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May 10, 2010
Paige Castren
ASB elections committee decided to do something different this year for ASB elections: record speeches and interviews instead of having an assembly.
“It [the assembly] was totally useless. Nobody could hear,” elections committee member junior Tessa Thym said.
The week before spring break, Thym and juniors Sophia Harrison and Erin Enguero wrote up questions and made a video schedule. When the candidates came in, they were told the procedures and got to read the questions for a couple of minutes. They got the chance to introduce themselves and say a short speech. After that either Thym or ASB president senior Seth Neumann asked the questions, which they edited out and put on the bottom of the screen.
According to Thym, there were no big technical problems. One thing they want to change is they want one DVD with a menu for the different grades. Since this year, they did most things last minute, next year they want to do more planning in class.
The juniors had to watch 19 interviews this year, so in classes that had all three grade levels, the juniors had to go to the cafeteria with the juniors who had P.E. The sound quality was pretty good, but there were more distractions. They hope less run next year, so everybody can stay in class. This would help students to be more focused, and keep them from talking so much and listen to the speeches.
According to Thym, the videos made the elections less of a popularity contest and made students able to see if people were suited for the position. They were able to see how they thought on the spot.
“It took the campaign up a notch,” Thym said.
According to Enguero, the videos saved time. Live speeches call for applause, which can slow down the process. There also wasn’t the time of waiting for the next candidate to speak. Since most students were in class, they got to vote while the candidates were fresh in their heads.
“Even though there was lots of preplanning, the day of [elections] went a lot smoother,” Enguero said.
The candidates had mixed emotions about the videos.
“I would say overall the videos were better but sometimes the speeches can show your personality more,” ASB president-elect junior Justin Woo said.
While Woo prefers the videos, ASB secretary-elect sophomore Emma Johnston would rather speak in front of her peers to inform them about herself and her credentials.
“But I know that it’s much more effective to do the interviews,” Johnston said.
English teacher Deborah Pavlecic was hesitant at first about the videos, fearing that there could be many technological problems. However, her freshmen class watched intently and took the voting seriously.
“I was very happy,” Pavlecic said.
Students were as equally impressed.
“The new system allows the student body to actually vote on the qualities of the candidates instead of just their name or how many posters are put up,” junior John Lund said.
However, Lund would like to see the unneeded questions taken out, such as the candidate “special talents,” and have more of a debate about school issues.
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April 16, 2010
Brian Jeon
ASB held an assembly for tenth graders on March 31 to promote higher Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) testing scores, to talk about the upcoming Advanced Placement (AP) tests and to encourage students to give a genuine effort on the I-Search project. Classmates performed skits to help motivate their peers.
Assistant principal Sean Moffatt kicked things off with a speech about STAR testing. He emphasized the benefits of doing well on the test, such as being able to keep the diverse electives that the school already offers. He also listed the consequences of failing to meet adequate scores, including implementation of longer school days.
“[Doing well] tells them you guys are mastering the standards,” Moffatt said.
To further drive the point home, sophomore Blake Barrientos, seniors Seth Neumann, Kim Chatterjee and Sean Chadha held a skit on STAR testing. The skit covered the positives of doing well on STAR testing as well as the negatives of doing badly on it. The skit emphasized the message to “take the test seriously.”
Neumann with sophomores Ruby Miu and Brady Knight performed another skit to provide tips and encouragement to the sophomores about the AP tests.
Chatterjee introduced career counselor Michelene Wittmer to the sophomores.
“She should be your new best friend,” Chatterjee said.
Seniors Seth Neumann, Kaylee Miu, Lauren Floro, Brian Jeon and Reggie Quero each held a miniature speech on the importance of picking an interesting career for the I-Search. Each emphasized a different point on why the sophomore class should take the opportunity to think about a future career, not simply for the sake of doing it.
To augment the assembly’s message and to rally the sophomore spirit, sophomores of the school band, Peter Braun, Michael Liao, Daniel Brown and Allen Liu played a song as Terrance Walker danced to music.
