photos by Phillip Steinmetz
Most Recent
Voting Tips for the 2016 Election
story by Gabby Elder
Qualifications to Vote — must meet all requirements
- You are both a U.S. citizen AND a resident of Indiana.
- You will be at least 18 years of age on, or before, the next General or Municipal Election.
- You are not currently in prison after being convicted of a crime.
- You have lived in the precinct where you vote for at least 30 days prior to the election.
- You are registered to vote.
Dates to Know
- Oct. 11, 2016: Voter Registration Ends (you can register to vote at http://www.in.gov.com)
- Nov. 8, 2016: General Election Day
HP Chromebook Tips
Story by Kyle Sanders
As the new school year kicks off, Greater Clark County is introducing new HP Chromebooks. Here are a few tips to make these new Chromebooks easier for you:
1.The Chromebook is full of many keyboard shortcuts. These can easily be found by pressing Ctrl+Alt+?. From checking history to reopening a tab, the keyboard shortcuts makes it easier to do many things on your Chromebook.
- Sometimes throughout the school year, students find themselves copy and pasting (without plagiarizing). To paste text without having to fix the fonts, color or text size, simply press Ctrl+Alt+V when pasting to a document or email.
3.If you need to get to a calculator, or need to easily convert units in a quick way, just go to the Chrome App Launcher and type it in.
- The touch-pad can be used to swipe between pages without having to click on them. Just use two fingers and swipe in the direction of the page you would like to go to.
- Teachers may ask you to take screenshots on your Chromebook. To do this, simply hold Control (Ctrl) and press the window shifting key, which can be found right above the 6 key.
R.I.P Former Red Devil, Mike Ehringer
On July 31, former JHS employee Michael Ehringer passed away. He was 69 years old.
Ehringer was known for being an assistant principal, boys track coach, boys cross country coach, math teacher and athletic director at Jeff High. He was also the principal of Parkview Middle School at one time, too.
“In the words of Mick Hennegan, former JHS principal, ‘Mike taught not only the material, but more importantly, he taught the student.’ When he retired, he planned on fishing every day. But in reality, he rarely had time to fish. His days seemed to always be filled helping other people,” said former JHS assistant principal and athletic director Ralph Scales.
Ehringer would always have the crowd puzzled as he announced track trivia during track meets after his years of coaching the team. Many people that knew him would say he always knew how to make someone smile: from his trivia, to his singing in the Louisville Thoroughbred Chorus.
“He was a true Renaissance man in that he loved athletics, academics, and the arts,” said former JHS teacher Mark Lambertus. “He will be missed mightily by his friends and family and friends from Greater Clark Schools,”
Return of Class Beneficial for Future Education Majors
Story by Evan Garcia
Twenty-one Jeffersonville High School students will have the opportunity this year to gain insight into teaching, and potentially begin their careers, in education. Cadet Teaching, or F200, is a program designed to steer students to pursue a degree of education at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany.
Not only is this a dual-credit class, but the students will be able to establish relationships with professors and college students majoring in education at IUS.
Part of this course is about building relationships, according to assistant principal Ginger Whitis. The students will have a faculty member at Jeff High, as well as college students in the education program at IUS, serving as mentors to them.
“The students will have these mentors to aid in the bridge from Jeff High to IUS when they graduate,” Whitis said.
One other goal this program is striving for is to attract minority students to the education department at IUS.
“I think part of the focus truly is to bring minority students to IUS because they are so underrepresented in the education department,” Whitis said.
For the program’s first year back at JHS, Scott Hawkins will take the lead. Hawkins has taught social studies at Jeff High for over 15 years.
When asked about what he needed to do to be the instructor for Cadet Teaching, Hawkins said, “I need to have a Masters degree in education. This summer also I went to training courses at IU Bloomington.”
Andrew Gustafson, a senior at Jeff, is a member of the Cadet Teaching class. In taking the class, Gustafson strives to be a physics professor at a university in the future.
“My schedule worked out so that I had a free period this year,” Gustafson said. “I figured taking Cadet Teaching would be able to help me in the future.”
Gustafson is pleased that a class like Cadet Teaching is offered at JHS.
“I think Mr. Hawkins will be a great teacher for us,” Gustafson said. “It’s not super challenging, but it is for people that are committed to trying to learn about education.”
Turf Wars
Story by Jalin Ernest
Jeff has strived to produce many great improvements around the school these past two years, such as the new Radio/TV station, new basketball court and bleachers, and getting the approval for a new auditorium.
These improvements have made JHS students and visitors interested to see what everything looks like, which should help bring out more people to the games. The additions draw more attention to Jeff High as a whole, including the basketball program.
But despite living in a basketball hotbed, Jeff High has more than one sport that could bring in a lot of fans, not to mention money, for the athletic department.
Something I think that would help build Jeff High’s overall fan base is turf fields for the football, soccer and baseball teams. (I’d say softball, too, but most of the infield is all dirt.)
The turf product would give a new look to the fields, and maybe even be the first of many to come in the future if other schools in our area, or around the state, like the idea.
“Turf has better traction and would keep our jerseys cleaner,” senior football player Ian Francisco said. “I think it would look really good, and we all want it. Some of the schools we play have them and I love playing on it.”
So why turf?
According to FieldTurf.com, the world leader in artificial turf, the total cost of a having an artificial field put in would be around $750,000. For that price, the field would last between eight and 10 years, or roughly $75,000 every year.
Yes, this is a lot of money. However in the long run, the price tag would be worth it. Turf fields are easier to take care of and the grounds crew would rarely, if ever, cut the actual turf.
“I think it would be a great idea,” junior baseball player Gabe Bierman said. “I’ve played on many turf baseball fields across the country, so I’m very used to it. Plus it’s nice.”
Many would say that they do not need turf because of the cost, or because it could interfere with the season. In my opinion, it would look so much better, especially during our unpredictable weather patterns.
With the new East End Bridge set to open in December, students from high schools in Kentucky may decide to explore high schools in southern Indiana. If we got turf for our football, soccer, and baseball teams, we could also potentially attract more student athletes because of our facilities.
After all, the better our facilities are, the more highly people will think of Jeff High as a whole when it comes to athletics.
If other local schools can support turf fields, such as New Albany and Seymour, who says we can’t? And these schools are our rivals — we can’t fall behind any more.
