Ahh, lunch period...every kid's favorite part of the day. You get to hang out with friends, have fun, and most importantly, eat food. This year at MASH, the lunch period has changed drastically, for freshmen and everyone else. So, what do people think of these changes, and is lunch at the High School better than at the Middle School?

To answer the first question, I interviewed a sophomore, Joella Jaxheimer, on her opinion on the changes made this school year, and her opinion on the lunch period as a whole.

She shared, “While I think that some of the food is good, we don't have alternating lunches like we did last year, meaning a lot of the food has gotten a bit repetitive after the first month of school. I think that the staff is very nice, and I appreciate them and what they do, but I wish that the food would change a bit. I also find it a bit odd that we have to pay for water bottles but not milk, especially when many kids who go to our school are lactose intolerant and can't drink milk. I also find that the lunch room tables are a bit crowded together. It's a little hard to move around. Other than that, I think that lunches are good, and I really have nothing more to complain about.”

I agree with most things jaxheimer said. The lunches get a bit repetitive, but the food is good. I also thought it was interesting that she mentioned that water bottles cost money, but milk is free, so I decided to look into that a bit more.

According to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, “In whatever manner water is served, it is not part of the reimbursable meal, and students are not required to take water. Furthermore, commercially packaged water and potable water should not be made available on the serving line in any manner that interferes with or appears to substitute for the selection of components of the reimbursable meal, including low-fat or fat-free milk” (“Clarification on the Milk”).

What that means is that milk has money provided to the school and is required, while bottles of water are not. So there is the answer if you’re wondering!

Now, to answer the second question, I interviewed a freshman, Silas Miller, on his opinion on the school lunch at MASH compared to MMS. “I think compared to the middle school lunch, the high school lunch is a little worse, but it makes up for that in the availability and the choice selection, for example the parfaits, and the other wacky options. What I liked about middle school lunch was the rotation, where you would get new, really good food. I also like how we get food, it is a lot better. You just get in line and get funneled in. I like the freedoms you get in the cafeteria, for example how you can sit wherever you want. I also like the provided knives. It makes it easier to cut food.”

I agree with Silas, especially with how many choices there are. The parfaits were a pleasant surprise, and the mozzarella sticks are actually good, and that's been a common theme with these two interviews. People think the food is pretty good, I would argue better than the middle school food, but who makes that food? The final section will include the names and some information about the lunch ladies who make the food for us, so you can get to know them. They do a lot for us here, and this goes for all the staff at our school, so make sure to say thank you every once in a while.

Donna Yorlets

• Kitchen Supervisor

• Worked here for 20 years

• Her favorite part about working at MASH is seeing the kids :)

• Her favorite meal from the cafeteria is the pretzelwich

Lory Henderson

• Worked here for 8 years

• Her favorite part about working at MASH is her co-workers and seeing the kids

• Her favorite meal from the cafeteria is the pretzelwich (This was a popular pick as you will see)

Amy Weller

• Worked here for 9 years

• Her favorite part about working at MASH is her co-workers

• Her favorite meal from the cafeteria is the pretzelwich

Marianne Scholl

• Worked here for 28 years

• Her favorite part about working at MASH is her co-workers and the kids

• Her favorite meal from the cafeteria is the pizza (My personal favorite as well)

Kathy Childress

• Worked here for 10 years

• Her favorite part about working at MASH is her co-workers and the hours

• Her favorite meal from the cafeteria is the pizza

Barbie Heisler

• Worked here for 2 years

• Her favorite part about working at MASH is supplying the kids with food

• Her favorite meal from the cafeteria is the chicken parm (I didn’t know they had that)

Thanksgiving approaches - which for many means that family gathers, watches football, and feasts. But not all Thanksgivings look alike. During this season, many of us assume a variety of traditions as we celebrate. What brings us together, however, is our collective giving of thanks. No matter what we do to commemorate the holiday, our traditions point us to a shared history and the importance of gratitude in our people. In Thanksgiving spirit, here’s a highlight on what Thanksgiving looks like and means to us at MASH.

