With finals taking place before Christmas break at Montini Catholic High School, the students came back to school after break ready for a fresh start. This semester is especially important to the seniors because they have to keep up the motivation to work hard for one more semester before graduation. Second semester can be a time when students get lazy and lose interest in their studies, but the teachers at Montini have techniques to keep students on top of their assignments when so much excitement is occurring all around them.

One bonus for seniors is that they do not have to take their second semester finals if they manage to maintain an A average for third and fourth quarter. This is a great motivator to keep the seniors focused and ready to learn in their classes. There are a few exceptions to this rule, though. Advanced placement teachers are not required to go along with this, and seniors have to take all finals for classes lasting only one semester no matter what. The reason seniors have to take the single semester finals, according to Mary Ann O’Neill, principal, is because it would not be fair to the seniors who had to take the class first semester. So even if the seniors did not manage to keep their grades up first semester, they have a chance to redeem themselves second semester and get out of some of their finals which can be a pain toward the end of the year.

Besides the schoolwork, many exciting things have been happening in and around Montini. The annual Montini alumni hockey game took place Dec. 28, ended with a 3-3 tie, and luckily there were no injuries. The game was a great way to renew past relationships and have a little fun. The participators ranged everywhere from recent graduates to parents of recent graduates. Inside Montini, the Spanish and French clubs have been working hard to raise cultural awareness in their respective areas. The winter sports teams have also gotten off to great starts, whether continuing from the fall or just beginning. Every extracurricular club is busy preparing for the upcoming awareness weeks in April.

Besides the internal improvements and strides Montini is making, their will be some external changes to Montini as well. Toward the end of the second semester, certain areas of Montini will begin to undergo construction as part of a remodeling process for the school. Things will have to be moved around to make room for the new spaces, but their will be no major changes to the current classroom set up.