BY
DAVID RICHARDS - EDITOR@SIERRA STAR.COM
DAVID RICHARDS
New for the 2004-2005 school year at Yosemite High is the Baker
Swim Complex, which includes a pool filled with 500,000 gallons
of water.
Steve
Raupp, Yosemite High School principal
At a school
that has produced an all-star pitcher named Ted Lilly, a Fresno
State offensive guard named Cole Popovich, and enough academic awards
to decorate the front office, the 2004-2005 year begins Monday.
Students attending Yosemite High School this year will be welcomed
with a brand new football stadium, complete with an all-weather
track, new field, new lights and new press box, and an aquatic center
that boasts a pair of diving boards and crystal, blue-green water.
“We’re going to have a fabulous school year,” said Bill McCabe,
superintendent for the Yosemite Joint Union High School District.
“We’re looking forward to it.”
Staff additions include; science teachers Arlene Aoki, who is returning
to Yosemite High, Gerard Klembal, Chad Houck, English teacher Tammy
Carter and Julie Stewart, who will teach agriculture.
Other staff additions include new counseling technician Greg Hill,
Valerie Edwards, who will offer crisis counseling to students, Diane
Edwards, database technician and a new receptionist, Debbie Sickler.
In addition to the pool and football stadium, Yosemite High School
will also add a riding arena for the agriculture department scheduled
for completion in the spring, while a new theatre building featuring
400 stadium-style seats may be completed in January. At the theater,
the parking lot will be expanded to hold 110 spaces instead of 30
and will also include roughly eight handicap spaces.
By next school year, a 23-classroom facility is planned to open,
which will be home to several academic programs such as math, English
and social studies.
This year, students will now be able to enroll in the California
Cadet Corps, a program similar to junior ROTC, which will teach
leadership skills associated with a military format.
YHS will also be piloting a double-period geometry program, aimed
to increase the amount of students who achieve higher levels of
math, said Steve Raupp, YHS principal.
The YHS staff will be expanding the high school’s code of conduct
to include students participating in any extracurricular activity,
not only sports.
“The code of conduct puts in place high expectations for those students
and specifies we’re going to hold those students accountable to
those expectations 24 hours a day throughout the school year,” Raupp
said.
Also offered this year will be MESA, a school-based program formed
to promote math, engineering and science, and AVID, which stands
for Advancement Via Individual Determination, a program designed
to increase the number of students who are college bound.
YHS currently has an enrollment of 1,287 students, with 58 teachers.
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