By Clairissa Moore
 
Get ready, change is coming. After years of pushing for better cafeteria food, Superintendent Dr. Shaun Nelms, and chief financial officer Ms. Carleen Pierce have finally succeeded. In a recent interview, they told us what was coming.
 
On January 28th, the cafeteria lines will be labelled and separated based on what is served. Of course, that isn’t the only change. We as students will have more options to choose from. There will be a “Subway line,” as Nelms said, with made-to-order sandwiches. Don’t worry though, there will be pre-made sandwiches and salads if you’re in a hurry. In general, there will be more menu items every day, so you can be sure you’ll get something you’d like to eat. That’s only the beginning of this pilot program and what Ms. Pierce calls the cafeteria’s “grand re-opening.”
 
Before the end of the year, there will be even more choices, including ethnic food like tacos and Chinese food. And by next year, the cafeteria will be brand new with a food-court-like style.  Of course, privilege comes with responsibility. In order to get better food and a nicer cafeteria, we have to respect and appreciate what we are given. In the past, East students have made choices that reflect poorly on Ms. Pierce’s decisions, such as installing microwaves in the cafeteria only to have them break from abuse. This cannot be one of those occasions. We as a student body must clean up after ourselves, and eat the food we are served to get this program to work and grow. This shouldn’t be an issue, since we made this happen.
 
Another student, Anna Burton, and I reported on this issue in the November Eagle Express. In under 2 months, significant change has come. You can be involved too. On East’s website, there is a page called “Let’s Talk” which allows students and staff to communicate with corresponding officials. And yes, they actually read them. See a problem? Or something great? Advocate for yourself and others with ease and make a change.

By Taniya Gaines
 
Many seniors are frustrated that we’re not receiving information in a timely manner.  We are more than halfway through the school year and graduation is quickly approaching. We thought that our senior year would be fun and exciting but many feel it’s the total opposite. Things have not gone as planned and we feel like we don’t have a say in the activities that are planned.
 
Many seniors feel that they have been receiving information on the day of or not at all. With no announcements this year, communication is a major problem. At our town hall meetings we barely have enough time to really talk about senior activities. Senior meetings are supposed to be on the First Friday of the month but in most cases they weren’t and we found out last minute.
 
East senior Hana Nakayama says, “I feel like we aren’t being given the information on time and it’s really disappointing. I think there should be a bulletin board on each floor specifically for senior related news and there could also be one in the library.”
 
There could be a page specifically designed for seniors on the school website because with some seniors coming to school every other day or coming in later they miss out on the information given to us at the town halls and “senior meetings.” This will make it easier to get the information they may have missed and still participate in the events of our senior year.

By Zaire Briggs
 
Teachers at East High School complained for years about students being on their cellphones in class. They even tried for years to come up with different ways to get East High students to become more focused on work, and less focused on their devices. They won, and teachers finally got what they wanted: East High School is no longer a school that allows cell phones to be used throughout the day. So why is it that teachers are now on their phones, when they did everything they could to get rid of them?
 
If you are one of the teachers who is on their phone during class, you could be seen as a hypocrite. Some teachers could be seen as hypocrites because if they see students on their phone during class, they call so students’ phones could be taken away, but are on their phones as well. In an experiment, we found that over the course of two days, we observed 25 teachers are on their cellphones during class and Support, some the whole class period, and some pulled their phones out multiple times during class.
 
It seems like students are not the only ones with the problem. Teachers need to have consequences when they’re on their phone during class, just like us. Teachers are supposed to be role models for students, at least that's what we thought.  The same rules should apply.

By Sisqo Berrios
 
After high school many students wonder about choosing between getting a job and going to college. For some the job they dream about requires a college degree and others require good training.
 
Many students have been debating this topic for years. A recent study by Georgetown University says that college graduates earn 1 million dollars more over their entire life than someone who doesn’t go to college. Also studies show that the unemployment percentage for students who did not attend college is higher than for students with a college degree.
 
