All photos by Liliana Castellanos.
Behind the Red Curtain: Students benefit from Tungate’s Saturday welding sessions
Category: News
Red Devil volleyball begins Round 1 of Sectional, playing tonight against Providence
Students reminded of Picture Day Wednesday and Thursday this week
Graphic by Ifrah Daber.
Hurricane Helene changes Homecoming weekend plans; Friday is asynchronous learning day
Graphic by Lola Mays.
Homecoming dance returns to JHS Saturday night at the Nachand Fieldhouse
by Ifrah Daber
The tradition of a Homecoming dance has been missing at Jeff High for over 20 years. The absence of such a dance has no specific reason, but some theorize budget issues or lack of interest. However, neither of these concerns has held JHS back, as for the first time in over 20 years the Red Devils will finally be having a Homecoming dance at 8 p.m. Saturday night at the Nachand Fieldhouse in Jeffersonville.
“The point is to bring all the students together.”
Senior and Student Council President Koy Ramer
Student Council presidents, seniors Madison Pritchard and Koy Ramer, started the idea to bring back this custom. They knew that past presidents had hoped to have a Homecoming dance, but the idea was always rejected due to issues with budgeting or lack of a defined idea. So when Ramer and Pritchard wanted to plan a dance for Homecoming, they knew they needed a good plan for principal Pam Hall. They worked with the Student Council and sponsors Natalie Woods and Chloe Merkle to create a dance that the school body could enjoy.
“We were in completely new territory,” Pritchard stated.
Given the lack of examples to examine, there was no direction to go in when planning the dance. So Pritchard and Ramer surveyed the student body.
There were many different ideas and opinions, some students wanted an upperclassmen-only Homecoming, while others wanted the venue to be outside or for different entertainment. The pair struggled with finding a way to appease everyone. They attempted to find fair compromises for all students, but some decisions were made, not due to what the students needed, but because of what they could afford.
Most of the money for the dance came out of Student Council funds. A priority was to keep the dance relatively inexpensive. This led to some trade-offs being made. For example, the dance was hoped to be outside originally, but the idea proved to be too expensive.
The Homecoming dance ended up being one of the least expensive dances when compared to other yearly events. The dance only cost over 1,000 dollars, around 500 being for the venue and entertainment and only about 100 for the decorations.
“We wanted to utilize the student body,” Woods stated. A large part of why the dance was able to keep the budget low was due to the fact that the student body was utilized for various parts.
The culinary classes provide the catering via cake pops and pretzel rods. The marketing class helped make the tickets and flyers, as well as providing the ability to use the old Jeff gym as the venue. The Nachand Fieldhouse was both a cheaper venue and a symbolic statement, given its connection to Jeff.
The Nachand Fieldhouse is one of the city’s most historic buildings. Standing on 601 E Court Ave, Jeffersonville, the old court was used as the JHS gym and held the basketball games until 1971.
Due to renovations in 2017, there is one rule given it is a basketball court: all heels or black soled shoes can not be worn on the court. Students can wear them to the dance if they wish, but they cannot walk on the court with them on.
Despite this, it was the perfect place to hold a dance that was meant to symbolize community and school pride.
“The point is to bring all the students together,” Ramer stated.
The concept of unity was a large part of the decision to have a homecoming dance. From the theme of “Light the Night on Fire” being a direct reference to Jeff High’s mascot of the devil, along with allowing all grades to attend, and no outside guests, the center of Homecoming was the students, and they were the strong incentive for planning the dance.
“Students’ excitement and making this happen for the students was our motivation,” Merkle stated; they wanted to provide something new for the students to look forward to.
But despite their best efforts, at the end of the day the continuing of the Homecoming dance is up to student participation.
The hope for participation is 200 students, to help show that the Homecoming dance has enough interest for the dance to continue for years to come as well as to make up for the funds that the Student Council put into the dance.
“You get what you put into it,” Pritchard said, and the sentiment was shared by all who planned the event. The need for student support is at the core of helping the dance be successful and improving it for future students.
The preparation of the dance was a long and hard process, but was achieved by the helpful individuals who planned it for the students. They all hope that students have a fun time, enjoy themselves, and hopefully future students will experience the same joy.
