by Adriana Rangel - January 27, 2012

SAT time is here for three of our Seniors. Nicole, Amelia, and Adriana are going to Van Horn, Texas on Saturday Morning. The girls will be taking the test in the Van Horn school library, starting at 7:30 am and ending around noon.

Mr. Ackley and Mrs. Houy have been preparing them for the test. Amelia says " It should be easy!” The girls are not that nervous as they should be. The girls got a fee waver form to take the test for free, the school paid for it, but they only get one free try.

Cayenne and Aaron, our two other seniors, have already taken their SAT. Aaron took his in Alpine at SRSU, Cayenne took hers in Van Horn. They both took them before Christmas break. We want to wish the Senior girls good luck on their test!!

Looking for 5-1, the Pirates Host the Indians Friday


by Daniel Garnsey - January 24, 2012

This Friday (1-27-12) the Pirates and Lady Pirates will be hosting the Fort Davis Indians and Lady Indians for their sixth district basketball game. After that, the Pirates and Lady Pirates only have two games left in the season, one in Sierra Blanca on the 31st of January, and the other will be in the House of Mac (our gym) on the 7th of February.

The Lady Pirates and Indians will take the floor first with their game starting at 6:30 PM. The Lady Pirates have been working hard these past few days, getting ready for their big game against the Lady Indians. "The girls seem to be improving in their shots and defense,” says Daniel Koch, member of the Pirate News Team. "I think that if they play hard and want the big 'W' more than their opponents, that they can win.”

The Lady Pirates' district record is 0-4. Let's get that 'W' girls.

Right after the girls get off the court, the Pirates and Indians will go head to head as the Indians sit in 1st place in the district, and the Pirates in 2nd. "If we win the game on Friday, we will be tied for 1st ,” said Latham Garnsey. "We need to go out there and play harder than we've ever played before.” The Pirates have been practicing hard on their new offense called Buna the past few days. The players all seem to like the new offense as each one of them said something along the lines of – "it being really awesome” and, "it will be good to run”.

The basketball season is almost over for the Pirates and Lady Pirates, for some, it's the last few times in a Pirate Basketball uniform. So let's go out with a bang and show that we want the 'W' more than our opponents on Friday. LET'S GO PIRATES!

by Daniel Koch - January 27, 2012

So far, the Valentine Pirates have played five district games. The first was a victory against Dell City. Their second game was a twenty or so loss to Ft. Davis. Their third game was against Sierra Blanca, which they won. The fourth game was a great win against Balmorhea. The last game they played was a win at Dell City, and they will hopefully get a win against Fort Davis tomorrow.

The Valentine Pirates will be taking on the Sierra Blanca Vaqueros on Tuesday January 31st. The first game they played against them they won with a score of 77-54, but they are playing on their home court so it will be a little harder than their last game. Last year the Pirates lost by five to the Vaqueros. "So far the Sierra Blanca's boys are number three in the district but if we run our new basketball play Buna we should be able to beat them again.” said Daniel Garnsey. Well lets hope that Daniel is right and they can pull off another win against the Vaqueros!

Mrs. Porras' 1st and 2nd grade students hold up certificates of 100 Days Smarter to celebrate the 100th day of school. Ms. Weigart asked Gordon Kemp if he felt 100 days smarter. He replied, "I guess!", which made Ms. Weigart giggle.

by Jessie Garcia - January 26, 2012

Monday: I got sick!

Tuesday: I got the rash! I was running a fever, and my mom gave me medicine that put me to sleep. She gave me this four times. This is the day I can't remember.

Wednesday: I still had the rash so mom took me to the doctor. The doctor told me that I had strep throat. Further tests are being done, and I can't go to school until Friday. (Did I mention the medicine that put me to sleep for a whole day?)

Being sick at home is no fun; I could not play my Xbox or go outside and shoot hoops. Stuck inside in bed for 2 days plus the days I can't remember is just not cool. Peanut's view is wash your hands and don't get sick, and don't let your mom give you medicine that puts you to sleep for the whole day. (Did I mention the day I can't remember?)

by Daniel Garnsey - January 26, 2012

Valentine's Day, a day for celebrating love and affection between intimate companions is almost upon us. Having a candle-lit dinner, or even a dinner on the beach are the things to be arranged. BUT on this lovely day, the Valentine Travel Class will be hosting a Valentine's Day Dinner at the High School Auditorium beginning at 6 PM. The price per person is $8.00 and Pre-K through 2nd grade is $4.00.

The menu will consist of Red Enchiladas (egg on top is $1.00), Frijoles, Rice, Salad, and a Dessert. The beverages will be Tea and Coffee. The Travel Class will also be drawing for the soft queen size blanket and the tote bag with PIRATE monogrammed on the side. If you have not yet bought a ticket to test your luck, the donation fee is $1.00 per entry.

