the
Volume 3, Issue 1 October 8, 2020
ROCKET PRESS Your School. Your Magazine.
Unprecedented
CONTENTS NEWS
4- NEW ACADEMY COMING TO ROSE HILL’s BUTLER CAMPUS
COVER
8- DISTRICT IMPLEMENTS COVID-19 PROCEDURES AND PROTOCOLS
5- high school welcomes new band and choir teachers
9- teachers learning amidst the pandemic
6-School lunches free until december
9- class of 2020 dealt unique circumstances
6-dinkel named commended student
10- usd 394’s plan compared to other districts
6-rose hill student fully recovered from covid-19 7- rockets hire new wrestling coach
11-how did they start? 12- beginning to now: a timeline of the pandemic
PHOTOS
7-blauser takes over drama
FEATURES
18- ROCKET LIFE
14- black lives matter
14 CONTENTS--2
New academy coming to Rose Hill’s Butler campus
4
YOUR SCHOOL. YOUR MAGAZINE.
High school welcomes new band and choir teachers
5
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
STAFF
LYDIA KIMBLE
Blauser takes over drama
7
rocketpd17
ASSISTANT EDITOR
RocketPd17
STAFF WRITERS
Rocket Productions
SYDNEY LAKOUS
SAM LARSON BROOKLYNN WHITE JESSA LEE LINDSEY ESSLINGER KIRSTEN-ANN SMITH ALLISON CHAPPELL CLAIRE MORRIS ROXANNE SANDEFUR THOMAS SMITH
COVER DESIGN AND LAYOUT
LYDIA KIMBLE AND MR. BROWNING
The Rocket Press is the official news magazine of Rose Hill High School that is published six times a year. The Rocket Press is a student publication, written and produced by students. Opinions expressed in The Rocket Press are of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the USD 394 Board of Education, the administration, the faculty or the adviser. CONTENTS--3
NEW ACADeMY COMING TO ROSE HILL’s BUTLER CAMPUS
By Brooklynn White, Reporter Plans for a new wing are being drawn up for more Butler County Community College programs, as well as a workshop for the high school wood shop programs. “Butler County Community College is setting up a construction academy in the new addition,” Rose Hill High School Industrial Technology teacher Ryan Hill said. “There is a possibility that our shop will be added in there too.” The information was presented to the USD 394 School Board on September 14.
“The advisory committee has been meeting for several months to develop the plan for the Academy, and the Kansas Board of Regents has approved the program curriculum. At their meeting, the Trustees also approved
the program for implementation.,” said Superintendent Randal Chickadonz in the letter. “The plan is to build a new building space at the east end of the high school wing to house the Academy program and also space to be used by our high school woods program.” The new building will house equipment that will be funded by the Butler County Community College programs. Though students and staff of the workshop class do not know much about the new building yet, it is clear that anticipation is in the air. “I’m excited to see the new plans drawn up,” Hill goes on to say, “I think a new shop where we have space to operate in is wanted and warranted.”
A new industrial technology wing is going to be built on the southeast side of the current building. It will house a new Butler academy, as well as some high school classes. Photo by Brooklynn White NEWS--4
HIGH SCHOOL WELCOMES NEW BAND AND CHOIR TEACHERS By Claire Morris, Reporter As the school year begins, new teachers have been employed at Rose Hill High School. Nate Hills is the new head band director at Rose Hill High School. He has taught music for eight years. Before he came to Rose Hill, he was a band director at Oxford Jr./Sr. High School in south central Kansas. “This has been an unusual year so far, but it is going well,” said Hills.
Christopher Kurt is the new choir director at Rose Hill High School. He has taught music for seven years and before he came to Rose Hill, he taught at Aldo Leopold Middle School in Burlington, and Liberty Memorial Central Middle School in Lawrence. “My favorite part of my job is watching students develop throughout the year,” Kurt said. “And open themselves up to learning through music.”
Christopher Kurt is in his first year as choir teacher at Rose Hill High School. Photo by Sydney LaKous NEWS--5
School lunches free dinkel named Commended Student through December By Brooklynn White, Reporter In these uncertain times, many families are struggling to feed their children and or pay for lunch. Fortunately, there was about four million dollars left over from the summer lunch program. “They extended the free lunches until the beginning of second semester,” said Haydock, “This action doesn't affect our budget, but it should help families with some funding.” Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said that providing healthy school lunches is a priority. “As our nation reopens and people return to work, it remains critical our children continue to receive safe, healthy, and nutritious food,” said Perdue in an article on the United States Department of Agriculture.“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the USDA has provided an unprecedented amount of flexibilities to help schools feed kids through the school meal programs, and today, we are also extending summer meal program flexibilities for as long as we can, legally and financially.”
