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News Briefs
•Cedar Falls Athletic Booster Club 9th Annual Tiger Golf Classic will be held at Pheasant Ridge Golf Course on Thursday, June 21, with a shot-gun start at 1 p.m. The registration deadline is June 10 and the cost is $70 per golfer. Sign-up early, as this event does fill up. Registration forms are available in the Cedar Falls High School Office, Cedar Falls Parks and Rec Center and Pheasant Ridge Pro Shop. For more information, call 277-0689. •The senior graduation party will be Sunday, May 27 from 9:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Coconuts Beach Club in Cedar Falls. •The CFHS annual blood drive will be on May 16 in the band room. Students must be 16, weigh 120 pounds and have turned in a registration form. Donors of 16 to 17 must also turn in a parental release form. Forms can be acquired from science teachers Susan Considine and Marcey Hand and business teacher Kelli Diemer.
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Volume 47 Edition 25
Cambodia school project exceeds expectations Kellie Peterson Staff Writer
The Cedar Falls School District has been putting a lot of effort into the project begun by the high school Amnesty International chapter to build an elementary school in Cambodia. Since late February, the main efforts have been focused on fundraising, which has reached an estimated $9,000 to $9,500 after last weekend’s efforts. The total needed to build the school is $15,000, and the Amnesty group had initially hoped to reach $7,000 of this by this time. “Well, it’s definitely exceeded everyone’s expectations—even ours,” Moussavi said about the fundraising process. This impressive start to the fundraising process would not have been possible without help from many groups at school and people throughout the community. “We’ve had a lot of support, far more than we had anticipated, both from the community and the school,” senior Amnesty International President Sheila Moussavi said. Moussavi said that many people have come forward to organize fund-
raisers independently, as opposed to earlier in the process when Amnesty was responsible for the fundraising. One of these fundraisers includes the “Kickin’ It for Cambodia” 5K walk/run that was organized by Student Senate. The 5K walk/run took place on May 5 at George Wyth State Park. A total of 78 people were registered to run, with a total of 67 people actually participating. Just registering also proved to be beneficial considering the $15 pre-registration fee, or the $25 fee to register the day of the race. CFHS guidance counselor and Student Senate faculty adviser Ryan Flaherty explained that the group of eight students that planned the 5K walk/run were one of four Student Senate groups that were given $100 to do a service project of their choice. The group of eight students—that included seniors Lisa Zanotti, Ashley Minikus, Chelsea Jehle, Lesley Thompson, Kallie Thompson, Stephen Miller and Elliot Tensen as well as junior Summer Anderson—raised the most money and were the only group that chose to partner with Amnesty and the Cambodia school project for their fundraiser. The 5K walk/run was
highly successful, profiting $2,000. Of this $2,000, $1,433 was raised through race registration while $625 was raised from sponsors. Cedar Heights Elementary School also donated $500 from its personal fundraising projects for the cause. Flaherty said that he thought that
Upcoming Fundraisers Choir Concert and Art Show May 21 in CFHS auditorium ($4-$5)
The Office senson finalé party May 17 in CFHS auditorium ($2) Concert at the Boathouse TBA the 5K walk/run went fantastically and was a great success. “They worked really hard, and I think a lot of their work paid off,” Flaherty said. Another upcoming fundraiser that will go toward the school in Cambodia is the spring choir concert. The choir concert on May 21 is a regularly scheduled concert for the choir, only this time they have chosen to give all of the proceeds from ticket
sales to Amnesty for use in the Cambodia school project. Tickets will be $4 for students and $5 for adults, with no activity passes accepted. CFHS choral director Kendra Wohlert said that she wanted the ticket proceeds to go to the Cambodia school project because it was a worthwhile cause. Wohlert also said that she was proud of Cedar Falls High School for having an Amnesty chapter. She said that she could like the concert to generate $500 for the Cambodia school project. The concert will be at 8 p.m. in the CFHS auditorium. It will feature the mixed chorus, concert choir and cantuse singers. There will also be a special men’s ensemble organized by senior choir member Andrew Clopton. The men’s ensemble will sing the song “Lullaby” to commemorate the Cambodia cause. “It was nice of him to think of a special commemoration to the cause,” Wohlert said. Along with choir concert, there will also be an art show in the lobby. The art show features student art from all areas of the art department. It is primarily a fundraiser for Art Club, but any extra art that is donated will be