But let’s face it, college is EXPENSIVE, so it makes sense why someone might choose not to go to college. According to Collegeboard.com, attending college costs a larger percentage of household income, which makes it harder for people to attend. Also depending on the type of degree, many college graduates have a hard time finding a job in their field of study. One out of every 40 college graduates doesn’t have a job in their field, according to a 2017 Forbes.com study.
 
Although statistics change every year, many have different opinions about going to college or not.  It’s all up to students to decide whether they want their income to increase 1 million dollars over their lifetime—but would cost more up front— or if they prefer to save the cost of college. In the end, it’s a personal choice.

By Miguel Rodriguez Segarra
 
Students at East High feel like classes that we take are unnecessary, and we need to learn different things, things that will actually become useful in the future.  

An anonymous East High student stated, “Yes some classes here are good to take and will help me in the future, but others won’t. I feel like we should learn about things like filling out our taxes, learning how to save money, and learn about things like owning houses, paying car insurance, and stuff of that nature.” This student is implying that after he gets out of high school he won’t know what to do and some students might even have to go live on their own and it will be hard because this is all new to them.

A former East High student stated that “right now I don’t even know what to do. I’ve got my high school diploma but I don’t know how to start living on my own or how to pay bills and all that stuff.” Even though this East High graduate completed high school, she still feels like she needed to know more.
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Some people may say that it’s the family’s fault they don’t know how to do taxes or save money or even pay bills, but some us don’t have a family that’s there or for some of us our parents are always working because things are bad at home.  For others, parents are home but they don’t know how to do that stuff either because their parents weren’t home. Students want to learn life skills that matter so when we get out of high school we have a bright future not feel like we went to school for no reason.

By Nagely Perez

Integrating schools so that there is a better balance of social and economic backgrounds can help improve the Rochester City School District. In the Rochester City School District the dropout rate was 22% in 2017, and the graduation rate was 51.9%. Integrating schools can reduce the percentage of students who drop out because we can inspire students to go to school and be excited about it. The city schools are made up of mostly minority kids. The main problem is concentrated poverty in the city. Poverty negatively affects students and also the school. One solution to this problem could be integrating schools.

Some programs try to change the segregation in schools, for example the Urban-Suburban Program. However this program is based on city school students that meet the requirements to get an opportunity to study at a suburban school. So it helps some students, but not enough.  The city will be more diverse if students from different backgrounds learn from each other. Integrated school environments do not harm the test scores of white students, and it will change and reduce poverty in the city. Families would get to choose the school that best fits their child and not have to worry about their child achieving the requirements to get into the Urban-Suburban program to have a better education.
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Teachers also believe that integrated classrooms provide unique educational benefits that cannot be attained in single-race classrooms. Also racially integrated schools promote cross-racial understanding. Not only that but racially integrated schools enhance students learning, expand their future opportunities, and benefits society at large. Research suggests that the critical thinking skills of all students improve in racially integrated classroom. Diverse learning opportunities make all students better problems solvers and communicators.

By Shaffiria Dortch

As a Hillside student at East High, they give you the opportunity to get different types of jobs and one of the jobs is a cashier at Wegmans. Now working at Wegmans has its pros and cons just like any other job.

Some pros of working at Wegmans is that it actually helps you with you customer service skills, you meet different people every day, yet the conversation you have with them is less than five minutes but you still learn a lot in those five minutes. Before I was a cashier I never liked having conversations with strangers but as time went on I actually started to appreciate the fact that I was able to meet these customers and have some of the conversations we did.

Like I said working at Wegmans also has its cons. For some people being a cashier and standing on your feet your whole shift can be a huge problem, especially when you only get a 15 minute break and you’re scheduled to work for 4-5 hours or more. Another thing is that even though there are some very sweet customers there are also very nasty and disrespectful ones and no matter how rude the customer is being, you have to remain calm and not get out of character. There are customers who will come into the store and be rude to you just because they know you will still be absolutely nice to them.
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I wouldn’t say working at Wegmans is the worst job ever but it isn’t the best job in the world. With that being said if you’re given the opportunity to work for Wegmans you should take it but be prepared for both the rude customers and the good conversations.

