TheJacket buzzstarkville high school 603 Yellowjacket Dr. Starkville, MS, 39759 www.shsjacketbuzz.com

TheB o xBuzz

August

Club

Recruitment

Day.12

First Day

of School.8

Makeups for

school day

pictures.23Labor Day,

No School.5SATP English

II retest.22

School Day

Pictures.16

Changes for the new school year... Feature on pages 4-5.

By Cullom McCormick

Editor-in-Chief

Seniors George Bennett and John Gavin Buffington worked tirelessly in R.J. Mor-gan’s classroom a full week be-fore school started, setting up the technical side of the new broadcast journalism program at Starkville High School.

Supplanting the announce-ments, the class hopes to pro-duce something every day.

Bennett and Buffington look forward to the challenge, tak-ing a visionary view of it and each other. They’ve collabo-rated on multiple independent films, along with making the freshman orientation video and retiring teachers tribute last year.

“I’ve been doing photogra-phy with Mr. (Andrew) Lark, so I’m lending my skills with visual composition,” Bennet said. “John Gavin is great with

(video) editing—he’s already getting job offers for it. We’ve always wanted to do cinema-tography. We already read each other’s minds. It’s a great mar-riage.”

Even then, there’s still a lot to work out. Morgan, as the broadcast’s adviser, is feeling his way through planning.

“We want to become like a daily news show,” Morgan said. “But it’s a work in prog-ress. My experience comes from print media, but the skills are transferable. I have friends who are professional broad-casters, and I’m going to lean on them to point me in the right direction.”

Bennett and Buffington say they have things under con-trol, though—by Aug. 2, the pair had already shown some-thing simultaneously on every television at SHS.

“We’re working on it all the time,” Bennett said on Aug. 3.

“It’s to the point where we can just click a button and go if we know what we want to do.”

While the broadcasting class will have its own writers, other journalism classes will contrib-ute as a way to gain exposure and offer more coverage.

“It’s a great way to build up our journalism,” Buffington said. “I can use my experience with photography and media for something interesting and new. It’ll connect the students--they’ll always know what’s happening with each other.”

Bennett agrees that the pro-gram will connect students, but adds that it’s a great way for everyone to be heard.

“There are times you don’t take something seriously until someone speaks passionately about it,” Bennett said. “We want to make everyone heard and no one overlooked, so people see the work students put into things like theatre.”

Bennett and Buffington examine the subject of a video. Photo by Baily Brocato.

We’re live in five!SHS starts broadcast program

New Teachers at SHS -- Pages 1-3

Name: Maggie AustinGraduate of: MSUTaught for: 23 yearsDpartment: Science

Name: Joel BarronGraduate of: MSUTaught for: 0 yearsDepartment: Choir

Name: Lahcen BelioumeGraduate of: Ibnou Zorh U.

Taught for: 8 yearsDepartment: Foreign languages

Name: Parker BlakeneyGraduate of: MSUTaught for: 0 years

Department: Science

Name: Joel FullerGraduate of: MSU Taught for: 7 years

Department: Social Studies

Name: Amy HelmsGraduate of:MSUTaught for: 7 yearsDepartment: Math

September

What should the daily morning news show be called? Tweet your nominations to @shsjacketbuzz by Wednesday night.

We will vote on the finalists later this week!

www.shsjacketbuzz.com News

By Christine Mazzola

News Editor

A traumatic event ended the last school year for the staff and instructors at the Millsaps Career & Technol-ogy Center in the death of Assistant Director David Broom on Wednesday, May 18.

Broom had been recover-ing from surgery to replace his teeth, which had been giving him trouble, with false ones.

He suffocated on a peanut butter sandwich in his back-yard and was found by his son, who attempted CPR but was unsuccessful.

His passing came as a sur-prise to faculty, staff and students.

Former computer graph-ics teacher Ray New could

hardly believe the news when he first received word of Broom’s passing.

“It was a shock,” New said. “It makes you realize how you never know how

it’s going to end.”For Millsaps Director Ja-

mie Stidham, the shock is ongoing.

“It was hard to accept, and it’s still hard to accept,” Stidham said.

New had recently received a master’s degree in admin-istration and had hoped to perhaps succeed Broom or take an administrative posi-tion in another district. He served an internship under Stidham.

Previous STEM teacher Denise Adair will be taking New’s place as Computer Graphics teacher.

“He had been helping out a lot in the second semester since Mr. Broom had been out, so it was a natural step up for him,” Stidham said. “He’s done a real good job.”