“The sophomore assembly told us a lot of information about upcoming events like STAR testing, and our I-Search projects,” sophomore Kerry Liou said.
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January 28, 2010
Nicole Doan and Brian Jeon
ASB organized an assembly for ninth graders to bring the class together and to encourage students “give back to the school” by doing well in finals and STAR testing. The assembly also promoted the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance, Feb. 6, which the freshman ASB officers organized.
“We want you to succeed academically. We want you to succeed socially,” Small Learning Communities (SLC) coordinator Brynn Osicka said. “We want you to be number one.”
To strengthen the assembly’s message, ASB members and freshmen engaged the audience with two performances.
Freshman Fabian Gutierrez rapped about the Sadie Hawkins dance, while freshman Steve Gonzalez accompanied him by beat boxing. Freshman Ian Tambagahan break danced during their performance.
Freshman Nathan Trutner, seniors Kimberly Chatterjee, Sean Chadha and Seth Neumann performed a skit to inform freshmen about STAR testing.
Once again, the school has set a goal to reach at least 801 for the API score. If achieved, students will receive an Up Yours lunch, an extended lunch period in which ASB will provide food and various activities. In this case, “up yours” refers to increasing test scores. If students do not reach the goal, the school will be in danger of losing elective classes. In turn, administration may take away events such as dances.
“I really want to have a party. It sounds fun,” freshman Akshita Taneja said. “[The assembly] definitely motivated me.”
ASB increased involvement in encouraging the freshman to do well on their STAR testing. In reaction to the school’s unchanging API score in 2009, ASB decided to start the campaign much earlier in the school year than before. Due to schedule constraints, the freshman class officers are not enrolled in leadership class, but organizing the assembly helped them become a larger part in leadership activities.
Ninth graders were seated with their assigned “families.” The three families are K-9, Mad Dawgs and Alpha Pack.
The SLC program creates families so groups of freshmen can share the same schedules of English, science, and health or computer classes. These classes contain a smaller number of students to allow teachers to focus on more individual students. Teachers then communicate with each other more easily to reinforce integrated learning or a cross-curriculum teaching. In addition, teachers can discuss what they need to do to assist individual students.
The freshman assembly went smoothly without problems despite being the first of its kind.
According to ASB member senior Drew Jordan, ASB plans to hold similar assemblies for sophomores and juniors in the near future.
“We won’t be able to do them this semester but definitely the next,” Neumann said.
This article originally appeared in print on Jan. 26, 2010. It has been modified to correct grammatical and usage errors.
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December 16, 2009
Students and parents picked up their Christmas trees in the faculty parking lot on Dec. 5. ASB sold about 70 trees and made approximately $2500. They extended the order deadline from Nov. 20 to Nov. 23, which helped increase sales
People had the option to buy wreathes. However these did not arrive on Dec . 5 due to a manufacturing malfunction. ASB president Seth Neumann said that these should have been delivered to the customers’ homes on Dec. 8 or 9.
The whole operation of delivering the trees ran very smoothly.
“The wrapped tree was placed on van by a student and we were out of there in 10 minutes,” parent Jill Reist said.
“It practically ran itself,” Neumann said, referring to the efficiency of the pick-up system.
ASB also ran a donation bake sale in the faculty parking lot to raise additional money.
There was been very positive feedback on this fundraiser, especially from parents.
“The tree was very reasonably-priced and is just as beautiful,” parent Cheryl Petroff said.
Next year, Neumann said that people will be able to order their trees online and at MAZE day.
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November 10, 2009
Paige Castren
ASB is selling Christmas trees to generate money to buy a color marquee. Activities director Helen Paris found out about this idea when she went to a leadership conference. The long-term goal is to have a color marquee installed within four years. With a color marquee, ASB would have the opportunity to display ads and pictures; now the marquee can only display word messages.
“It will let us do so much more than what we can do now,” ASB president Seth Neumann said.
Leadership students have spent the month of October spreading the word through posters and the daily bulletin.
“Everyone we’ve talked to seems really interested,” Neumann said.
