Nov. 8, 2013
In-DEpth
rying c laughing all the way
graphics By allie laing
to the bank
NOV. 8, 2013
in-depth
CASH CULTURE
Money ties the world together By Tom Schueneman MANAGING EDITOR There are something like seven billion people in the world, and with the exception of a tiny fraction of them, almost all are somehow involved in an increasingly connected global society. A Syrian child in a Jordanian refugee camp, a German Formula 1 driver, a stockbroker on Wall Street; all of them form parts of an interconnected web of humanity that’s literally impossible to fathom — there are simply too many people, and too many connections between them, each one as intricate and nuanced as the last. Yet this seemingly miraculous network of individuals is only the natural result of the innate sociability of the individuals themselves. This can be seen in the many mechanisms of the modern worlds they have created, but perhaps most importantly, in money. Money, as the old cliché goes, makes the world go round, but it’s really human interaction that keeps society humming; money is simply the mechanism of that interaction. It’s easy to think of money as a real object, but it’s really not. A dollar bill is a real object, to be sure, but there’s no innate value in it. It isn’t money unless you agree that it’s money, and money has no basis in the physical world beyond the exchange of electrons along a certain pattern in the minds of those thinking about it. It’s based entirely on a perceived value that all parties involved in its trade agree upon. It’s a unit of trust, an issuance of debt that can be relied upon to be credible. Think of it as an IOU that can be redeemed by anyone, anywhere, because everyone, everywhere agrees that it has value. If a corn farmer wants shoes from a shoemaker, he has to give the shoemaker some corn. Except, it’s July, and he doesn’t harvest his corn for a few more months. So he issues an IOU to that shoemaker. But suppose the shoemaker needs a new iPhone more than he needs corn. He can’t simply give Apple an IOU from a corn farmer to him. What interest would a tech giant
have in corn, and even if they were interested, how could they trust that an IOU written by someone they had never met, to someone else, would have any value for them whatsoever? Now, if that IOU could be used to purchase cheap Chinese laborers to produce iPhones with, that might be a different story. But it can’t. It’s simply a promise a corn farmer made to a shoemaker, to give him some corn in a few months. But now say, the same trades are being made using U.S. Dollars. The corn farmer simply purchases the shoes from the shoemaker for $100, which he will get when he harvests his crops in a few months. The shoemaker takes that money, goes to the Apple store and buys himself an iPhone, and Apple uses some of that money to pay an impoverished Chinese man for his labor, so that he can afford to feed his family corn that’s been imported from the farmer. The belief of all four parties in the value of their currency allows them to interact in a way that they never could have otherwise. It enables practical interaction on a massive scale, because the people doing the interacting have a reason to trust each other. It’s not a perfect system. The impoverished Chinese laborer in this example is still getting the short end of the stick, but he is at least getting something. Because he is engaging in such a trade, he is creating value for himself, maybe not as much as he’s entitled to, but value nonetheless. A few ears of corn don’t mean very much to a corn farmer who has to go about his work barefoot, nor does a pair of tough leather boots mean anything to a starving shoemaker. By trading with each other, each one benefits, and value is created, not because someone printed a few more dollar bills, but because two people interacted to their mutual benefit—the dollar bill was just the medium through which they interacted. Somewhere around seven billion people are constantly involved in interactions like this, all over the world. These interactions occur on every imaginable scale for every imaginable reason.
SHUTDOWN
Westside students feel effects By Nata Ward feature EDITOR The government shutdown cost an estimated $24 billion according to Standard & Poor’s, and furloughed close to 800,000 workers. National parks closed, databases were down, and some parents were unsure of their next paycheck. For many, there was no affect other than a running joke on their twitter feed, but for others it hit closer to home. Senior Bodhi Confer-Wood, his brother, sophomore Bryce, and their mother, Heidi Confer had an issue. They left their car door unlocked the night of Sept. 28 only to find later that Heidi’s purse had been stolen. Inside the purse: the boys’ social security cards, Heidi’s drivers’ license, green card and passport. Normally, this wouldn’t have been a problem but the government shutdown happened. The Social Security Office was closed so getting new social security cards was out of the question. The U.S. Department of Citizenship and Immigration was slowed so Heidi had troubles getting a new green card. Without the green card and passport, Heidi couldn’t fly to Albuquerque, New Mexico as her job called for. She also couldn’t write checks or keep her peace of mind. The green card had been her proof of citizenship in the United States since she moved from the Philippines many years ago. Also, without a social security card, both Bryce and Bodhi were in danger of having their identities stolen. “I was kind of scared they were going to put me in debt,” Bodhi said. “Maybe going out and buying a house under my name or something.”
After the government reopened Oct. 17, the Confer-Woods were able to reapply for their stolen paperwork. The brothers have their social security cards, and they are waiting for the green card to arrive. The government shutdown also affected the school through the shutdown of databases and government run websites. Among the websites that were having problems were USA.gov and Education Resources Information Center (ERIC). “Senior Project and Comp were in the middle of the research phase of both classes,” said head librarian Carrie Turner. “Many of the articles students had found for their research were located in the ERIC database, so were inaccessible.” Towards the end of the shutdown, EBSCOhost opened some databases through their portals. That allowed students to retrieve their research, although a few weeks too late. At home, there might have been some uncertainty if a parent or other family member worked in a position that would be furloughed—meaning they wouldn’t get paid while the government was shutdown. Sophomore Sujata Sapkota felt the affects of the shutdown when her family members, living in Nepal, weren’t allowed to apply for a VISA to visit the United States. “My grandparents were going to come here, but they needed to request a VISA and the office was closed,” Sapkota said. “We haven’t seen each other for seven years.” Her grandparents were coming for a festival in the United States, but by the time the government reopened, the festival had passed. “I just thought, you know, ‘Darn,’” Sapkota said. “I would [have loved] to see them.”
