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The Tiger Adviser gets burned from budget cuts
Newspaper, along with many other courses, are victims of budget cuts. Photo by Ciera Thompson Photo edited by Ciera Thompson
Written by Staff Writer - Marli Mayon
Budget Cuts. We’ve been hearing the dreaded words for what seems like forever, not quite grasping the impact it will have on our future. For us, the staff of the Tiger Adviser and the 3,200 students who make up Gilbert High, it means no more high school newspaper. No more reporting for Arizona’s largest high school student body, or covering the success of the many sports teams, or being up-to-date on the latest Student Council events.
This year’s new addition of writers along with seniors, Caitlin Cole and Editor-in-Chief Jessie Fossenkemper who have both been accepted into the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, have proved to be powerful journalists through dedicated reporting and detailed writing. Sophomore, Kelly Souza, has taken aim at covering events for Student Council and other actions pertaining to Gilbert. Her GHS football program aids the community article was featured in the Gilbert Republic. Fossenkemper also had an article featured in the Gilbert Independent.
Additional classes that were cut because of enrollment numbers not meeting District guidelines were English IV World Lit, English IV Contemporary Lit, and Creative Writing. To think that five English and writing classes got cut does not give much hope to future writers. Staff writer, Allyson Rengifo, who planned on taking Creative Writing after she heard Journalism got cut reflected on the loss as being “unfortunate, but I plan on being on the newspaper next year should it become a club.”
The best answer that Assistant Principal Ms. Loraine Lerma-Barr could give as far as Journalism being cut was, “There is that possibility that [ Journalism] might combine with Yearbook; we don’t know yet. The final determination will be based on the decisions that are made on the district level.”
Lerma-Barr referred to the class as being a high level specialty class. “We would love to have the newspaper. Those are the things that are important to our school, because it’s a big part of our campus and shows everybody who we are.”
At this point, it is unclear what will happen to the Tiger Adviser, but the budding journalists and photographers who make up the staff are hopeful that it will at least become a club that will continue to produce honest, solid articles that detail the greatness that is Gilbert High School.
April 23rd, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Please do keep doing the Tiger Advisor all even if it is on a volunteer basis. I find it really odd that Journalism would be cut but not Yearbook. Seems like it should be the other way around.