea for our school." When asked if she would enjoy any other days to dress up like Kemp says,"Hawaiian day is always fun and the students usually dress up for it." There were many dress up days for the students and faculty to choose from and most of them had a positive outcome. 

Dress up days kicked off on Monday, September 20 with Professional Sports day. "I think it should've been all sports day, including high school sports instead." says Lindsey Herr, senior at Sparta High. Professional sports wasn't very popular that week but other days were much more exciting for students and the teachers.
Western day took place on tuesday with cowboy boots and hats galore! "The day I dressed up most was western day," says Herr," It was the easiest one for me to dress up as." As Western day ended, the braids were undone and the cowboy hats taken off, there was a certain excitement brewing for the next day. 

Wednesday the 21, one more day closer to the game on Friday, was nerd day. "Nerd day was my favorite day throughout the whole week." says Thurston. Suspenders and big, black glasses held together with tape were very famous on this day. "I think it should have been combined with a wacky wednesday thing." says Herr, "It would've been a lot easier and probably more fun." Nerd day was popular that week as many students got creative and found their geek side.



Decades day came next when, on Thursday, freshman dressed in the attire of the 60s, sophomores the '70s, juniors the '80s, and the seniors dressed in '90s outfits. Kemp says, "It was fun to see people dressed up in past outfits, but it was too hard to judge if students were dressed up that day because everyone had on something different."


"I think the decades should have went a century lower." adds Herr, " It would have been more fun and I bet more people would've dressed up that day." As Thursday ended everyone knew what day was in store for Sparta High. 

Friday, the day of the homecoming game and the day to dress with your Sparta spirit, was full of red and gold clothing, hair, leggings, and face paint. " Spartan Spirit day is always my favorite day," says Kemp," Everyone always dresses up and it really promotes our high school. I like how it gets everyone fired up." "Spartan spirit was tied for my favorite day with western day." says Herr. Even though the school day ends, the spirit stays high as kids head off to the parade and the game that night.

Can I Get That In Print?

This year, the Sparta School District has initiated a new printing policy. Instead of the printers already being set up and ready to go for the students, this year, the students must set up the printers themselves. According to Kristen Martin, one of Sparta's dedicated librarians, this new policy is meant to, "Help the school district track some of our expenses." The school district will be able to keep track of how much paper is being used in the schools, and be able to locate ways to reduce it.

However, many students are finding the new policy to be a source of stress. Instead of being able to rely on printers here at school should printers at home ever break down, students find that they can no longer print the day a paper is due.

"It takes a long time to set up a printer," says Ashlie Kasten, a senior at Sparta High.

"Freshmen can't even print," says Jenna Deicher, a freshman at Sparta High.

"I've just given up trying to set up printers," says Bryon Paige. "It's so much easier to print at home or in the library."

The frustration at such a policy is understandable, and as the year goes on, many hope that the frustration simmers down. "People need to remember that we are in a transition period," says Kristen Martin, "and that once the transition period is over, things should be easier."

The entire school district is adjusting to the changes in the printing policies, and the irritation is felt all across the board. However, one must remember that time's continuous march makes many things easier. It's all about adjusting.

Retaking Tests

By: Kayla Kelsey

Sparta High School staff tries to decide if allowing students to retake tests is really helping them or just hurting them in the long run. Not only are some teachers allowing students to retake their test, they are also letting them retake it as many times as they want.

Throughout the school day, students can have multiple tests in different classes, so it gets to be a little overwhelming. "The goal in doing well on a test is to prepare," states Sparta High School's Principal, Sam Russ, he continues with saying, "students need to balance their tests like a paper, you prepare, edit, and have someone else edit it."

All teachers have their own teaching methods, but they all have the same goal which is to teach the students the learning material that they are required to know for that certain course. Maureen Young, one of Sparta High School's English department teachers, has different methods of test taking, depending on what class it is that she is teaching. Two of the many courses that Young taught last year were Spanish One and Intermediate Composition. Young thinks that these were two classes that she believed their tests should be done differently. She said, "Depends on the class," she backed this up by arguing, "I allowed my spanish one class to retake their tests because the tests were based on building vocabulary base, but not many took the advantage of the retake." On the other hand, she did not allow her intermediate composition class to retake their tests, "I believe that the tests in that class are based on mastering materials," she continues with saying, "anyone could do this with many tries."

Not only does retaking tests help to better the students' grades but it gives them a better understanding of what they are learning.

John Blaha, a science teacher a Sparta High School, allows his students in all of his classes to retake their tests as many times as they would like. "My goal is for the students to learn the material," says Blaha, "students learn at different rates, so it differentiates through pace."

Cramming is what most teachers dislike. Tests are for them to see how students are progressing and it's also a self evaluation to see how well they are actually teaching the material.

Young states that, "students rose to the challenge," referring to letting them only take tests once. "Yes, I think that it helps students, they all tried harder!" Unlike Young, Russ thinks that retaking tests can be an advantage. Russ thought that allowing students to retake tests was helping them. "Yes, retaking tests helps students for knowledge standpoint," he said. Russ also agreed that it can have its disadvantages. "There will always be the ones who take advantage of the situation, the ones that want to be lazy," stated Russ.

"Retaking tests has its advantages," argues Russ, he continues with saying, "it depends on what the students are getting out of it."

Sparta DECA

Sparta DECA is getting under way for this year. There has been a couple of successful meetings so far in the beginning of this school year, in DECA advisors' room, Jamie Adams.

DECA has many things to come this year and very high expectations. "My goal is for every member to get what they want out of DECA. For me its kind of hard to say my goals, it's up to the kids and what they want" said Adams. DECA had much success last year and plans to do the same this year. Last year they won the C.O.W. Cup at Stevens Point, "My hope is to again go and participate at C.O.W. and possibly win again" said Adams.

This years' DECA group is quite young, there are a few DECA officers that are upper classmen, "I'm really looking forward to being with my young officers, working with them, and helping them succeed" said Adams. Sparta DECA is looking forward to a very good year and hopes for the best.