auctioned off to benefit the Cambodia school project. “Our hope is that we will have enough artwork to help with Art Club and the Cambodia schools fund,” CFHS art teacher and Art Club faculty adviser Christopher Shulte said. Yet another fundraiser to be mentioned is the Cedar Heights penny drive organized by Senior Leadership. “Oh, I just really hope that we could get all the schools in the district behind this idea,” CFHS English teacher and Senior Leadership faculty adviser Diane Flaherty said. Flaherty also said that she thought the Cambodia school project was good for the school and the community. There are still many more fundraisers to come. Amnesty has been organizing a raffle that will be announced at the choir concert on May 21, and they will host a party in the auditorium for the season finalé of The Office on Thursday, May 17. The group is also planning an end of the year show at the Boathouse. Amnesty’s original fundraising goal for the year has been $7,000. It is clear that they have far exceeded it, and much in part to the assistance of other people and groups.
Secondary schools face $100,000 budget shortfall Briana McGeough Feature Editor
As the end of the ’06-’07 school year quickly approaches, Cedar Falls administrators are already hard at work on the budget for the 2007-2008 school year, and the plans include cuts in spending. At the beginning of this year, the Cedar Falls School District had some budget concerns as costs rose more rapidly than available funds. “We had to cut $400,000 from our budget,” Director of Secondary Education Dan Conrad said. As a result, the school had to work to reduce spending wherever possible. One way that they did this was by purchasing fewer supplies. “We’ve tried to be very efficient and order the minimum this year,” CFHS
principal Rich Powers said. Administrators also made an effort to reduce the number of sections offered of each class. “One thing that should be transparent to students is that we have tried to balance out class sizes, and that helps us minimize extra sections that can be costly,” Powers said. The budget situation has improved during the last year. “We will have a slight increase in enrollment, so we are in better shape. Our biggest plan is to replace reductions made last year,” Conrad said. Even though the administration hopes to replace some of the supplies that could not be purchased for this year, further budget reductions are in sight. Secondary buildings hope to reduce the budget of the three schools by $100,000 next year.
“We’re close to being on track with that, and that has been done mostly through carefully replacing staff where there have been retirements,” Powers said. Staffing costs are expected to decrease next year. “We will reduce staff as needed based on enrollment, so some departments will have staff increases and some will have decreases.” Conrad said. This reduction of staff will not require layoffs. “Our staffing needs will drop. One thing that is important is that we tried to make staff reductions where we had the opportunity. No current staff members lost their jobs,” Powers said. Some additions will be made to the staff. The math department will increase by a half position, and a new,
half-time administrator, who will focus on the sophomore class, will also be added. “We are in the process of adding a half-time position that will primarily assist with activity and athletic supervision as well as some discipline and attendance. This position has not been finalized yet,” Powers said. Adding this administrator will bring Cedar Falls High School closer to the amount of administrative support that other districts have. “If you look at schools similar to Cedar Falls in size, we are pretty understaffed in that particular area. This will allow us to offer more support for activities and athletics,” Powers said. Even with the addition of this staff person, Cedar Falls High School will still have fewer administrators per capita than many schools.
“We will still be down almost half of a person, but this new person will bring us closer to the average,” Conrad said. Though the budget must be finished before next year, planning ahead with staffing and supply needs is always a struggle. “As our student population ebbs and flows, it is difficult to have a consistent target. For example, we could pick up close to 20 students after school starts next year, but that is difficult to plan for,” Powers said. With all of the budget-related challenges that they have recently, even administrators have learned lessons this past year. “We have learned how to budget creatively. We’ve really looked at how to reduce the budget while also increasing resources,” Conrad said.