For many of us, we spend the season with friends and family. Jr. Shamim Aquino celebrates with her family, and on an additional day, celebrates “Friendsgiving” where she and many friends gather to eat tons of food.

Likewise, Sr. Dakota Boone celebrates with family at his grandmother’s house to eat turkey. Seeing family, he says, is his favorite part about the holiday.

And as for Jr. Cameron Knable, he spends Thanksgiving with his family hunting. Thanksgiving season is undeniably defined by family and the ways we cherish it.

For Jr. Nathan Seibert, this couldn't be more true. When asked about his Thanksgiving traditions, he described that, "Thanksgiving is a special time for my family. On Thanksgiving, we travel to visit extended family for thanksgiving supper. Every year we are also the ones who make the turkey for the meal, and we bring it when we go see family. Apart from the food, Thanksgiving is also special because it's a time I get to see family I don't usually see much throughout the year."

Thanksgiving is a special time. Amongst our diverse traditions is a teacher who celebrates with particular gusto. Here’s what Mr. Morisani had to say about his celebration:

"For Thanksgiving, my family has a traditional dinner with a couple of twists. We make spinach stuffing for our turkey in addition to bread stuffing as that's a tradition from my side of the family. We also make butternut squash casserole, which is a tradition from my wife's side of the family. There's an old Italian immigrant tradition of having bread and wine blessed on that day, so we go to morning Mass and have those things for dinner blessed after.

We play football and soccer, and watch the two daytime NFL games if they're competitive.

Perhaps my favorite traditions, though, are running a "Turkey Trot" 5k road race early in the morning, and then watching "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" with my kids. The scene where Snoopy fights the lawn chair always makes them laugh. We watch the old Looney Toons episode "Tom Turk and Daffy Duck" (this is a family favorite). Finally, we tell the story of the original Thanksgiving and where we get the holiday from.

Sounds like a busy day, but it's actually a lot of fun and is probably my favorite holiday of them all."

Even though we may have all celebrated Thanksgiving differently, we all share this season of gratitude. Whether with friends or family, I hope that everyone at MASH enjoyed their break and holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!

MASH has undergone many changes this year, including several changes to the daily schedule. Read on to find out teachers' and students’ opinions on these changes.

Day 6, replacing last year’s day 5, is structured differently than day 5 was last year. Instead of having periods 5 and 6 back-to-back, offering many students a chance for 3 hours of study hall in a row, MASH broke up these periods this year in day 6, so that period 5 is the first period in the morning, and period 6 is after period 2. However, some may question why day 6 is even necessary. Well, it allows students who participate in band, chorus, and orchestra to have the time they need to practice. But what do students and teachers think of this change?

Many students don’t mind the new break-up of periods 5 and 6 during day 6, and explained that it doesn’t make much difference to them when the periods are because they will still have those study halls. However, other students expressed a strong dislike of the new structure for day 6. Sophomore Pidge Jones stated that she didn’t like the new structure this year, saying that “I don’t really like how it’s broken up because it makes work a lot harder to do; having classes sprinkled in between [the study halls] makes the flow of getting work done harder”. Still others have expressed that they enjoy the new day 6 schedule. English teacher Mrs. Donley shared that she loves the new day 6 schedule because “you have a study hall in the morning, class, then another study hall [in the afternoon]; having classes in between [study halls] gives students the ability to get more work done and not stare at a screen the entire time”.

The new structure of day 6 isn’t the only change MASH has undergone to its schedule. This year, MASH returned to the 6-day cycle that the rest of the district follows. When I asked students' and teachers' opinions on this topic, however, the results were mixed. Many students don’t care; however, some had very strong opinions towards this topic.

Junior Jace Littlejohn had a very strong opinion on this topic, saying that he “prefers the 5-day cycle because I am guaranteed a break from long classes every week”.

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that they “like the 5-day cycle because it was consistent, you had the same cycle day every week”.

Senior Sam Nedrow also dislikes the new 6-day cycle, but for a different reason. She brings up the point that “it’s unnecessary to have an extra cycle day."

