Octagon 2017-18 Issue 2

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THE

OCTAGON

Non-Profit Organization U.S. POSTAGE PAID Sacramento, CA Permit No. 1668

VOL. 41 NO. 2 • Sacramento Country Day School • 2636 Latham Drive, Sacramento • October 31, 2017

Fires devastate California’s wine country BY HÉLOÏSE SCHEP

O

n Monday, Oct. 9, drama teacher Brian Frishman was woken by a call from the county sheriff at 1:18 a.m. The LaPorte and Cascade Fires were only a mile and a half from his home in Grass Valley; he had to evacuate immediately. Frishman and his wife woke up his friend from Thailand and his son along with his step-daughter, her husband and their baby (all three were visiting), loaded a few possessions into their car and went outside.

They were met with complete darkness; the electricity had gone out. Frishman’s wife walked from house to house informing neighbors about the fire, as some hadn’t gotten the call to evacuate. Then Frishman decided to drive up to the fire alone to assess the situation. Two sheriffs’ cars blocked the road leading to the edge of the fire, but Frishman said he could see the flames 50 yards ahead. “I’ve seen a lot of fires, so it wasn’t a big deal except for (the fire’s) proximity to our house,” he said. Getting out of his car, Frishman informed the county sheriff about the evacuation notice. Luckily, he was told that a strong wind was blowing south up to 50 miles per hour - away from Frishman’s home.

SPARKS TO SAVE On Oct. 26 Napa firefighters intentionally set the perimeter of sophomore Anna Frankel’s grandparents’ property ablaze to protect their home from fast-approaching wildfires. PHOTO USED BY PERMISSION OF FRANKEL

So he drove back and told his family to stay put. They went back to bed, “but, of course, we didn’t get much sleep that night,” Frishman said. Frishman was one of the lucky ones. Cal Fire estimated that at least 187 homes were destroyed by the combined LaPorte and Cascade Fires. And his involvement with the fire didn’t end that night. Frishman also owns a property in Brownsville, where his daughter and some of her friends live. The following night (Oct. 10), his daughter received a mandatory evacuation. She and her friends packed their stuff and went to stay at a friend’s house. Fortunately, they were able to return to the house the next day. Frishman said he is currently fireproofing his daughter’s property. This process includes ensuring there is a clear space between buildings and vegetation, getting rid of small and unhealthy trees on the property, cutting branches above the roofline on trees next to buildings and setting up an emergency sprinkler system with a generator. Furthermore, on Oct. 11 one of his neighbors had a small brush fire less than a quarter mile away from Frishman’s home. The neighbors had to extinguish the fire themselves, as the fire department was unlikely to arrive in time due to the larger fires in the area.

MORE FIRE STORIES ON PAGE 5

Elective teachers grapple with budget changes following dip in enrollment BY CHARDONNAY NEEDLER

of different levels: from the head of school level, the CFO level and diviWhen administrators and the sion head level,” Thomsen said. “It’s not as though we are going to Board of Trustees met late this sumcut the elective budget by 25 percent mer to finish planning the 2017-18 in a year.” fiscal year, they were met with unInstead, Thomsen said that he and fortunate news - enrollment had other administrators go through each dropped by 24 students. The administration was expecting department in all three schools “line by line” to decide where 485 students but ended to cut. up with only 461, ac“Electives in the high We didn’t cording to head of high school are run differschool Brooke Wells. cut much ently than those in the That dip in enrollof anyone’s budget.” middle school, and they ment meant that the —Brooke Wells have different heads,” he budget plans that added. chief financial officer Thomsen said that (CFO) Bill Petchauer had drawn up and that Wells, head of when it comes to high school proschool Lee Thomsen, other members grams’ budgets (a “divisional deciof the administration and the Board sion”), the decision ultimately rests of Trustees had approved in January with Wells since he is the head of had to be changed to fit the new en- high school. And Wells said that this year he rollment numbers. Because of this setback, budgets didn’t make too many cuts. “We didn’t cut much of anyone’s weren’t released to teachers until weeks into the school year, confusing budget,” he said. “We cut costs on professional deand even frustrating elective teachers. Wells said the final draft of the velopment for faculty, photocopying budget was approved in late Septem- (and) printing.” Wells further said that a voluntary ber, just a little bit after the typical wage freeze of administrators’ salaries approval time. But the final budget wasn’t pub- made up the bulk of the budget cut. lished and printed until a few days afBut according to elective teachers, ter high school class trips in mid-Oc- there were still cuts to their budgets, tober. With the amount of income and they didn’t know about them finally clear, cuts could be made and soon enough. budgets finalized. Head of the physical education Since the budgets cover all three department Michelle Myers, who schools, Thomsen said making bud- has been at the school for over three get decisions is “not as simple” as one decades, said that she usually receives would think because it is a multilay- some sort of preliminary ballpark ered system. estimate, even before the budget “Budget decisions get made at lots has been finalized, from all heads of

