Mission Creek Recap
6
page
Best Prom Eats
page
Boy’s Tennis Gets First Win
17
9
page
City High School1900 morningside drive, iowa city, iowa 52240 issue five/volume sixty-nine - 4.22.11 www.thelittlehawk.com
Religious Perspective by Jason Arnold, Mikiel Curtis, and Alexandra Perez
photo by CASSIEWASSINK
ABOVE: Protesters fight the proposed teacher cuts that would end 22 full-time teaching positions in the district. Over 50 protesters gathered outside the Central Administrative Office in downtown Iowa City.
Budget Battle by Cassie Wassink City High is constantly undergoing changes, some of which are harder to accept than others. One recent development hit City High particularly hard. Last Thursday, the decision was made to cut twenty-two full-time equivalency positions in the Iowa City Community School District. One full-time equivalency position is any combination of staff positions whose salaries add up to one full time teacher. These cuts are being drawn from the general fund, which does not include special education funding. Of these 22 positions, ten will be drawn from elementary schools. Of the remaining 12, four will be taken from City High, four from West High, and four total from the three junior high schools in the ICCSD. These cuts have been met with widespread dissatisfaction from the public, and last week there were protests around the district’s Central Administrative Office downtown. A crowd of over 50 people gathered--teachers, parents and students alike. Among those protesting was Deborah Thornton, a public policy research analyst at the Public Research Institute of Mount Pleasant, and City High parent. “We need to cut administrators, not teachers,” Thornton said. “And we
need to properly deal with new districting.” Tom Yates, president of the Iowa City Education Association and City High teacher, also spoke at the protest. “I’m hopeful that the board and CAO pay attention to the amount of interest and put staffing where it needs to be,” Yates said. “It doesn’t need to be a huge crowd. Just a crowd that says, ‘Look, this is where public funding ought to be.’” Yates feels strongly that protesting is not only right, but a necessary action to take. “Being active is better than being passive and just letting things happen without saying anything about it.” he said. Danelle Knoche, City High teacher, feels that the new cuts are deleterious not only to teachers, but to everyone involved. “It’s important that they [lawmakers] understand that there’s other things going on. They’re not just hurting the teachers. They’re affecting the children, too, which will affect your education, which will affect your whole life and your whole well-being.” Knoche said. John Bacon, principal of City High, though prepared for the upcoming changes, has not stopped fighting. “I remain optimistic that the cut will not need to be that severe,” Bacon said. “And I will continue to advocate for the needs of our building to make sure that we are effectively staffed.”
photos by CASSIEWASSINK
CHANT: Protesters yell save our schools, led by Tom Yates.
The most immediate difference between City High and the Iowa Mennonite School (IMS) in Kalona is not that one teaches about God and has a chapel--it’s the size of the hallways. City High, with nearly 1,500 students, has wide halls filled with bustle and activity. The IMS, with only 126 students, has only one hallway, a single row of lockers, and a close sense of intra-student familarity. At 7:40 a.m, and while students in Iowa City are probably slumming begrudgingly to school, still half asleep, students at IMS are preparing a fine dining experience for local citizens as part of the culinary arts class. This is one of the many diverse programs offered at IMS. “I really enjoy the culinary arts class,” Grethen Geyer ‘11 said. “It gives us a chance to cook for our friends and family.” Throughout the week, students study and prepare a menu. On Wednesday mornings, they serve the meal as part of a “Restaurant Experience.” IMS has eight periods per day, except for Wednesdays and Thursdays when they have a block schedule. The majority of students say they don’t like block schedules because the classes are twice as long. The school also has chapel, where students bow their heads in prayer to commemorate their day and gather to discuss past and upcoming events. “Chapel is really used to form unity throughout the school,” Kyle Yoder ‘12 said. “It is basically like pep assemblies at other schools, only through prayer.” IMS is a private school, which allows its teachers to teach religion freely. The Mennonite religion is a sect of the Christian faith. Some main discrepancies between the Mennonite and other Christian denominations are the belief in non-infant baptism, refusal of military service, and the taking of oaths. “People are always getting us confused with the Amish,” Yoder said. He explained that this is an assumption based upon cultural ignorance rather than religious knowledge; the Mennonites and the Amish are two different groups. The Mennonites wear the same clothes as your average Little Hawk, and they do similar things for fun. “We like to go to Iowa City to have fun on the weekends or just hang out at each other’s houses,” Geyer said. “The one thing we can’t do is dance. It’s against our religion, like in the musical ‘Footloose’.” The halls of the modest high school are filled with enthusiasm. A strive for family atmosphere is one of the many things that draws students and teachers to IMS. “A lot of people who graduate from IMS end up teaching here,” Marcus Miller, history teacher and soccer coach, said.
Story continued on page 2