School's Out for Summer! 2005

Lovar, spring, 2005
mini-update
The younger students are anxious about summer vacation. Many of them have big plans of watching cartoons all day or eating popcorn for breakfast. A few of them are signed up for a summer camp at Yellow Lake Isle.

Johan struggles to teach the elementary class. He's not a fan of the younger students, he much perfers teaching older students, but with the new changes that he and Rebecca are discussing, it will be increasingly harder to qualify to teach college level students. He honestly thinks that if he could concentrate on only being principal of the academy and managing the education for the hood, then he would be content. Thankfully, he received a promising application from a young teacher, Illia Peterson.

Two lengthly phone interviews later and he had offered her the job of elementary teacher. She had to think about it and discuss it with her husband, but Johan knew that her answer would be yes. It had to be, her husband, Brandon Peterson, had recently accepted an offer to move to Apple Valley as the new military advisor.

He was right, she did accept the position and she would start that fall. Johan could hardly wait, soon he would never have to have recess duty again.

Not that the screaming voices of hyperactive children were annoying, but Johan preferred the quieter aspects of his educational job. He longed to spend hours in his office tweaking the curriculm and leading the hood to become a premir place to educate young minds.

Thankfully, the county council gave Johan a fair amount of simoleans to manage this simyear. There were some notable changes, such as the small vegetable garden that the students tended. The profits from selling the produce would go to the school and provide a small bit of income.

Some of the produce would be used in the new cafeteria. All students now recieved free lunch at school thanks to the increase of taxes.

Most of the students loved picking out their own lunch, be it mac-n-cheese, or syrup covered pankcakes.

The junior high and high school students were now combined in one secondary class. Jesse didn't mind being in charge of the 12-18 year olds, as long as he could keep them focused.

Johan had enough funding to hire Susie MacAstral, an university student majoring in dance, to teach a few classes each week. The plan was that after the initial introduction to dance, parents would then have the option to pay for their child to attend dance class during their elective period. Right now, Susie was coming in once a week as she was still recovering from an illness.

Johan could tell that music class had started, the sound of a student's screaches,

accompanied with the scratches on the brand new violin

and the slow plucks from the piano.

"Very good," Nicole encouraged the young group as they struggled through "Over the Double Moons"

Johan could tell that she was still under the weather, her voice was a bit hoarse and her energy level seemed low. Thankfully, this week was the last week for elective classes as the next few weeks would be skill exams for all grades.

*****

A few days later, Johan stood in front of the small crowd. It was graduation time again.

Today, young Verde Herendez, would be leaving the academy and joining the ranks at Pierce University.

As a surprise, S'Ahmisa flew in from Kimikura to attend the ceremony, her own graduation ceremony wasn't until early summer.

Verde was excited, now school was an option, no longer a requirement. His parents were just thankful that he passed the skill exams and that his entrance scores were enough to gain his admission into Pierce University.

"Congratulations, Verde." Johan said as the young man stepped to the podium to receive his coveted diploma.

"Congratulations," S'Ahmisa said giving him a quick kiss before his family swept him away for photo ops.

She was proud of him, even though he barely made it through, he did make it. He was so different from her. She was prepared for years for this day. She had studied intently for her entrance exams and passed them with a score that few sims would laugh at. Her acceptance letter from Pierce University had arrived simweeks ago and with it several scholarship offers. S'Ahmisa had even scored an interhood internship in Simmington Hills, working underneath Mayor Cunningham.

Meanwhile, Verde had a meeting with Johan the following week to discuss his future plans. Yes, he had his acceptance letter to Pierce University, but he lacked the scholarship offers that S'Ahmisa had. At the moment, he also lacked an internship, though he perferred to spend his last summer before university enjoying the sun and working out.

His family, on the other hand, had plans for him to work in the art gallery if he didn't get an internship.

Congratulations, Verde Herendez. Verde graduated with a C (barely) and will be attending Pierce University. At the moment, he has no idea what he will major in.

---

Here's a shot of S'Ahmisa at the graduation. You'll see a brief update of her kimikurian graduation ceremony soon.