Local News
The Blue and Gold March 2022
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maldenblueandgold.com
Malden School Committee Lifts Mask Mandate in Schools
Class of 2022 February Fundraisers
Nathan Dean Lead Reporter Gabriel Fesehaie Lead Reporter
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n a meeting held on March 7th, the Malden Public School Committee passed the motion to rescind the indoor mask mandate in schools with a 7-2 vote, which made big waves in the Malden High School community and beyond. The motion to drop masks was not a shock. Given the fact that the mask mandate was dropped in all non-municipal buildings in Malden on February 4th— and many cities around Malden rushed to repeal their school mask mandates— it was only a matter of time before Malden dropped their school mask mandate as well. The chamber room was relatively packed with seven of the eight school committee members: the Chairman Mayor Christenson, the Vice-Chairwoman Jennifer Spadafora, Superintendent Dr. Ligia Noriega-Murphy, the Student Representative Christelle Jean, and several attendees, including Forestdale School Principal Donald Concannon. Mayor Christenson started the conversation off by giving the floor over to Jean, who presented information from a survey sent out to MHS students. It found that a majority of students who participated were not in favor of dropping the mask mandate. However, the survey was distributed before the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released information sharing that it is now safe for fully vaccinated individuals to not wear their mask in public, if they so choose. This ended up being a major factor in some of the members’ decisions. Mayor Christenson said, “if Christelle hadn't said that her survey was taken on February 11th I might not have voted to rescind." Some school committee members cited information from the CDC, stating that with vaccination rates high in Malden, it was now safe to remove the mask mandate. Ward 5 School Committee Member Adam Weldai went on to talk about how the policy in place before the vote was first created and how that influenced his decision: "Our policy was initially created based on the recommendation and the advice from the Board of Health and based on the scientific data. It wasn't created based on feelings or politics or anything around the pandemic, it was created from medical advice and data.” Continued on page 14
Student Council members managing the bake sale. Photo by Jessica Li. Jessica Li Reporter
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Mack Keating Reporter
ith the Class of 2022 (CO’22) prom nearing, seniors are creating and implementing more fundraisers. During February, two of these fundraisers took place, including selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Valentine’s Day baked goods. While each class sale has had its own profits, the food consistently sold the best, hence the return of it. The Krispy Kreme fundraiser is one of the more notable sellers, as it comes back annually. This is not the first sighting of a Krispy Kreme fundraiser for the CO'22, though. Back in December, the same product was sold for the same cause. During that sale, over $1.7k was raised, out of the goal of $10k. Due to its immense popularity and success, the product was brought back, with a raised price from $13 to $15 per box of a dozen doughnuts. Editor-in-Chief and Class President Julie Huynh, Editor-in-Chief of Print and Design Carlos Aragon, Tivian Nguyen and Mayada Giha were among the myriad of seniors who helped run the table. In hopes of replicating the success of the first sale, the seniors restocked the product. “The first Krispy Kreme fundraiser we had, we raised a lot more than expected. We were taken by surprise in a good way,” Nguyen explained. Huynh elaborated on this, noting the people running this behind the scenes. “We brought up the idea the first time. I think the fundraiser has always been something that the school has done
before in the past, so we reached out to Ms. Quinn who used to run it. And then she kind of helped us get started with that and we decided that it would be something that we can definitely do.” Class Advisor Daniel Jurkowski, who was in charge of the fundraiser, expatiated on Quinn’s work. “I was talking to her…we were talking about fundraising and fundraising ideas, and she brought up the idea of Krispy Kreme. So, we reached out to them. One of our student council officers, Mayada, reached out to them and got more information. And then, we just kinda went from there.” This process was not as easy as it seems, though: the doughnuts are produced and stored in Connecticut, where someone must drive down in order to pick up and distribute the products. “Thankfully we have a dedicated advisor that was willing to go to his full extent to help the class out. We are very thankful for him for everything he has done. Without him, we would not be where we are now,” Nguyen professed. Financially, fundraising is on the right track for their prom goals. “We made a good amount of money last time; we made around $2,000 the first time we did it. So, a couple kids reached out to us and asked if we were gonna do it again. And, it’s an easy fundraiser; we honestly don’t have to do much--too much work: so, just collect, sell boxes, we go pick them up, we distribute them and it’s basically free money.” He
also stated, “We didn’t sell as many dozens of doughnuts as we did last time, but I would still say it’s a big success because we made over $1,400 which is perfect because it goes right to prom.” With the added price to the doughnuts, the class still made enough money. “The purpose of the fundraiser is to fundraise as much money as we can for prom. Everything that we raise right now, every single dollar, is going towards prom--to make prom as affordable for as many kids as we can,” Jurkowski detailed. Currently, prom tickets are aiming to be under $80, with a ballpark range from $70-90. Another issue Nguyen brought up was how “not enough people support or help the class, especially in our own grade. Whether it’s volunteering, helping us out, buying something small, we face a struggle in that.” Jurkowski added another faced issue, that being “everybody [having] trouble fundraising the last couple of years - every group, every class, every organization within the school - so now everyone’s trying to make up for that too by fundraising at the same time. So, everyone, we’re trying to ask people for money, and everyone else is trying to get money too. So that’s been the most challenging part. It’s kind of, like, to come up with unique ideas that people want to spend money on. Because everyone’s trying to fundraise now, so that’s the most challenging part.” Continued on page 14