Retired police officer Chuck Adams finds fulfillment in life of helping others
by Jackson Anderson
Retired Clark County police officer Chuck Adams fondly remembers his days working in law enforcement and now spends his days hanging out with grandkids, fishing, and talking with long-time friends.
Adams added that he had wanted to become a police officer since he was a boy. ”As a young man I liked the fact that they helped people and got people through rough times,” he stated.
“I just feel like I helped a lot of people in my career, and I can’t just think of one individual great accomplishment that stands out,” Adams continued to say about his career in law enforcement.
His daughter, Shannon Anderson, backed up this claim by stating, “I would just say he is honest, fair, motivated by doing the right thing and not the popular thing, but most importantly he treated everybody as a human being and not like a criminal, or not like the bad guys.”
Before joining the Clark County Police Department, Adams’s first jobs included pumping gas at the age of 14 at a truck stop, and working at McDonalds, Jeffboat, and Ford Motor Company. His service to the public had already begun at an early age.
Adams stated, “I have lived in Clark County my whole life, long time Clark County resident.”
Best known for his sense of humor, he is always ready to tell a joke or a tall tale to brighten someone’s day.
Anderson recalled two tall tales he told: ”How he wound the old Colgate clock and he hung the railroad lights by hand.”
Adams’ ex- wife, Faye Briley, described how she met him in 1983 on a blind date and has known him for 41 years.
Briley described how he is outgoing, friendly, kind of loud, and just a good person.
“I started dating him because I just thought he was the man I always wanted; he was the whole package. He was dependable, hard working, kind, and the fact that he was nice looking didn’t hurt,” Briley explained.
Briley and Anderson have both said very inspiring and nice things about their experience around Adams.
Briley said, “He has turned out to be a good ex-husband, a good dad, a good friend, and someone I can count on up until this day.”
Anderson described her father to be a very good person and stated, “Overall,I would just say that he is quite the unique individual, and if you have time on your hands it would be worthwhile to have a conversation with him if you have 2-3 hours of spare time.”
Adams retired from CCPD in 2013. He stated, “I was 58 years old and maxed out on my pension. I had enough years to retire and financially able to retire.”
Life is different now for Adams. He said, “It’s a lot different from when I was working — no set times or schedules like when I was working, unless I want to be there.”
His life advice for happiness is simple.
”Well, I think if you try to live your life and be a good person, work hard, good things will happen to you, and your life will be fulfilled.”
O Come Gospelfest: Choir performs annual event Tuesday night
by Sam Ottinger
Every year as the fall months come around, an annual and very special performance comes along with it.
This event is Gospelfest, performed in the JHS Auditorium this Tuesday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m., with tickets ranging from 5-10 dollars.
“It’s a full on gospel experience, right here in Jeff.”
Choir Director Kyle Broady
The very first production occurred 20 years ago, roughly back in the 2000’s. Contrary to what may be believed, the first Gospelfest was put on at New Albany. JHS was able to join in on this blossoming tradition due to both former choir directors being longtime friends.
Gospelfest is an all choir concert, which is entirely composed of African American gospel music, picked and conducted by a special guest who specializes in Black Gospel and jazz, Dr. Roosevelt Escalante.
“It’s a full on gospel experience, right here in Jeff,” choir director Kyle Broady stated.
And an experience it shall be. The choir consists of 150+ students. In addition to the JHS choir, Borden High School will be performing with the Southern Indiana Children’s Choir. A live band will accompany the singers, while the sound system will be used in full in order to project the combining music towards the audience while in a full concert layout.
“This group, in particular, is going to make it pretty special,” added senior Luna Guyse, currently in her seventh year in a choir.
Gospelfest may be a once-a-year performance, but it has touched many hearts.
The choir director at Borden is a JHS alumnus, joining the Gospelfest last year due to how much she enjoyed it in her high school years. Yet she is not the only one with a connection to past Gospelfests, for the choir director of the Southern Indiana Children’s Choir had previously retired from being JHS’s choir director.
Many can’t wait for the performance, including current choir students.