Valentine's Day is a day to spend time with your lover. So come on over to the Valentine High School and have a delicious dinner and a chance to win a queen size blanket and tote bag for just $2.00! Have a GREAT Valentine's Day!

by Jessie Garcia - January 26, 2012

On Wednesday day it snowed in Valentine but did not stick. But it was pretty neat to watch coming down. Later in the day I got the chance to see the mountains covered in snow. Snow in Valentine is always something to get excited about. I think the students would like to see a blizzard in Valentine so that we could get out of school for the day. Hopefully we can get more snow before spring comes. So everyone stay bundled up and stay warm, and drink a lot of hot chocolate.

by Jessie Garcia - January 26th, 2012

JC has been the only student in our class due to two students being out. Mrs. Garcia witness Mr. Bernards lecturing the lone wolf in the class room and she thought "poor kid he must be bored out of his mind” says Mrs. Garcia. It is not fun being the only kid in the classroom because you need your friends there to entertain you. I wonder what he goes through during breakfast not being able to talk to any one of his friends.

by Nicole Campbell - January 25, 2012

The One Act Play cast has been working very hard these past few weeks. The play this year is called Finders Keepers by: George Kelly. There are 3 cast members Daniel Garnsey, who plays Mr. Aldrid, Nicole Campbell, who plays Mrs. Aldrid, and Amelia Santillan, who plays Mrs. Hampton.

The play is comical, but has an excellent moral behind the story. The cast members have play practice Mondays and Wednesdays after school. When Amelia was asked if she knew her lines she said, " For the most part, I am very familiar with my lines.” The play members have not yet started blocking up on stage, but the lines are almost completed, and as soon as they learn their lines they will start blocking.

When Daniel was asked how he likes being in One Act Play he said, " I like it a lot.” It sounds like everything is coming together smoothly and will surely be a play to see!

by Adriana Rangel - January 25, 2012

The Lady Pirates lose to the Dell City Cougars, last night (1-24) in Dell City. This game went well for the girls everyone stepped up and played their all. Nicole with 8 points, Kimberly with 7, and Cayenne , Adriana, and Amelia with 6 points each. The score was close throughout the whole game, the Lady Pirates played their hardest throughout the game. Cayenne playing sick, coming down with the flu, played her hardest.

In the fourth quarter, the score was 33-30, Dell City with the lead, Kimberly gets sent to the free throw line and misses one but makes the other, that leaves the Lady Pirates 33-31. The lady Pirates did not give up with Adriana shooting from the wing and making the shot to tie up the game at 33-33, with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter. The Lady Pirates are on defense when Amelia fouls, sends a Lady Cougar to the free throw line, she misses. The Lady Cougars rebound the ball under their basket, Amelia fouls again, the Lady cougar made both of her free throws. The Lady Pirates loose 35-33.

The Lady Pirates are 0-5 in district. The Pirates will be hosting the Fort Davis Indians, on Friday, January 27, 2012. Hope to see all our Pirates fans up in the stands enjoying the games and a delicious cheeseburger, from the Travel Class.

by Daniel Garnsey - January 25, 2012

The Pirates and Lady Pirates all played great last night in Dell City. The girls played really hard throughout the entire game, but in the end, free-throws can be the game winning shots. The Dell City Lady Cougars beat our Lady Pirates 35-33, with the game winning shot on free-throws.

"We were better as a team,” said Kimberly Morton. "Everyone shot the ball well, and went hard for the rebounds, offensively and defensively.”

The Lady Pirates played well on both sides of the court. The girls picked up twelve steals, with Adriana Rangel having five of those twelve, Cayenne Webb with two, Kimberly Morton with three, and Nicole Campbell having the last two. The top scorers for the girls that night were Amelia Santillan and Nicole Campbell; Santillan bringing in six and Campbell scoring eight.

The girls also had a great night at rebounding with a total of twenty-six, offensively and defensively. The thing that hurt the Lady Pirates the most was their free-throws. The girls had a free-throw percentage of 16%, with Kimberly Morton making the only two, as the girls shot a total of twelve. Free-throws really count girls. Practice hard and play as hard again on Friday when you take on the Lady Indians of Fort Davis.

The boys played good last night as they beat the Dell City Cougars 71-33. The Pirates are now 4-1 in the district, sitting in 2nd place with Fort Davis in 1st. The boys were able to run the fast break and their new offense, Buna. They had some problems once the defense started playing a little tighter at the top of the key, but were still able to get some things done. "Last night was an important win for us,” says Enrique Navarrete. "We needed another road game win, and we got it.”