By Rishad Ragland
 
Are you among the group of middle aged men whose hairline is receding and have nothing else to do with their life but “be like Mike” because everybody wants to “be like Mike?” Well you're not the only one and this article is for you. According to my own personal estimates, around 75% of the men in that category disregard the facts and pure stats on why the “goat” is Lebron Raymond James. “GOAT” stands for Greatest Of All Time, and refers to a person who completely dominates at his profession.

One counter argument for Michael Jordan being the “GOAT” that is routinely used by Pipper Holmes (which to me is a complete appeal to ignorance) is when he states, “since Jordan is 6 for 6 in final appearances and since we have no proof that this has ever been done in any other sport, he has to be the GOAT.” Well, Mr. Holmes, let me inform you simply stating something that has no proof does not make it true or false. It's considered a logical fallacy, and very weak argument. Just blasphemy.
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In addition, Lebron James has the stats to prove his rank as the “GOAT.” James is often called the best passer in basketball, despite playing a small forward. He has the most total assists for a small forward in NBA history. While Jordan was a solid passer in his own right, he did not quite have the ability to find teammates like James does, as his overall assist numbers are 7.0 to Jordan’s 5.3. Also, Jordan was unblemished in the NBA Finals, but he did not get out of the first round of the playoffs until his fourth try. James is an astonishing 10-0 in the first round all-time. All things considered the race is very close, leaving my bias out the conversation. Given the pure stats, James has the edge over Jordan, which makes him the greatest of all time. “G.O.A.T”

By Pipper Holmes

2019 is going to be filled with great blockbuster movies. I know I will be spending lots of time at the movie theater. There are many live action movies that are set to come out later in the year, such as The Lion King. One that I am waiting for— like many other comic fans— is Avengers: Endgame but for now I’ll settle for a movie that’s coming out in about a week.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second is a great family friendly movie, perfect for kids of all ages. It is set to premiere February 8th. It is the sequel to the original LEGO movie which was released in 2014, which had a profit of $469.1 million. One can only imagine how much better the new movie will do. In the new movie we get to see the how the main character, Emmet, uses his new found powers in master building to save his friends. Hopefully this movie will have a catchy song like the first one.
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Avengers: Endgame is the newest movie in the Avengers chronicles. The last movie left us with a cliffhanger. Many of our favorite characters disappear in the middle of a war with Thanos, the biggest super villain the Avengers has ever faced. He moved through them with ease and with more than half of the team gone and the rest lost in space, it is going to be nerve-racking to see how they are going to beat him, if they even can. Avengers: Endgame is set to be released on April 26th and will hopefully hold up to the record from the last film which had a profit of $2.049 billion. I believe this movie will break that record. Avengers fan Wilson River says, “I’m gonna binge watch the Avengers series the week before just to make sure I’m fully immersed in the Marvel franchise.” As you can see this is the movie to see, so be there or be square.

​By Wilson Rivera

The Government is the foundation of how we are able to live our lives and allowed to conduct ourselves in society, but Donald Trump thinks he can run our government like his businesses. His lack of politics has really shown in the past 4 weeks by keeping the government shut down over funding for his border wall.

The government has shut down because Trump and Congress cannot come to a consensus on a spending plan. It is Congress’s job to manage our money and when they choose to not sign off on any spending plan after the current one expires, it results in a shutdown. Trump wants to build a border wall for $5 billion. Congress does not agree with Trump, and Trump chooses to not take any deal they have offered so far, such as the bill with about $1 billion for extra border protection.

The biggest downside of the shutdown is government agencies losing funding which causes them to stop their operations or furlough their workers or force them to work without pay, which leads to them calling off work. More than 800,000 federal workers are out of work until the government gets up and running. Food Stamps are expected to run out of funding by March, taxes are expected to be late, Housing, Agriculture, Transportation, Homeland Security are also some agencies that are also affected, according to CBS and Vox.com.
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All currently funded parts of government will run out of funding September 30, 2019 so if this continues a full shutdown is in the future. It is expected to have three possible outcomes: Trump caves and reopens the government regardless, Democrats cave and agree to fund the wall, or Republicans cave and side with the Democrats.