A look into recent club accomplishments

Crunching the numbers

seamus keegan page editor

Senate Bill 305, a bill that would expand funding for The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, or school vouchers, and divert funds from public schools advanced on Wednesday. The bill would enlarge the pool of students eligible for the program and open the possibility of a voucher to almost every student in the state. What are Vouchers?

The school choice program is a way for families to afford private schools through assistance from the state. However, that means a loss in funding for the public schools they otherwise would have attended. Senate Bill 305 proposes a raise in the income threshold that qualifies families for the program to $200,000 a year. In areas where schools struggle to meet standards, it gives families the option to find schools offering a better education that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford. According to Mr. Morgan Nolan, principal, schools usually receive about $5,800 per student every year. Instead of schools receiving that $5,800, that money goes directly to parents, who then put that money toward private school tuition costs.

How does this affect Munster?

Munster schools are fortunate enough to offer an education ranked 7th in the state, according to Niche, so they are not affected by vouchers as much as areas with poorer education. However, any number of students leaving the Munster school system has a large impact on school finances. Mr. Nolan says that schools budget well in advance for the year ahead, but do not receive money until Sept. 15 of that year. Meaning if a student leaves Munster for a private school before Sept. 15, the money the school counted on is no longer available. Now, a school has to dip into emergency funding. In addition, according to Assistant Superintendent Steven Tripenfeldas, any time more state money is designated for private schools, it hurts all public schools in the state.

What opportunities does the program give students using it?

For students who transfer from a public school with poor education to a private school with a better education, the biggest benefit is a quality education. It also often means smaller class sizes, a closer-knit school community and a religious education for families with religious backgrounds.

What are some of the negative impacts on students attending public schools?

According to Mr. Nolan, students who leave public schools are more academically motivated, which leaves students who perform poorly in public schools that are already struggling with academics. This creates a cycle of high-performing students leaving, which in turn brings down the overall scores of the school, in a perpetual cycle that greatly impacts both the school and the students who don’t leave.

Although the program claims to give all students the opportunity to get a quality education, that Nolan says isn’t possible in rural areas that require long travel to private schools, or families that aren’t as invested in their child’s education. Mr. Tripenfeldas says this new bill is bad public policy, and contradicts the principles of the original law. He says this new bill will disrupt the order of public education funding because instead of taking socioeconomic factors into account when deciding funding, it offers funding to families almost regardless of financial status. This will reduce revenue received from the state of Indiana, and hurt the School Town of Munster.

Crier contacts Bowen Center, highlights student resources

emily dywan page editor

For its second year, MHS has partnered with the Bowen Center, one of the largest community mental health care providers in Indiana.

According to the MHS’ Student Support Plan, the SSP provides three prepaid counseling sessions at the center as a trial at the Bowen Center. After the initial three sessions, the Bowen Center offers optional coverage options for continuing their service. Your decision of scheduling a meeting is entirely confidential in order to protect the privacy of students, but your guidance counselor is eligible to assist in setting appointments.

The SSP offers a variety of accommodation options. In the case that you don’t feel comfortable with a faceto-face consultation, the Bowen Center recommends telecounseling, a method in which you could receive therapy through an audio or video connection. If you can’t get around to scheduling a consultation during the school year, students are able to access their prepaid SSP sessions over summer break as well.

Crier directly called Bowen Center’s Julia Kelch, who is no longer the representative for the school board and is unavailable for contact. Instead, we were directed to new representative Kimberly Hershberger, which you can contact through the information attached.

Ways To Contact

WEBSITE Visit https://www.bowencenter.org/.

Click “schedule an appointment”.

The button will redirect you to a direct text-message with a Registration & Scheduling Department. By providing your full name, date of birth and scheduling request, you will be directed to a specialist as soon as available.

Questions?

NUMBER Call the Bowen Center at 1-800-342-5653.

The 800 number will refer you to their Registration & Scheduling Department. When available, a specialist will come in contact with you to work over scheduling availability at the center.

Connect with your guidance counselor for any questions regarding the Bowen Center. You can contact Munster’s Bowen Center representative Kimberly Hershberger through her email kimberly. hershberger@bowencenter.org. Although Kimberly isn’t available to schedule a counseling appointment for you at the Bowen Center, she can answer any other questions regarding counseling.

Science Olympiad competed at State at Purdue Northwest March 11 and placed second.

