The last day to do this will be May 4^th, because the polls will close and ballots will be counted.

The school district needs your support, so if your 18 or older make sure you vote!

Thank you to all of you who have brought down the many ones we have already!

The 28th annual MApril cleanup starts this Saturday, April 24th and aims to involve local students and community  in service to their neighbors and their community.

NeighborWorks representative Carrie Koppy said that this year they were looking for about 300 civilian volunteers in addition to the 200-250 volunteers from Malstrom Air Base. In addition they look to other local non-profits for help and local businesses assemble teams to tackle different areas of the city.

NeighborWorks also recruits heavily among the high schools, looking for students who want volunteer hours.

“We always recruit heavily among high school service groups and high school students. They are an important part of our volunteer effort.”

Volunteers can register by calling the office. Registered volunteers receive an official certificate  so they can document their volunteer hours and receive free bags. They also cover a mapped area, so Malstrom volunteers pick up their filled bags.

Interested individuals may call Carrie Koppy and 216-3520 to volunteer.

In past years, instructors have travelled to the past, duked it out as ultra-competitive students and jumped from movie to movie in search of the perfect party food.

Whatever cinematic creation Wiles has planned for this year, the students at the Academic Dinner are almost guaranteed to laugh until their sides hurt.

The dinner, which begins at five o’clock, will seat the students and screen the short film before feeding them. The menu typically consists of a variety of pizzas, sodas and brownies.

Haitian officials briefly detained two American citizens in Port-Au-Prince on Tuesday as they attempted to leave the country escorting six Haitian children.

Later both the U.S. and Haitian governments confirmed that the incident was a misunderstanding and that the officials responsible questioned the documentation the Americans presented to remove the children.

The miscommunication came right on the heels of the arrest of 10 Baptists and the detention of the 33 Haitian children they attempted to take back to America.

The six children, who were being taken to families in Minnesota, remain with the Americans in a government nursery school. Officials say the adults are cooperating and attempting to ensure that there will be no further problems with their taking the children back with them.

Lately the issue of sexting and other messaging abuse has gotten the attention of the media and MTV has a new campaign, A Thin Line. The point of this campaign is to make teens aware of the dangers of sexting and even texting things that may harm someone emotionally.

One commercial of a young woman in a towel poses as “Rachael’s sext” and claims to be around forever. Another of a girl who sent her boyfriend a nude photo and claims that it is not like the whole world will see it. There is no guarantee that once a sext is sent it will be kept private. Things happen and some people forward messages like that of show them to others. This is the message MTV is trying to get across teen minds with their A Thin Line campaign.

Another commercial shows a young man getting tattooed with words and phrases texted to him. This resembles the lasting effect words can have on a person.

The more “real” commercials promote a discussion between a group of teens, one question refers to sneaking peeks at a boyfriend/girlfriend’s phone while he or she is not looking. Even sneaking looks at someone’s phone is an invasion of their privacy, one girl admits to having looked through her boyfriend’s phone while he was sleeping and another girl share a story of catching her boyfriend looking through her phone. Trust is another issue A Thin Line brings up; trust someone enough to not go through their phone while they aren’t looking.  The questions these teens are prompted to answer are more than just sext related, the teens talk about saving messages that may not be sexual but may be personal, how messages can be kept forever and may leak out to people they were not intended for. One discussion topic even brings a law to the table, if you are over 18 and are caught with a nude photo of anyone under 18 (even yourself) you may be registered as a sex offender.

A Thin Line shares with teens that there are thin lines between a lot of things: public and private, confidential and consequential, insult and injury, your right to know and his right to privacy, staring at the screen and hiding behind it, curios and controlling, words and wounds, him and the whole school, fun and forever, friends and a mob, this moment and forever, delete and forward, attentive and obsessive, lol and omg, and a joke and a threat. All of these lines are to help teens understand the law, their rights, and the reality of texting, sexting and even online messaging.

The GFH speech and debate team took a trip on Feb 12 to a Missoula for National Qualifiers. Through two days of intense debating and acting, the students showed off their hard work and dedication. The debaters had to deal with double elimination, they did not have five guaranteed rounds before finals like most high school meets. If a team lost two round then they were out of the running. Junior Briar Voy and senior Vince Carey made top eight for Policy Debate. Many of the other debaters were eliminated after the first round on the second date, so they participated in Congress. Senior Shawn Jackson is an alternate for Senate and junior Will Strauss is an alternate for House. Seniors Jesse Whyte and Elias Pomeroy were one vote away from a spot in nationals for policy debate, but they still have a chance to debate in Kansas City, Missouri because they are first alternate. They will wait to see if a another policy team cannot go to Nationals.

With finals week comes numerous responsibilities. In the case of the music department, these consist not only of a written test, but also a playing evaluation. Students in band must perform all twelve major scales in an acceptable manner by Jan. 20.

The methods of submission vary, students my either book a time block to perform the scales live or submit a recording. This year, students with busier schedules were encouraged to make recordings at home as opposed to using the school’s tape recorders and practice rooms. Expanding upon this concept, the music department now has the ability to accept scale tests via email. This merger of technology makes it easier than ever for music students to receive full credit for the scale evaluation.

This new option eases the load on music department staff as well. Teachers can now download the recorded scales from the school emails and place them upon anything from an MP3 device to a CD, making grading easier than ever. This convenience for staff and students creates a nothing short of a “win-win” scenario.

President Rene Garcia Preval is reported safe however, following the devastating disaster. According the the USGS, this is the most powerful earthquake to strike the Haiti since nearly 1770. However, a 1940’s earthquake struck the Dominican Republic causing a powerful tsunami.

More information on the earthquake will be posted as news becomes more readily available.

Schilling said that over the past two years the district has ignored the reports of her abused son and that Crawley should not be given the 1 percent pay raise and a new contract. 

However, the board disagrees and Crawley will continue to be the Superintendent of Great Falls schools.