The Millsaps administra-tion and instructors came together in the wake of Broom’s passing and have carried on, something that Broom would have wanted,

according to New.“When he passed, we cir-

cled the wagons and worked to pick up the slack,” New said. “We pulled together. He would have wanted that.”

Despite the staff ’s efforts to comfort each other, the event still resonated deeply with many of them.

“It was very sad,” New said. “When you look around, you still see him ev-erywhere. There was griev-ing and tears, and there had to be a time for that.”

According to New, Broom’s legacy is in the center’s approach toward students.

“His [legacy was his] de-sire for the center to pro-vide the best for the stu-dents,” New said. “He was big on that, provide the best

that we could. He was very much student centered.”

Stidham feels that Broom’s legacy as head of discipline of the center is what re-mains.

“He followed the book,” Stidham said. “When I hired him as my assistant director, we agreed that we do what the book says. The most important thing in administration is treating people fairly.”

For Stidham, the memory of Broom, his assistant di-rector for ten years, will continue to live on.

“He did a good job, and he was a good man,” Stid-ham said.

Broom will be missed, and New plans to uphold his standards of administrative and academic achievement and excellence.

Millsaps staff remembers Broom, New takes position

By Cullom McCormick

Editor-in-Chief

Maggie George and a handful of other seniors are already taking college class-es at Mississippi State Uni-versity and East Mississippi Community College.

This is possible through Starkville High School’s dual-enrollment program, which lets a student enroll at both SHS and a local col-lege.

The student can take one college class per semester in place of a high school class and earn college credit. The student doesn’t pay tuition

for the college, just the fee for the class.

If a student’s parent works at MSU, though, he or she can take one free class per semester.

“It looks great on a col-lege application,” George said. “I don’t have tons and tons of AP (Advanced Placement) and community college stuff like some of my friends in TX do.

“It feels like it’s almost necessary to do it to get into a good university, even though I know that’s not entirely true. If a college sees that you take a rigorous schedule, they’re going to

like it, because it means you push yourself.”

On top of polishing an application, there are more personal benefits to dual-

enrollment. George plans to enroll in

college algebra at MSU as a way to better herself and be-come a better math student.

George’s mother works at MSU, thus guaranteeing her one free class per semester, even though she’s not an of-ficial student.

“I’m not looking to be ex-empt from college classes,” George said. “I just want to take more, because I’m a little insane, I guess. I also want to push myself by tak-ing more difficult classes and build up my math base, because I feel like the math I’ve gotten from SHS isn’t

as much as I want it to be—not that it’s lacking. ”

Dual-enrolling and taking AP courses can even save money down the line.

For instance, two free classes at MSU and $80 dol-lars to take an AP exam for college credit can save ap-proximately $2,000 in class fees at MSU.

However, though they’re subjective, there are down-sides to dual-enrollment.

“Some scholarships re-quire that you be an incom-ing freshman in college,” senior counselor Leterice Townsend said. “If you’re already a sophomore or a

junior, then you become in-eligible.

“Taking the college cours-es can be stressful, but the type of people who dual-en-roll are smart and motivat-ed, so they won’t let it affect them or their GPA.”

Townsend also says that, while dual-enrolling is good, it’s not for everyone.

“It’s for students who are motivated and need the ex-tra challenge,” Townsend said. “It’s for responsible, mature people. It takes work and planning, but again, the kids that are doing it this year are motivated and have plans.”

Name: Lauren HostGraduate of: MSUTaught for: 0 yearsDepartment: Math

Name: Pam KempGraduate of: MSUTaught for: 28 years

Department: Computer science

Name: Katherine McDonaldGruaduate of: MSUTaught for: 1 year

Department: Science

Name: Angelique MoffettGraduate of: MSUTaught for: 1 yearDepartment: Math

Name: Justin MossGraduate of: U. of Mississippi

Taught for: 5 yearsDeparment: Special Education

Name: Vijay PacharmeGraduate of: Devi Ahilya U.

Taught for: 12 yearsDepartment: Science

“It’s for

students who

are motivated

and need the

extra

challenge.”

-Leterice Townsend

New will be taking Broom’s

post. Photo by Keats Vouges-Haupt.

“When he

passed, we

circled the wag-

ons and worked

to pick up

the slack. We

pulled together.

He would have

wanted that.”

-Ray New

Dual-enrollment good for more than just college credit

By Christine Mazzola

News Editor

For the 2011-2012 school year, Starkville High school’s promised earlier release time has finally become a reality.