“We have a really good set coming up. We have a mix of good people returning, and a lot of good people coming in, it’s just great,” said senior Ella Motluck, currently in her seventh year in choir.
The excitement isn’t just felt in one student, for the others are just as enthused.
“I’m really excited! Dr. Escalante picked out some really good songs this year,” said senior Sylvana Sandoval Camacho, who currently is in her sixth year of a choir.
There are many challenges that can come with events like this. “I’m not even sure I remembered everything,” Broady joked when showing off a checklist of preparations. And there are the challenges of keeping everyone on the same page when there is not constant contact.
Yet through that all, the choir pushes through it together, motivated by the knowledge of community that their performances bloom. For one of the most enjoyable parts of being in choir is, as Guyse put it, “Doing something you love, with people who love it just as much as you.”
‘No Phone Law’ comes to Indiana: What this means for JHS
by Teagan Cofie
As a new school year begins, new rules and legislation kick in with it. The beginning of the 2024-25 year school marks the becoming of a phoneless JHS school day.
On July 1, 2024, the official “No Phone Law” was put into effect, affecting JHS and all other Indiana public schools.
The official law “Requires each school corporation and charter school to:
(1) adopt and implement a wireless communication device policy that governs student use of a wireless communication device; and
(2) publish the policy on the school corporation’s or charter school’s website. “
According to Harvard University, “the presence of electronic devices in the classroom is not, in and of itself, the problem. Rather, it’s the way we incorporate electronic devices into situations in which we are already inclined to pay attention to too many things.”
Research from the Pew Research Center shows that about seven in ten (72%) teachers say that high school students being distracted by phones in the classroom is a significant problem. So now with the policy in place, JHS hopes to reverse any potential poor effects devices in school could have caused.
Although the legislation may seem redundant or unnecessary to many students, some teachers, including English teacher Allison Clary, implemented their own “no phone rule” prior to the state-wide ban.
“At the end of the year two years ago I was ready to quit. I was ready to throw in the towel…I’m going to be honest, I couldn’t stand to look at those kids anymore at the end of the year, but what I realized, it wasn’t really the kids; it was the phones,” Clary said.
But when Clary started implementing her own rule and seeing results, she contacted principal Pam Hall to ask if she could share her findings with the school staff.
Clary addressed the whole faculty and told them “just how important it was” and “how it had saved everything for me, and that if we are all on board with this it’s going to work a lot better.”
She said that even her students have seen the benefits of limited phone usage.
“I had so many students say… that even though they didn’t like it at first, it was something that they grew to love, that they appreciated that if all their teachers had done it, they’d have straight A’s across the board because they were so much more engaged.”
Hall said that she thinks that the policy will help improve classroom settings as all teachers use the same strategy.
“The feedback that we’ve got from teachers is that students aren’t really pushing back,” Hall stated when asked how teachers and students have responded. “They come into the classroom and they know the routine and the procedures. There’s attendance, they put their phones up and they get started with the lesson. I think it’s really been a pleasant surprise for our teachers.”
The law is straightforward on what the state of Indiana wants to be done for its education, but it gives freedom of how each school may put it into practice.
Hall and leaders of other schools in the area communicated and received their opinions on what they were planning to do in their schools to adhere to the new law.
As stated by Hall, GCCS leaders tried to find “common pieces” as they implemented the new law, but “each school is able to implement what works best for them.” There is “not one consistent message.”
But already, our school is finding that the absence of phones has made visible improvement compared to previous years with staff receiving adequate feedback from teachers and students on how this has and will benefit the classroom and learning across the board.
“I mean, I’m very proud of our students here because you know, we’ve had very few cell phone disciplines where we’ve had to send kids to ISS on there and I’m just very thankful for them being a partner with us,” said Hall.
College Go Week activities provide opportunities for college-bound seniors
by Gracie Childers
Late September brings college-related activities that should interest seniors and college-bound students, including next week’s College Go Week.
Health academy Counselor Amy Colangelo stated, “College Go Week is a week to get students excited and in the know of college.”
It’s a time where colleges may waive fees on applications and have scholarships available.
Colangelo said, “It’s an important introduction to college. And it’s an easy way to apply to multiple colleges at once.”
