The Powderpuff football game will be held on Sunday, November 5th, 2023 at 5 p.m. on the football field. Powderpuff is an all-girls flag football team where different grade levels will play each other. Freshmen will play seniors and sophomores will play juniors. Anyone can attend to come watch. The coaches for each team are football players/soccer players for each grade level.

  On November 1st, the Zane Trace High School student council met Shane Wilkin (Ohio Senator for the seventeenth district) at the Ohio Statehouse. Whilst there, they learned how a bill becomes a law, as well as the history of the Ohio Statehouse. They also learned of some of Wilkin’s attempts at legislation, such as the Coders Project - intended to increase Computer Science resources for Appalachian schools - and his rejected legislation which was intended to increase funding altogether for Appalachian schools. The students also sat at the senators’ desks and learned about what the Senate does while in session.

  The Zane Trace Drama Club is welcoming all students to audition for their Spring play, “The Little Shop of Horrors”, an 80’s classic. Every student in 7th-12th grade is welcome and qualified to join because no experience is necessary! You also do not have to be in the Drama Club to audition for this. There will be a workshop held on February 15th after school in room 271, open to anyone interested in auditioning for the play. The workshop is not a mandatory event to audition for the play however. The official audition will be held on February 23, right after school in room 271 with Mrs. Betz. A student who is planning to audition will be expected to prepare any song of their choice and be sure to be prepared!. Plenty of students have signed up to audition already and there is plenty of time and spots open to join. The Little Shop of Horrors is a classical movie that was released in 1986. In this film a flower shop assistant named Seymour is working his shift at the shop during a total eclipse. He comes across a very unusual and odd plant, who feeds off of human flesh and blood. Seymour names her Audrey II, and it’s desire for flesh increases. To sustain the gruesome plant’s bloodthirst he feeds Audrey’s boyfriend to the plant and continues its feed. This classical film will be recreated by the Zane Trace Drama Club and you can have your part in this wonderful production. Everybody who attends is certain to enjoy watching this amazing play guaranteed. Any student is welcome to join and take their part before the final audition date of February 23, 2022. It is highly encouraged and recommended to join and we hope to see you there!

This school year Zane Trace is starting a district wide initiative known as the “Carve Your Path” initiative. The goal of the initiative is to encourage students to move forward and accomplish their own goals. By doing this they are carving their own path. 

Zane Trace Local School District has a very rich history. The backstory behind the name lies in the history of Zane Trace and the surrounding area. In 1797 Ebenezer Zane carved the first official road in the state of Ohio that was referred to as Zane’s Trace. This was done by physically carving away trees and obstacles through the Ohio wilderness. Zane’s Trace stretched from Wheeling, West Virginia, and went through Ohio all the way to Limestone Kentucky where it stopped. It went through St Clairsville, Cambridge, Zanesville, and Lancaster. The road also ended up going through the Chillicothe area and more specifically the area around Zane Trace’s district. Today Zane’s Trace is intermingled with what is now Route 40 in Ohio. 

This year Zane Trace is urging students to follow Ebenezer Zane’s example and carve their own path. Students at Zane Trace are encouraged to embrace being a pioneer. This initiative hopes to involve students of all ages at Zane Trace. There are various ways for students to show their pride in being a student of Zane Trace. This can be done through sports, academics, behavior, and much more. The initiative allows every individual student to participate and is not limited to a particular group. Students can each do their part and carve their own path.

