Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith Review by Elise C.

So it’s out at last… the last Star Wars movie. Finally the saga is complete. So what of it? How was this last monumental installment? Did it fulfill expectations, or let us all down?
I think that Episode III: Revenge of the Sith delivered a good Star Wars movie, definitely the best of the prequel trilogy, and possibly on par with the original Star Wars directed by George Lucas. The story was well-told, the action was intense, and the film drew you in like the Dark Side of the Force. Lucas did not shy away from showing Anakin’s descent into the Dark Side, and he also does not shy away from putting perhaps some deeper meaning into Star Wars, with a few lines such as “So this is how democracy dies…to thunderous applause,” and “If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy.” “Only a Sith thinks in absolutes.”
However, overall, Lucas has much to gain in the matter of script-writing. The lines of dialogue are very awkward, implausible, and not well-written. Particularly in the romance between Padme and Anakin, the dialogue is almost laughable. The actors do their best, but the directing and screenwriting just isn’t there. The movie lacks a lot of the witty dialogue that gave the original Star Wars movies so much of their charm.
I think that one reason the prequels are lacking is because they don’t have a character like Han Solo to provide a contrast to the somber seriousness of the Galactic War and all the politics and battles. Han Solo provided witty commentary; unlike Jar Jar Binks, whose “comic relief” just wasn’t funny.
Overall, I think Revenge of the Sith is a good conclusion to the 20-year project that Star Wars has become. It successfully bridged the gap between Episode II and A New Hope, and gave an entertaining movie in the mean time. It’s definitely worth seeing whether you’re a Star Wars fan or not; just go in there knowing the basic story of the other prequels, or else you’ll be hopelessly lost.

The 2005 Junior-Senior Breakfast - by Kevin K. '05

The Junior-Senior breakfast this year was something that was unexpected by most seniors. After last year, we had our expectations on how the event would go down and what/what not it would include, but for many it was much better than the previous one we had attended. Not only was the food better (if I am remembering correctly, it went from bagels and doughnuts to scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, etc.) but the assembly itself was very nice. There were heartfelt speeches by both the Junior and Senior class presidents, who are both leaving our school at the end of this year, which reminded us of the great times we have shared here at Magnet. The “bequeathings” were also better this year, mainly because of the humor involved with them; Greg M. received his shoes from Jason L., Lizzy M., continuing the tradition of passing down the Westfield School Bus to Kurt B, and who can forget Mr. Seigel finally getting his nickel back from Marianne V, Tammy B., and Samah M. Another thing that will make us remember this occasion is the beautiful decorations, which depicted the Senior’s stay at Magnet as a movie and that we are all the stars of the film. I would personally like to thank everyone that helped make this occasion one that will probably never be forgotten, and I hope that everyone will be able to experience a Junior-Senior breakfast just like ours.

Two Senior Trips - by Michael Y. '06

MapQuest tells us that Washington D.C. is about three and a half hours away. That seems like a relatively short amount of time to drive for an amazing Junior class trip and it truly is. It is a shame that Washington D.C. is much more than just a few hours away for the class of 2006. Because of Mother Nature’s hateful wrath the Junior class was stranded in the middle of February with nowhere to go. We were alone and cold. We waited for a sign from above, for the clouds to disperse and a subtle ray of sunshine graze us with its glory. Oh well. Nothing miraculous happened and the Junior class must wait for another four months for the day to come when we can be let free from the shackle that is Magnet. But, not all is lost in the Fish Bowl. We have survived this year without a class trip and we have grown stronger. We will be able to conquer any trip delays now like the true warriors we are. And, not all is lost from the delay of the trip. Luckily there are some positives to having our class trip delayed. The most apparent pro is the fact that many students who were not able to go the first time around will be free this time. Another positive is that we will receive time to commune with our peers right after summer vacation. This trip will be a perfect chance for incoming Seniors to converse about all the fun times and crazy antics of the Summer. The most notable impact though is the fact that the class of 2006 will receive TWO Senior class trips. We will have our trip to Washington D.C. during the first few weeks in school and another trip towards the end of the year. This will not only add up to lots of fun but one trip plus another equals TWO trips. And this is more than one and less than three, which is pretty cool.