school. “After school starts and (they) know the enrollment, the heads of school let the departments know approximately how much money is available for them,” Myers said. She added that this wouldn’t occur immediately at the start of the school year, but rather a few weeks in, around mid to late September. But this year that wasn’t the case. Numerous high school elective teachers, Myers included, were unaware of the status of their budgets well into the month of October. Until halfway through the month of October, all Myers knew about her high school budget was from an email from Thomsen saying that there were going to be cuts, which applied to all divisions. Middle and high school choir and

orchestra teacher Felecia Keys was also unaware of how much money her high school section was going to receive as of Oct. 13. “I haven’t even seen our (high school) budget yet,” Keys said. “I know we did get a cut, but unfortunately, I haven’t even seen the high school (budget).” Yet both Keys and Myers were aware of their middle school budgets. “I know my middle school portion,” Keys said. “(Head of middle school) Sandy (Lyon) shared that with us in an email. It’s still a very generous amount.” In that email, Keys received the budgets of middle school drama, middle school choir and the combined middle school orchestra/band, but she received no information about the high school orchestra and choir budgets. Not knowing her high school budget at the start of the year didn’t pose many problems for Keys as she said she does most of her spending in the

ELECTIVES page 3 >>

SHE SHOOTS, SHE SCORES During the physical education elective’s basketball unit, P.E. teacher Michelle Myers teaches sophomores Christopher Wilson, Bill Tsui and Aaron Graves and junior Leo Eisner de Eisenhof how to play Knockout. PHOTO BY HARRISON MOON

Unconventional casestudy method incites historical thinking History teacher Damany Fisher traveled to Harvard University, Sept. 17-20, to attend a seminar about the case-study method - a way of teaching history through discussions of real-life situations. David A. Moss, a professor at the Harvard Business School, adapted the case-study method to be used in history and is currently bringing it and his class, The History of American Democracy, to high schools as part of the High School Case Method Project. Fisher will introduce the casestudy method to his junior U.S. history class in early November and invites teachers and administrators to observe him. Q: What is the case-study method? A: (David A. Moss has identified) 20 key moments that highlight some of the problems of democracy, along with what he considers some of the turning points in American democracy. Each of the cases (from the method) are based on these moments in history. Q: What is the goal of the method? A: (The goal of the case method is to) force students to consider the context around a particular moment in history and then to look at the different sides of an issue. It really forces students to engage with the past and to understand why certain individuals made a particular decision.

Damany Fisher Students must take a position (or stance on an event) and defend it based on the circumstances that they’ve learned. (For example), based on the context and circumstances, what position or action should James Madison or Martin Luther King Jr. have taken - what should they have done? (Should Martin Luther King have led the protesters onto Pettus Bridge instead of turning around? Should James Madison have pushed for a federal veto of state laws?) Q: Are there any problems? A: WWII, the civil rights movement, slavery and abolitionism could be covered more. I also feel that more could be done to represent women along with working people. I believe that (the lack of coverage of certain topics) is one of the flaws that the people who are administering the (casestudy method) are aware of and are trying to address. —By David Situ


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