The Pirates are scheduled to play the Fort Davis Indians here in the House of Mac on Friday the 27th, right after the Lady Pirates get off the court. So if you're looking forward to some action out on the court, come and support both your Pirates and Lady Pirates as they play their sixth and second to last district basketball game.

by Daniel Koch - January 25, 2012

Today the Pirate news team interviewed Coach Bea and her first through second grade PE class on what they do every day. Coach Bea said "We start out by doing five or six different exercises, sometimes we will do running activities and sometimes hand eye coordination drills.”

Most of the time they are doing things that will help them when they get old enough to do some sports. "Sometimes we do challenges like holding themselves in push ups, whoever does the most jumping jacks, and relay races” said Coach Bea.

On Fridays the kids usually get to choose what they want to do. Some of the things they can choose from are Marco Polo, soccer, hot and cold, super mouse, dodge ball, and many other games. They are all preparing to be the future athletes of Valentine ISD.

by Daniel Koch - January 25, 2012



During sixth period every day, Mrs. Miller teaches ESL to Agapito and Maria Borunda. Recently, I went up to interview their class and find out what they learn and do. Both of them do a lot of reading to better their already good English skills. I asked what Maria learned in class (because Agapito was taking a test I did not disturb him) and she said "I learned something interesting in the book I am reading” Well lets hope they can get their reading down so they can pass their big tests.

By BYRON TAU of Politico - January 25, 2012

President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address again rated at an 8th grade comprehension level on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test — the third lowest score of any State of the Union address since 1934. The University of Minnesota's Smart Politics conducted an analysis on the last 70 State of the Union addresses and found that President Obama's three addresses have the lowest grade average of any modern president. "Obama's average grade-level score of 8.4 is more than two grades lower than the 10.7 grade average for the other 67 addresses written by his 12 predecessors," they conclude.

Click here to read more from Politico.

by Kimberly Morton - January 24, 2012

Valentine recently got TWO knew high tech Sony video cameras and TWO studio quality microphones!! These bad boys cost the school a fair amount of money SO TAKE CARE OF THEM! The main purpose of these cameras are to make our virtual yearbook more exciting!

The Pirate News team will be recording basketball games, any special event going on and the mikes are to help enhance the beautiful sounds that are being recorded. It's going to be pretty great, so make sure you check out the website for sports high lights and other fun clips! They are not letting any students check out the cameras or the microphones unless you are on the news team or a teacher. "It's Fun, It's Exciting, It's SCHOOL” (:

by Jessie Garcia - January 23, 2012

On the 30th of January, JR High team will travel to Balmerhea to play basketball. This is JR High's last game of the season. Until next year will they be able to play basketball again. They played a good season and they improved a lot on their plays. We are hoping to pick up a win Monday. On behalf of the JR High team, I Jessie Garcia, want to give a huge thank you to Coach Mac for teaching us a system that we could work with. And also to Coach Bea, for helping us when Coach Mac was not here. WAY TO GO PIRATES!!

by Daniel Koch - January 19, 2012

Today two of the Soil Conservation Representatives from Marfa and Alpine came to talk to the third through eighth about soil, and instruct the third and fourth how to draw their posters. The competitors have two weeks (starting today) to complete their posters on their subject "From Soil to Spoon”. At the end of the two weeks representative Jan Ponish will come pick them up, and they will be judged at the next Soil Conservation meeting in February.

After that, the winners from Valentine and the other surrounding schools will go to an area contest in San Angelo. The posters that are judged at area are from Del Rio, San Angelo, Valentine, and a lot of places in between. The winner of area will be awarded a medal and money. The awards will be given out at the end of the year award ceremony.

Following the instruction given by the Representatives, the kids went outside to do a few experiments. First, they did a soil test for lime and other assorted minerals. Next, they got rocks, beat them together, added four components, and before you know it they had soil.

by Daniel Garnsey - January 19, 2012

Ms. Weigart decorated the red podium in the elementary. If you haven't seen it, you should go check it out. It looks really snazzy. "I'm just trying to keep things fancy,” said Ms. Weigart about the podium. "IT LOOKS AWESOME!” said Daniel Koch. "SWEET.”

by Jessie Garcia - January 19, 2012

Mr. Danny Garcia was kind enough to trim the trees in front of our school. Now visitors will think that our school is the most prettiest school. They don't even touch the wall! Now spiders and bugs can't get in to some of the class rooms. I wanna give a big thanks to Mr. Garcia for doing such a great job ever since day one. I also wanna thank Mrs. Garcia for doing her part in making this school keep looking nice.

by Jessie Garcia - January 19, 2012

JR High has been practicing hard for their last game. They have gotten better at the plays that Coach Mac has taught. They only have until Monday the 30th. This is their last game so we are hoping not to lose too bad. If we can get the whole team up and running we can at least win by 2 points. But even if we do not win we are still going to go eat at the Bear Den. Coach Mac has told us they will feed us well before we go off and away from basketball season.

by Daniel Koch and Amelia Santillan - January 18, 2012

Today the student council met to discuss what they'll be doing for valentine's day. It was a very productive meeting. The first order in the meeting was discussing what kind of flowers they would sell for Valentines day. It may seem like a little early to be worrying about Valentine's Day. But they do say early bird gets the worm.

