In an effort to find out whether the freshman were prepared for high school, we printed out 61 copies of a survey-like quiz to see if their middle school actually prepared them for high school or not. The survey asked about their middle school and if it ever prepared them for high school. It also asked a series of questions on math, English, history, and science to see how much they knew about those subjects. The questions were at an eighth grade level, so the students should have been able to answer them correctly if they had been properly prepared.

Out of the 61 people that completed the survey, the middle school they attended broke down accordingly: (* Stated that their school prepared them for high school)

25 Highland Park Middle School*
10 Capitol Hill*
7 Linwood Monroe*
5 Ramsey
2 Highland Catholic*
Vandenberg Middle School*
Holy Spirit*
Nativity/Nova*
Battle Creek Middle

Based on the students feedback, 7 out of the 9 schools prepared the middle schoolers for high school in different ways such as: supporting and helping them set goals to achieve in high school. For example some ways that prepared kids from Linwood Monroe was that “they taught us how to be organized, told us how to write notes neatly, and had us use Naviance.”

Some students had AVID which really went through the basics of how high school is and how to stay on top of everything. It also introduced them to Cornell note taking, and how to organize your supplies. AVID is a college ready class that prepares students from 7-12 grade, filling their minds with helpful information. They also go on college field trips, and do team building activities that helps them have an open mind, and helps them achieve their academic goals.

Based on the data that we collected from the surveys, it seems as though Capitol Hill and Highland Park Middle School gave students the best advice on how to be prepared for high school and to be committed to their work.

The lunches at school have always been dreadful but now they are just plain unappetizing. The food that they are serving us students is hard to even understand what it is. The food is undercooked or it’s overcooked.

It seems like even the lunch staff is not okay with serving students this so call “food” as there are standards even for the lunch staff.

Most students complain to the school for serving this on a daily basis. There are many ways we can improve, but sadly nobody does anything to change the school food. According to students, this lunch food is just inedible, and since most students are starving at this time, they have to eat this so-called food. There is also a portion of students that don’t eat lunch due to the food.

There are many students who always try to ask for better food but nothing has ever been done to improve the food. Students such as Iveth Martinez have claimed she rather not eat school food because it is just not appetizing.

Eating something is very crucial for many students. After speaking  o some of the lunch staff, very briefly, since they are very busy, they said that the food is not the best but it is what they have to work with to feed such a big portion of kids.

I think what they are saying is true if they had better quality food to feed students, then I believe the food would be better. Some improvements that I would suggest, include: asking students what they would like to eat in school, as that way more students would want to eat school lunches. We also could improve the quality of the food, thus making the food have a better taste.

Overall, school food isn’t the most appealing but it is still OUR school food and we should improve it where possible.

The iPads are here at Highland Park High School to help students learn better and teachers teach easier. Here is some information about the iPads and when they will be coming to other schools.

Boys Totem Town, October 12

Farnsworth Upper, October 7

Gordon Parks HS, October 14

Highland Park Middle, October 14

Humboldt, October 5-7

Journeys, October 13

LEAP HS, October 12

Linwood Monroe Lower, October 7

Linwood Monroe Upper, October 8

Murray Middle, October 13

Open World Learning, October 8

Parkway, October 12

With an iPad comes responsibility here are some rule that come along with the iPad

• Do not leave or store the iPad in a vehicle.
• Do not lend the iPad to another person. You are solely responsible for the care and security of your iPad.
• Do not use the iPad or allow it to be visible when waiting at a bus stop or train station; riding public transportation, such as a Metro Transit bus or light rail train; or when walking in the community.
• Carry the iPad to and from school in a school bag or backpack so that it is not visible.

A passcode will be required to prevent unauthorized access to your personal information on the

• Do not share your password with anyone else.

Each iPad has a unique identification number and district property control tag.

• Do not remove the tags or modify the numbers.

This year at HPSH there’s been some changes like, this year we got new flooring on the 1st floor and in a couple of rooms on the 1st floor.

We also got 3 new hydration stations/water fountains. These water fountains have cold water and also you can fill up your water bottles. They are located by the main office, by the French and Spanish rooms on the first floor, and also there is one in the cafeteria.

Also this year, all of the lockers got painted our school color RED, so now the lockers look the same, except the personalized ones.

And the courtyard got leveled out, so now there’s not a big whole in the middle of it. This makes the courtyard  look nicer overall.

Hundreds of organizations deport thousands of students to virtually any country of thier choosing for weeks at a time to engulf them in the foreign traditions and cultures they would otherwise be partially ignorant to. Organizations such as AFS, Youth For Understanding, CIEE, and countless others send off high school students to their country of interest. Countries from Japan to the United Kingdom, and Australia to Ireland. Although we learn about foreign cultures in our human geography class or our language class, it’s not the same as being where the text book is depicting.

Studying abroad has caught the eye of thousands of students, specifically three times as many students since 1995. In the 2012-13 school year, as many as 289,408 students packed their bags to surround themselves in what they’ve only read in text books.

How did these almost 300,000 students get connected with programs abroad? With countless organizations and amazing reviews it couldn’t have been hard. One could simply type “exchange student organizations” and 37,400,000 results will appear in 0.32 seconds. And in just a few minutes you could exchange your social norms for a few weeks (or a school year) for an experience of a lifetime.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to the new school year, and welcome back to another year of the HPSH Plaid Line newspaper.

Something new that’s exciting this year is we finally have a designated Newspaper/Journalism class here at Highland Park Senior High School. The class is held everyday in 4th hour in Room 2205, and is taught by Ms. Lingofelt. Right now, about 21 students are enrolled, which provides us with a great opportunity to produce more content and to get a more well rounded perspective on events happening around the school.

Also new this year: we have a new Co-Editor. Junior Abby Thompson has been selected as the new Co-Editor to serve alongside me this year.

Here’s to a great year!

James Farnsworth

Co-Editor, HPSH Plaid Line

hpshplaidline@gmail.com