ROSE HILL STUDENT FULLY RECOVERED FROM COVID-19 By Thomas Smith, Reporter Emily Boyle, a senior at Rose Hill High School, obtained Covid-19 a few months ago, a surprise for Rose Hill due to how early the Covid-19 outbreak started. Boyle now no longer carries it and has returned to school with all the other students this year. “I wasn’t surprised because I took care of
News--6
By Jessa Lee, Reporter Senior Caden Dinkel was recently commended in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program. Dinkel was one of around 34,000 students commended who were to be recognized for their academic achievements. Over 1.5 million students took the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which was how they entered into the 2021 competition. The Commended Students were placed in the top 50,000 scorers of the 1.5 million. “Those being names Commended Students have demonstrated outstanding potential for academic success,” commented a spokesperson for NMSC. “These students represent a valuable national resource; recognizing their accomplishments, as well as the key role their schools play in their academic development, is vital to the advancement of educational excellence in our nation.”
people who had it,” Boyle said when she found out she had the virus. First it was shortness of breath, then chest pain, then lost taste and smell and then a headache and finally a fever.” With Boyle’s recovery we can now know more about how to treat it or at least to prevent any spread of the virus. “Sleep and fluids,” Boyle said. Information like this from those who had it can help other people who may obtain Covid-19 and can help with studies to find a vaccine. I felt free and happier to get out of my room and see friends.”
rockets hire new wrestling coach
By Lindsey Essilinger, Reporter
Rose Hill High School has a new wrestling coach, Chris Saferite. He moved here from Andover Central and is just getting started in Rose Hill. At Andover, there were 800 to 850 students, while at Rose Hill, there are only 500 to 550, so that is an adjustment in itself. Saferite has been coaching since 2006, and started right out of college. In 2008, he started working at Andover Central. He has been wrestling since he was a kid, and even wrestled at the little league level at Augusta High School. After high school, he went to Central Oklahoma and wrestled there for four years.
change. He had been working at Andover Central since 2008 and was excited to do something new with his career. “I think the atmosphere here is a little different but is something that he looks forward to and has enjoyed so far,” Saferite said. Saferite hopes this wrestling season will make the wrestlers feel like they have some normal in their lives since this virus has changed everyone’s “normal.” He does not plan on the wrestlers wearing masks but they will take all the precautions they need to keep them safe.
He moved here because he was ready for a
BLAUSER TAKES OVER DRAMA
By Kirsten-Ann Smith, Reporter
Tanya Dockers, after 35 years of teaching, retired after the 2019-20 school year. As a result, Mark Blauser, who was a full-time Language Arts teacher at Rose Hill High School has taken on the drama department. “With Ms. Dockers, I have been able to put together some good performances over the last ten years,” Blauser said. “There are so many good plays I would still like to ‘take a crack at,’” said Blauser. Blauser says he does not plan to change much of Dockers’ previous work. “The selection of titles reflects the talent,” Blauser said. “RHHS has had, traditionally, a small department but a loaded one. The trick? Find the right script to match talent and personality. Having the help of Ryan Hill (Industrial Arts/Drafting teacher) and Ward Hilgers (Art teacher) has allowed me to explore set designs and aesthetics that I would not have considered earlier.”
Blauser stated that over the years of assisting with plays, he started to fall in love with the idea of becoming a drama teacher. “I had never thought of the idea [being a drama teacher] before I came to Rose Hill,” Blauser said. “I suppose the situation presented itself quite by accident. I gradually slid into the role of assisting – and then directing – shows, and the continued enthusiasm of students to my (sometimes crazy) ideas have bolstered my confidence.” Blauser said the department is already working on a new project for the school year. “We are already in pre-production of She Kills Monsters, a show merging high school life with the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Sometime in November I’ll start casting our department one-act performance we take on the road in the spring,” Blauser said. “And for the spring, I’ll finalize options when I see how Monsters turns out. I hope to crank out four shows -- two full stage performances, a oneact, and one “black-box” but we’ll have to see what happens with the pandemic situation.”
