![After placing second in their respective LDEs at the Capital District contest in early November, freshman Jesus Jaramillo-Gallegos and freshman Wyatt Pickett will compete at the Area XII LDE contest in Georgetown on Nov. 23. Jaramillo-Gallegos is competing in Greenhand Spanish Creed Speaking, while Pickett’s LDE is Greenhand Creed Speaking. “Honestly, [I’m excited for] just traveling around, maybe meeting more people,” Jaramillo-Gallegos said. “And [I’m] nervous about probably just not being able to define my weak areas. I feel like I did decent for my first time ever doing this. I just think it’s fun.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Navy-and-Yellow-Simple-Group-Project-Presentation-1200x675.png)
![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Sitting at a desk past the rows of books laid out for the Book Fair, senior Kimberley Walters assists people in purchasing books and finding titles. The Book Fair is taking place Dec. 16 through Dec. 20, and is an annual event during which students and faculty have the opportunity to go and purchase books and other trinkets in the library. Kimberley said she encourages all to go to the Book Fair, even if they think they don’t like to read. “If you make reading something that is fun for you and you find the things that you like to read, it will never be a chore,” Walters said. “So [the Book Fair is] a good opportunity to find something that will respark your want to read [like] when you were a child and you went to the book fair and you loved the ‘I survived’ books. Maybe you'll find your ‘I survived’ books of your high school experience, and it'll re-spark that kind of love for reading that may have died out.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Addie-L-47-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, sophomore Olivia Mahlmeister and seniors Samantha Jameson, Adhit Eswaramoorthi and Justin Khadavi celebrate completing first chamber in the Congress Meet. All four students advanced to the final chamber. “Out of the 20 kids in the final chamber, we had a seventh, ninth, 11th and 13th, and they took the top four to move on to state,” AP US History and Debate teacher Josh Marsh said. “[Even though] we didn't make state this year, all four of them moving on [and] placing is phenomenal.” Photo courtesy of Josh Marsh](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Regional-Congress-Team.jpg)
![Standing in front of a small audience, senior Kimberley Walters shares a social criticism poem titled “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Felinghetti. Every month, sponsored by the poetry club, the library hosts a poetry reading. “I never thought I would be interested in [poetry readings] because I’m not the biggest poetry fan,” Walters said. “I think poetry is a very succinct way to express feelings and get a story across. Whereas lots of books have a span of a whole story, but it’s put in a lot of words. The power of poetry is that you can be so succinct within, and there’s a lot of power within the words that are used.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KIM-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding the Grand Nationals trophies, drum majors Helashi Wijayawardhana, Abigail Pettey and Eddy Kim pose for a photo. The BOA Grand Nationals competition took place in Indianapolis on Nov. 14-17. “My favorite thing was just looking back at the field, and I was like, ‘Oh, crap. I know all of their names, I know who all of them are’,” Wijayawardahana said. “It's just insane to me that I was able to make so many connections. [Being a drum major] taught me how to build relationships with people who I’m not really that similar to, and how to juggle a ton of things all together.”
Photo courtesy of CPHS Band SmugMug](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AJC.GrandNatsFinals-169-1200x801.jpg)
![Delicately placing the string to form the shape of a cornucopia, seniors Haley Burton and Avery Nelson create the November arrangement for the Flower of the Month Club. This club is led by Advanced Floral Design Students and provides a monthly arrangement to community members who subscribe to receive them. “I think flower of the month club is a really impactful way to show your loved ones ‘hey I really care about you,’ or even if they’re just for yourself, they’re a little pick-me-up throughout the month that [say] ‘I’m doing ok, and these flowers make my day a little bit brighter,” Nelson said. “I like giving people flowers because people value the flowers more and they value themselves more.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Ava-Holmes-3-edit.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
The hottest, coolest time in Texas, coming to Cedar Park? This $360 million resort will be close to twice as large as the New Braunfels water park. Coming spring of 2012, it is expected that a Schlitterbahn water park will open west of Interstate 35 on FM 1431.
“I’m so excited to have a Schlitterbahn in Cedar Park! It will give us something to do during the summer,” Kirstin White, senior, said.
As of now, plans are to allow this Schlitterbahn to be a year-round resort. The project will take up about 95 acres. Premiering 2012, Schlitterbahn will open its convertible water park that can be enclosed during bad weather. Besides the many attractions of the park, it will include Schlitterbahn signature “transportainmant” system, an interconnected river system designed to allow guests to float from attraction to attraction, rather than walk.
“It will do a lot more business if it is open all year round. It will pump money into our town,” Hailey Rosen, senior, said.
An elevated tree house like hotel, with 230 waterfront cabins, is expected to open in 2014. The tree houses will be created with reclaimed woods, and 95 percent of the materials used will be recycled.
However, some people do not fully support the idea of a waterpark in Cedar Park. There are concerns of wasting water, using unnecessary energy and spending too much money.
“I think the whole thing is a waste of time. We already have Schlitterbahn’s and it’s just taking up more land,” Quincy Hearn, senior, said. “It will take away even more land from the animals that live there now, who already have to fight for homes because of humans.”
According to the Community Impact Newspaper, Schlitterbahn Cedar Park will use substantially less water than if houses had been built on these 90 acres. This park will provide the latest in water and energy saving technologies. Also, Schlitterbahn is using LED technologies, fluorescent lights, low-flow fixtures, and recalculating the water in an effort to conserve water.
“I know they’re copying the design of the River Walk we have in San Antonio,” Alex Clark, freshman, said. “Your feet are always going to be in the water, and there are conveyor belts for the tubes so you don’t have to carry them to each attraction,”
Sometime during 2014, a retail center will debut at the water park. It will contain about 160,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space that will connect with a man-made river. Also in 2014, a river walk system is expected to be constructed that will connect the water resort’s attractions. A convention center will also be opened in 2014 to hold meetings and will be about 30,000 square feet.
Due to the concerns voiced over the amount of noise this establishment could make, the resort will be behind hotels and retail buildings. The landscaping and privacy fence are also supposed to minimize the amount of noise.
“It will probably affect the surrounding traffic and disturb the nearby neighborhoods, but everyone will have fun and Cedar Park will be recognized for something,” Daniel Sava, senior, said.
This project will bring about 739 construction jobs, and 1,200 permanent jobs. It has the potential of providing between $2.5 billion and $5 billion for Cedar Park spread over the next thirty years.
“It’s a good thing that we have a Schlitterbahn opening because it will bring lots of job opportunities for teens,” Stephanie Mettala, junior, said.
Volente Beach owner Rick Redmond and owners of the Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels are collaborating on this resort. In their joint effort, they plan on offering more entertainment to Cedar Park. After 2011, Volente Beach Waterpark will close because of the competition, but the restaurant there will remain opened.
“I think the resort idea will be a good tourism opportunity for Cedar Park,” Madeline Strickland, junior, said.
Schlitterbahn expects about 3,000 guests each day in the Cedar Park location. Schlitterbahn is one of the most popular water park resorts in the United States and it has been the top attended seasonal water park in America since 1995.
