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photo courtesy of Education Minnesota
In-Depth p. 6-7
Opinion p. 8
2012 Seniors : All about everyone’s favorite class.
Volume 32 Issue 8
EdinaZephyrus.com
After AP : What to do after your tests are done.
May 11, 2012
Jackie Roehl named Minnesota Teacher of the Year : Edina English teacher wins state’s highest honor.
6754 Valley View Rd. Edina, MN 55439
Edina Robotics goes to World
photo courtesy of Edina Robotics Media
photo by Sloane Nilsen
SENIOR CHANGES
District cuts late starts, EHS cuts senior breakfast This year, the district is considering cutting 10:15 late starts for all students and 11:00 late starts for seniors. Senior Breakfast has been cut as well. Usually, on the days when sophomores and juniors take the PLAN, PSAT and MCAs, the seniors don’t need to be at school until noon. Not any more. This year, the Minnesota State Legislature changed the number of days required for graduation to number of classroom hours required for graduation. Before, late start days counted as a day of school, but now they only count for the number of hours that we’re actually in school. The changes will apply to next year’s seniors, who need 1,020 instructional hours. The current schedule, which includes 10:15 late starts for all students and 12:00 late starts for seniors on testing days, misses the requirement by twenty hours. The school wanted to make it to 1,026 hours in order to allow for one snow day or another unexpected cancellation. Administration considered lengthening the school day for the upcoming year, but because of the very tight bus schedule, this idea was discarded. “Even changing the school day by a few minutes
wouldn’t work with the bus schedule,” said Eric Nelson, assistant principal. The district settled on cutting 10:15 late starts for all grades, reducing late starts on testing days, and implementing senior seminars, while exploring other options, like lengthening the school day, for future years. Instead of going to classes on test days, the seniors will attend seminars. The seminars will focus on post-secondary plans. These seminars will be on the days of the PLAN, PSAT and MCAs. This year, there will be no Senior Breakfast. After Senior Breakfast, the seniors wouldn’t come to school for the rest of the year. “I think teachers wanted to see seniors in class up until finals, not two or three days before finals,” said Mellanie Pusateri, a student council advisor. While no late starts next year will be a challenge, there is hope for the future. “The schedule for the 2013-2014 school year isn’t set in stone. Next year, we will re-examine the schedule and see if we can get late starts back,” said Mr. Nelson. Sarah Nealon, features editor
Which late starts do you have next year?
Edina High School’s Robotics Team 1816, or, as it is informally known, the Green Machine, finished the North Star Regional Robotics Competition with the Chairman’s Award. The award is the most prestigious that FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), the nation’s leading high school robotics organization, gives out at regional competitions. It was also the team’s ticket to the national high school robotics championship in St. Louis on April 28, where 128 teams from 20 different countries competed. Current junior Chris Miller founded the EHS Robotics Team in 2006. Despite basing its operations in Miller’s kitchen, the newborn team managed to make it to the quarterfinals of the world competition. While the tournament didn’t quite live up to the elated highs of 2006 – the team finished in the middle of the pack – students were still glad to have had the experience. “We got to meet and converse with some pretty interesting people,” said sophomore Danny Gratzer about the tournament. “I think that the robotics team’s run to world will definitely be one of my more exciting experiences this year.” “The highlight of the tournament was during the finals,” said junior Peter Jacobson, who has been on the robotics team for three years. There was a thunderstorm, and rain was pounding on the roof of the stadium – it was almost like a drumroll.” “Edina’s Robotics team is different than many other FIRST teams because we aren’t just focused on winning,” said Gratzer when asked about what makes Edina’s team unique. “We actually go out of our way to help other teams at competitions.” Another way that the Edina team is unique is its increased emphasis on student leadership. Students are in charge of everything from building and programming the robot to running the website to even creating an entrepreneurial plan, and they outnumber the mentors three to one. “We take pride in the fact that [The Green Machine] is a very student run team,” said Michael Woolsey, the 2012 Team Captain (he can be seen on the website hugging R2-D2). “It’s really the students who run things here.” Micah Osler, news editor
chart courtesy of Pam Berling
The official newspaper of Edina High School