Next week the student council will be handing out order forms for flower, balloon and chocolate orders. It still isn't clear if the flowers will be roses or carnations or both. All payments must be made to the Valentine Student Council NOT THE Valentine Travel Class. Once again all payments must be made to the Valentine Student Council so there will not be any charging of orders.

The deadline for ordering will be on February 9th, 2012. So, if you are interested in purchasing any Valentine's Day flowers, balloons or chocolates for that special someone or a friend make sure to catch a student council member starting on Monday of next week (1-23-12) to get an order form.

The student council members are Adriana Rangel, Nicole Campbell, Amelia Santillan, Daniel Koch, Gabriela Tarango, Jaclyn Garcia and Ignacio Santillan. If you have any questions do not hesitate to ask any of the members or Mr. Cook.

Their second order of business was the Student Council trip. So far, they have decided that they might go to one or possibly two museums in the El Paso area. It is not for sure yet because there still the possibility that they might go to Midland, Odessa, or somewhere else. A date has not been set for the next Student Council meeting. If you would like anything to be discussed contact your local Student Council representative.

by Nicole Campbell - January 16, 2012

The Valentine Travel Class is raffling off more prizes! This time they are having two drawings instead of one. The first prize is a soft, Santa Fe, queen sized blanket. The blanket was donated to the Travel Class by Juanita Mendoza from Terlingua, Texas.

The second prize is a black bag with a red embroidered "PIRATES” on the front. The black bag was from the company 31. The tickets are only a dollar each, and there is a chance at winning TWO prizes with one ticket! Don't miss out on an awesome chance at winning!

To buy a ticket, contact the Travel Class members (Cayenne Webb, Adriana Rangel, Nicole Campbell, Kimberly Morton, Aaron Morton, and Daniel Garnsey) for more information.

by Nicole Campbell - January 18, 2012

Mr. Bernards now has the honor of taking care of the "Official Valentine Plant”. Given to him "officially” by Coach Mac last Wednesday (1-11). Coach Mac has been cleaning up his room, and has decided to give away some of his belongings to other teachers. Mr. Bernards was not present the day that Coach Mac gave away the plant. So, he left a note on the plant, " Coach mac said you are an instant winner of the official Valentine plant.” Congratulations Mr. Bernards!

by Jessie Garcia - January 17, 2012

In March the whole school must take a test. But it is not the TAKS test, it is the STARR test. According to some teachers this new test will really get students thinking. Some students do not like the idea of this whole new system of testing. They think it is more work and more pressure.

Students say that this school must take the pressure off so that students will be able to relax.Students also say we need more field trips before the end of the year. At least one more field trip could help these kids relax some people say. The STARR test is going to test your skill of using your brain and taking your time. So get ready kids! Because in March is the month of testing, pay attention in class and get set up!

by Daniel Garnsey - January 13, 2012

Mr. Northrip, the new Science and Math teacher for the elementary, was teaching the 3rd and 4th grade Science class about landforms. At the beginning of his class, he had the students write in their Science journals on next week's topic. "Next week we will be learning about the solar system and what it consists of,” said Mr. Northrip. "We just got through learning about landforms.”

When the students were done writing in their journals, Mr. Northrip had two students read out loud what they think the solar system is. "I think the solar system is all the planets and the sun and stuff in space,” said 3rd grader Nayely Rangel.

The students then got to do a project on landforms. The project consisted of shaving cream and popsickle sticks. Mr. Northrip put the shaving cream into two cake pans, and gave each student two sticks. The students were put into two groups and were instructed to shape mountains with the shaving cream using the popsickle sticks.

The students seemed to be enjoying what they were doing, and that's always important. Learning something and having fun at the same time is always the best. I'm sure the students will have lot's of fun learning about the solar system as they did landforms. Keep up the good work Mr. Northrip, you're doing great!

by Aaron "Sparky" Morton - January 9, 2012

"What makes the travel class hamburger so out of this world?” A question asked by anyone who's had the privilege of putting one of these babies in their mouth. Well, folks, after careful observation I found the answer! It's two key factors, the masters behind the grill (Mr. and Mrs. Miller) and the premium ingredients they use. Mr. and Mrs. Miller have cooking these burgers so long, they have it down to a science. They use Jensen's Ultra Premium Beef Patties seasoned with Serendipity on a large enriched hamburger bun. The cooking experience coupled with the best ingredients have proven to make the best hamburgers around. Be sure to try one as soon as you can!