Student Council tunes up for all-school karaoke night

Nick Olson. Entertainment Editor

Karaoke night is an excellent opportunity arranged by Student Council for MS students to put together their craziest acts for the student mob to see.

Before Karaoke Night, it was hard to gather so many students in the cafeteria unless it was lunch. This year’s Karaoke Night will be March 29th at 7p.m. and is open to anyone who wants to come including friends from other schools, and family. Students should bring their school IDs just to be safe. The admission is $3.00 with an activities or athletic card and $4.00 without.

Karaoke Night is one of the more popular MS events.

“There is always a huge turnout at Karaoke Night so we had to try to doa few things differently this year,” senior Kelly Beernink said.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13,

Anyone who is interested and would like to put him or herself on the chopping block may sign up. Applications are available in the Patriot Post or Room 320. The due date is the March 10th, so make sure they are turned in on time. Out of all of the applicants around eight will be selected depending on how many people apply. If more groups apply, more will be selected allowing for a wider range of acts and music. Normally there are kids of all different types who want to show their stuff ranging from freshmen to seniors so no one is limited by their age.

“Karaoke is our most popular event besides Homecoming,” senior Amanda Meyer said.

This year Karaoke Night has been plagued by five reschedules that were out of Student Council’s control. Hopefully it will not be changed again. Beernink and Meyer are the Student Council members in charge of organizing the

Lopez named outstanding high school principal

+k Jordan Kenik Editor-in-Chief

Due to his devotion to improving his school for teachers and students, Principal Jon Lopez has been named the Nebraska State Association of Secondary School Principals Region II Outstanding High School Principal.

Lopez won the honor for a 13county region, which includes the Omaha metro area. He was nominated for the award by a fellow principal and then selected as the premier principal by the Nebraska State Association of Secondary School Principals Region II.

Lopez believes in the importance of sharing good ideas about administrating. For this reason, the principals of Region II meet often to discuss school issues and learn from one another about how best to handle them. These issues include curriculum, instruction, assessment, student safety, sports, and lunch programs among others. Lopez describes his relationship with his colleagues as “very colloquial.”

“One of the things we believe in in Region His that any good idea about running a school is worth sharing. Many of the things that do here at Millard South are things that are good practices that other principals are doing around Omaha, around Nebraska, and across the country. I really do what I see other people doing that works in schools that are similar to ours, so lam flattered and also humbled because I have learned what I do from other people,” Lopez said.

The 2004-2005 school year is Lopez’s fourth as principal at Millard South. He began his career in education in 1986 at Millard North as a civics and American history teacher. Additionally, he was a football and wrestling coach. He has also served as an. assistant principal in the Omaha

Public School District for three years and as a principal at Plattsmouth High School for four years. Lopez did his undergraduate work at Midland Lutheran College and received his masters degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

“Tam currently in the doctoral program at [UNO], and the focus of our study is to look at what research says about the practice of education,” Lopez said.

“Tam not just pulling ideas out of some magic closet. I am doing what research says works and then ] am talk ing to real life practitioners, here, and in other parts of the country.”

“If anything, I hope that what I do here is a confluence of a whole lot of other people's ideas that fall together and work at our school.”

Lopez said he finds the people part of his job to be the most rewarding. He notes that this social part can take him away from his paperwork, which he dislikes being tied down in his office doing.

Lopez believes that only with the great support he receives from Millard South’s teachers does he accomplish what needs to be accomplished. He believes the high standards of student achievement that Millard South has for itself are kept up more by the teachers than by him.

“I hope to present [the teachers] with ideas and information and support, but they are the ones who get it done,” Lopez said. “The data we use to measure whether we are getting it done, student achievement, student behavior, graduation rates, and scholarship dollars, that is not done by me. The teachers get to do that.”