Science Olympiad Robotics

 CHECKIN IT OUT Doing manual checks, Veer Jhaveri, junior, and Mr. Ray Frystak, mentor, work with the parts on Pivot the robot. Manual checks are necessary in order to make sure everything is working correctly. In preparation for their second district competition March 24-26, Robotics has been continuing to make improvements to their robot. (photo by zoe clark)

Deca

At their state competition March 5-7, sophomores Diya Patel and Suvali Giridaran, juniors Hannah Loredo, Aadit Raikar and Dorsa Farahani and seniors Ajitesh Lalam, Shreya Patel and Anagha Kodukula placed in the top four in their category and will be advancing to Internationals in Orlando April 22-23.

Publications

Currently at Columbia University’s Spring Convention in New York City, Ms. Sarah-Anne Lanman, publications adviser, is being awarded, alongside other teachers, for being a distinguished adviser in The National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year.

“This award is a reflection of the work I have put in over the past 10 years, but also how much I have learned while working with students over the past 10 years,” Ms. Lanman said.

Reena Alsakaji, senior and editor-in-chief, was a finalist for the Indiana Journalist of the Year Competition, earning $250.

“It means a lot because it highlights my progression throughout the years—not just as a writer, but as a reporter,” Reena said. “It also reflects my goal in telling authentic stories, and trying to teach my other staffers to do the same.”

Indiana High School Press Association Competition:

• Lita Cleary, Gia Cvitkovich and Ashley Garcia: second place for clubs/organizations

• Josephine Mittlberger: first for editorial writing

• Reena Alsakaji: second for news writing

• Reena Alsakaji and Josephine Mittelberger: 1st for opinion

• Lauren Hoogeveen: second place for sports writing

• Lita Cleary: second place for yearbook ads/ index

• Paragon: 2023 yearbook Hoosier Star finalist

Corrections

In Issue 7 of Crier, on page 2, the robotic competition was in the St. Joseph District. In the block schedule brief, Karol Ceja is a sophomore. In the Introduce a Girl to Engineering brief, it was held at Purdue University in West Lafayette. The photo TEAM APOPTOSIS was taken by Ethan Pischner. On pages 4-5, the year in the header should be 2023 and Joey Campagna is a junior. In both Hockey photos, Hayden Krupa goes to Marist High School in Illinois and Ryan DeGard goes to Oak Forest High School in Illinois. On page 6, in the caption BRAIN BREAK, Mrs. Linda Ramos is a special needs teacher. On page 8, Kam Hubbard’s second quote in the story should read, “I think BCC helps with that.” Also, the second senior quote in Backtalk that reads, “I think spring starts March 21st…” was not said by Lauralyn Courtney. Crier regrets these errors.

Having been in the workforce since 14, I have my fair share of stories up to this point in my fairly short life. And while most of these will be muddled memories one day, I cannot say that I have learned nothing—how to carry plates so that the tower of plates is half my height, how to hold nearly 20 cups without spilling, how to create wall decor from scratch. But what will stick with me most is how to deal with the gender gap.

And I’m not talking about the wage gap, but something more abstract than that: how men act in professional settings versus women. At one restaurant I worked at, for a few months the only bussers working were me, a girl who was just 15, and a man in his 20s. When it came to the more difficult tasks, like taking out a trash bag that was almost as heavy as me, I did not let my coworker take it out every time—I’d roll up my sleeves and drag it out myself.

I felt as if I had to prove that every cent going my way was earned. So, when my coworker would only tend to the smaller half of the restaurant, or leave early and make me do his post work, or showed up 15 minutes after the restaurant opened leaving me to flip all 60 chairs that were “too big” for me to handle, I kept working. While I felt like my check had to be earned, it was clear to me that he felt as if his check was signed based on attendance alone.

This isn’t a pattern confined to the few months of work I had, but something that I have seen in school and extracurriculars I have been in. Although girls will typically do their work or help with a club no matter who is looking, when certain boys complete a task, he only does it to get praise from a teacher or club sponsor. Because of this, the work that some women put in is lost to the strategic “hard work” of even fewer men.

The frustration of hard work being overshadowed by a man with a big ego is something that many women can relate to. Many women who are in the workplace professionally struggle with being taken seriously and have less opportunities in their jobs due to that perception. Because we have always had to fight for our place in a voting booth, our spot in the workplace and our seat in a school: we always try to prove that we belong by picking up after others.

Staff Opinion