American Sign Language (ASL), is one of the most used languages in the United States for the hearing impaired. At Zane Trace High School we should add more to the curriculum by introducing ASL as an option for foreign language credits because students should have more opportunities to learn something new. Around only 234 schools provide ASL as a foregin language out of 24,000 public high schools. I have taken surveys around Zane Trace High School and also a few outside of school to see more opinions than the ones at Zane Trace, the questions I have asked are: 1.) How do you feel about ASL being a class or a club? 2.) How do you feel about it being a class for credits? 3.) What will be the biggest obstacle in making this happen at ZT? The results of these questions were varied because they’re mostly opinion-based, so here is the result I have come to when asking these questions: 

The surveys I have conducted generally show that 96.3% of students, teachers, and people outside of school would support an ASL class being provided, it also shows that 85.2% of students, teachers, and people outside of the school would like it to be for a foreign language credit, and lastly, my top 2 biggest obstacles in making an ASL class at ZT will be finding a teacher and getting enough students to take the class. ASL should be a class provided because 1.9 million people are either deaf or have some other hearing disability use ASL to communicate with others. So my question to you is, would you take it?

Picture from: vhv.rs 

As the month of March comes to an end, many colleges and universities are now out on spring break. As this time approaches, many students are planning on traveling with their friends. This may be an issue with COVID-19 still being a huge problem in the world today. This is currently a problem in Miami, Florida especially since it is a very popular destination for college students. In Miami, Florida, they have had many mishaps so far involving more than 1,000 people getting arrested and 100 gun seizures already this year. Also, Florida does not require people to wear a  mask in public, so a lot more people are at risk. With the law-breaking environment and the slipping coronavirus guidelines, Miami is a very problematic place to visit this time of year. Along with these issues, some of the people residing there this season have caused street fights, destroyed lots of restaurant property, and started dangerous stampedes. In many instances, it got so out of hand that the Miami Beach Police had to bring in SWAT teams to disperse the disruptive crowds. The police had to shoot pepper balls into the crowds to try and break the crowds up as well. To try and crack down on these issues, the state of Miami mandated a state emergency curfew at 8 every night. Along with the emergency curfew, the state of Miami is trying to limit the number of travelers that come for their spring break. According to CNN, “Too many are coming, really, without the intention of following the rules, and the result has been a level of chaos and disorder that is just something more than we can endure.” Hopefully Miami can get this under control before having to shut down their whole state for the second time. 

Due to COVID, the graduating class of 2020 are struggling with life after high school.After interviewing several graduates, it was discovered that it was as I suspected. Several graduates stated that it was a great disappointment  to miss the end of their senior year, and that they continue to struggle to adapt to online college classes. 

The first 2020 graduate that was interviewed was Owen Campbell. Owen is nineteen years old and attends Miami University. When asked, “How do you feel about the majority of colleges doing online instead of in person lectures?” He responded with, “ I don’t like it and it’s terrible for my motivation and paying attention in class. It’s also harder to find groups of people to study with because you aren't really able to talk with your peers.” He also said that several of the canvases they use for online lectures crash often, making it difficult to get a proper lesson in. He was asked if he could make any changes to the way his college went about Covid restrictions he said, “I would have in person classes at a limited capacity or if that's not possible have 2 groups where half the class is online and half is in person and they switch every other class.”

After interviewing Owen and hearing his ideas and concerns, it proved the point that COVID has taken a toll on the recently graduated class. He also went in to say that it has made keeping in physical shape difficult due to gym restrictions. However, physical health wasn’t the only health suffering, mental health (especially stress levels) are getting difficult as well. 

2020 graduate Adam Swart was asked the same questions, and gave very similar answers. Adam Swart is nineteen years old and does not attend college at the moment, however he is enrolled into UC next year. When asked why he was not attending college this year he said that it’s “because I don’t like online classes. It makes it more difficult to focus and makes me lose motivation.” When asked “How do you feel about the majority of colleges doing online instead of in person lectures?” His response was, “It shouldn’t cost the same as in person, you aren’t getting the same experience.” As you can see both Adam and Owen have almost the same feelings and opinions when it comes to the college freshman experience, as well as other individuals in their situations. The 2020 graduates continue to struggle with their new college experiences and not knowing how it really works. It has given them a great disadvantage, more so than what they already had by missing the end of their senior year. 

