Log
The Northmen’s Wrestling brings on a new season. p. 2
Oak Park High School
Friday, January 22, 2009
Issue 6, Volume 45
District cuts budget in balancing act by Alex Mallin sports editor
Court-Sadie starts
In response to current economic troubles, the North Kansas City School District recently redesigned its budget designating what it hopes will result in $7 million in cuts for this year. Contrary to the result one might expect from such a substantial cut, Superintendant Dr. Todd White believes its result will actually have a positive impact on student learning. According to White, the district cut $16 million out of the budget over the past three years as a result of economic conditions causing revenue sources to dwindle. In order to balance the budget, the district chose to analyze each position away from building levels in central office and sort out which positions were essential and which could be cut. “The main focus of a school district and its budget is to support teaching and learning,” White said. “Anything that is removed from that is in review. Learning occurs in the classroom and building level so we try to create those cuts as far from the classroom as possible.” White intends to reorganize central office in a three-phase process, each phase consisting of an elimination of positions on varying levels. Phase one, occurring on Tuesday, Dec. 21, included the restructuring of the superintendent’s cabinet. For this, White presented a plan to the school board which resulted in nine positions being lowered to five on the cabinet. by Jessica Nichols feature editor
Candy Land first started as a popular children’s board game. Now the Sadie Hawkins dance and Courtwarming assembly have combined to take on the challenge and made “Candy Land” their theme. “It was chosen through a combined StuCo and Cambia vote,” said StuCo sponsor Carrie Marcantonio. Cambia and StuCo have joined forces and events this year to bring what could end up being a new tradition. The idea came about as a way to boost Cambia promotions and Sadie ticket sales and dance attendance. “Ticket sales for the Sadie dance are always less than the numbers for Homecoming. Last year was no exception,” Marcantonio said. “Tying the dance to a basketball game, crowning the boys at the dance and the girls at the game will increase attendance at both the game and the dance, hopefully.” Together, StuCo and Cambia prepare for the Courtwarm-
The second phase of cuts, scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 19, eliminated eight to nine positions on the executive director/director level. The third and final phase, set for Tuesday, Feb. 23, will occur on the coordinator level and will reduce the positions from 16 to four. While central office positions are being eliminated, White would like to emphasize that he doesn’t intend to eliminate jobs. “We are cutting positions not necessarily people,” White said. “These people will either be teaching or providing a building level of support for instruction.” The true budget “cut,” according to chief financial officer Paul Harrell, will involve the decrease in the pay of these no-longer central office employees and thus a savings for the district. With these designated personnel changes, White hopes to save just more than $1 million toward his overall goal of eliminating a current $7 million deficit. Harrell said the district knew cuts would be imminent after looking at economic trends at local, state and national levels. The problems caused by the economy include low revenues from sales taxes and lowering property values. This inevitable combination of dried up resources and the growing student population made it obvious that changes would need to be made. “It’s a difficult year,” Harrell said. “What we are striving for is to provide quality education programs and to maximize student achievement. It’s a balancing act to do that.”
No announcements have been made as to whether Oak Park will be receiving any of the staff members whose positions have been cut. Assistant principal Gary Miller said there are great constraints in any attempt to balance a budget while trying to contribute to educational progress. “The goal of lowering class sizes is a very legitimate goal,” Miller said. “It has an impact on student learning. When you realize that we do have a budget problem and at the same time we are trying to lower class size those goals kind of fight against one another. [White] wants to keep the focus on learning rather than thinking how we can just cut and cut and cut.” The job of actually making the cuts fell in the hands of White, a job he believes he came prepared for in his first year as superintendent. “Part of the transition I was able to go through to the superintendency allowed me to view the district from a variety of angles,” White said. “I just lately sat down and put together the plan based upon the conversations that I have had with people over the last two years. I presented that plan [with the
changes in positions] to the board with a justification and a rationale for each one.” As for future cuts, in the second and third week of January, central office began a cutting method called the zero-base budgeting process in which each staff member was to rebuild their position’s budget at zero dollars and rebuild with a rationale for every individual expenditure. This method, according to White, will help the district to more easily identify each wasteful payment. In his first year as superintendent, White said he believes part of the job he has been given is a necessary evil to help benefit education. “It’s not the way that I would have wanted to start my tenure as the superintendent,” White said. “Sometimes we don’t get to choose some of the paths that we have to take. Our mission to this community is still to provide the very best educational system we can. I don’t like telling someone they don’t have the job they currently had and they’re going to have to do something else. But I do know that it is necessary.”