News--7
district creates covid education plan By Sydney LaKous, Reporter Students of USD 394 school district came back to school, whether online or in person, on Sep 8. Superintendent Randall Chickadonz said the board had been working on a plan for the 20-21 school year since last March, when schools were initially told they would not return to school for the remainder of the year. “Back in March when we went through our extended spring break, we knew we weren’t going to be back in school for the end of the school year,” said Chickadonz. “We were starting to work on it even during the spring knowing we would have to get back into school, but not knowing what it would look like, so we tried to refine our plan to more closely match the guidance coming from the state.” Chickadonz said the board collected a lot of information from major health organizations to make the best possible plan for the time being. “We took the information from the Center for Disease Control and the American Association of Pediatrics and even the area of Wichita Physicians groups and our chief medical officer within the state,” said Chickadonz. “All of those people are saying that in this virus environment, the masks are a needed piece in countering the spread of the virus. I think when it came to that, it wasn’t so much that the county has or doesn’t have a mask ordinance, it’s more that the medical professionals in the state and our area are advising that that’s the right direction to go.” As for the health of the students, Rose Hill High School Nurse Teri Koester said her job is now the scariest thing about the pandemic. “Typically I see 35 to 40 students everyday, and try to determine, ‘is it Covid, or is it just a normal headache?’” said Koester. “It helps
Cover--6
that I know the students and I know that some have a history of headaches or that they have allergies so that makes it a little easier, but it’s that uncertainty of ‘am i missing something?’, so that’s probably the scariest part of this pandemic for me.” As the school year continues, Chickadonz said that things like regulations and management will continue to change throughout the year with advice from health organizations referenced previously. “Things are changing all the time, so whether that change means to be more restrictive or less restrictive, I think both of those are possible. We know that virus information is changing all the time, that’s one of the challenges that we’re up against right now,” said Chickadonz. “Being able to take in all the information all the time and then redefining what our decisions are, even about going to school. At some point, there may come a time where we have to say that being on-site isn’t safe any longer so we have to go to a remote setting, or it may be that things are going so well, maybe we don’t have to worry about masks anymore. I think that it could go either direction, but it will change, there’s no doubt about that. Something will change in the course of this year.” Koester said there is a chance students could have the virus, but not show symptoms. “I think that we probably have students that may be walking around that have it [COVID-19] and we don’t even know about it because they’re asymptomatic,” Koester said. “If we have a student that contracts it, we will follow the guidelines. They’d be quarantined 14 days and have to stay home so the rules that are there, just trying to interpret them and follow them is the hard part.”
Teachers learning amidst a pandemic
Challenges like remote learners and new technology force hands-on teachers to adjust how they educate By Roxanne Sandefur, Reporter Every class could be difficult to adjust to if it was online learning, especially the more hands-on classes. Physical Conditioning and the arts are two or the more particularly challenging when not in person. “We’re still figuring it out. It’s a little rough,” said Lee Weber, physical conditioning teacher. Weber said he already had some things set up for online learning. “It didn’t stress me out...was a new challenge,” Weber said. Ward Hilgers, the Art teacher at Rose Hill High School, said he was both excited and nervous to come back to school. “I didn’t know how much caution the school district would use... I knew we’d have to wear masks, use disinfectant, and stay six feet apart and things like that,” said Hilgers. Hilgers speculated that many kids would go online, but when he came back, he said he was surprised at how many students decided to be in person. He was also worried that some students who are not in person would miss opportunities.
Class of 2020 dealt unique circumstances From online learning to a drive-thru graduation, seniors across the nation were apart of history. By Allison Chappell, Reporter For many seniors, their last year in high school was one to remember. For Christian Smith it was definitely a monumental year, but possibly not in the best way. “At first I was really mad because I didn’t know exactly how big of a deal it was, and it ruined our chance at winning state for basketball. It seemed like everyday there was something new that was ruined. I never got to do track or have a senior prom,” said Smith. Smith, like many other seniors across the world, had experienced his last year in high school taken away with the blink of an eye. “I was pretty upset about it because I didn’t think that it would all be taken away from me so fast,” said Smith. “I am glad that we could at least have a graduation for our class.” Smith said that remote learning was not his ideal situation. “When I first thought it was just an extended spring break I was kind of excited, but then when we had to switch to online learning, I hated it” said Smith. Overall, Smith’s opinion on his senior year was pretty positive. “I loved my senior year, it was great. It would have been perfect if Corona didn’t ruin the ending, but I still think that it was a good year.”
COver--7
USD 394’s school plan compared to other districts
By Brooklynn White, Reporter
As the infamous Coronavirus spreads throughout the country with all-time highs, the students and teachers of Rose Hill High School and surrounding areas have a new responsibility to protect their peers, friends, and family. In the Derby and Andover School Districts, their guidelines are similar to Rose Hill High School’s, though some aspects have been different. “Without question the two major challenges we face are creating and maintaining a physical distance between individuals in the classroom and during lunch,” Derby High School Principal Tim Hamblin said. “Students and staff have done amazingly well. I personally have had to remind only one student in the first three days to pull the mask up.”
