News Briefs: Catch up on school and local news

As posted on the @smeastlancers official Instagram from Oct. 9 up to Oct. 17, East has been receiving awards and recognition from U.S News and World Report — an American media company news publisher.

“I’m just really proud of our students and teachers who work on a daily basis to really uphold our legacy,” Principal Jason Peres said. “So I’m proud but honestly, not surprised.”

East has received seven recognitions within the past three weeks. To qualify for the U.S News and World Report, they consider three components: state assessment scores, enrollment — including how many are taking IB and AP courses — and how well those students do on exams.

In the past, East was ranked in the top five of schools in Kansas but this year, East has new goals guided towards their students’ success, according to Peres. The new goals include: a reduction in chronic absenteeism — when a student misses ten percent or more of a school year — and a reduction of D and F grades. 

“The recognition is great to receive and it validates the work that’s done on a daily basis but we have never been accolade chasers,” Peres said. “I think when you do what’s right for the kids, work hard and have a community that supports you, the recognition comes naturally.” 

Vice Principal Susan Leonard, Associate Principal Emily Demo and Instructional Coach Kelsi Horner founded the Women in Leadership Club to expand female leadership at East following inspiration from Shawnee Mission West’s similar program. 

The first meeting will be held on Nov. 16, and the club will meet monthly. 

“This is our first year doing this, so we are figuring out this as we go,” Leonard said. “But I think we really want balance. We want young ladies [in the club] who are interested in different things and offer different perspectives.”

Through Women in Leadership, they hope to accomplish three things: learning, serving and leading. According to Leonard, they will have book studies where they will learn about women they select as well as adding in some service opportunities like being able to help women’s shelters and other organizations. 

“We have great female leaders already at East,” Leonard said. “But I also hope there’s maybe someone out there who hasn’t found a place to lead yet and that we can help place students in leadership roles.”

Heading into the DeSoto debate tournament on Oct. 27 and 28, sophomores and debate partners Adeline Clifford and Preston Hooker are preparing to use a new debate technique, which hasn’t yet been used by East this season, called Kritique Aff — also known as K Aff — to enhance their debate performance.

According to Clifford, during a normal debate round you might argue things like topicality — which pertains to whether or not the plan affirms the resolution — or the advantages of your plan, where the K Aff changes the format of your plan.

“A K Aff is used instead of running a normal plan, it’s like saying the actual topic that you’re supposed to debate about, doesn’t actually solve any of the issues,” Clifford said. “So in order to solve the issues you need to use the K Aff, which is outside of the resolution and argue that it’s the only way to solve the issues.”

According to Clifford, throughout the debate season, many debates start to follow the same flow, so it’s not uncommon to switch up or edit your plan. Clifford and Hooker have been working to switch up their usual plans.

“With the K Aff, some judges think they are really interesting and others don’t, it really just depends,” Clifford said. “The idea is that you would be able to win based on the fact that the other team wouldn’t know how to run an offense against it.”

The K Aff can be used to throw off your competition since it’s not the usual format of a debate. Having never done this technique before, Clifford hopes to get a better understanding of the K Aff technique and be more knowledgeable about the different plans people might run, making her better prepared for future debate tournaments.