  Should students be required to take the end of year exams this year due to COVID? This is a big question that the current students have now that we have reached the end of year and are in the fourth nine weeks.  As of right now, exams are to go as planned like the ones we took the first semester, but will everyone be prepared?  The exams over the first semester were over just what we had learned so far but these exams will be over everything from the first semester plus the second semester.  Even though exams occur every year, they were not required last year in the high schools due to being out of school for three months.  Have we been in school for most of the year with minimal remote learning days?  Yes, but this year has been very different and not exactly gone as planned.  With students being put into quarantine they miss school and have to do remote learning.  Even though they are still doing what we are in school it’s not as easy to learn if you aren’t there and there might be gaps of information you didn’t see or learn about.  In the end, should end of the year exams be conducted? Yes, but I don’t think they should be considered as important.  Of course they should still be mandatory but maybe not as important when it comes to your overall grade and average. 

The Made Program is a drug free initiative encouraged amongst high school students that is available at Zane Trace High School. The Made program was started in the 2016-2017 school year. The Drug Free Clubs of America or Made, was founded in 2005 in pursuit to encourage young adults to stray away from substances. The Made program was founded by a group of firefighters trying to decrease the numbers of overdoses and drug-related deaths because they had been seeing them far too often in their field of work. In the Made program, you are required to take a first initial drug test, and if you pass you are able to join and stay in the club. Also, after the initial test you may be required to do another test at random at the draw of your name. After passing your initial drug test, you are eligible for a Made card, which allows you to get rewards and percentages back towards merchandise and food around your area, such as a free drink with purchase at Subway. The founders believed that teens would be more encouraged to stay drug free if they were persuaded by rewards. In addition to the rewards and health benefits the Drug Free Club has to offer, it also shows how to be a good human being and how to develop good morals. MADE stands for My Attitude Determines Everything, which is a mission statement that the club abides by on a daily basis. Finally, the Made program is an outlet, or a more simpler way to say no to drugs in the present and the future. It is an outlet because you can easily say no to illegal substances by saying, “No, I could be tested.” 

Our school would benefit greatly if we switched to block scheduling. It would allow us to have more time to understand concepts and give us less homework, the new schedule could relieve a lot of the daily stress that students feel, and the teachers will have more time to prepare for each class and give more in-depth lesson plans. 

According to the NEA, “a block schedule creates a ‘saner school day’ by slowing down the pace,  reducing homework and freeing up more time for hands-on learning and collaboration.” There are many different setups for block scheduling, and most of them allow students to only focus on certain classes each day. The best option will let us alternate classes each day. Due to longer class periods, and more time to focus, grades will dramatically increase. There will be more time in class to do work, which will keep students from worrying or forgetting about it if they need to take it home. 

Block schedules also allow schools to have a later start time. This means we could sleep in a little and still end around the same time as the type of day we have now. Another benefit is the opportunity to take more classes because a person could enroll in eight classes instead of only six or seven.

Although there are a lot of great benefits to block scheduling, there are a few disadvantages as well. There is some stress involved in trying to learn a completely new schedule. It can take up to two years for a new schedule to become normal. One adjustment like this requires most of the other aspects of the school day to change as well. Teachers, parents, bus drivers, and students would all need to rework how their days work with the new type of school day. 

The great points to changing our schedule greatly outweigh the bad. Although there may be some stress, in the beginning, moving to a block-style day will greatly decrease stress and improve academic performance in the long run.

Have you ever felt that the school building is a little bland? While it may be better than some, the same simple colors of white, red, and blue being plastered on every wall make the building especially bland. At times it feels like you may need to leave a trail of string behind you to navigate the labyrinthine walls. Luckily for us, the new Mural Club has formed and is planning on adding character and color all over the school this school year.

The club is quickly becoming fully functional and is now willing to start taking on requests en masse. As of now, they have already planned a couple of murals by request of faculty. The first finished project you're likely to see will be just outside of the high school gym where they will be painting the ceiling tiles, themed to the different activities that are held inside the gym.

Any staff or upperclassmen with a designated parking space that would be interested in getting them painted can get in contact with the high school art teacher Mrs. Roepke or any mural club member. You will need to pay a twenty-dollar fee and provide either a detailed sketch or a description of your vision. Once you’ve put in your request you can expect up to a one-month wait time until your space is transformed.

