News

DECA takes several places at state competition

Compiled by Austin Smith and Taylor Ward

Individuals who placed in role playing events

Zach ward and Daniel Amott – 4^th place in Financial Analysis

Kelsey Prince and Abby Beilman – 1^st place in Hospitality Management

Austin Smith and Michelle Roesch – 9^th in Business Law and Ethics

Christine Johnson and Ely Kirby – 10^th in Business Law and Ethics

Robyn Davis- 1^st place in Apparel and Accessories

Rachel Davis – 4^th in Marketing Management

Alex Wespi – 2^nd in Business Services

Kaitlyn Clark – 8^th in Business Services

Benji Lietzke – 7^th in Food Marketing

Paul Wyckoff – 7^th in Principles of Finance

Teams who placed in written events

Kelsey Prince, Daniel Amott, and Zach ward – 2^nd in Entrepreneurship Promotion

Robyn Davis, Rachel Davis, and Taylor Hicks – 2^nd in Creative Marketing

Bridget Unruh, Jennifer Smith, and Christine Johnson – 3^rd in Community Service

David Campos and Zak Huff- 4^th in Learn and Earn

Abby Beilman and Kaisha McCaffrey- 3^rd in Public Relations

Michelle Roesch and Austin Smith – 1^st in Entrepreneurship Written

Kaitlyn Clark, Dylan Funk, and Vincent Craft – 2^nd in Internet Marketing 

People attending International DECA Conference this April in Louisville

Zach Ward

Rachel Davis

Robyn Davis

Kaisha McCaffrey

Jennifer Smith

Michelle Roesch

Austin Smith

Broc Cramer

Taylor Ward

Christine Johnson

Ely Kirby

Macy Owens

Dylan Funk

Kaitlyn Clark

Alex Wespi

Julia Doan

Uyen Tran

Sami Williams 

Northwest land up for sale

Words by Karissa Riffel

For thirty years the 12 acres on the corner of 13^th and Tyler have remained vacant.  But now the School Board is voting to give Occidental Management, Inc. a 12 month option to purchase the land.   This means that for one year Occidental can choose to buy the 12 acres from Northwest.  If, after one year, Occidental has not bought the land, the option will expire.  If the property is sold, there will be certain permitted uses, such as: assisted living, an ATM, a restaurant, offices, or a convenience store among many others.  The final use of the property, if purchased, is still unknown. 

The School Board is also looking at purchasing 125 acres of land near Pawnee and 127^th St. E. for a new high school, costing $1,562,500.  If the Northwest land is sold, the money ($1,045,440 at $2/sq. ft.) would go to replenish the Capital Outlay Fund (the main fund for the district).  The sum of that would, in turn, go to benefit schools around the district, including the new proposed high school. 

Legislative action deprived the Capital; Outlay fund of approximately $4.6 million. Therefore, major limitations have been placed on what the district can do as far as benefitting schools.  This land transaction would help to replace some of this lost money. 

Some students and parents have concerns about the possibility of commercial development so close to the school.  There are concerns about trash, the view from the school, and especially traffic. 

Principal Karen Pickert, says that should the land sell, the developer would have to follow a strict process and that the public would have opportunities to be involved. 

 “It’s not that we’re anxious to see this happen.  It may not happen…I certainly understand the need for the funds,” Pickert said. 

So, for everyone who was hoping for a bowling alley or maybe a good restaurant or two, for now the land is going to stay just the way it is.  

Student named ‘Cadet of the Year’

Word by Sarah Nolan

Some children play cops and robbers; junior Christian Hood does it for real. After three years of serving his community as a volunteer with the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department, he was awarded the prestigious Sedgwick County Cadet of the Year award on Jan. 13.

“I was on a residential robbery, and I conducted myself in such a way that helped deputies to perform their task more easily,” Hood said.

Though only one nomination is needed to receive the award, the beloved Hood received more than enough to be elected Cadet of the Year.

“I had seven nominations: four deputies, and three chicks from records.”

Not only does Hood help to better his community by participating in ride-alongs with the Sheriff’s Department, he has also helped to create a handbook as a quick reference guide for any new volunteer cadets.

“It has a lot of how-to information, like gathering crime scene information, accident information, stuff like that.”

Aside from his volunteer duties, Hood stays engaged in other extracurricular activities, such as playing football, staying heavily involved in his church and participating in “a ton” of clubs here at Northwest. 

Movies in the classroom becoming issue for administration

Words by Shelby Reynolds

 

The administration recently sent out an email to teachers, directing them to only show videos that are appropriate and educational. Showing entire movies or cartoons has become a real issue in classrooms, particularly just before a weekend or break. Because of this, students, including senior KayCee Anderson, are finding that instead of watching a movie in their classes they may have to fill up more paper with notes

 “We couldn’t watch a movie in my government class last semester,” Anderson said. “We had nothing else to do because we finished our stuff early so we pretty much just sat there and took notes.”

History teacher Paul Kitchen also shows videos in his classes and finds that they are beneficial to his curriculum.

“[The videos] break up me talking and it also brings in more of the emotion than just reading the documents. It kind of helps place them in the time,” Kitchen said.

Because science lessons require an alternative way of teaching to educate students, Donda Hickman also shows many videos in her biology and global and environment classes.

 “I can’t take my students to the equator,” science teacher Donda Hickman said. “Our kids will be out of date if they don’t get any current events [because] most of the information in the published book is eight years old.”

However, the administration and teachers are realizing that showing movies and video clips in the classroom can occasionally lead to misuse.

“[Movies are appropriate] as long as a teacher is presenting parts of the movie where it has to do with the lesson but where you just sit down and watch a movie to be filling time or where there’s not an educational process, that’s where we run into a conflict,” Pickert said.

While observing classrooms, administration has noticed that some teachers occasionally show not-so-educational movies after a big test or just before a break.

“As long as we can show that it is educationally valuable, then it’s good,” Kitchen said. “But showing the same thing over and over, like Forrest Gump, or anything that’s not educationally sound, isn’t.”

So instead of watching that comedy in Senior Sally’s third hour, she may have to watch a more appropriate, school-related video clip. Although this may not be an entire movie, it still provides students with an alternative to just taking notes.

“I don’t think that the administration is saying ‘don’t show videos.’ The point was ‘don’t show a Hollywood video or a comedy just because you don’t want to work that day,’” Hickman said.

“We need to be teaching from bell to bell and from the first day of school until the last day of school,” Pickert said.