Block schedule: beneficial or bust?
![“I hate [block schedule]! Because I have to spend two hours in the same boring class and I can’t do anything when I’m done testing,](https://thecougarpress.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_3842-475x356.jpg)
Jezel Mercado and Tanya Turchyn
June 6, 2019
These past few weeks at Ventura High School, students and staff have been experiencing “block schedule.” Block schedule is when there are fewer periods in the day that are one hour and 45 minutes long instead of the normal one hour class time period. During these weeks, Mondays and Thursdays ...
It’s over 7,000: Derek Pekar breaks decathlon record
Jezel Mercado
April 25, 2019
On April 5 and 6, senior Derek Pekar attended the Arcadia Invitational Track Meet in Arcadia, CA, and made history. Pekar was invited to this event, so he could participate in the decathlon. A decathlon is a series of ten track and field events over two days. On the first day, decathletes compete ...
Pie a teacher to quench thirst
Jezel Mercado and Tanya Turchyn
March 20, 2019
On Friday, March 15, the Ventura High School Thirst Project Club hosted an event on Ventura High School’s senior lawn called the ¨Pie-A-Teacher Fundraiser.¨ This fundraiser allowed for students to purchase tickets to be entered in a raffle, from which one winner was chosen to pie the teacher they ...
Stop Changing the Darn Time!
Jezel Mercado
March 14, 2019
The time changed again... has anyone figured out why the f*%& we feel the need to change time? As a miserable insomniac, I already average four hours of sleep per night, and it is NOT helpful to have people change the time on me. FOR WHAT? WHY? What is the need? THERE ISN’T one! Changing th...
Peyton Erickson strikes again
Jezel Mercado
February 26, 2019
The Ventura High School Varsity Girls Soccer Team has had a record of 62 goals as the sum of the most goals scored by a single player since 1991. However, this year, that record was broken. Senior Peyton Erickson has completed her fourth year on the team and has scored an accumulation of 65 goals...
The Common App: Tool or Time-waster?
Jezel Mercado
November 8, 2018
Difficult advanced placement classes, sports, and extracurricular activities can be very overwhelming for high school seniors, and having to apply and decide where you want to go to college on top of them doesn’t make the year any easier. Colleges have used the privilege that modern-day technology gift...
The ballad of Serena Ropersmith
Jezel Mercado
October 17, 2018
Ventura High School senior Serena Ropersmith performed her self-written music with the band The Barn Burners at Bombay Bar and Grill in downtown Ventura, CA on Sunday Oct. 14. Ropersmith has been singing and writing her own music for a couple of years now, and is no stranger to the life on stage. Sh...
Student studs: VHS athletes commit to college
The Cougar Press and Jezel Mercado
October 10, 2018
Ventura High School’s student athletes have been committing to colleges in order to continue to pursue the sport they’re passionate about. Most student athletes that are committed are seniors, which gives these students the liberty to not partake in the stressful college decision process. Senio...
Taking a stand for the Pledge of Allegiance
Jezel Mercado
September 4, 2018
We’re over a week into the start of school and Ventura High School students are yet to do The Pledge of Allegiance at the start of second period after The Call to the Colors, as it has been routinely done for the passed several years. The Pledge’s absence has been felt on campus by returning students,...