24 bi b dolla
In-depth
billion illion ar loss
Nov. 8, 2013
SELF-SUFFICIENCY
Clubs, sports pay for themselves By kellie wasikowski design EDITOR The money you paid for your ticket to the football game last week is going to help purchase new helmets for the team. The dollar you spent on a brownie from the bake sale after school will go back to purchasing new art supplies for art club. And the raffle tickets you bought at Cabaret Night will go back into purchasing costumes and helping with the travel expenses for the show choirs. With over 100 clubs, activities and sports teams offered at Westside, the common assumption would be that organizations have to compete for funding. However, while many activities compete against other schools for titles, activities within the school do not have to do that. Most are self-sufficient financially, and do not rely on district funding to sustain them. Westside assistant principal and Athletic Director Tom Kerkman is in charge of budgeting for each of the 17 sports the high school offers. While football is the largest and most expensive sport with over 100 students involved, it is also the largest source of revenue coming back into the athletic program. “The gate money comes back into the athletic budget,” Kerkman said. “That's why it's important to have such large crowds at football, because that money not only pays for football but also for other sports that are fairly expensive to run.” An average game of football brings in around $9,000 of revenue to the athletic department, which includes money from ticket and concession-stand sales. The money gets dispersed right away to fund other sports that don’t have similar high profits from ticket sales and concessions income. Student activity pass fees are also a source of revenue for the athletic department. The activity pass is mandatory for student participation in sports, and it is a one-time payment of $30 for the school year. Non-athletes can also purchase activity passes to get into events and not have to purchase tickets. “Not only does the activity pass get them into the games, but [it] also helps to cover the cost of uniforms and other necessities,” Kerkman said. “I think for $30 it is quite cheap.” Kerkman believes it is important to keep attendance at athletic events high so there is no need to raise fees for players as some states have began doing in recent years. “What we're going to start to seeing as budgets in states get tighter, schools are going to have to rely more on student fees and not just one flat fee,” Kerkman said. “I know in Wisconsin, certain schools are having their kids pay $150 just to play football, and then if you wanted to play basketball it's another $75, and track or baseball is around $50. So students there might be paying around $300 just in fees alone to play sports. Here at Westside, kids are only paying $30 a year.” One more source of revenue that has historically been very helpful in funding the athletic department is the Westside Athletic Club, which sells memberships each year to Westside community members and other patrons of the district who want to donate money to sports programs. The athletic club intends to incorporate all sports programs, and in recent years they have helped pay for
the new scoreboard in 2012 and new equipment for the training room. This year they also funded projects to increase school spirit, like the new flags for the fields and adding Westside emblems in the gym. To run a successful athletics program with 17 different sports, Kerkman thinks there must be a conscious effort to sustain the quality of the facilities, and he says coaches are all very mindful about where they can spend money. The district also does help out in funding, but that is usually for long-term projects such as new construction or large, structural improvements. Beyond just sports, Westside also offers over 70 clubs at the high school, each sustained by their own budget. SAB is one of the largest clubs at Westside, and they hold the kick-off carnival each year before the first home football game. At the carnival, clubs are able to rent booths, and at the end of the carnival the club exchanges all the tickets they received and gets money for them. While SAB does many events throughout the year, only one of their events’ revenue, Winter Formal, goes back into their own budget for the year. The rest of the events SAB puts on throughout the course of the year, such as Mr. WHS and the talent show, all have proceeds that go to charities. “With most of our events we end up giving the proceeds back to charities like Make-A-Wish,” SAB co-president, junior Hannah Dickson said. “But with Winter Formal we end up keeping most of the money so we can fund other events.” Although the kick-off carnival is the main source of income for many clubs, some still do other fundraisers throughout the year, such as bake-sales, selling t-shirts or decorative items around the holidays. Many clubs at the high school will request a small fee at the beginning of the year to cover costs, but club sponsors understand if members aren’t able to pay. Vice Principal Trudi Nolin thinks it is important for students to be involved in activities at school, and they should never be turned away because they aren’t able to pay. “Research shows that students need to be involved in activities at school,” Nolin said. “Not just going to classes, and we really want that to happen. So we really try to make it so students can all be involved in some activity and not turn them away because of a financial reason.” The district’s free and reduced lunch program is available to have fees waived for students so they are able to participate in activities, along with providing lunch. While these waivers are available to help students, many activities were created with the vision of helping the community, such as Westside for the Children, the Service Learning Club, Warriors Assisting the community and DECA. Most sports teams annually volunteer or do special fundraisers with their team to give back to the community. “I think it's good for students to understand it's not always just about us and our club,” Nolin said. “It's about also helping out our community. We have a lot of different clubs that are not just here for our school, but here for our community, and that says a lot about our students.”
Nov. 8, 2013
In-DEpth
westside
Budget By LIA HAGEN CoPY EDITOR
Since its conception, Westside has had a reputation for being one of the richest schools in the city. However, very few students have any real understanding of what goes into making our school run. These infographics shed some light on the inner workings of our school and how we compare to our fellow school districts.
overall budget General 4% transfer
Non-Salary 19%
INSTRUC-
18% non-salary 23% benefits
21% transportation
55% salary
13%
TECHNOL-
37%
OPERA-
COMPARED TO OTHER DISTRICTS Total Budget Per Student *numbers approximate
13 12 11 10 9 8 WESTSIDE
OPS
RALSTON
MILLARD
revenue other
$1,550,000
COMMON LeVy
$31,982,702
USE OF FUND BAL-
$7,134,317
PROPERTY TAX
$12,543,035
SPECIAL ED.
$3,500,000
STATE AID
$2,500,000
MOTOR VEHICLE
$2,100,000
STATE AID
$31,982,702