Rombeck Director of Communications at Andover High School. “Our elementary schools are learning in person. We also offer Andover eCademy, a virtual learning option, from all grades K-12”. This is similar to what the Maize school district has chosen to do. As of Friday, Sep 11, the amount of cases in Rose Hill, KS amounts to a whopping 697 confirmed cases. While this may not seem like a lot to most people, it is 44 percent higher than the number of cases a week prior. It is necessary to take the proper precautions to protect the students of Kansas schools and it is clear that this is taken into account at all schools in Rose Hill and the many surrounding cities and towns.
As of this time, Derby High School has chosen to do all in-person school. In these trying times, students and staff have had to follow many guidelines and restrictions. Not only are these applied in the classroom, but also on the athletic courts and fields. “We are doing school by remote computer, there are no students here during the day. It’s kind of weird. We are doing drill practice in the afternoons,” said First Sergeant Marshall Yuen, a JROTC instructor at Wichita Southeast High School. “Our middle schools and high schools are doing hybrid learning. Students with last names A-K attend Monday and Thursday, L-Z attend Tuesday and Friday, and Wednesday is remote learning for everyone,” said Terry
COver--8
Masks are required for all students K-12 in USD 394. Photo by Brooklynn White
How did they start? Schools around the area began the year in various ways. The chart below shows how some of USD 394’s neighbors decided to educate their students.
Rose Hill - USD 394
In-Person
Winfield - USD 465
In-Person
Derby - USD 260
In-Person
Andover - USD 385
Hybrid
Maize - USD 266
Hybrid
Augusta - USD 402
Hybrid
Mulvane - USD 263
In-Person
Campus - USD 261
In-Person
Wichita - USD 259
Online (6-12) In-Person (K-5)
Graphic by Brooklynn White
COver--9
beginning to now:
By Sam Larson, Reporter
---(Dec. 31 2019) Virus was originally discovered in Wuhan, China, in December of 2019, after a large cluster of “pneumonia” cases near a marketplace. Even though that's still the believed place where it started, there was a case of corona in France nearly a week before it was reported in China, but it was not identified as corona until later.
---(Feb 11) China and the W.H.O started analyzing the virus, and determined it was a new virus. It was later named COVID-19, an acronym for Coronavirus Disease 2019.
---(Jan. 11 2020) Cases started to spread around a marketplace in Wuhan, and on Jan. 11, a 61-year old Chinese man died. He was Covid’s first victim.
---(Feb 29) First U.S. death reported. Technically, two people died of Covid before, but it wasn’t until months later that it was found out that they died from Covid.
---(Jan. 20) Coronavirus cases first reported out of China. These countries were Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and the United States. The first U.S. case was a man in his 30s who started to develop symptoms after a recent trip to Wuhan in Washington state. ---(Jan 21) U.S. shuts down travel to China. The first of many countries the U.S. would block from entry. ---(Jan 23) Wuhan was completely shut down by the Chinese government. Wuhan is a city of 11 Million people. ---(Jan. 30) The W.H.O declares a global health emergency. ---(Feb 2.) First Coronavirus death outside of China reported. It was a 44-year-old Filipino man. 360 people have died as of press time. ---(Feb 7) A Chinese doctor died trying to raise early alarms for the virus. He was considered a hero in China. COver--10
---(Feb 23) Italy starts to rise in cases, later becoming the new epicenter.
---(March 13) President Trump declares a national state of emergency. ---(March 24) Tokyo Olympics were delayed until 2021. Last time it was delayed was due to war in 1940 and 1944. ---(March 26 and 27) U.S. Becomes the new epicenter of Covid. A day later Trump signs a stimulus bill into law. ---In March, The W.H.O created the Solidarity Trial Fund, an international clinical trial that aims to generate robust data from around the world to see which country is producing the most effective treatments to. ---In late March, the W.H.O launched the Solidarity Response Fund, where private companies, private individuals, and others could donate to help for the search for the cure.
