Volume 16, Issue 1

The student-run publication of Stuart Hall High School 1715 Octavia Street, San Francisco, CA 94109

Volume 16, Issue 1 | Monday August 30, 2021

School renovates The Dungeon Students question identity, legacy of Stuart Hall

s

Owen Akel

Editor-In-Cheif

tudents return to campus, they have been greeted by a new Dungeon, several aspects changed by the school over the summer break including the logo in the floor’s center, the Convent & Stuart Hall logo replacing the shield.

“If you're going to redo the floor, then you’re updating everything else about it, including the logo,” Head of School Tony Farrell said. “The new logo, it’s funny because it’s not even new.

I want to say it's more than four years old now.”

Convent & Stuart Hall officially changed the logo from the shield and knight — logos which were specific to Stuart Hall when the school was founded in 2001 — in 2015 [Story] continues on 2

Owen Akel | The Roundtable

SUMMER CHANGES Four division Convent & Stuart Hall logo occupies the center of The Dungeon floor in place of the Stuart Hall High School shield. The school repainted the floor in addition to making maintenance changes and updates during the summer break.

Summer preseasons resemble pre-pandemic training Students express gratitude, excitement for coming sports

Vlad Korostyshevski & Bailey Parent

T

Reporter & Senior Reporter

his summer, athletic training resumed, resembling pre-pandemic regimens, many Knights taking advantage of such opportunities in order to be in the best shape possible for the fall sports season.

“I help students stay in shape over the summer by being there in the facility,” Barclay Spring the strength and conditioning coach said, “ I point in the direction I think they should go and I get to personalize each workout.”

Before the pandemic, Spring says he would train as many as 120 some days. Despite the pandemic halting use of the performance lab temporarily, Spring says numbers are steadily climbing back to before, training between 20 and 30 people daily.

“Last year we could only work outdoors,” Spring said.

“Now we have the ability to have as many people in the room as you like, as long as everybody wears masks. It’s a lot different than it used to be, but slowly building again.”

Cross Country was also able to start practicing. The team met three times a week for runs and conditioning.

“We've done a normal summer program for cross country running,” Buckley said. “There's just no substitute for that work.

It can't be successful without doing work and we can't be successful without doing work in the summer.”

Students say summer practices prove to be helpful for preparing student athletes for the fall sports season.

"The cross-country summer workouts were epic,” freshman

Luke Endres said. “I made new friends, and I feel stronger.”

For the upcoming school year, sports are expected to resume back to normal according to the department of public health but Buckley says the possibility of invitationals and championships are still up in the air.

“Regular athletic practices that are outdoors should be minimally impacted,” Buckley said. “In terms of competitions, they are a little bit trickier because they involve mixing kids from different schools.”

Summer programs allowed athletes to to be as ready as possible, just in time for the start of the fall sports season “If we’re gonna achieve things as a team that we want to achieve and we need to have work put in right now,” Buckley said.

School opens campus early

Freshman meet classmate, expierence community JJ Kim

D

Reporter

espite a recent spike in coronavirus cases, the school was able to hold freshman success on August 12 and 13 so that freshmen could experience campus life with their entire class for the first time before formal classes started.

“I did sense a large power of excitement,” Greg Lobe, Senior Associate Director of High School Admissions, said. “A lot of that has to do with being in person. This is their first time they’re stepping on a school campus in about 18 months.”

The orientation was also a way for freshmen to rekindle their social lives, as most of them had been learning via Zoom. It was a way for them to get out of their comfort zones and to get their first taste of high school.

“It was great,” freshman Terrance Louie said. “Everyone was

super nice.”

The students participated in various activities, including games in the gym, and even got to go bowling with their new classmates. 13 Teachers were there to ensure the students were behaving properly and explaining what the freshman should expect during their time at Stuart Hall High School.

“Freshman Success was a very interesting event,” freshman Noad Yemme said. “The highlight of the entire thing was when we went bowling. Overall the experience was great.”

As the new freshman enter the school year, Lobe also offers them a piece of advice in order for them to be successful and have fun during their first year of high school.

“Get to know your teachers,” Lobe said. “There are a lot of interesting faculty members with unique backgrounds and fields of study.”

Upcoming Events

2 Sept.

Blood Drive 8am- 1pm The Dungeon

6 Sept.

Labor Day No School

17 Sept.

18 Sept.

30 Sept.

13 Oct.

Home Coming Volley Ball Match 6:30pm

Home Coming Football Game 2pm

Mass of the Holy Spirit 10- 11:30 am

PSAT/SAT

Syufy Court

Kezar

St. Marys

Both Campuses

8am - 12pm

News

The Roundtable | August 30, 2021

Students adapt to schedule

Does the new gym floor affect the feel of the space?

School returns to block schedule format

A

Julian Sevillano

Reporter

s school recomences and students begin their classes, all will experience a new schedule far different than the previous year’s, which was adapted due to pandemic restrictions.