On the opposite end of this spectrum, many teachers agree with the decision to go back to the previous 6-day cycle. History teacher Miss Crisci stated that “it’s convenient that the whole district is on one schedule,” while another teacher shared that it “helps parents when all the schools have the same cycle days.”

Well, there you have it. The inside scoop on what teachers and students really think about day 6 and the 6-day cycle.

But the real question is, what do you think?

As many of you know, our school is undergoing renovations to fit our growing student population. Over the past few years our school community has grown exponentially, and our school board has been working hard to keep up. The plan is to have a fully finished and remodeled high school by the end of 2025, with some big changes starting this year.

The plan is to begin demolishing and remodeling the ¨freshman hallway¨ at the start of next semester, which will mean classes moving into the new building starting January 2023. When asked what she thought of the new changes and plans for the school, Katie Waterman, a freshman, asked, ¨How do they plan to make this a smooth transition in the middle of the year? This is going to cause a lot of confusion, and walking from one building to the other is going to be frustrating.¨

Aftering talking to many students, they seemed to share Katie´s concerns. Although they are all very excited to have new classrooms, they questioned the effectiveness of moving in the middle of the year.

After hearing from the student body, I went to teachers who will be most disrupted by this change. All of the teachers in the ¨freshman hallway¨ will have to move their classroom, supplies, and decorations into the new wing. When asked her feelings about the move, Mrs. Heisler shared her frustrations with the plans, sharing her thoughts about the practicality of having teachers move and not have the ability to create a welcoming atmosphere for their second semester students in such a short amount of time.

When I heard this it really sparked my interest. With the overall positives of new school equipment and space, I began to wonder if the execution of this move was fully thought through by the school administration. How is this going to disturb our learning environment? What was the time-line based on? Was it based on how to make this the smoothest transition for students and teachers, or was it arbitrarily chosen by those in leadership who are only concerned with bottom lines, such as dollars and meeting time-tables?

Our teachers work hard to make their classrooms a safe and enjoyable place to learn…expecting them to completely redecorate and create a good perception for students in such little time shows a lack of understanding and value for what they do. Making a healthy and stress free work and learning environment should be priority one, not the efficiency of the remodel.

Although I am not nearly as informed as our school board or administration, I do have a few thoughts on how we can improve our school´s transition plan. In a more drastic measure we could postpone the renovation of the ¨freshman hallway¨ until this summer when students are not in school. This would allow teachers to remain in their classrooms and prevent confusion and disruption for the students. Other factors as simple as allotting more time for teachers to transition into their new rooms, or offering students extra time to get from class to class for the first month would help ease the process. Both of these options could put less stress on the teachers and students alike. In the end, we have to find ways to work together to improve our school in the best way possible.

A Dress Code is a list of rules students must follow, which decides what they will wear and how they will wear it. This list controls what people wear, but simultaneously it ensures that people are “safe”. Many laws subdue the fact that dress codes are a violation of one's rights as a student. Under numerous federal laws protecting students from discrimination in student expression.

Fr. Alevia Durham, stated, “I feel that dress code is a good idea for inappropriate clothes, but I don’t think tank tops need to be erased from what we can wear.”

Many others have some of the same thoughts, thinking that the dress code is a little too restricting. Fr. Riley Strous stated, “I believe that the dress code is important, but it leaves a margin for error. I understand that there has to be a line drawn somewhere in what is okay to wear to school. However, this is tricky in that enforcing too strict of a dress code isn’t fair to students, especially because it is targeted at girls.”

Many students can relate that there are restricting guidelines to Dress codes, like Fr. Chase Connors who expressed, “Yeah! Because boys can walk around with their underwear out and be showing everything but girls would get in trouble.”

While some people think a dress code is a way to damper people's opinions and choices from clothing, others believe that a dress code stands is necessary to implement, just as Durham stated previously.

Although opinions differ on dress codes, the way one treats a dress code is what matters. One way is ignoring the dress code; another way is to follow it up to an extent, and then the last way is to follow it entirely.