Students have to order the trees by Nov. 18. The different types of trees include Douglas, Noble and Grand ranging in price from $40 to $85. ASB is also selling wreathes and garlands. The trees are from Oregon and will be cut 48 hours before delivery. Students will be able to pick them up Dec. 5 from 9 a.m to 2 p.m. in the senior parking lot.
Even though not everyone celebrates Christmas, Neumann believes this an appropriate fundraiser “because it has a potential to make a lot of money which will benefit students.”
ASB does not have any other fundraisers planned at the moment for the marquee.
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October 16, 2009
Matt Moore
In the first weekend of October, the Washington boys water polo team came, saw and conquered four teams in two days at the Contra Costa Water Polo Tournament, establishing them as a force to be reckoned with throughout NCS. The team dominated formidable opponents such as California High School and Livermore High School, scoring 49 goals total while holding their opponents to a mere 17. This accomplishment was made even more impressive due to the fact that last year, both Cal High and favorite-to-win Livermore were ranked well above our school, but as the Contra Costa Tournament showed, it’s a whole different ball game this year.
The first day of competition was marred by controversy. Although the day got started on an excellent note with Washington decimating Berkeley High School, 22-1, the late afternoon game against Novato proved to be a vicious battle. Washington coach Gene Kendall received a red card, barring him from finishing the game and from coaching the subsequent game. Not only that, but the Novato team repeatedly choked WHS players and went unpunished. At one point in the game, the Novato team was credited with an extra point, despite protestations from both teams that the score was incorrect. In spite of the adversity, Washington prevailed 13-7 and moved onto the semi-finals, where they faced Cal High, who were ranked seventh last year at NCS, well above the Washington team ranked at sixteenth.
In the semifinals, Washington’s incredible improvement since last year was obvious. In every aspect of the game, our boys water polo team proved to be superior, scoring more points while rendering Cal High’s offense completely ineffective.
It feels great to beat Cal High since they were ranked higher last year. It’s going to look good in the post-season. We played a really solid team-oriented game,” junior Dillon Green said.
In the finals, Washington was the underdog against Livermore, a team that many suspected to win, and who the Huskies acknowledged as a tough opponent.
I think that if we play our best we can beat Livermore,” senior Seth Neumann said.
Anticipation was high, especially since surprise was widespread amongst Livermore parents that Washington had made it this far. They were even further astonished as the Huskies demolished their offense, ensuring that until the last two minutes, they held Livermore to only two points, whereas Washington scored seven goals. When the game ended 7-5, Washington’s win, Livermore players and parents looked bewildered and confused that they lost to a team they expected to come in third or even fourth place, but ended up winning the tournament.
After all the crowds had left and all the pictures taken, Kendall, who was able to coach the final game, had only praise for the way the Huskies had carried themselves, and his belief in what the team can accomplish:
This tournament showed we were an elite team. These games weren’t squeakers, some five to four desperation shot wins. We handled them,” Kendall said.
With this important tournament win, the team is projected to be a possible top six team at NCS championships this year. More importantly, they have also proved to the league and to themselves that they can compete with the best, and succeed, no matter what challenges lie on the road ahead.
Photo Credit: Michaela Go
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September 23, 2009
Seth Neumann, Timothy Rodriggs and Kimberly Chatterjee carry out the Harry Potter theme in the First Day Rally, Sept. 2.
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September 22, 2009
By Matt Moore
Photo by Seth Numann
On Sept. 17 at the Silver Cup shootout tournament in Reno, Nevada, the WHS boys water polo team performed admirably, taking on four opponents in two days, and decisively beating out three of those opponents. Not only that, but every member of the boys water polo team scored at least one goal during the tournament.
Varsity player senior Seth Neumann had a bright outlook after the end of the tournament.
”We played our best, and we had a great time doing it. This is going to be a great year,” he said.
This does seem to be the truth, as the team has multiple returning varsity players, who will not only ensure that the team wins, but also ensure that the newer players have mentors to look up to, and carry on the team.
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