The Falcon Flyer

Fundraising strategies are undergoing changes to boost funds for each class. As of Dec. 12, the freshmen, sophomore, and junior classes all have no money in their accounts, while the senior class has $552.

In response to these numbers, fundraisers are being implemented to improve upon the class budgets in the future.

“Starting this year the freshmen class will host a hypnotist or magician show, sophomores will have Mr. Kentlake, and juniors will continue to have Tolo … If they are able to do those things each year, by the time they reach their senior year they will be in a much better place than $552,” said cashier Kathy Adderson.

The current senior class took a hit last year when Tolo was canceled; it was supposed to be one of the bigger fundraisers for the senior class.

“It was canceled due to lack of ticket sales and they [the seniors] weren’t able to make any money on that dance at all,” said Adderson.

Efforts to improve the senior budget are underway by means of various fundraisers.

Senior ASB member Olivia Sobczyk said, “We’re planning on having a dance party after the basketball game on February 3rd, designing t-shirts, and hopefully participating in a Drive One 4 UR School fundraiser.”

The money in the senior class account and money earned from the fundraisers will go directly to help pay for senior events.

“As the students make their money each year, it goes to offset senior prom tickets and senior brunch tickets. For example, last year senior brunch cost about $15 per student, but we only charged $10 to the students and we offset the rest,” said Adderson.

This senior class has a need to raise more funds than the years before it.

Adderson said, “Prom is going to be at the Columbia tower this year, which is a more expensive venue than it has been in the past, which means the ticket prices will be more.”

The senior class is working to offset the price and keep it reasonable for students.

Debate Club competed in a tournament Nov. 18 and 19 at Tahoma High School.

Juniors Michael Raybuck and Kyle Owsen were Novice Public Forum finalists. Senior Steven Weier and junior Dylan Lasher were Open Public Forum Champions.
The team has still more tournaments to come, which will take place almost every weekend until the end of February.

Weier, a longtime debater and president of the club, said, “Overall we are improving. We have started with some strong Novice competitors.”

Practices for the club are Wednesdays in David Moore’s room, where the members partake in discussions, practicing speeches, and researching topics.
According to members of the club, there is not any competition within the club, and everyone helps each other out.

“There are lots of new members in the club. Meaning lots of new talent, but also people to be taught. This is where the senior debaters come in,” said junior Brandon Wilson, a club member.

Lasher and Weier have both been in Debate Club for several years. They both believe this year’s Debate Club is its finest.

“We are doing excellent this year in both the novice division, and the open division. I attribute this to our fantastic coach, Mr. Moore. KL has become infamous in our competitive divisions to other schools, and we will continue to make a name for ourselves as the year goes on,” said Lasher.

The Falcon Nest is undergoing some changes that are aimed to help improve the student store’s service and combat competition.

“The biggest student store competition would be the lunch room. The other competition is seniors going off campus for lunch… There is nowhere really close besides Subway, so that’s why we tried bringing Subway into the store,” said senior Brett Kenney, co-store manager.

Senior Mitch Krassin, also a student store manager, sheds more light on their competition.

“The only reason they ever take business away from us is because of the free and reduced lunch. Obviously, we cannot do that in the store. It’s a district policy,” said Krassin.

In an attempt to compete with off-campus venues, the Falcon Nest introduced Subway sandwiches. They also added Subway cookies to their menu to replace the loss of the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies.

According to Krassin, their efforts to compete with Subway failed.

“Subway has not been selling at all. In fact, we are going to be cancelling Subway orders starting in a week. We’ve barely been selling an entire footlong a day,” said Krassin.

The Falcon Nest has already reintroduced bagel sandwiches. The store is also planning on reintroduce last year’s Otis Spunkmeyer cookies to compensate for the sales lost due to Subway orders.

“Bagels have been really interesting because, this year we don’t have as much of a prep period as we did last year, the bagels have been a lot harder to produce here because we don’t have any marketing kids in that period who run that … So making the bagels is a little bit slower and every once and awhile we have to make some during store hours, but that actually have been going back to regular sales. I think once we reintroduced those the Subway sales went down,” said Krassin.

Besides reintroducing Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and bagels, Krassin says they have more plans.

“We are actually starting a spirit-wear programs, starting in couple weeks and we also have a current person, Trent [Maniulit], who is part of a research and development project … would like to see a new product on our shelves at least once a month,” said Krassin.

Kenney also adds a few things they would like to try and change in the student store for this school year.