If you’re interested in helping the mural club with their endeavors in a way other than ordering a commission you can donate to the club at donorschoose.org.

For one hundred years National Honor Society has been an association for students who value their character and high education. There are now around 18,000 schools that have active chapters in this prestigious group of high school students. Zane Trace has the honor of being one of these many schools that value the pillars of the National Honor Society.

ZT students that are current members of the NHS form a committee that decides who gets accepted into our chapter. They will review applications of students who meet the requirements of at least a 3.5 GPA and follow the guidelines of the four pillars of the National Honor Society.

The four pillars of NHS are everyday scholarship, everyday service, everyday leadership, and everyday character. Everyday scholarship means seeking a deeper understanding and putting in the effort in classes. Everyday service fosters the lifestyle and mindset of serving others. NHS members are required to meet a certain amount of service hours to their community. Students voluntarily fulfill the needs that they see around them. For everyday leadership, members take control of their pathways and take responsibility for their actions. Valuing others, oneself, and building relationships are the fundamentals for everyday character. Some attributes to a great character include honesty, respect, and trustworthiness. 

New Zane Trace members will be pinned sometime in the middle of March. The induction ceremony will be two weeks following the pinning. Current members will decide the time and location of the function. Having this distinction is very important because of the great opportunities that being a member gives.

National Honor Society provides great opportunities for members. It provides service ideas to give back to their community.  They provide online webinars and modules. These programs help students become ready for college and their careers. Every year, two million dollars are given out as scholarships to hard-working students. Members can also receive badges of honor that can be added to their college applications.  

#Futuready is a great program that is offered by the National Honor Society. It provides informational videos and self-guided plans on many aspects that students may struggle with. Some of these topics are public speaking and goal setting. A few other subjects that are covered are time management, career exploration, and mastering interviews. There are also additional resources such as links to other websites and articles and some worksheets. This program is free and can be found by going to the NHS web page and clicking on the students tab. 

The Sausage Breakfast is an event the Zane Trace FFA puts on every year. This year is the 44th annual Sausage Breakfast and it took place on February 11, 2022 from five to nine am. The Zane Trace FFA puts this on to raise money to donate to the Children's Hospital, the Ross County Jr. Fair, and the Pete Dunkle Scholarship Fund. But a lot has to happen before they can put on the breakfast. 

The FFA members put on the breakfast with help from Mrs. Johnston and some other volunteer adults. They make the sausage themselves, they start with a pig and they cut them to get the meat to make the sausages. This mainly happened on what is called the work night, which took place on February 2 from two o'clock to nine thirty o’clock that night after school. They cut up all the meat they would need to create the sausage and seasoned it too so it would be ready for stuffing. After the 2nd the ag students then made the sausage in class, they learned how to stuff the sausage correctly into the lining. But before they can make the sausage or even get the pigs they send out donor letters asking people, groups, or companies if they wanted to help them buy pigs, which they call hog donors. All of the hog donors are greatly appreciated and there were signs hung up with their names on them so everyone coming to the breakfast would see they donated. There were a total of around 30 hog donors.

Starting January 24, some students taught lessons about pigs and sausage to elementary kids, grades 1-4. They all got to learn about how sausage comes from pigs and that there are different breeds of pigs, and what they eat and how they grow. They all had lots of fun and so did the FFA members teaching them. They all did a paper and colored them while learning and they were hung up in the walls so all who came to eat sausage could see their work. 

The original day of the Sausage Breakfast was February 4, but it was moved to the 10th due to the level three snow alert. The Sausage Breakfast is worked by the FFA members, they do all the serving, cooking, and greeting. The final preparations the day before were in full swing. They had to make sure everything was set, the schedules, food, help, etc. They all worked really hard and were all excited to finally get to the day or should we say morning. 

