Edgewood ENVOY
THE
Edgewood High School’s Student Newspaper
October, 2019
President Optimistic About Next Steps By Alejandro Trinidad-Echeverria President Mike Elliott is confident that progress is being made for playing games on our field and being able to make improvements to our athletic complex. Mr. Elliott said, “The first step is to get out of the master plan which treats us unfairly.” This means that if the city council votes in our favor and repeals the master plan, Edgewood athletes will be able to play on their home field. “The repeal would eliminate their ability to say you can’t play any games on that field because of the master plan. That would be erased and we would have the ability to play games on our field, like all other high schools in Madison with no restrictions.” Mr. Elliott believes that we are being treated unfairly and discriminated against by some because we are a private, Catholic school. The popular stereotype that Edgewood is a rich, preppy, school is influencing how some neighbors and community members look at our proposal. “They forget that 41 percent of our kids are on needs-based financial aid. They forget that our alumni produces $700,000 a year to help keep tuition down. They forget that we go out and do community service throughout the Madison community. They forget all the things we do to make our community better,” said Mr. Elliott. From the start, Mr. Elliott has been and
currently is working with the neighbors to eliminate their concerns. First, the neighbors were concerned about excess traffic, so a traffic study was done and the city stated that there would be no traffic concerns. A second concern was parking on campus. Mr. Elliott said stalls were added to the Commons parking lot and excess parking will be added from the College lots to provide more parking than we had at Middleton. A third concern was lights but Edgewood understands the neighbors’ concerns. However the proposed lights are top-of-the-line, the best ones currently on the market. “The lights we are putting up will not go past the borders of our property. They are excellent lights with the latest technology. We are going to put those in not because we have to, but because we want to for the neighbors.” Mr. Elliott said that only two parks in Madison have these lights because they are just too expensive. Mr. Elliott at times has become frustrated with the neighbors because he has listened to their concerns and come up with solutions that meet or exceed city standards or ordinances. The neighbors seem to be developing their opinions based on false information, personal assumptions and rumors. “A lot of misinformation continues to be spread by the No Stadium Now People, as to what we’re going to do with the stadium. We’re not going to rent the field out every night. We’re not going to play games every night.
We are not going to have concerts. We are going to be respectful of the neighbors’ needs and their concerns, and expect that they will be respectful of ours. Having every single game be an away game just isn’t fair.” Mr. Elliott said that if the council repeals the Master Plan, our next step will be to ask the city to release the previously approved light permit. “The lighting permit has already been approved. It just hasn’t been issued.” Edgewood would then begin the city process to seek approval for additional seating, sound and storage. Mr. Elliott says we will file for a conditional use permit to get this done. In addition to the Athletic Complex, Edgewood is finalizing plans and fundraising for a much anticipated athletic training facility. The former band and choir rooms will be home to these state-of-the-art facilities that will provide training equipment for all sports. Mr. Elliott hopes to begin that process by the start of the new year. Mr. Elliott is working extremely hard to make all of this possible. He has a great passion for his job, and puts his heart into everything he does. His striving to build this complex and give us a better athletic experience is incredible.
Inclusion Club Plans Service Involvement By Amara Voss Inclusion Club is a new after-school club that Edgewood has started this year. Mrs. Samson and Mrs. Bondoc are the people to talk to about this. I sat down and interviewed Mrs. Bondoc, and got the inside scoop on what this club is all about. What is inclusion club? In this club you should expect to “talk about issues of groups of people who marginalize people, with a focus on LGBTQ+ issues,” said Mrs. Bondoc. You may be wondering when and where they meet. They meet every other Wednesday 3:30-4:30 in room S204 in the Science Center. You are free to just go to a meeting, and there is no sign up required. I also asked Mrs. Bondoc what will be going on and what you will be doing in
Inclusion Club. She said, “We’ve only met one time, but there’s lots of people from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Basically right now we’re deciding on what are some of the issues we want to focus on, talk about, and do we want to do a fundraiser for certain issues? Do we want to do a buddy system with older students and younger students? Right now we’re just trying to figure out what the mission is going to be.” She goes on to say that the club is student driven, so it could always be different. My next question was, are you going to do anything outside of Edgewood? Mrs. Bondoc said, “We want to invite people from a similar club at West High School and find out what they do because they’ve been meeting for a while and just get some ideas from them, that would be our first reach out. We’re going to be involved in raising
money for local causes and following local politics as well.” Inclusion Club is a great way for anyone and everyone at Edgewood to come meet and work with new people. I think this is going to be a successful club at Edgewood, and hopefully people find new ways to help and connect with others not just in our school but outside as well. Go check out Inclusion Club!