BY JOE MARCHESE

St. Rose Academy plans

to adopt a Student

Assistance Program within

the next year.

Every school in the state

of Pennsylvania is required

by law to have a Student

Assistance Program.

The Student Assistance

program is a program

through which school

counselors provide support

and interventions for

students by working with

staff, community, and

county or state agencies.

This program is usually

coordinated through the

Guidance Office in most

schools.

Teachers are required to

have training in order to be

facilitators in the Student

Assistance Program.

Student AssistanceProgram

Letter To The Editor

BY ALISSA WAHLERS

I would like to state my

opposition to universal

healthcare.

I'm not stating that I'm

against people having

healthcare.

My concern is how this

plan will be funded.

Editorial

BY CANDICE TOMSKY

Brianna and Victoria

Zawacki are both eighth

grade students at Saint

Rose Academy and they

are identical twins.

These girls are not ,

however, the only set of

twins at Saint Rose

Academy.

In the same eighth grade

class there is a set of twin

boys, Jonathan and Trevor

Cobb.

Brianna and Victoria,

also known as Bria and

Tori, are starting in varsity

basketball this year and will

be playing with and against

12th graders.

Last year Bria and Tori

played on the seventh and

eighth grade basketball

team, so this will be a big

change for them.

Both twins are switching

between playing the guard,

wing, and point guard

positions on the court.

The twin's basketball

coach, Mr. Fitzgerald

claims that "although

having the twins on the

team may be an advantage

when it comes to confusing

the other team's players, it

is also a disadvantage to our

team because I , as well,

mix them up."

Fitzgerald also said that

both girls are good ball

handlers and quick learners.

Jonathan and Trevor

Cobb are also identical

twins who are students in

the eighth grade class.

Mr. Tagatac, their math

teacher, says "it's not too

difficult to tell the boys

JOHNATHAN COBB, TORI ZAWACKI, BRIA ZAWACKI, AND TREVOR COBB

BY CHRISSY YADLOSKY

I think that President

Barrack Obama’s health

care reform is important

and extremely beneficial to

our society as a whole.

Many people do not have

any form of health care in

the United States and

therefore are not able to see

any type of doctor who are

available because of the

family’s or individual’s lack

of money.

With Obama’s new health

care reform, children and

teenagers are now allowed

to be insured under their

parent’s family insurance

until the age of 27.

Obama also helped by

putting together an

independent group of

doctors and medical

professionals to help

recognize and prevent

abuse in our health care

system.

This group will work with

Congress every year to

advance ideas and

encourage more efficiency

and better quality health

insurance.

Obama has also ordered

insurance companies to

forbid any prejudice with

regard to gender, race, or

previously existing

conditions.

His reform will also

enable small businesses to

provide affordable and good

quality insurance for both

employers and employees

by giving them tax credits

and health insurance

exchange.

BY JOE MARCHESE

Every public school in

the state of Pennsylvania is

required by law to have

students take the PSSA

tests.

These tests enable the

state to monitor the

academic progress of

students by evaluating how

students are learning as

compared to other students

who take the tests.

These tests are not

required to be given at

private schools.

Students currently take

tests in the following areas:

English, reading, math,

science, and writing.

Social Studies testing is

new and is only

administered at select

schools in the state.

Standardized Testing

BY CANDICE TOMSKY

Mr. Genovese is a science

teacher at Saint Rose

Academy and is the director

of the Watershed Project.

This year Mr. Genovese

assigned his twelfth grade

Physics a project which

involved designing and

building a catapult.

The twelfth grade also

created and designed bottle

rockets.

Mr. Genovese likes to

cook and realized this

interest when he moved out

of his house and had to start

cooking for himself.

Mr. Genovese is also

interested in cars because

his grandfather was a

mechanic and he was

always

working with his

grandfather at the shop.

His brother also got into

working on cars and at 12

years old, Mr. Genovese

was already restoring cars.

He now owns a Jeep

Wrangler and a 1974 Dodge

Dart. His dream car is a

1970 Dodge Challenger.

Mr. Genovese celebrates

Christmas a little bit

differently than most

people. His

family uses a metal pole

instead of a Christmas tree.

His dad never agreed with

having a commercialized

Christmas, so they put their

presents around a metal

pole instead. They don’t

put up any decorations

either.

Another ritual that has

become a part of the

Genovese family Christmas

tradition is “Feats of

Strength.”

Two sets of twins have teachers seeing double

Question of the Month : What is one of your family's Christmas traditions?

Jacob Matthew EvansGrade 11

Emily Sheaffer Grade 8

Infinity HollandGrade 9

“I pick out all of my

Christmas presents and

then my mother wraps

them.”

“My relatives come over

for Christmas Eve and

then they come over to

have lunch on Christmas

day.”

“My family decorates

the Christmas tree

together.”

Health Care Reform one true way of making

money, and that's collecting

taxes, so it's going to cost

more for healthcare, the

only way to pay for it is

to increase taxes on the

middle and upper class. If

our family taxes go up, we

risk not being able to buy

our own healthcare, so then

we'll be looking towards the

government to supplement

ours, and it goes on and on.

In the end , there will be

more debt and less health

care, and our country would

be worse off.

Healthcare reform needs

to be addressed, but

universal healthcare is not

the answer.

President Obama says

the plan will be self-funded

by people paying for their

insurance. My question to

that is this: if they can't pay

for their insurance now,

how can they pay for it

then?

President Obama says he

will save money because

when the government runs

it there will be less “red

tape” and overhead. Every

time the government takes

over something, they have a

strong history of increasing

overhead and “red tape.”

So, again I ask: when the

government increases the

Expenses, who will pay for

this?

The government has only

This occurs when Mr.

Genovese and his brother

wrestle his dad around the

pole that they use as a

Christmas tree.

No one can begin to eat

Christmas dinner until

someone pins his father.

Nice try, Mr. Genovese

but this sounds like a

Seinfeld Christmas to me !

apart because there are

assigned to different seats.

MR. ANDREW GENOVESE