a timeline of the pandemic ---(March 30) The U.S. officially starts to lockdown the country, but not fully. Schools and many jobs have been temporarily canceled, but going to go shopping for necessities was still an option. Certain jobs that are necessary (such as store employees, law enforcement, power plant workers, etc.) stay open and work less days a week. Some states' lockdowns are more strict than others, as California and New York were completely shut down, and other states like Kansas only shutting down to a degree. ---(April 2) Cases hit a million, and at the same time there are millions without jobs. ---(April 21) Officials learn that early deaths were discovered in California in early February. ---(April 26) Global deaths hit 200,000 ---(May 13) A top W.H.O official says Coronavirus may never go away, and we might just have to live with it forever. ---(May 31) Coronavirus cases rise when BLM riots breakout, causing cases to rise again. Mass gathering of protesters caused cases to go up. ---(June 20) Southern states rise in cases, higher than the rest of the U.S. ---(July 6) U.S. deaths hit 130,000
---(July 11) Trump is first seen with a M-ask on in public when he visited the Walter Reed Military Medical Center. ---(July 13) Over five million Americans loose health insurance. ---(July 17) India reaches five million cases. ---(August 1) In August the first school reopened in Indiana. They were only in session for a few hours as a kid tested positive for Coronavirus, and every student in the school was sent home. ---(Mid August-Early Sept.) Afterwards, many other schools also started to reopen, but many schools also reopened digitally by doing online only classes. ---(Sept) Only weeks after schools reopened, many schools once again closed due to the virus, and have resumed online. ---(September 11) Trump makes an announcement that a vaccine will be ready before Election Day. ---Now present day, where schools are still open and many are still closing. The death toll has just hit 200,000 deaths. A Lot of people don’t really care for coronavirus safety measures. Top scientists are “Cautiously Optimistic” that a covid vaccine could be ready by the end of 2020. ---President Trump tests positive for Coronavirus. COver--11
BLACK LIVES MATTER By Jessa Lee, Reporter
Adriel Smith Jr. and Jaye Earsery transferred to Rose Hill last March from Wichita East and Southeast respectively. The Rocket Press’ Jessa Lee sat down with Smith and Earsery to get their thoughts on Black Lives Matter. The Rocket Press: How has the BLM movement affected you? A- “Honestly, I mean for me it hasn’t really affected me personally, but it has definitely affected stuff that is going on around, surrounding. I could walk down the block and see people protesting. Me, I don’t really get that deep into it, like I didn’t participate in any of the protests or stuff like that. Yeah so, it has taken a toll on our community, my community for sure.”
A- “Me coming from East High School, it was a big change, like I’m coming from one of the biggest schools in Kansas. But I like it more than I did at East. Everybody’s friendly, all the teachers, they know you, they wanna know you on a personal level. At East it’s just you see the teachers and you go by. I didn’t think it was gonna affect a lot you know what I’m saying. I knew the basketball team, I knew a couple of people here already. Coach Shirley, he helped us a lot.” TRP: Have you faced a lot of injustices yourself? If so, when did you start noticing these injustices?
A- “I mean at a young age, I had a couple run-ins with a higher authority. Like for instance I was at the park one morning with my brother. I was really TRP: How different is it coming from young, probably like seven or six, and a bigger school to Rose Hill during there was this man walking around this movement? bloody. I guess somebody called the cops or something, and my brother J- “It’s kind of a big change cause at and I were just over there shooting. Southeast, it was like a lot of kids. I like We were clueless, we were young, and the smaller environment better.” then the cops thought we did it. It’s six in the morning and we were just over TRP- “So in regards to that, did you here trying to play basketball. And ever think before you came here so yeah we had to call my mom and in person, since I know you guys answer a whole bunch of questions and were here last nine weeks, did those all that. thoughts about being smaller and less diverse creep into your head at TRP- “Wichita compared to like, all?” Chicago or New York or places like that have just huge populations, I feel Feature-14
like sometimes Wichita just might not be big enough to feel the huge impact of Black Lives Matter. Do you agree with that? Like it would be much more magnified if you were even in Kansas City or Oklahoma City places?”
TRP: How have all the injustices African Americans have faced affected you emotionally?
A- “My mom has always taught me at a young age, she used to do this with all my brothers and me, that you know A- “Yeah cause I have people that are how to act if you ever have a run in living in Kansas City and their protests with the police or stuff like that. But were way bigger than the ones we now if I’m jogging anywhere, if I’m not had here. The one we had here was so with somebody else I’m always alert. small compared to theirs, so I feel like, Like if I’m driving I’m always looking out. I them being closer to the capitol they're don’t want to be put in that type of position at trying to send an even bigger message. all.
Feature-15
ROCKEt LIFE
Charlie Black and Aubrie Thomison were named fall homecoming King and Queen.
Haley Thrush spikes the ball, during a home game.
Sam Hensley dribbles the ball, during a home game against Wichita classical school.
Brody Barrus and Riley Larson were named mr. and mrs. Spirit.