“We are going to try and do everything fresh. So we’re going to try to make the bagels fresh for you guys when you come in, were going to make Caesar wraps fresh instead of having them premade, so it will be your Caesar wrap that will get made and then we’ll bring it to you,” said Kennedy.

These multiple changes are scheduled to be implemented over the next few months.

Gary Melton was an assistant principal at Kentlake until the end of the 2008-2009 school year, when he moved to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to become the middle-high school principal at Mont’Llara International School. The Falcon Flyer recently conducted an interview with Melton about his experiences since accepting that position.

Spencer Transier: Could you explain your role as middle-high school principal of Mont’Kiara?

Gary Melton: My role as middle-high school principal at Mont’Kiara is very similar to your principal’s role at Kentlake. I am responsible for the curriculum and quality of instruction provided to our students, maintaining the rules for appropriate conduct at the school for both staff and students, and supporting strong and positive community relationships so that our educational goals are understood and supported by everyone in our learning community. As international schools are typically much smaller than U.S. public high schools there are many smaller tasks that I am more closely involved in…

S: What exactly does it mean by “middle-high school”?

M: Our middle school includes grades 6-8 and our high school consists of grades 9-12 [about 500 total].

S: What is it like being an administrator there?

M: As was my experience at Kentlake, it is very fun and rewarding to see our students striving and achieving at academics, and after school activities and athletics. Watching students learn, grow, and mature is very exciting … [The] students represent 54 different countries … It is a very international student body. It is a U.S. based curriculum and most of our teachers are American with about a quarter of our 103 teachers being Canadian … All of our curriculum except world languages is taught in English. We offer the IB Diploma Program in grades 11-12. About a quarter of our students are sons or daughters of diplomats and the rest our children of large American or European companies…

S: How did this opportunity come up and why did you choose to pursue it?

M: … After our two sons finished college, got married and were well-settled in good jobs my wife and I decided a little world travel combined with an education position would be interesting, so we took the plunge and I connected up with some international school educator search organizations, attended a recruiting fair in Bangkok in early January of 2009, got three interesting offers and selected what we both felt was the best “fit” for us. My wife, although an American citizen for 40 plus years, was born in Thailand which is right next to Malaysia…

S: How long will you be working there?

M: I am in my third year of a three year contract and I have just finished negotiating another two year contract following the completion of this year, so we will be here at least five years before we consider moving to another international school or back to the United States.

S: How has this experience affected you personally and what have you gained from it?

M: This experience has given me a much broader world view. A better appreciation of other cultures and more openness of others views – how and why they see things differently than we do. I am more patient with others and have worked past the normal frustrations that go along with adapting to life under different rules and expectations … Malaysia is unique among SE Asian countries it that it is a very diverse and mixed culture as well…

Principal Joe Potts is focusing on hosting two new programs, Challenge Day and Change Day, this upcoming spring. These programs are focused on bringing the school together.

The programs, which are planned to occur late March to early April, are similar to a well-known program, Breaking Down the Walls.
Challenge Day will occur first.

“Challenge Day that will involve about 100 students, [to] be selected by the Faculty, [as well as] 25 community members, teachers, and assistant principals …About 125 people will spend the day in Challenge Day,” said Potts.

Faculty will select students who they believe to be leaders, and who make a difference.

Change Day will involve the entire school. It will be on a late start day and students will be able to choose if they want to go into break-out sessions, where they will talk about emotions and tell personal stories with a group of students. There will be a focus on bullying and anti-bullying.

“The theory is that if you know someone’s story and know who they are as a person you recognize that they have a soul and feelings, and will have a harder time mistreating that person if you know that person’s story. And that’s the theory behind a Challenge Day,” said Potts.

During Challenge Day there will also be opportunities to go and listen to community leaders, including pastors and policemen. Students will hear how these figures make a difference in the world every day.

Students have a mixed reaction to the proposed programs.

“[It] seems like a really good idea, I would go,” said sophomore Laylan Tahir.

Sophomore Dylan Hatfield has a different reaction.

“[I’m ] not sure how we will benefit from it. [I’m] not too excited about it,” said Hatfield.

However, Potts truly believes the program will be beneficial.

“The focus will be on making the world a better place. That’s really what I as a principal want to be known for at this school. We make the world better,” said Potts.

photo courtesy of Rick Chance

Through a program called KaBOOM!, Leadership helped rebuild Tudor Square Park Oct. 19. KaBOOM! is a national non-profit organization that works with communities and funders to build playgrounds across the nation.