Scheduling conflicts with bus routes throughout the district moved the release time from 3:20 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“It was an effort getting the district aligned,” Starkville High School’s Principal Keith Fennell. “It was a problem

of getting all our ducks in a row.”

Two years ago, SHS was dismissed at 3:20 p.m., and rumors had suggested a 3:00 p.m. dismissal time last year, when the real time was 3:30 p.m.

This year, the new release time for SHS is 3:10, twenty minutes earlier than last year.

According to Fennell, the shorter school day hasn’t changed the ninety-five min-ute blocks, so classroom time

won’t be affected.“The schedule was changed

because we met the Depart-ment of Education’s require-ments for instructional time,” Fennell said. “The Depart-

ment of Education’s require-ments were met, so we could eliminate time for activities that the high school is no lon-ger involved in.”

He feels that a shorter day will be good for teachers and students.

“I’m sure teachers will like a shorter day,” Fennell said. “Of course I’m sure the stu-dents will like it, too.”

Fennell delayed announcing the time due to the rumors about last year’s release time.

www.shsjacketbuzz.com News

By Cullom McCormick

Editor-in-Chief

Straying away from last year’s classical half-time show “Into the Dark”, the band’s new half-time show “Shuffle” blends multiple genres and styles in a much more mod-ern way—just like putting an iPod on the “shuffle” setting, the show goes from current rock bands like Avenged Sev-enfold to classic pop artists like Madonna.

The band always has a sum-mer band camp in the weeks before school to practice and prepare to play at every foot-ball game.

The show is a medley of 10 popular songs in about eight minutes, arranged by Dr. Cliff Taylor of Mississippi State University.

“It’s going to be a unique show,” sophomore Matthew Reynolds said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. The mu-sic has a lot of different styles,

and each style presents a dif-ferent challenge. Putting all of them into a show requires a lot of musicality.”

Band director Shawn Sulli-van is confident that the stu-dents can pull it off, though. While this year’s band is a younger, larger group than last year’s with more fresh-men than upperclassmen, Sullivan says the group’s work speaks for itself.

“The kids have done a phe-nomenal job at camp,” Sulli-van said. “It’s a young group, but they work hard. They have just about all their music memorized, which is some-thing we don’t usually have done by now.”

One advantage of the camp and the show is the practice it allows the band to come into the year and contest season with.

“The best aspect of camp is accomplishing so much be-fore we’ve even started,” ju-nior Colin Damms said. “It’s

demanding, but it pays off. And by that, I mean Mr. Sul-livan yells at us, then gives us popsicles on the last day.”

The show will include three solos: An alto saxophone solo in Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” a guitar solo in Avenged Sevenfold’s “Almost Easy,” and a fiddle solo in The Charlie Daniels Band’s “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”.

Reynolds has the solo in “Let’s Stay Together,” be-cause he was first chair in the alto saxophone section last concert season.

“It’s a really soulful solo,” Reynolds said. “It’s basically a love song. It’s a lot of work, but I’m excited about it.”

Between every few songs, drum majors will argue what to play as if they were all shar-ing an iPod.

Name: Jason ScottGraduate of: MSUTaught for: 3 yearsDepartment: Math

Name: Ginger TedderGraduate of: MSUTaught for: 7 years

Deparment: Social studies

Name: Xavier TillmanGraduate of: Jackson State U.

Taught for: 15 yearsDepartment: Math

Name: Chris WaltersGraduate of: Delta Stae U.

Taught for: 7 yearsDepartment: Health

Name: Diana WickhamGraduate of: MSU

Taught for: 16 yearsDepartment: Interventionist

Name: Wade WilliamsGraduate of: MSUTaught for: 2 years

Department: Science

The drum section plays during the first show. Photo by Keats Vogues-Haupt.

By Christine Mazzola

News Editor

For the 2011-2012 school year, Starkville High school’s promised earlier release time has finally become a reality.

Scheduling conflicts with bus routes throughout the district moved the release time from 3:20 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“It was an effort getting the district aligned,” Starkville High School’s Principal Keith Fennell. “It was a problem

of getting all our ducks in a row.”

Two years ago, SHS was dismissed at 3:20 p.m., and rumors had suggested a 3:00 p.m. dismissal time last year, when the real time was 3:30 p.m.

This year, the new release time for SHS is 3:10, twenty minutes earlier than last year.