Goodbye Dr. Castaldo - by Megan C. '05

It’s been a bit of a turbulent year for the English department. The departure of Dr. Peinovich caused teachers to rearrange their schedules and bring in a new faculty member to cover his classes. Things will continue to be rearranged next year as well, as Dr. Castaldo is leaving the Magnet world after five years.
Dr. Castaldo, or “Doc” as she is affectionately known, has mostly taught American Literature I and AP English in the past few years. Dr. Castaldo has also taught at Kean University, Drew University, Fairleigh-Dickingson University, and Essex County College. She broke into high school teaching during her time at Magnet and will continue it at George C. Marshall High School in Fairfax, Virginia. Dr. Castaldo will be moving to Virginia during the summer in order to be closer to her family.
Dr. Castaldo was the co-advisor of the Magnet Drama Club for three years and was in fact one of the reasons the club got off the ground in the first place. She has also been Coordinator of Student Activities for Magnet for the past two years. Doc can often be found walking laps with Mrs. Volino upstairs after school and frequently lapping students who are doing the same. She is also known throughout the school for her love of Billy Joel and her disdain of Starbucks Coffee (for a full explanation, ask her—she’ll tell you why).
She cites “the energy and the talent of the students” as her favorite thing about Magnet. After five years of her Giants-fan presence at Magnet, it’s hard to think of her at another school. However, all of Magnet joins in wishing Doctor Castaldo the best of luck at her new school, and please don’t ever forget us!

Mets and Yankees Commentary - by Marc N. '06

Coming into the 2005 season, the two New York City baseball teams, the Yankees and the Mets, were seemingly headed in the same direction. The Yankees seemed to be a much stronger team than the one that had almost carried the franchise to yet another World Series. They had fixed the team’s lone weakness by picking up two young starters in Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright, and the best starting pitcher in baseball, Randy Johnson. With one of the most powerful lineups in baseball, and a rebuilt pitching staff, what could go wrong?
But the Yankees have many problems, most prominently the age of the team. On a team where the youngest projected starting position player on team would be twenty-nine years old, the dangers of an aging team were all there. Unfortunately, for Yankee fans, the dangers of an old team have hit, with declining performances from Johnson (41), Jason Giambi (34), Bernie Williams (36), Hideki Matsui (31), Mike Mussina (36), Jorge Posada (34), Kevin Brown (39) and injuries another shoulder injury to Wright (who has had one full, healthy season in 7 years), the Yankees are the major leagues most expensive disappointment. With a payroll exceeding two hundred million dollars, many of the more expensive contracts staying on for at least another year or more, the Yankees are a below .500 team with many holes and little hope.
On the other side of New York, the New York Mets are in the thick of the race for the NL East, only 1.5 games behind the first place Nationals. In an off-season where one hundred and seventy million dollars were spent on the two top free agents, Pedro Martinez and Carlos Beltran, along with an exciting infusion of young talent in the infield with David Wright and Jose Reyes, Mets fans had some hope. Unlike the Yankees, the Mets have gotten what they paid for. Beltran is hitting .293, while Pedro Martinez has been the best starting pitcher in baseball so far, posting a 2.45 ERA while striking out 104 hitters in 88 innings pitched. Not only that, David Wright is hitting .303 with a .523 slugging percentage, establishing himself as one of the best young players in the game and a definite keeper for the Mets to build around.
The Mets seem to be heading in the direction the championship Yankee teams of the late 90’s, great young talent infused with solid to great veteran talent. The Yankees on the other hand, are right on their way to becoming a more expensive version of the Mets before this year, filled with unhappy, aging veterans making fat paychecks.

Diversity At the Magnet - by Baltasar Farthinder, '05

By attending Union County Magnet High School I have much more multicultural and diverse classes. At my hometown high school my classmates would all live in my town. However at Magnet, I have classes with people living all over the county, and unlike a private school, Magnet is free for anyone who is accepted. This means there is more ethnic and cultural diversity and as well as being more socio-economically diverse. By choosing to attend the Union County Magnet High School I have been able to interact and form friendships with a more multicultural and diverse group of people.
In both elementary and middle schools I went to school with only kids who lived in my neighborhood. I did not even go to school with all the kids in my town because my town only has five elementary schools and two middle schools. Even in middle school I was only going to school with half the kids in my grade. These kids were very similar to me in many ways. There was some racial and ethnic diversity, of course, but people naturally choose to live in neighborhoods of people like themselves. There was also little economic diversity; these kids lived in my town and thus lived in houses comparable to my own. Due to the fact that Magnet is a countywide school, my classmates come from many different towns (some of which I had never heard of before). This allows for more opportunity for diversity.
One occasion when I realized how multicultural my classes are, was this year in my Calculus class. This class is already very diverse because there are students from all four grades. We were discussing how one could succeed on the math section of the SAT's without scoring well on the verbal section or even speaking English well. I realized then that the majority of our class could speak a language other than English fluently or came from a bilingual home. The amazing thing about this to me was that this wasn't just a class of kids who could speak Spanish and English. There were at least five different languages that students could speak other than English. And there were less than 20 kids in the class. On the contrary, out of my middle school friends not one could speak a second language with any hope of fluency.

