The start of August in Union City signifies the end of summer for the students of James Logan. For the last few years, there has been worry and uncertainty coming back to school. Things like COVID, falling behind, and wildfires were on people’s minds. This year’s seniors never even came to school their freshman year.
In 2023-2024, however, Logan students and staff are coming back with a more positive mindset and, in some cases, happiness.
“There’s just a different atmosphere in the air, so that is also contributing to a positive start in the school year,” English teacher Mrs. Schwartzfarb said.
Students, alongside teachers, echo these sentiments. Seniors, especially, are looking to end high school on a high note after entering Logan as virtual freshmen.
“I’m pretty much excited for graduation and senior activities,” senior Emily Moreno said.
Among these activities include senior sunrise (which has taken place already), GradNite, and, of course, the actual graduation ceremony. Other seniors express similar sentiments when thinking about how the school year has begun so far.
“It’s [going] pretty well actually. This is like the first year I actually have friends in my classes so it’s going better than I expected,” senior Alexis Raymundo said.
There is much to look forward to as the school year progresses, as leadership organizes future events for student engagement.
“We’re painting stuff for Logan Land. Thinking about the future skits, homecoming, and hoco rally,” senior Nyomi Perez of leadership said.
This year, the skit themes include Teen Beach Seniors, High School Musical 25, Surfer Sophomores, and Freshmen Squarepants. With all that is going on to start the school year, students across all grades look to leave this school year better than the last. Many people view the beginning of 2023-24 rather positively.
“I’m really excited to start being more independent and have more responsibility in my own choices that I did in middle school,” freshman Pablo Sierra said. “I’m really looking forward to my future in the Forensics program at Logan.”
Although the start of the school year may not seem as eventful, one aspect that seems to have piqued the greatest amount of interest are football games. Four games into the season, two have already been played at home on the Logan field, attracting large crowds of students. Unfortunately, the football team’s home opening did not result in a Colts victory.
“It was okay,” sophomore Atley Coleman said. “I was super tired and they lost, so it was really boring to watch.”
Nevertheless, the football team bounced back from a 1-3 record to keep the season going strong, giving one more of many reasons to look forward to what all this new school year has to offer.
“Yes, we were extremely disappointed,” football’s Coach Stone said. “Just a couple bad breaks, that’s all. We’ll definitely be good this week. We’ve been getting good practice in, yesterday, this morning, we’ll be ready to go.”
The Colts strung together five straight wins to move into first place in the league.
Regardless of whatever happens this school year, Logan is ready to take it head on and leave it better than the last year. This pursuit of success should begin with a strong relationship between all community members, students and staff alike.
“The beginning of my school year [has gone] pretty smoothly,” sophomore Cordell Johnson said. “Most of the teachers [are] nice and everybody [is] mostly nice. It [is] a good start to the year. ”
