A BERLIN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT OPEN FORUM SINCE 1924
The
Red ‘n’ Green
222 Memorial Drive Berlin, WI 54923
VOLUME 45, ISSUE 6
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017
Jim Wand hypnotizes students, community members by
Brittney Meyer
A kissing contest, the Kentucky Derby and an orchestra. Those were just some of the scenes hypnotist Jim Wand made students and community members believe they were part of. Wand put on both an afternoon and night show Monday, Feb. 13, which was hosted by the Berlin FFA. “Both shows went really well,” FFA President Clinton Ottman said. “We had a fairly good turnout for both, especially the afternoon show with students.” Junior Joey Schmidt was hypnotized by Wand at both the afternoon show and night show, and reflects on what it felt like being in this state of mind. “It was an awesome, exciting experience,” Schmidt said. Schmidt can recall a couple things that he, and others who were hypnotized, did during the shows. “I remember clapping really hard at the beginning, and then singing the song ‘Baby’ by Justin Bieber after Tim DeRuyter sang the national anthem,” Schmidt said. “At the night show I remember Blair Moriarty talking about his muffler and trying to run from the cops.”
$17.5 million .25 $2 llion mi $5 million
$10.25 million
Equalized Aid Local Taxes Other sources (grant money, other aid, etc) Numbers provided by Dr. Eidahl
Issue
• Day without technology, pg. 3 • Rookie Writer, pgs. 10-12
Newsbriefs Physics students start building for Rube
Science teacher Paul Bell’s Physics students are brainstorming ideas for the upcoming Rube Goldberg competition on Friday, March 3 at Waukesha County Technical College. Their job is to apply a band-aid to an object. This is Bell’s first year advising the Rube competition and he sees his students’ creativity stand out in their work. “I would say the creativity has surprised me and the cohesiveness of the group,” Bell said.
(Left to right) Junior Joey Schmidt, senior Richard Markham and sophomore Bradon Gulch mimic the sock monkey’s actions while being hypnotized by Jim Wand at the night show on Monday, Feb. 13. Photo: B. Meyer Although there may have been embarrassing moments, Schmidt says that he would do it again. “I would love to be hypnotized again, it was like being in a really vivid dream,” Schmidt said. Even people who did not experience being hypnotized say they enjoyed the shows. “I loved the show, it was really interesting,” senior Kayla Cudnohosky
said. “I have never gotten to see anything like that before.” Audience members such as Cudnohosky wish they could have been a more active part in this experience. “I think it would have been cool to get up there feeling super exhausted and end up feeling energized when it’s over,” Cudnohosky said. In total, the Berlin FFA sold 242 tickets, and say they may have Wand
come back in the future. “It’s a possibility that he will be back in two years because everybody seems to really enjoy him coming and doing his show,” Ottman said. Both Schmidt and Cudnohosky hope that Wand will be back in the future. “I hope he comes back because others need to experience the feeling of being hypnotized,” Schmidt said.
New education budget provides more aid, relief for starved district Total Budget:
in This
by
James Hinton
Governor Walker released his new budget for Wisconsin on Feb. 8 that promised important changes to the funding of public schools, as well as more money for schools. “He has promised a significant increase in Equalized Aid amount, for the next two years,” Superintendent Dr. Bob Eidahl said. Equalized Aid is funding provided by the state, based on the general wealth of the community around the school. Districts with lower property values, like Berlin, receive more of this aid than other schools. “This aid helps us keep on the level of schools in richer communities, so we can still provide a good education for our students,” Eidahl said. This increased aid is a welcome relief to the school district, which has been in lean times during the past years. “These last few years have been some of the hardest I’ve seen as a Superintendent. I’ve had to cut programs a lot of years, and put the district on a starvation diet,” Eidahl said.
Eidahl mentioned that these new funds would not make the district “fat and sassy” but it would provide some breathing room. “We can afford to loosen the belt loops a bit, which is a good thing,” Eidahl said. “Frankly, I am not sure what else I could cut.” Technically, the school budget increases nearly every year, but usually not at a rate to account for inflation or heightened cost of living. “State aid usually increases at around 1 percent every year, this year it will be around 2 percent, which is one of the larger increases I’ve seen,” Eidahl said. Still, mapping out how the budget changes from year to year is not that simple. A school budget has a lot of moving parts that can all change independently. “Some programs may be cut, and other portions may increase and decrease independently. There is rarely ever a net increase or decrease in the budget,” Eidahl said. With the new money, Eidahl and the school board have to consider how to spend it in the next few years. “We want to replace the boilers in Clay Lamberton, since they’re
almost 60 years old. And the roof of the high school is getting older, so we will have to look at that,” Eidahl said. Eidahl also said that various computers and other technology around the school will be replaced. “We try to keep a lot of the computers on a rotation, so we do not have everything broken at once. We generally replace around a fourth or third of them every year,” Eidahl said. Students welcome these changes to the funding, and look forward to the changes that will be made to the school. “It’s a really good idea to spend money on education when we have some to spare,” junior Samuel Rucks said. Other students have suggestions and thoughts on how the money should be spent. “I think that we need to focus on updating the curriculum, making it more about understanding the material, and not just doing the work for assignments,” Luke Dretske said. “Having great programs will not matter if students do not know or care to take advantage of what that money gives us.”
SchoolGrounds changes menu
The coffee shop is offering new drinks, with new frappes, shamrock and dreamcicle shakes. The Jamaican Me Crazy cappuccino drinks were hot on the menu for this month. Coffee shop owner Nicole LeDioyt explains the reason for new items on the menu. “It is trial and error for bringing new items to the menu,” LeDioyt said. “We try it out, and if it is not hot then we make it cheaper.” With business being consistent, the shop raised frappe prices due to adding more flavoring which increased their cost. “We also were losing money,” LeDioyt said. “So, that is why the frappes went up. As all our procceeds go to scholarships, that is another reason, as well.”
Trees for Tomorrow makes annual trip
Trees for Tomorrow students went up to Eagle River and learned about different survival skills and activities with animals and nature from Jan. 25 to the 28. Sophomore Ryan Breeden said he enjoyed all the activities they did. He attended in fourth grade, and wanted to give it another go. “We learned how to start a fire, went snow shoeing, hiking and animal tracking,” Breeden said. Breeden learned more of the importance of nature through the activities they did during the three days. “Nature is more interesting than what people think. It is more complex, not boring,” Breeden said.