Brown’s Cookies: Junior launches cookie-decorating business
Satire: why groundhog day rules
Page 5 Conestoga High School, Berwyn PA, 19312
Volume 74 No. 4
February 6, 2024
Athlete with cerebral palsy challenges stereotypes
PagE 8
Page 11
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shifting schedules New mixed-model schedule approved for 2024-25 school year All-School Scholar GPA requirements increased Mareska Chettiar Photography Editor
Lily Chen/The SPOKE
Planning priorities: Junior Manav Patel, member of the scheduling committee, reviews materials from the Chester County Intermediate Unit’s report on focus groups it conducted regarding the current high school schedule. The committee used data collected from the focus groups to inform the creation of a mixed-model schedule, which Conestoga will implement in the 2024-25 school year.
By Lily Chen, Howard Kim and Raima Saha, Design Editor, Co-News Editor and Co-Opinion Editor Since 2022, parents, teachers, administrators and students collaborated on a committee dedicated to creating a new high school schedule. Two years later, the plan is almost a reality. On Jan. 2, the school board approved a new bell schedule for Conestoga High School, which will
go into effect during the 2024-25 school year. Changes include a shift from the current six-day cycle to a weekly cycle, the removal of certain lunch times in the middle of class periods and the implementation of block scheduling with an hour-long “Lunch and Learn” on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The school day will maintain the same start and end times. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, students will move between eight 42-minute periods. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, they will have four 82-minute periods. On Wednesdays, students will attend their odd periods 1, 3, 5 and 7, and on Thursdays, they
will attend even periods 2, 4, 6 and 8. “The classes will be longer, which when you’re teaching cooking courses, can be really helpful,” said family and consumer sciences teacher Grace Hafer. On eight-period days, instead of having the current four lunchtimes, there will only be three. Currently, “B” and “D” lunches are “split lunches,” which occur in the middle of a class, splitting the class into two 21-minute segments. The new schedule will institute three new lunchtimes, none of which will split a class. “A” lunch will start at 10:25 a.m. before fourth period, “B” lunch will
start at 11:12 a.m. before fifth period, and “C” lunch will start at 11:59 a.m. before sixth period. “I love that we’re not going to have split lunch. I just think it’s disruptive,” said Dr. Wendy Towle, TESD director of curriculum, instruction, staff development and planning. “I know we had to do them because we just didn’t have space for a while, but I’m excited about that (going away).” On block days, a single, hourlong Lunch and Learn will replace the three half-hour lunches. Students will be able to spend the hour eating lunch, doing homework, meeting teachers or counselors, attending club meetings, making up
assessments or spending time with friends. Teachers will be available for half of the period, and counselors will be available for the full hour. Senior and member of the scheduling committee Clif Hawkins feels that Lunch and Learn will provide students with time to catch up on work and relax. “From an athletic standpoint, it gives time to slow down,” Hawkins said. “When things are ramping up and you’re kind of flying through everything, it gives a nice portion of time to be able to slow down, relax and make sure all your work is done.” Continued on page 3.
The weighted GPA requirement to qualify for the All-School Scholar Recognition award, the highest academic award a Conestoga student can achieve, has increased from 4.8 to 5.0. The change will take effect starting with the Class of 2028, current eighth graders. Current Conestoga students will not be affected by the changes. “We don’t want to give the Class of ’28 a set of guidelines and then change them when they become sophomores,” said Jennifer Kratsa, student services department chair. Kratsa said that Conestoga administration raised the GPA requirement in response to the increasing overlap of students who qualify for both the National Honor Society and All-School Scholar Award, as well as the inflation of weighted GPAs due to the 29 AP courses Conestoga offers. “I think that this will have zero impact on our student body,” Kratsa said. “The All-School Scholar is awarded at our senior awards program. Students are already finished with their senior year, they’ve already gone out and done their internship. We’re not reporting this to colleges.” 163 students in the Class of 2023 qualified for the All-School Scholar Award. When the GPA change comes into effect, the number of recipients will likely decrease.
Currently, if students take all honors-level classes, they need an average of 93% in every class to maintain a 4.8 GPA. If members of the Class of ’28 and onwards take all honors-level classes, they will need an average of 98% in every class to maintain a 5.0 weighted GPA. More likely, they will need to take AP courses and maintain almost all As to earn a 5.0 weighted GPA. “I feel like it’s just encouraging students to take more AP classes and might put more stress on them,” senior Melissa Fan said. Other requirements to achieve the award include earning at least 20 academic credits, having passing grades in all subjects, taking nine honors or AP courses and attending Conestoga for at least two consecutive semesters immediately before graduation. “Increasing that GPA requirement does, in a sense, equate being smart to how many APs you’re taking and can be unhealthy,” senior Ruijia Yang said. “I think we need to recognize that and not think of this award FIRST LAST/The SPOKE as something to no-matter-what strive for.” Kratsa empasized that the award is simply an honor, not an academic standard. “No award defines your success in high school,” Kratsa said. “All-School Scholar is not the measure of having been a good or successful student at Conestoga.”