The breakfast was really successful, with a total $4,765 raised and 604 people served. The FFA members worked hard all morning making sure everyone got food and was enjoying their meal. Some friends and teachers walked in the door and the FFA members were more excited to suver those they knew. There was a big rush from 7-8:30am and they worked even harder to make sure everyone was served. Once the breakfast was over they started cleaning up as the school students were coming into school soon after. Mrs. Johnston said “Thank you to everyone who made this event possible. The FFA members, ZT administration and community members who attended all contributed to helping continue this 44 year tradition.” At the end of the morning she thanked the workers for all their hard work and they were dismissed by 10am to go home to sleep, eat, and recover from the long morning.  

Why We Must Pass the Renewal Levy

By Jasper Kern

With November quickly approaching, election day rears it’s head once again. This November 8th however, is vital to Zane Trace including a tax renewal levy that must be passed. This isn’t a new levy, and it’s been used solely to keep Zane Trace operating for years. While many schools have tax levys Zane Trace especially needs them. There are many reasons why the Zane Trace renewal levy is of the utmost importance.

It should first be understood what this vote is for. This election day a vote is being held to renew an emergency tax levy. It’s important to understand that this means this isn’t a new tax, this levy was first passed in 1982. Since then it hasn’t once failed to pass. This means that it’s simply common practice to pass this levy. This Levy won’t include any new taxes, you’ll pay the same that you always have and won’t have to worry about any changes in your taxes for the foreseeable future. 

Next, we have to understand what this levy means to Zane Trace. In short, this levy means safety and a reassurance of staying open just the same as we normally would. This is an emergency tax levy meaning its purpose is to keep Zane Trace afloat in the case of emergency. The money gained from this levy would go simply towards keeping the lights on. Operating expenses and teacher salaries are the greatest examples of what this levy covers. With this you can be assured that your tax money is being used responsibly and only for the benefit of the students and their education. The side effect of this however is that this levy is what keeps Zane Trace able to hold so many events and extracurricular activities. Without this levy it’s very possible that the school may have to cut some of the community’s favorite sports and other activities which would be devastating to many.

Lastly, Zane Trace is unique in its need for emergency levys. To understand this it is important to look at where Zane Trace gets its funding especially compared to other schools around it. Most schools get the majority of their funding from state sources some schools such as Hunington getting 77% of their funding from these sources. This isn’t true for Zane Trace however. They get the most payout from local sources getting 42% of their funding from local taxes. The next highest percentage of local funding is Unioto with 24%, nearly half of what Zane Trace needs. This clearly shows how important local funding is for Zane Trace, without it the school would have trouble staying afloat like many of the others around them do off of high state and federal funding that Zane Trace simply doesn’t have.

It’s for all of these reasons that we must make sure to pass Zane Traces emergency renewal levy this year. If you live in the school district, it’s only right if you take the short time out of your day this November 8th  to help our school and it’s students.

Student Council 2023 Statehouse Trip

By Jasper Kern

On Friday, February 17 the Zane Trace Student Council took their field trip to the Ohio Statehouse. All of the students participating in the student council this year were allowed the day exempt from school to travel up to Columbus and tour the home of their state legislature. During their trip, the student council enjoyed getting to relax and take a break from their normal school day with each other. Once at the statehouse, the group was led through the building and taught about its many facets. They learned about the long history of the building and the many shapes it has taken over the years, even going from two separate buildings to one. The importance of the building’s art and its inspirations and origins was also touched on with many faces familiar and not being pointed out among the statehouse’s many displays.

Throughout the tour, there were some topics that most greatly interested the students. The first being the many procedures held in the house and senate. The students enjoyed getting a look into what it was actually like to be a member of these groups and being able to ask questions about the exact proceedings. The students also took great interest in the building’s astonishing architecture. The Ohio Statehouse keeps a strict greek revival and many students were in awe of the buildings grand chambers.

This field trip was a great success allowing these students an opportunity not all get to have where they were able to have an enjoyable and educational time outside of the classroom and become more connected with our state’s government.