Patricia Ho and Shannon Lee of The Paly Voice recap the weeks of March 21 and March 28, 2009.

The following is a complete transcript of the above podcast.

Ho: Hey Paly, this is Patricia Ho and Shannon Lee welcoming you back from Spring Break with the latest news from the Paly campus for the weeks of March 21 and 28 in our weekly update.

First we’ll give you recent news stories from Paly, and in sports news, we’ll be talking to players from Paly’s varsity badminton team, and girls’ lacrosse coach Jen Gray. Finally, we’ll talk to junior Caleb Jones, a playwright from the second Play in a Day.

Lee: And on to the news. The school board approved the master plan for Paly renovations at Tuesday night’s meeting, after it was presented to the board on March 18. The plan will now undergo design changes before it is finalized.

Ho: Don’t forget to purchase your prom tickets! This year’s theme is Cirque du Soleil, and it will be held at San Francisco Galleria on April 25. General admission is $135, with transportation costs included. After April 13, prices will increase by $10.

Lee: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who plans to run for California governor, spoke at a Town Hall meeting on Wednesday night in the small gym. Newsom explained his views on the economy, the environment, health care, and education.

Former Paly Principal Scott Laurence was recently appointed to the position of superintendent for the San Mateo School District. He will assume his new position in July.

Ho:In sports news, the boys’ track team lost to the Mountain View Spartans, 71-60. Also, last Friday and Saturday, several members of the team competed at the Stanford Track and Field Invitational. On Wednesday, the boys dominated in a meet against Monta Vista, 81-49. Good job guys!

The boys will compete again at 3 p.m. on Thursday, April 9, against the Milpitas Trojans on the Paly track.

Lee: On Tuesday, the varsity and JV badminton teams lost to Monta Vista, 27-3 and 14-1, respectively. Junior Richard Chern competed on the varsity team in the singles division.

Chern: Monta Vista was just a really tough opponent. They’re really good; they have awesome players. For us, I think what we have to do is just train harder.

Lee: Senior Kevin Dai competed in the varsity doubles division, with his partner, senior Justin Hsi.

Dai: We did exceptionally well against Monta Vista. They’re a strong team, like overall. In the end we lost, but it was a really close match.

Lee: Their next game will be on Monday against the Wilcox Chargers, at Wilcox.

Ho: On Tuesday, the girls’ lacrosse team beat Los Gatos, 12-5. The girls made a strong improvement from their previous game at St. Ignatius College Prep, losing 0-16, according to varsity coach Jen Gray.

Gray: I think they did really well; they were coming off a really tough loss the day before, and I think it took them a while to work out the kinks from that loss.

Ho: According to Gray, the girls plan to work on their fundamentals in order to improve for future games.

Gray: We’re working — sort of going back to fundamentals right now. We’ve had a lot of games in the last two weeks, before Spring Break, and the last two days, and I think this is sort of the time in the middle of the season to sort of check back and regroup and refocus on fundamentals.

Ho: Today varsity plays Woodside at Paly. Come support the team on the upper field at 4 p.m.

Lee: The boys’ tennis team beat the Gunn Titans on Thursday, 6-1, after losing two consecutive games to the Saratoga Falcons on Tuesday, 3-4, and the Menlo Knights on Wednesday, also 3-4.

Ho: In other sports news, the swim team will compete today against Lynbrook at home. Good luck!

Lee: The Paly theater department’s second Play in a Day this year was a great success, as Paly student and alumni playwrights wrote entertaining shows based on different board games. The collection of plays ended with a performance of junior Caleb Jones’ one-act play “Daylight.”

Lee: Jones thought that his play was a success among the audience.

Jones: I thought it was very well-received. There were lots of people, and they were all clapping, and they all came up to me afterwards and told me I did a good job, and it was all very happy.

Lee: Jones was previously unable to show his play at the second Brown Bag Lunch Show, after the administration expressed concerns about inappropriate content.

Jones: The last time I talked to Principal McEvoy about it was December, or something like that. The deal we made basically was I could perform my play at a venue such as this; a night time performance with the audience being aware of what they were getting into, and I also had to make a disclaimer of sorts, to make it clear that these were not Paly students, that this was not supposed to be Paly.

Ho: This was Patricia Ho and Shannon Lee for The Paly Voice. Tune in next Friday for the weekly update from Anna and Vienna!