JHS will offer the following opportunities for college-bound students and their families:
Thursday, Sept. 19: JHS offers College Info Night in the JHS Commons from 6-8 p.m.
According to the Counseling Department, the College Info Night will include 25-minute breakout sessions on:
- Scholarships
- Transcript Requests / Parchment – how to request transcripts be sent to colleges and to receive a copy
- Applying for College – Common App and more
- Ivy Tech Jeff Promise Scholarship
- INvestEd – Financial Aid & FAFSA 10 1
Friday, Sept. 20: A FSA ID creation event in the JHS Media Center from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Seniors and parents can sign up for 30-minute time slots to create their FSA ID. This is the first step in filing the FAFSA, which is required for seniors to fill out.
College Go Week — Sept. 23-27:
Seniors will have the opportunity to work with Admissions professionals from IVY Tech and/or University of Evansville on Tuesday, Sept. 24 during lunch and IMPACT.
Longtime Sacred Heart teacher mixes love for learning and discipline into her classroom
by Austin Bainbridge
Sacred Heart Middle School teacher Lynne Evanczyk’s day is never truly over as she helps a student with homework after school hours while also planning school-wide events and creating lesson plans for the next day.
Evanczyk attended JHS and graduated in 1977 in a class with around 800 students. She then went on to attend Hanover College for her bachelor’s degree and went on to Indiana University Southeast for her master’s degree. She went on the job hunt and was preparing to take a job in Texas, but her connections from JHS got her local job.
“I’m very thankful that my connections in the public education system helped me to get a job closer to home,” Evanczyk said.
Evanczyk is a very hard-working teacher. She works every Sacred Heart event possible. She also usually helps to plan every event. She leads most committees and always finds time to help students, no matter the hour.
“She puts in a lot more time and work than the other teachers at Sacred Heart; she’s always willing to help,” said seventh grader Adeline Bainbridge.
Evanczyk taught in the public school system for two years and has been teaching private school for 41 years. She likes to think that she combines elements of the style of teaching used in both settings that other teachers cannot.
“I believe in bringing a mixture of the love of learning and discipline into the classroom,” she said.
Evanczyk started out teaching second grade. She then was offered a position as a seventh-grade science teacher. She loved the position and has worked in the Sacred Heart Middle School ever since.
“If I had to say one thing, my favorite part about teaching is seeing the look in a kid’s eye when they realize they mastered a topic.”
Sacred Heart Teacher Lynne Evanczyk
“I fell in love with doing middle school science. I always enjoyed using microscopes and dissecting frogs. That’s stuff you just can’t do with second graders,” she stated.
She also likes to get to know her students and create a positive learning environment. She said that if she knows her students it’s much easier to teach them.
Bainbridge said, “When I enter her room I feel welcome and accepted, like I can still get things wrong but not feel embarrassed.”
Evanczyk prides herself on making her lessons interesting while still being easy to learn. She often uses examples and takes extra time if a student needs it.
“She is very energetic and cares if we understand the topic. I never felt like I was on an island with her as my teacher,” said Trinity High School freshman Caleb Johnson.
Evanczyk’s students also enjoy her being their teacher for other reasons. They say that she is a great teacher for preparing them for high school. She likes to assign work at the rate high school teachers would and always likes to make sure her students go to a high school that’s a better fit for them.
“She really helped me prepare for high school like other teachers didn’t. She helped me prepare for a high school workload and style of learning,” said Johnson.
She says JHS greatly impacted her career. Her teachers at JHS are the people that made her want to teach. Without Jeff she couldn’t have been such an impactful teacher.
“My teachers at Jeff really influenced me, especially my science teacher. I felt how they all impacted me and I thought I want to be able to do that. I really am appreciative of all the teachers at Sacred Heart and Jeff that helped me become a better educator,” said Evanczyk.
Evanczyk loves teaching for many reasons, from interacting with kids to having fun events. She said that she has one favorite item about teaching:
“If I had to say one thing, my favorite part about teaching is seeing the look in a kid’s eye when they realize they mastered a topic. That really makes me feel very happy because they are so overjoyed to realize they know what was taught.”
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