Tudor Square Park was originally built in 1994 and then inherited by King County, in need of renovations.

This project was a joint effort between Kent Parks Foundation, the Tudor Square Neighborhood Council, KaBOOM!, and funding partner Humana Inc. This park was the first of eight multi-generational playgrounds that KaBOOM!, in partnership with Humana, planned to build over the span of eight weeks.

Of approximately 200 volunteers from the community, 60 came from the two Leadership classes. Students were focused on various tasks throughout the day.

“All of us were doing different things. I was actually one of the only [people] from Kentlake that was building the park benches. We probably had 20 or 25 people that were on landscaping; they were digging holes and planting new trees. We had some kids that were on concrete; they were the ones in charge of mixing the concrete and pouring the concrete for all the poles that were on the playground. We had one girl that was in charge of the video camera; she took the video camera and just filmed all day long,” said Leadership teacher Rick Chance.

The students arrived at the park around 8 a.m. and did not stop working until the ribbon was cut around 2:30 p.m.

“[The volunteers] built the whole thing from the ground up. We worked hard and were able to finish it in one day,” said Chance.

According to Chance, this was a great opportunity for the Leadership class.

“They got to be a part of something that’s going to be there for a long time, and they got to give back to the community. That’s what we want Kentlake to start getting some recognition for,” said Chance.

photo by Michael Raybuck

Food selection within the district is undergoing changes with the introduction of the Farm-to-School program.

With the self-proclaimed intentions of “[improving] school food and establishing links between farms and schools,” as stated on the Washington Farm-to-School website, changes include “using food grown and/or processed in Washington State,” and “expanding school menus to include locally-grown food.”

Pamela Ingertila, kitchen manager and menu coordinator, sheds light on how these changes will affect the student body.

“There have been a lot of changes in trying to have more healthy food,” said Ingertila. “They have a program … with the USDA where we’re now getting most of our produce from farms around the area.”

According to Ingertila, not only are the new foods coming from local agriculture, but they are also nutritionally superior.

Ingertila said, “They’ve been changing into more whole grain breads. They’ve also changed the salads; we get our produce locally now.”

“[We’ve] really cut the fat on foods, and now we’re working towards less sugar and less sodium,” said Ingertila.

With such alterations to the menu underway, students may notice some changes that have already taken place; these include having done away with the fries, as well as ice cream cups and pirate cake for dessert, according to Ingertila.

Student reactions to the menu changes are mixed.

“I think it’s disappointing, but probably for the better,” said junior Kennedie Wagner.

Removal of certain desserts, on the other hand, did not receive the same reaction. James Sant, junior, expressed grief in response to a particular item getting booted from the menu.

“I loved pirate cake. That was the only dessert that was amazing,” said Sant.

The AP Physics B class taught by Russ Ballard has received cuts to their allotted time for laptop use in class.

The loss of these laptops is a result of the laptops which were given to incoming freshmen.

“What happened is because of the freshman class coming in with their laptops, it has removed roughly 500 students that would have had laptops [available in the form of laptop carts],” said Ballard.

Ballard’s chemistry and physics classes were historically known as being laptop based.

“When I had a dedicated set of laptops, I wouldn’t have to worry about students coming in before or after school and not having a computer available to them to do their work. Is that preventing them from learning? No. It is just an extra inconvenience that I need to compensate for as I schedule various activities,” said Ballard.
Ballard now needs to schedule in advance what days to check out a laptop cart, with a maximum set at two days a week, like other teachers. However, Ballard has dedicated time outside of class for students to access a laptop cart, which is beneficial for web-based learning.

“After working for two weeks under the conditions where I didn’t have any laptops I could pull out of a cabinet, I went and talked to Mr. Holt, and he had a cart of about 11 computers,” said Ballard.

This is the first year Ballard has taught the AP Physics B class, but he feels unfazed by this hindrance passed down by the district.

“I don’t think it has impacted [the AP test schedule] adversely, a lot of the course work is being done outside of class, such as lectures and writing assignments,” said Ballard.

In fact, he is moving faster than his anticipated timeline. “We are moving down the road faster than I anticipated, […] thus far two days a week [of laptop access] has not been a war stopper.”

The largest impact has been on Ballard’s time management.

“It is just inconvenient, as I could use those five or ten minutes spent getting … a laptop cart for my own time,” said Ballard.