According to Fennell, the shorter school day hasn’t changed the ninety-five min-ute blocks, so classroom time

won’t be affected.“The schedule was changed

because we met the Depart-ment of Education’s require-ments for instructional time,” Fennell said. “The Depart-

ment of Education’s require-ments were met, so we could eliminate time for activities that the high school is no lon-ger involved in.”

He feels that a shorter day will be good for teachers and students.

“I’m sure teachers will like a shorter day,” Fennell said. “Of course I’m sure the stu-dents will like it, too.”

Fennell delayed announcing the time due to the rumors about last year’s release time.

Band prepares half-time show through summer camp

Earlier release time for high school“It was an

effort getting

the district

aligned.”-Keith Fennell, principal

Floutists and tuba players hold their positions as they perform their

marching routine. Photo by Keats Vogues-Haupt.

Search for supt. to beginBy Christine Mazzola

News Editor

The search for a new super-intendent will officially begin Thursday, Aug. 11.

The Mississippi School Boards Association (MSBA) is holding a meeting to de-termine the criteria of the search.

Starkville School District faculty and staff will be in-terviewed for their input that afternoon.

A meeting for communuity

members will be held at 6:00 that evening in the Greens-boro Center Auditorium.

Once all of these criteria are established, the search through applicants is estimat-ed to take several months.

SSD students and faculty await the new supt., but do not expect him or her to ap-pear any time soon.

“Most people who would’ve gotten it have probably already gone somewhere else,” junior Barrett Higginbotham said. “It’s going to be a while.”

Featured Story Featured Story www.shsjacketbuzz.com

Carol Hairfield will replace Man-dy Kinney as head of the theatre department, a major change for many involved Thespians at SHS.

While Hairfield doesn’t have Kinney’s professional acting and technical experience, she does have 31 years of teaching experience, as

opposed to Kinney’s six.“I want to stick as close to Kin-

ney’s work as possible until I get to know where I am,” Hairfield said. “She’s done a good job, so it’s in-timidating. I know that no matter what, people will miss Ms. Kin-ney.”

For festival, Hairfield is consid-ering the play “Beggar’s Opera”. Hairfield says taking drama classes may now affect auditions.

“If you’ve been in my class, then I know you better and I know what you can do and how to work with you,” Hairfield said.

The madrigals are the elite singers and leaders of the choir program. Due to the 4x4 schedule, six madrigals are split between choir, band, football, cheerleading and basketball—meaning that these students spend half the period in choral director Regina Weeks’ mad-rigal class and half the period in one of the other four pro-grams. This is because, in order to stay competitive on a state level, choir classes now take up two blocks on the schedule, one for each semester. This

set up is unwieldy for many students’ schedules. Fresh-men choir members have to choose between band, choir and sports, and choir members in Advanced Placement cours-es also have a tough choice to make.

“We’ve still got the backbone of our choir,” Weeks said. “But I’ve already lost two se-nior madrigals, and I only have half my time with six of them. Though the 40 or 50 students we have in advanced choir are ones that I selected myself.”

Teachers are to email an-nouncement submissions to R.J. Morgan at rjmorgan@starkville.k12.ms.us instead of handing

them in to the front office. This is because the new broadcast class is replacing the printed morning announcements.

Changes for the new school year

4x4 puts pressure on choir

New drama teacher tries to keep theatre department consistent

This year, the dress code is expanding. Students are now allowed to wear black jeans and gold shirts in addition to the normal wardrobe. This means that all shirts must be collared and black, white, gray or gold and all pants must be black or regular khakis or black jeans.

Dress code expands

Broadcast takes over all announcements

Starkville High School is re-ceiving yet another round of renovations as part of a proj-ect to improve the school’s image.

The bathrooms in Malfunc-tion Junction, the teacher’s bathrooms by the gym, and the upstairs main hall bath-rooms all received improve-ments, including new lights and automatically flushing toi-lets and urinals. According to SHS Assistant Principal Sean McDonnell, the newly refur-bished restrooms help with vandalism by students.

“Since we redid the bath-rooms two years ago, we’ve had a lot less problems with grafetti and students writing on the walls,” McDonnell said. “Students take pride and try to keep things looking nice.”

Another major change

comes in the form of cool air—air conditioning is be-ing installed in the gym. The gym has been known to be a sweltering gathering place for Starkville High’s over 1,100 students, but the summer in-stallation of air conditioning units should help cool off the student body.

Construction workers also fixed the founation of the East Wing, pouring additional concrete to fix the cracks that had formed in walls of class-rooms in the East Wing.