Robotics Team Update - by Jonathan D. '05

The UCVTS FIRST Robotics Teams is getting ready to embark on a new chapter in the teams short history. The end of this year marks two major changes for the club. First, Dr. VanEkeren, the teams founding advisor will be leaving, and second, all of the current seniors who were instrumental in getting the team off the ground last year will be graduating this year and be going off to further their educations at colleges across the country.
When this season started many of the founding members were concerned about the fate of the team after they left, but a year later they feel much more comfortable with the future of the team after they are gone and no longer able to keep things running smoothly. Earlier this month the new officers or "Jedi Council" as they refer to themselves was appointed, and ready to take over the club and continue Team 1257's short but strong and competitive tenure in the FIRST competition.
As for the "Jedi Council's" vision for the future of the club has yet to be determined. Last week they meet with the old Council where hints and tips were given about how to run the club, but the general consensus of the current Council was that much of how to run the club needs to just be learned though experience. This week the new Council will have its first meeting and begin to put together a new contact list of current member so they can get work done over the summer, mainly recruiting more sponsors. If you know of anyone who would might be interested in helping the team please contact either of their Vice Presidents for Public Relations, Justin P. and Jaret P., both ‘07. During the summer the team plans to spend most of their time outlining their goals for the new year and organizing new members. The robotics team is always looking for new members, and they have a job for everyone. If you are interested in joining please contact the Vice President of Membership, Matt W. ‘08.

Farewell to Lerner, Scher, and Green - by Vinny T. '06

Many Magnet students are distraught as the end of this school year approaches. Not because there are finals, projects, tests before finals, or projects before projects, and definitely not because we are leaving school for summer, but because we are completely or partially losing three great teachers. Mr. Lerner, Ms. Scher, and Mrs. Green are all moving to the new Allied Health/AIT buildings and we students here at Magnet will hardly see them. Many say this is a tragedy, and I agree, but firmly believe these teachers will train the new Allied Health students to become top class surgeons or whatever they study for. This article is a tribute to our soon to be fallen soldiers.
Mr. Lerner, good old Mr. Lerner, no one can teach you to blow air into a dummy better. He is the ultimate health/fitness nut and if you need muscle you go see him. He does have one problem though, that diet coke he drinks isn’t good for him. Besides that I would say he’s in pretty good shape and could crush any two kids in this school at once. He will make the new students experts at First-Aid as I am, I actually saved someone’s life yesterday.
Ms. Scher will not go to bad use, I’m sure she will teach these kids everything they need to know about the Holocaust. Hopefully if a Holocaust speaker comes to the Allied Health building she doesn’t fall asleep though, I believed that happened here at Magnet but I’m not sure. I do have to say I recently took the SATs and never would have written such a good essay if it wasn’t for the essay writing skills given to me by Ms. Scher. She is a mix of friend and teacher and the jokes go along with it. Don’t challenge her she will make fun of you and win.
Last we have Mrs. Green. I never had Mrs. Green and don’t know much about her so I went into her classroom and asked her some dumb questions. I still don’t know much about her but I did learn she is a very nice lady and she may be blamed too much but it isn’t her fault she teaches AP Bio. She told me she was a fair teacher and I believe it but she still will teach one class at Magnet luckily. She seems like an AP Bio master and I wish I had her. Just from the minute I talked to her I’m going to miss her.
Any teachers I missed I’m sorry, I was assigned these three in specific. Farewell to you teachers, I am a better person because of all of you. Keep me in mind when you teach those new students, and I along with others will visit you again in the future, most likely next September.<3

