222 Memorial Drive Berlin, WI 54923 VOLUME 52, ISSUE 1
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019
The
Red ‘n’ Green
A BERLIN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT OPEN FORUM SINCE 1924 Newsbriefs Isabelle Willett Editor-in-Chief
Cast set for fall musical Musical auditions were held Sept. 4 and 5 for the production of the Christmas classic, “Elf.” “I love Christmas and have wanted to do this show for the past bunch of years, but it was never available for amateur theaters until this year,” musical director Lisa Utecht said. “It’s only available this year and next, so I’m doing it now while we can.” Auditions were held in 30-minute increments, where a group of up to six sang a song and read from the script. “Auditions were great and nothing out of the ordinary other than it’s always hard to assign roles when you have a ton of great singers and only so many roles,” Utecht said. “Elf” will take the BHS stage in mid November.
Lack of exchange student at BHS Berlin High school will not have a foreign exchange student for the 2019-2020 school year. “I don’t know if we had families that wanted to sponsor this year,” Principal Lynn Mork said. “We also try to get upperclassmen exhange students to host because they can more easily adapt here at BHS, and some of the students have been younger in the past.” The exchange program is not done for good, just on hold Mork says. “If we get parents that want to host in the future we will go from there,” Mork said.
In this
Issue
- Meet the new teachers, pg. 3
- New coach positively affects cheer team, pg. 7
School district welcomes new superintendent Nya Osterberg
Reporter
He pops up in the back of classrooms and stands out in the middle of the crowded lunchroom. Students might be asking themselves, who is this unfamiliar face? He would be the new superintendent, Dr. Carl Cartwright. Last year, former superintendent Dr. Bob Eidahl announced his retirement, and soon after the search for a new superintendent began. “We had a very strict deadline. We started in January, and we wanted to make the final choice in April. It was a very aggressive timeline, but it worked because we knew the direction we wanted to go,” school board president Catherine Kujawa said. The process for hiring the new superintendent was far from simple. The district received over 30 applicants. Based on criteria from the teachers and community members, the search committee narrowed it down to 10. “We had 10 people that we actually saw in a video. Each candidate answered the same set of predetermined questions. From there we chose six people to inperson interview, and from that six we narrowed it down to two,” Kujawa said. Right away Dr. Cartwright stood out from all other applicants. “I like being able to think outside the box, and to tackle a problem
New superintendent, Dr. Carl Cartwright, makes himself known by welcoming Clay Lamberton students on their first day of school with a warm smile. “The first thing I want to do is really take some time to get to know the district and the community. For me to bring something positive in, I really need to understand the traditions that are already in place,” Cartwright said. Photo: C. McCarthy using a different set of lenses,” Cartwright said. “I like to think, ‘what can we do differently to continue building upon the success that is already here?’” Dr. Cartwright came from Florida where he once was the principal at Howard Middle school. His success at his old school made him the obvious choice for the job. “When I first came to Howard, there were not a lot of people wanting to get into the school. It is now a visual performing arts mag-
net school, and it really changed the dynamic of the school to the point where not everyone who applies will get accepted,” Cartwright said. One idea already in the works is the “Share Table." The concept behind the idea is simple—keep hungry kids fed. A share table allows for students to leave unwanted food or drinks at a designated table where others can help themselves. “The good part is that it (Share
Table) allows kids that don’t want prepackaged food to share with other kids that want to snack later throughout the day,” High School Principal Lynn Mork said. Dr. Cartwright plans on continuing to be visible at the schools and in the community. “I will be at the Homecoming game, and I plan on attending the pep assemblies. I have been to all the home football games so far, and have been posting about it on my Twitter,” Cartwright said.
Grading system helps students achieve Helena Buttke
Reporter
As the 2019/2020 school year has begun, Berlin has made adjustments. This year, the school district has come up with a new grading system called “The Berlin Way.” The new system is both regular grading, and standardsbased grading. The Berlin Way will benefit students who might be struggling in classes. “The Berlin Way is a hybrid grading system taking parts of a traditional grading system (letter grades, percentages, points for student work) and combining it with parts of a standards-based grading system (assessments aligned to standards, reporting of student learning by standards using proficiency levels, utilizing reteaching and retakes to assess student learning),” Director of Instruction Jodi Becker said. Compromises were made with standards-based grading, as there is no GPA or class rank. With the Berlin Way, GPA and
class rank are still present along with letter grades and percentages. Without GPA or class rank, colleges would have a difficult time selecting students. The GPA is a large part of the college application process. ”I think they made a good compromise with the new system being able to keep the GPA and letter grades and not having numbers. I think it’s really good that they kept [class] rank because it would be hard to do college stuff without GPA and [class] rank,” junior Hannah Mertens said. Not only is the grading system affecting students, but teachers as well. “The students have a better idea of exactly what areas they’re going to be assessed on so they know exactly what skills I’m going to be grading and looking for,” English teacher Amy Wenig said. ”It also forced me to come up with more meaningful assessments, which I think is a good thing.”
Although students are still adjusting, the grading system is not the same for all classes. Seniors are being graded with the Berlin Way only in some classes, while freshmen are graded the Berlin Way for every class. Each class is different, but it still effects each grade. ”It gives the students a better idea of what their strengths and weaknesses are,” Wenig said. The Berlin way may have been a surprise for students and parents, but the district has been working on this for four years. The district finalized ways this could work in the high school with direct focus on student learning, according to Becker. This new grading system will allow all students to understand where they have strengths and areas in which they need support. The Berlin Way allows one more level of understanding and helps students focus more on learning and not just on the
points or the letter according to Becker. ”I think that the high school worked hard to come up with a system that’s going to be most beneficial for all the kids. We put a lot of time in, and I think what we came up with is a good product,” Wenig said.
Standards-Based Grading Scale: Advanced = 4 Proficient = 3 Basic = 2 Below Basic = 1 Traditional Grading Scale 100-90 = A 89-80 = B 79-70 = C 69-60 = D 50 = F