The parking lots are also getting paved, a project that took all summer for construc-tion workers to finish.

“They’ve been working since the early summer to fin-ish paving,” McDonnell said. “All the parking lots are get-ting black topped.”

Buildings get renovations

The choir performs “Star Spangled Banner” at last year’s Veteran’s Day program

in the gym. Photo by Bailey Brocato.

By Cullom McCormick and

Christine Mazzola

Editor-in-Chief and News Editor

Students perform last year’s festival

show, “The Purple Fan”. Photo by Bai-ley Brocato.

For the Starkville High School math department, a new school year brings many changes and many new teachers.

Five teachers are joining the math department, headed by Mailande Easley, to replace the teachers that retired or left at the end of the last school year.

Wade Williams will replace Debbie Bland in teaching cal-culus, trigonometry and advanced algebra.

“I was a student teacher under Mrs. Bland, so it’s like I’m stepping into her job,” Williams said. “I always wanted to teach calculus.”

Williams graduated from Mississippi State University and taught at Armstrong Middle School for a semester be-

fore being bumped up to the high school. Like Williams, Xavier Tillman is also moving up from Armstrong, but will be teaching Algebra II. She hopes to draw knowledge from other teachers.

“I’m glad to be here because I prefer to teach higher level maths,” Tillman said. “I’m hoping to pull [knowl-edge] from younger teachers and say ‘Oh, let me write that down.’”

Williams intends to give students a fresh experience in a subject known as boring.

“I want to bring something new to math,” Williams said. “I want to make it fun.”

SHS math department gets teacher overhaul

Google displays a possible shopping list for black jeans, the new available

dress code item. Comes in black, faded black and slightly blacker. Photo by Bailey Brocato.

4x4 schedule restructures arts, AP, state testing and more

This year, Starkville High School switched from last year’s A/B schedule to the 4x4 schedule, a controversial move.

On the A/B, studetns had an A day and B day, taking one set of four classes on each day. On the 4x4, students will take four class-es one semester, and another four classes the next semester.

This means that classes like band, broad-cast, choir and JROTC will take have to take up two blocks on the schedule, one for each

semester. This is because of a contest season or need for year-round production.

Advanced Placement classes are now all in the second semester, so as to effectively pre-pare students for the AP exams for college credit at the end of the year.

There will be two periods of testing for state tests. Students taking standardized classes in the fall will take the tests in Dec., while students taking standardized classes in the spring will take the tests in May.

Featured Story Featured Story www.shsjacketbuzz.com

Carol Hairfield will replace Man-dy Kinney as head of the theatre department, a major change for many involved Thespians at SHS.

While Hairfield doesn’t have Kinney’s professional acting and technical experience, she does have 31 years of teaching experience, as

opposed to Kinney’s six.“I want to stick as close to Kin-

ney’s work as possible until I get to know where I am,” Hairfield said. “She’s done a good job, so it’s in-timidating. I know that no matter what, people will miss Ms. Kin-ney.”

For festival, Hairfield is consid-ering the play “Beggar’s Opera”. Hairfield says taking drama classes may now affect auditions.

“If you’ve been in my class, then I know you better and I know what you can do and how to work with you,” Hairfield said.

The madrigals are the elite singers and leaders of the choir program. Due to the 4x4 schedule, six madrigals are split between choir, band, football, cheerleading and basketball—meaning that these students spend half the period in choral director Regina Weeks’ mad-rigal class and half the period in one of the other four pro-grams. This is because, in order to stay competitive on a state level, choir classes now take up two blocks on the schedule, one for each semester. This

set up is unwieldy for many students’ schedules. Fresh-men choir members have to choose between band, choir and sports, and choir members in Advanced Placement cours-es also have a tough choice to make.

“We’ve still got the backbone of our choir,” Weeks said. “But I’ve already lost two se-nior madrigals, and I only have half my time with six of them. Though the 40 or 50 students we have in advanced choir are ones that I selected myself.”

Teachers are to email an-nouncement submissions to R.J. Morgan at rjmorgan@starkville.k12.ms.us instead of handing

them in to the front office. This is because the new broadcast class is replacing the printed morning announcements.

Changes for the new school year

4x4 puts pressure on choir

New drama teacher tries to keep theatre department consistent

This year, the dress code is expanding. Students are now allowed to wear black jeans and gold shirts in addition to the normal wardrobe. This means that all shirts must be collared and black, white, gray or gold and all pants must be black or regular khakis or black jeans.