Agreement of Sale for potential sixth elementary school location finalized Shrija Krishnan Staff Reporter
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Campaign kickoff: President Joe Biden remembers the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection at his 2024 presidential campaign kickoff. Biden traveled to Montgomery County Community College where he delivered an almost 30-minute speech in which he urged voters to support him in his reelection.
Biden kicks off 2024 reelection campaign in Montgomery County Ben Shapiro and Shreya Vaidhyanathan Editor-in-Chief and Co-Managing Editor
President Joe Biden opened his 2024 reelection campaign on Jan. 5 in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He delivered remarks in advance of the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Biden began the address at Montgomery County Community College by highlighting his recent visit to the grounds of Valley Forge National Historical Park. He described the site as a show of the “true patriotism it took to make America.” In his speech, Biden spoke largely about the future of American democracy. “Today we’re here to answer the most important question: Is democracy still
America’s sacred cause?” Biden asked. Biden criticized former President Donald Trump’s lack of response to the Jan. 6 insurrection, calling it “that day we nearly lost America.” “Imagine he had gone out and said ‘stop.’ But still, Trump did nothing. It was among the worst derelictions of duty by a president in American history,” Biden said. Biden declared Trump the “Election-Denier-in-Chief ” and claimed that he is unconcerned about America’s future. “Donald Trump’s campaign is about him, not America, not you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy to put himself in power,” Biden said. “Democracy is on the ballot. Your freedom is on the ballot.”
After Biden’s speech, college student and Voters of Tomorrow press secretary Jack Lobel claimed that the rioters on Jan. 6 proved how “the extreme ideology of Donald Trump goes against everything young voters stand for.” Voters of Tomorrow is a nonpartisan and Generation Z-led 501(c)(4) organization with the mission of engaging young Americans in politics. “In a little less than a year, young voters will turn out and defeat Donald Trump,” Lobel said. Newly elected Dauphin County Commissioner Justin Douglas opened the event and welcomed the president to the stage. Gov. Josh Shapiro and Senator John Fetterman were also in attendance. Biden is expected to return to Pennsylvania throughout the year to continue the campaign trail.
The T/E School District entered into an Agreement of Sale on Jan. 17 for the specified purpose of building a sixth elementary school. The proposed project on 1200 West Swedesford Road would mark the district’s first new school building since Beaumont Elementary School was built in 1965. The 15.2-acre, 86,000-squarefoot property is currently on sale for $15.95 million. According to school board president Todd Kantorczyk, the site contains a single three-story corporate building and 80,000 square feet of additional open space for construction. The Agreement of Sale
contract provides the district 60 days to vet the property with a 2% deposit without closing. “You’re taking an office structure originally designed for adults and converting it into something especially designed for young children to spend a good portion of their day learning,” Kantorczyk said. “That’s a challenge.” The school board discussed the elementary school proposal at a special public informational meeting held at Conestoga on Jan. 17. During the meeting, the board presented a total project cost projection of $64.5 million and an expected annual operating cost of $8 million for a new school at the Swedesford location. The board is exploring two other district-owned properties
as possible locations for a sixth elementary school, and plans to open the school in fall 2027. While the spike in elementary enrollment is the primary reason behind constructing another elementary school, the school board identified the increasing number of students receiving special education, the possibility of implementing full-day kindergarten and Pennsylvania’s updated science standards as other factors. Beyond providing additional instructional space, another building would allow for shorter average bus routes, reduced school traffic and minimized future redistricting. The project would also prevent the division of Hillside Elementary School students between Valley Forge Mid-
dle School and T/E Middle school when students transition to middle school. While some public commenters at the Jan. 17 meeting expressed concerns about the project’s financing, many echoed the school board’s support for the proposed location and full-day kindergarten. Conestoga teacher and parent of elementary-age kids Katie Walter expressed her support for both initiatives during the public comment period. “I am in support of the decision to build a sixth elementary school,” Walter said. “It’s clearly needed both because of the projected enrollment and because of the need for full-day kindergarten. I think of the three locations, (Swedesford) is probably the best.”
Shrija Krishnan/The SPOKE
Voicing support: TESD parent and teacher Katie Walter (left) signs up to publicly comment at the school board’s special informational meeting regarding the construction of a sixth elementary school. The school board finalized an Agreement of Sale for a property on 1200 West Swedesford Road on Jan. 17.