Ballard’s remaining classes are freshman level sciences. The lack of computer access has not affected those classes in the slightest, as “the freshman science classes have their own laptops to use in class,” said Ballard.

“I don’t think [the district] really understood how much I used my laptops. Although it would be nice to have my own stash, I am not going to get all arm-flappy about it,” said Ballard.

photo by Michaela Mandala

The Occupy Movement marches on. The movement, starting in New York, has made its way to many major cities across the country.

The Occupy Movement targets major companies and the top one percent of society. It discourages the government from giving tax cuts to big businesses in a time where the working man is struggling to make a living.

The Movement reached Seattle in early October. The protest has been taking place all over Seattle, but the main “camps” have been set in Westlake Park, and more recently at Seattle Central Community College.

The common phrase to sum up the protests is “We are the 99%” meaning the majority of people who do not receive the tax cuts that the top one percent of the country is receiving.

The protests have received a wide variety of reactions from people across the country.

“I strongly agree with that. I do not think big businesses should take money when other people need it because that’s just wrong,” said senior Katrina Chapin.
However, there is an even bigger group who do not show support.

“I think it’s ridiculous and I don’t see what the people are trying to prove by sitting around and doing nothing. If they actually want to get something done they should go and do it instead of like causing problems for the government and other people. Not that the government is perfect, but they’re not doing anything to help,” said sophomore Olga Shtokalo.

A counter movement was launched with the slogan “We are the 53%.” This anti-Occupy movement is the people who are not rich, but who are doing all they can to stay afloat in today’s economy.

         Interact Club, Kentlake High School, the Covington Rotary Club, and the University of Washington have partnered to create the Kentlake Interact Speaker Series. Speakers, which will be coming to school each month, are from the University of Washington and the community.

          “The purpose of the lecture series is to broaden the intellectual conversation in the school and to spark curiosity and to promote intellectual pursuit,” said Principal Joe Potts.
Potts said the topics that the speakers will be addressing adhere to the International Rotary theme, “Reach within to embrace Humanity.”
          “So they’re all sort of talking about subjects, topics, issues that encourage people to look at themselves and to imagine possibilities and to stretch themselves and to grow and to challenge themselves in ways they wouldn’t do so before. The lectures are designed to inspire, challenge, and peak curiosity,” said Potts.
          Assistant Principal Ian McFeat has been the administrator coordinating the organization of the speaker series between Kentlake and the University of Washington.
          “The genesis of the lecture series came from our work with the University of Washington and all the UW classes we offer and we were thinking about how to bring some of the conversations that happen at the university level to high school,” said McFeat.

          According to Potts, the idea for the series first occurred last spring. After administration and faculty discussed the concept, that idea eventually became a reality.
          Guest lecturers are speaking at Kentlake free-of-charge. Covington Rotary will cover advertising and promotion costs. Admission for audience members will also be free.
          Russ Ballard, advisor of the new Interact Club was approached by Potts earlier this year and asked to have Interact Club help with promoting the series through advertising, which consisted of announcements, posters, and flyers around the school and community. According to McFeat, the Covington Rotary has also played a substantial role in getting word out to the community about the series.
          UW Astronomy teacher Scott Simmons believes the series is an opportunity to expand the school’s teaching abilities beyond what is taught in the classroom.
          “I think it’s a great thing for students because teachers have a tough time replicating the real world for them and we don’t do as good of a job of showing students what else is out there, besides what we can show in our classes. So when we can bring professionals in here that are doing highly-respected and highly-touted work on scientific things…it’s a great opportunity to see what else we can find to demonstrate the real world for students,” said Simmons.
Ballard also sees the series as a way to open up students’ minds to new ideas and opportunities.
          “I think it’s a good thing for the students to hear what they can do beyond the high school. Where all of this cutting edge technology that they read about in the papers, who are the faces and the people behind those stories and to listen to them and say, ‘Oh, that’s something I want to get in to’,” said Ballard. “…Some of the subjects that they’re going to be looking at are amazing. They’re literally ripped from the headlines of the newspaper today and to have speakers come in and be willing to share their knowledge with students is absolutely amazing.”
          The series will begin Oct. 25 with Dr. Eric H. Chulder, a professor in the Bioengineering Department at the University of Washington. His presentation is titled, “Journey into the Brain” and will discuss pain and the perception of pain, among other subjects relating to brain mechanics. Admission to the event will be first-come, first-serve.