Class Council for 2006 - by Melissa L. '06

The class council election results are in for next year’s senior class! Stephanie P., Joe S., Eric M., Josan J., and Aisha H. were elected as the new class council for the class of 2006.
A long junior class meeting was held in the auditorium of Union County Magnet High School from 8-9AM on May 27, 2006, where every student had the opportunity to hear the promising campaigns of each candidate. Each candidate was given time to give a brief speech on his/her ideas for the upcoming year. Afterwards, the junior class audience had the chance to ask any questions pertaining to the future class council’s objectives.
After the class meeting, each student returned to his/her first period class and voted. Stephanie won against Lauren B. for Senior Class President, and Stephanie believes it will be a promising year for the graduating class of 2006. Eric won against Michelle M. for Senior Class Treasurer, and Josan and Aisha, who were both unopposed, won for Secretary and Class Representative. Joe, who won against Melissa L. for Vice President, made a compelling speech about his ideas on the upcoming year.
“I want our class to have the best senior trip ever,” exclaims Joe. “We deserve it. My goal is to bring out class together and raise enough money to have a decent trip that we can all remember.”
The decision on who the future Senior Class Historian will be is still pending, and the candidates are filling the halls with their colorful posters, hoping for a spot on the council.
“I love taking pictures,” says Kirk I., a candidate for Historian. “And I also want to make a difference. It’s my last year, and I want to help my class by giving them something I’m good at – taking pictures.”
Kirk is currently running against Sasha T. and Lauren B. The results for the future Class Historian should be in by the end of this week. Hopefully, this new class council will be able to reach their goals and bring the class of 2006 together, making their graduating year a year to remember.

Junior Year Ups and Downs - by Allie and Meagan

Meagan’s viewpoint:

Wow! This year went by fast. We’ve had a fun time as juniors, but I’m definitely not upset it’s almost over! We only have one more year of high school left, and will probably never see most of our classmates after we graduate. That’s pretty sad, but we have less than two weeks of school left until summer! It’s good to almost be done with year, even after all the highs and lows we’ve had.
Although we will soon be the oldest class in the school, it’s sad to say that we do not have the most money in our fundraising account. We were however quite successful with our cookie and crackers fundraising sale, especially after that nasty pasta we were forced to sell in the previous years. Another winning fundraising idea we had this year was to sell peppermint greetings (a.k.a. candy grams). Our class has a rep for not having any school spirit or participating in any magnet events because they’re just to cool to go to anything that has to do with Magnet, but this fundraiser really brought our class closer together. What we did was, we had the class split in two teams, and competed against each other to see what team could raise the most money. Our class really got into it and we raised a good amount of money! In the end though, B day English won, and that was all thanks to the dynamic duo: Meagan and Kristen!
One very important positive about the junior class is the fact that we are going to be seniors next year and can make fun of all the underclassmen! Thanks to this year’s senior class, we got a lot of our senior privileges taken away but we still have a huge advantage over the rest of the school. We only have one more year left and then we’re out of here! How exciting is that? All in all, I’d say this was a pretty good junior year.


Allison’s take:

The school year for the class of 2006 has been a very interesting year. We have had our ups and downs, but somehow managed to get through it altogether. This school year has not been one of our best. The tough time we had fundraising for our Senior Class Trip to the cancellation of our Washington D.C. trip to the cheating website incident, we’ve been through some bad times.
This year our class has been the most separated class. We haven’t worked together well. We needed to work together and get some fundraising done, however that didn’t work out as well as we hoped. It was looking up when the idea of a competition fundraiser came into play. We raised a lot of money because as everyone knows the class of 2006 is a very competitive class. After that our fundraisers didn’t go so well and the worst part was it was our own fault. Not many kids in the junior class cared that much about our future trip in Magnet.
Another downside to this year was how our class trip got cancelled. One of the best things we were looking forward to and the only weekend it snows was the same weekend. I know some people in our class were so excited for the trip they went out and bought about sixty dollars worth of food. That was a big upset of the year. The trip that was supposed to be a fun and interesting trip was postponed until the following year.
One of the most outrageous events that happened this year was the incident with the History Website. Mostly everyone knows about it, but if not here it is. The history tests this year was based on a public website, word got out, and soon most of the grade was getting 100’s on their tests. Now, the controversy was this cheating or not? In my opinion no. What happened? Well, Mr. Stefankiewicz and Mr. Sanservino decided to turn this into a valuable lesson, tying this incident into an event dealing with the chapter we were learning at that time. Now if that’s not considered a crazy part of a rough year, I don’t know what is!