Dress code expands

Broadcast takes over all announcements

Starkville High School is re-ceiving yet another round of renovations as part of a proj-ect to improve the school’s image.

The bathrooms in Malfunc-tion Junction, the teacher’s bathrooms by the gym, and the upstairs main hall bath-rooms all received improve-ments, including new lights and automatically flushing toi-lets and urinals. According to SHS Assistant Principal Sean McDonnell, the newly refur-bished restrooms help with vandalism by students.

“Since we redid the bath-rooms two years ago, we’ve had a lot less problems with grafetti and students writing on the walls,” McDonnell said. “Students take pride and try to keep things looking nice.”

Another major change

comes in the form of cool air—air conditioning is be-ing installed in the gym. The gym has been known to be a sweltering gathering place for Starkville High’s over 1,100 students, but the summer in-stallation of air conditioning units should help cool off the student body.

Construction workers also fixed the founation of the East Wing, pouring additional concrete to fix the cracks that had formed in walls of class-rooms in the East Wing.

The parking lots are also getting paved, a project that took all summer for construc-tion workers to finish.

“They’ve been working since the early summer to fin-ish paving,” McDonnell said. “All the parking lots are get-ting black topped.”

Buildings get renovations

The choir performs “Star Spangled Banner” at last year’s Veteran’s Day program

in the gym. Photo by Bailey Brocato.

By Cullom McCormick and

Christine Mazzola

Editor-in-Chief and News Editor

Students perform last year’s festival

show, “The Purple Fan”. Photo by Bai-ley Brocato.

For the Starkville High School math department, a new school year brings many changes and many new teachers.

Five teachers are joining the math department, headed by Mailande Easley, to replace the teachers that retired or left at the end of the last school year.

Wade Williams will replace Debbie Bland in teaching cal-culus, trigonometry and advanced algebra.

“I was a student teacher under Mrs. Bland, so it’s like I’m stepping into her job,” Williams said. “I always wanted to teach calculus.”

Williams graduated from Mississippi State University and taught at Armstrong Middle School for a semester be-

fore being bumped up to the high school. Like Williams, Xavier Tillman is also moving up from Armstrong, but will be teaching Algebra II. She hopes to draw knowledge from other teachers.

“I’m glad to be here because I prefer to teach higher level maths,” Tillman said. “I’m hoping to pull [knowl-edge] from younger teachers and say ‘Oh, let me write that down.’”

Williams intends to give students a fresh experience in a subject known as boring.

“I want to bring something new to math,” Williams said. “I want to make it fun.”

SHS math department gets teacher overhaul

Google displays a possible shopping list for black jeans, the new available

dress code item. Comes in black, faded black and slightly blacker. Photo by Bailey Brocato.

4x4 schedule restructures arts, AP, state testing and more

This year, Starkville High School switched from last year’s A/B schedule to the 4x4 schedule, a controversial move.

On the A/B, studetns had an A day and B day, taking one set of four classes on each day. On the 4x4, students will take four class-es one semester, and another four classes the next semester.

This means that classes like band, broad-cast, choir and JROTC will take have to take up two blocks on the schedule, one for each

semester. This is because of a contest season or need for year-round production.

Advanced Placement classes are now all in the second semester, so as to effectively pre-pare students for the AP exams for college credit at the end of the year.

There will be two periods of testing for state tests. Students taking standardized classes in the fall will take the tests in Dec., while students taking standardized classes in the spring will take the tests in May.

www.shsjacketbuzz.com Section Title

EditorialThe editorial below is a written collaboration among all members of the Jacket Buzz

editorial staff. Ideas expressed represent the majority opinion of the student editors.

Students need a ‘super’ superintendentLast school year ended

with an event that none of us saw coming—supt. Judy Couey resigned.

Ever since then, the school board has been try-ing to find a suitable perma-nent replacement.

We don’t know what kind of a supt. the school board

is looking for, but as stu-dents, there are a few char-acteristics that we would like our future supt. to have.

For one, he or she should be comfortable in a position of power. We don’t want someone who is continually trying to show who is boss.

We want someone who

feels as though he or she has nothing to prove, and who listens to the advice and needs of the students.

The supt. has a responsi-bility to the students and to their parents.

Students don’t like to be seen as just a test score. We want someone who sees the

potential we have, whether it be in academics or other-wise, and who can show us what we can do to fully un-lock that potential.

We want a visionary.Most importantly, we

want a supt. who is plugged into the schools. Someone who takes the time to visit

every club and every team Starkville High School has.