Courtwarming candidates
Sadie Hawkins candidates
Seniors Hona Jones, Laura Hulfeld, Anna Bradley, Lauren Carlson, Tiffanie McDermott, Brook Worlledge and Melissa Jesse compete for the Courtwarming queen title, sponsored by Cambia yearbook. One of them will be crowned the 11th Courtwarming queen between the varsity girls and boys basketball games next Friday, Jan. 29. photo by Molly Mendenhall, special to the Log
Seniors Danny Phipps, Glen Roe, Nick Tittone, Mark Wopata, Thomas Yoder, Justin McAfee and Arturo PinoQuintana compete for the Sadie Hawkins king title, sponsored by Student Council. One of them will be crowned the king at the Sadie Hawkins dance, in the auxiliary gym on Saturday, Jan. 30. photo by Molly Mendenhall, special to the Log
ing assembly and Sadie, working toward completing tasks before the events. “We are looking forward to getting help from Cambia staff, though, as we work on the nuts and bolts of putting the dance together. The more hands we having working on the project, the better the dance will turn
become Courtwarming queen while seven senior boys have been nominated to become Sadie king. “We decided to put the two together to create a great dance, assembly and crowning game that will become a neat memory for the kids involved,” Marcantonio said.
out,” Marcantonio said. Some of the changes include the loss of underclassmen candidates. Underclassmen boys no longer have an opportunity to become Sadie prince, duke, or jester. This year, seven senior girls have been nominated to
The crowning ceremony for Courtwarming queen will take place between the girls and boys varisty basketball games on Friday, Jan. 29. The king crowning will take place at the dance Saturday, Jan. 30.
Campaign opposes DrugUse Thespians sweep stage at contest by Samantha Colhour copy editor
by Gina Drapela editor-in-chief
Throughout the year, Youth with Vision allows students throughout Clay, Platte and Ray counties to come together to fight drug and alcohol abuse in their schools. Together, the group came up with the idea of the ‘What’s Your Excuse’ campaign. “We meet once a month,” said senior David Badami. “The idea for the campaign wasn’t even really from me. I just helped bring it to Oak Park.” The campaign consisted of a table set up at lunch times Monday to Friday, Dec. 14-18, with a banner available for signing. A student could come up to the table and sign a slip with their name saying why they chose not to do drugs and drink alcohol. After that, they could choose to sign the banner if they wanted to show the whole school their reasons. Junior Kaylan Ballard chose to take her reason from the John Mayer song “Your Body is a Wonderland,” stating “because my body is a wonderland.” “I chose to write that because it described how I felt the best,” Ballard said. “I thought it was funny and just something
Thespian troupe No. 2758 participated in this years’ Missouri Thespian Conference, held at the University of Missouri-St. Louis from Thursday, Jan. 7, to Saturday, Jan. 9, displaying school spirit and hard work while receiving a number of recognitions, scholarships and achievements. The troupe advanced their standing at the conference this year by campaigning a nominated troupe officer, junior Schyler Tate, who eventually earned a spot on the upcoming student board for Missouri Thespians. In order to run for office, adult state board members must nominate candidates, reviewing different elements such as past performances and involvement. “It was a real honor because only one student from each school [in Missouri] could be nominated and we have a lot of good people that would do really well at the same job,” Tate said. Focusing on her speech, Tate managed to win the hearts and minds of students and adults alike to vote her into office. “She had a prepared speech that was well rounded and appealed to both students and adults so I think with all of that together, she was able to get a spot on the board,” said sponsor Stephanie Siers.
random.” Working with Youth with Vision provided Badami with free merchandise to give out after the students signed up. The freebies consisted of lanyards, water bottles, pens and shirts all saying ‘What’s your excuse’ on them. Many students stopped just to get such freebies. “I thought it was a cool idea to get reasons out there. Plus, the pen was useful for the rest of the day,” Ballard said. Those involved with the campaign aimed to bring awareness of the negative effects of drugs and alcohol to students, an effort Badami felt won over the student body. “It’s the first time we’ve ever done anything like this at Oak Park. Mostly we were just testing the waters to see how it would work,” Badami said. “I think for this just being the beginning, things turned out well, leaving it open for us to hopefully do more of this kind of stuff later this year.”
Senior Taylor Weatherly recieves a $1000 education scholarship for her involvement in theater education at the 2010 Missouri Thespian Conference on Saturday, Jan. 9. courtesy of Schyler Tate, special to the Log
Tate wanted to bring up points that would reveal her vision for upcoming year’s thespian troupes across Missouri, such as acceptance amongst troupes and having a “home away from home,” while providing “excellent entertainment,” also reminding active members that everyone has “something” in the drama department. With nomination onto Missouri Thespian Student State Board, Tate has a chance to prove she can hold a responsibility spanning across the state.
“It’s amazing, but I knew she had a really good shot of getting it because she’s so personable, and she’s also very passionate about making a change for the better,” Siers said. Along with winning a place on the state board, the OP Thespian Troupe performed a one-act play, “Roll Over Beethoven,” written by David Ives. The cast consisted of senior Nick Tittone as Robin, a geeky 14-year-old wanting to learn the piano, and sophomore Alex Stompoly, as the eccentric, overzealous Dr. Felix Goldenbaum, who provides lessons on an imaginary piano. “I think all the characters I’ve played have been older than me, and this one’s younger than me, so it was a good change up. I changed my body language and my voice a little bit, and had to think like a scared 14 year old,” Tittone said. Stompoly complemented the performance by balancing the act, providing a large character with bulky, fast-paced monologues. Siers displays pride of her students work in the production. “My favorite part of working with [Tittone] was before his performance, he always wears a cross, and he had taken it off and said, ‘Look Mrs. Siers, it’s not even me anymore,’ and he put it on the desk. That’s really neat when a student can identify and really become the character, and lose themselves in it.”