“We have preserved what many experienced as the ‘best thing’ about last year’s schedule,” Head of School Tony Farrell wrote in an email to the school on July 2. “Namely the focus that comes with fewer transitions during the school day and the preservation of instructional minutes.”

Last year, COVID-19 caused many scheduling complications, such as the San Francisco Department of Public Health imposing restrictions on open schools and many students choosing to study via Zoom rather than in-person. Because of this, the school had to make a change in the schedule, and they did by introducing a two class schedule where students take the same two classes for five weeks, switching to two more by the end of the rotation.

“I thought the old schedule was much better because we didn't have as much homework because we only had two classes at a time,” sophomore Gavin Zeitz said. “Now that each class will meet multiple times per week, I'm expecting much more.”

The new schedule resembles schedules’ structures previous to

"It's a bit of a bummer not to see the knights anywhere anymore.­" — David Ross, 12 Connor Zanoli | The Roundtable

the 2020-21 school year, allowing students to attend all of their classes on a rotating tri-daily basis where students have the same 2-3 classes on each given ‘block’ day, the three blocks being red, green and blue respectively.

“I preferred the block format that I had my freshman year and will have this year as opposed to the adapted COVID-19 schedule,” junior Iban Urruty said.

“This year’s schedule will help with memorization and retention, especially in language and math classes.”

The new schedule decreases each period’s length from two and a half hours to one hour and fifty minutes in an effort to

address complaints about excessively long classes.

“I got extremely tired during the long classes,” sophomore Gabe Sigal said. “The extra time was definitely a stretch, and having our classes shortened by 40 minutes is much better for my energy during class.”

In addition to being more academically advantageous, students say that they feel the schedule changes create a better social environment on campus, students effectively able to see their entire class each day.

“It has been really great to see everybody around campus,” senior Gregory Kosmowski said.

“Both because of the schedule in

addition to hybrid classes, I felt that our school community felt fragmented last year, something that will hopefully change with the new schedule.”

Despite recognising that the school’s pandemic-adapted schedule made the most of a bad situation, students say that they are excited to experience a more ‘normal’ school year as a result of schedule changes, for many the first such opportunity since they started highschool.

“There were pros and cons of last year's two class schedules, but I'm excited to see what the new schedule has to offer.” sophomore Gavin Zeitz said.

"As long as they don't get in the way...The renovations have my support.­" — Seth Sarkar, 10

Renovations change feel of space [Jump] from 1

adopting a four-school logo in an effort to unify each division according to the school website.

“You’re not going to go put something up that isn't accurate,” Farrell said. “The gym is to me a more accurate depiction of who we are as a school, and who we are is different from when that floor was designed 20 years ago. It's only fair.”

In addition to the logo in the center, ‘Convent’ is painted along one of the baselines, coming as a surprise to some students as the Dungeon is located on the Pine-Octavia Campus and, traditionally, is Stuart Hall’s home gym.

“As I was led to believe by older students when I was an underclassman, the dungeon had become a center of Stuart Hall spirit, I hope that despite the recent changes the legacy of the dungeon lives on,” Senior Asher Thomson said.

Many students say they share Thompson’s sentiment, worrying the changes will take away from the space.

“The dungeon is a place that most Stuart Hall students develop a strong connection to,” Student Body President Joseph Shea said. “Changing the space

will definitely change how students perceive the space; however, I am optimistic that we will be able to rekindle our affinity to the space despite the changes.”

That said, some students say they like the dungeon’s new look.

“The new basketball floor is really not that bad,” Spirit Representative Eric Lee said. “It is understandable that people are nostalgic, but at the end of the day it is the space and the people in that space that matter, not the logo.”

That said, Farrell says that efforts were made to preserve Stuart Hall’s legacy, especially because of his connection to the space.

“It’s kind of like, how can we have both,” Farrell said. “You want a place for all the divisions to feel at home and, if you can at the same time, you want to honor the legacy of that space and recognise what that space means.”

Farrell says that above all he empathizes with students who take issue with the changes to the dungeon.

“I understand that change can feel like loss,” Farrell said. “If there are people that are grieving about a change, I understand that and I honor that.”

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Staff Owen Akel| Editor-in-Chief Will Burns| Editor-in-Chief Connor Zanoli | Design Editor Bailey Parent| Senior Reporter Robin Tsai | Cartoonist Kavi Gandhi| Cartoonist JJ Kim| Reporter Vlad Korostyshevski | Reporter Julain Sevillano| Reporter Chole Charas| Designer Kevin Russell | Adviser Stuart Hall High School Schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco School Address 1715 Octavia St. San Francisco, CA 94109 Mailing Address 2222 Broadway San Francisco, CA 94115 Contact the Staff roundtable@sacredsf.org 415.292.3161 Unsigned pieces are the opinion of the editorial staff. Reviews and personal columns are the opinions of the individual author and are not necessarily those of Stuart Hall High School or Schools of the Sacred Heart San Francisco.

Corrections and letters may be addressed to the editors at roundtable@sacredsf.org.

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Owen Akel | The Roundtable