We want someone who will give each and every one of us the encouragement and support we need from start to finish.

Our supt. should be able to see things from our per-spective and always want

what is best for us—not just what makes us look good on paper. We’re not just “part of the job”--we should have a voice.

And, finally, we want a supt. we can trust. Someone who sticks to their word and never hides anything from us.

Real life application of AP classesBy Merve Karan

Opinions Editor

My family and I go to Turkey a lot, because that’s where all of our relatives are. But this past summer, I found my-self fully appreciating Istanbul for all it’s historical glory, and not just for the shopping.

There were things I noticed this time around that I hadn’t noticed before. For example, three years ago, I went to Hagia Sophia, an old Church turned into a Mosque, turned into a museum. Back then, I didn’t really notice the art-work. I saw it, yes, and I thought they were pretty paintings, and I walked by without a second thought. Sophia didn’t impress me too much. But this

summer, we went back and I realized something--these men have pie plates around their heads. Those must be ha-los, so ergo they must be saints. And for that small, seemingly insignificant bit of knowledge, I have to thank Ty Adair for teaching me about the Re-naissance in Advanced Placement Eu-ropean History.

So, before this school year goes into full swing, and you make your final decisions on what classes you want to take, listen to my advice. If you like to travel and want to see the world, or even if you just like history, then don’t leave Starkville High School without taking an AP history class.

Living in the United States, we don’t often get the chance to appreciate his-

tory, because we don’t have histori-cal buildings surrounding us. Walking around Istanbul this summer was different from when I had walked it before. It’s always impressive to see landmarks of history. It’s also impres-sive to see towering skyscrapers. But nothing is more impressive then seeing them both side by side--the marvels of then and now.

Of course, I’m not saying Turkey’s the only place you can have that expe-rience. Go to Italy, go to France, go to Germany. It doesn’t matter where you go, just go. You don’t have anything to lose. And if you find history classes to be intimidating, just think about it this way--it’s just one big story time. And everyone loves story time.

The Jacket Buzz

The Jacket Buzz is published three times each semester by the Jour-nalism Department at Starkville High School.

The Jacket Buzz is a student-run publication committed to providing the students of Starkville High School with objective and informative

coverage of events involving or affecting the student body.The Jacket Buzz serves SHS as a forum for student expression and thought. Content decisions are made by student editors, and factual

errors will be corrected by a retraction in the next issue. Opinions expressed are those of students and do not necessarily re-flect the views of the adviser, administration, Starkville High School

faculty, or the Starkville School Distict. Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Jacket Buzz staff.

Letters to the Editor are accepted and published, excluding those that are deemed libelous, malicious, hurtful or disruptive. Unsigned let-

ters will not be published, and all letters are subject to editing. Please

email all letters, or other comments, to shsjacketbuzz@gmail.com.

Cullom McCormickEditor-in-Chief

Volume 19, Issue 0 August 08, 2011

R.J. Morgan

Adviser

Statement of Policy

Christine

Mazzola

News Editor

Merve Karan

Opinions Editor

Sabrina Moore

Asst. News Editor

Mark Anne

Hobart

Sports Editor

Bailey Brocato

Photo Editor

Jordan Cohen

Marketing Director

By Mark Anne Hobart

Sports Editor

Along with new pencils and binders, Starkville High School swimmers and stu-dents will be preparing to tryout for a new year, season and team.

The SHS swim team try-outs will be on Aug. 8 in the Sanderson Center at Missis-sippi State University after school at 4 p.m. Students should bring their own bath-ing suits.

“We’re getting a head start by having tryouts this early in the year, which is a good thing,” standing girls’ team captain Mark Anne Hobart

said. Head coach Angela Ho-

bart will be on the lookout for swimmers that can swim at least two strokes legally in a State-qualifying time for the A-team. But, swimming one stroke legally within reasonable timing could be promising for a B- team spot.

Most of last year’s team is returning, enthused for the new season.

During last year’s season, both the boys and girls teams ranked in the top 10 teams in the state at the Mississippi High School Athletic Asso-ciation state championships, along with three swimmers making All-State.

“I’m excited about the new season,” Coach Hobart said. “I hope to have both teams move up in rankings, and I believe that this will be achievable because of the great number of returning swimmers we will have as well as the load of promis-ing talent from the middle school.”

www.shsjacketbuzz.com Sports

SHS Swimmers dive into new school yearBack with a

splash

Mark Anne Hobart, Jace Hobart, and Laken Vickers dive headfirst into the new season. Photo by Bailey Brocato.

Nothin’ but net

Senior Gavin Ware practices his shots. Photo by Bailey Brocato

Ware commits close to home

By Mark Anne Hobart

Sports Editor

Starting as a seventh grader at Arm-strong Middle School, Starkville High basketball star Gavin Ware has been catching the eyes of not only peers and Yelow Jacket fans, but more recently Mississippi State University head coach Rick Stansbury.

Although Ware was spotted by othe colleges, the Starkville, Miss. born and raised boy made the commitment of a lifetime.

In the fall, after the graduation of his 2012 class at SHS, Ware commited and plans to attend MSU to play on the bas-ketball team.

What’s Buzzin’ Box

August:

8/8: Swim tryouts @ SandersonCenter 4p.m.

8/9:Meet the Jackets @ SHS 6p.m. (Scrimmage to follow)

8/13: First softball game @ Eupora

8/19: Football @ Noxubee

8/26: First home football vs. Madison Central

September:

9/2: Football @ Tupelo

9/5: Labor Day (NO SCHOOL)

Sports buzzThe

www.shsjacketbuzz.com Jacket Football

schedule

Mitchell continues building

Jacket football program

By Mark Anne Hobart

Sports Editor

Although last year Starkville High finished just 6-11 with close margins, the desire to hold a State Championship tro-phy once again pushes the Jackets to work even harder and smarter.

Sucsessful head coach Jamie Mitchell, after leaving his past built programs behind, is on his second year of building the SHS Football program.

The Jackets will have several new faces on both sides of the ball this upcoming season, but according to Mitchell, there is still more to build.

“From special teams, offense to defense, we have to build this whole thing from the ground up,” Mitchell said.

As the summer comes to an end, the Jackets seem to have been prepared as well as possible and are getting in the mindset of champions for a new season this year.

Mitchell says the future is not about just having a winning season or a playoff berth. He wants Starkville back on top, where they have been once before.

Varsity cheerleaders win Camp Champ title By Mark Anne Hobart

Sports Editor

Over the summer, Starkville High School’s var-sity cheer squad attended Universal Cheerleader Association cheer camp in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from June 21 through 24.

The squad won may awards, including 1st place in Camp Champs for their cheer, 3rd for their Ex-treme Routine (dance), 3rd in Home Pom (original dance), superior ribbons for all evaluations and spirit sticks.

After reciveing all of their awards, the squad was qualified to attend the Citrus Bowl, a cheer com-petition held in Fla. on Dec. 29.

According to head coach Kim Williams, the de-cision to attend the Bowl is still undecided, but Williams is looking forward to a good year and the state championship cheer competition in Dec. with the hard-working squad.

“Our first practice was rough,” Williams said. “But this is the hardest-working group I’ve ever had, and I know they have great potential.”

After a weekend of screaming cheerleaders, Wil-liams selected all six seniors from the squad to try-

out for All American Cheerleading. All American Cheerleading is a program in

which cheerleaders from all over the country get the chance to cheer in parades across the world, such as the New York City Macy’s Christmas Day Parade, the Disney Thanksgiving Day Pa-rade in Orlando, Fla., and the Christmas Day Parade in London, England.

Although only seniors Catherine Everett, Morgan Corder and Savannah Hobart made All American Cheerleading, the squad is proud of everyone.

According to Williams, all six SHS seniors did well during the tryout and were worth being proud of.

“I’m really excited about the trip and this year’s squad,” Williams said.

Williams says the squad is ready for the year, ready to work even harder, and ready to take it to the next level. She is confident that the group will only work harder as the year goes on, and that this year will be an amazing year for Jacket cheerleading.

Williams wishes the best to her All-American Cheerleaders and can’t wait for the Citrus Bowl.

“Our first practice was rough. But this

is the hardest-work-

ing group I’ve ever

had, and I know they

have great potential.”

-Kim Williams; head coach

Starkville High School football players prepare for upcoming season. Photo by Barrett Higginbotham.

Aug. 19 A

NOXUBEE

Aug. 26 H

MADISON

Sept. 2 H

TUPELO

Sept. 9 A

WEST POINT

Sept. 23 H

LANIER

Sept. 30 H

PROVINE

Oct. 7 A

RIDGELAND

Oct. 14 H

CANTON

Oct. 21 A

YAZOO CITY

Oct. 28 H

CALLOWAY

Nov. 4 A

NESHOBA

BACK IN BLACK