photo by Ally Griffith
District
A petition released online on March 16 has garnered over 721 signatures as of March 26 in favor of the reestablishment of a district Fine Arts Coordinator.
This central management position was cut in 2015 by then-superintendent Jim Henson. The petition started when East band parent Gwen Wurst, along with other parents, realized that full-time teachers now perform the administrative duties that three administrators were previously responsible for.
East Band Director Alex Toepfer believes the establishment of this position will benefit fine arts programs across the district since teachers would no longer have to perform these administrative duties, including overseeing district festivals, summer band classes, instrument repair, the music library and inventory.
“While the SME administration and my colleagues have been great, getting this position back would enable the teachers to do what we do best: teach,” said Toepfer. “I often find myself stretched thin with administrative and organizational duties, where I could be planning for concerts and working on ways to improve the band program.”
Band and choir student Davis Vaughn also believes the new position would reduce confusion in scheduling. He noticed the lack of a key leadership position when rescheduling issues arose due to the cancellation of a band concert on a snow day.
“There was just a bunch of harumph about it being rescheduled, and it finally got rescheduled but there was no leadership,” Vaughn said.
According to Wurst the letter that stated the purpose of the petition was sent to superintendent Dr. Michael Fulton as well as the board of education.
“We had a conversation with some folks at the district and in context within the Strategic Planning process the district is going through,” Wurst said. “So we look forward to hearing how the Strategic Plan will come out in November, and hopefully it will address this issue.”
State
All International Baccalaureate (IB) participants who score a 4 out of 7 or higher on either Higher Level or Standard Level exams will now receive credit from all state universities in Kansas.
This is the result of an update to the Kansas Board of Regents Credit by Exam policy that was announced on March 20.
According to East IB coordinator Monique Goodeyon, the new policy comes after several years of requests for reform by midwest IB educators.
“For many years IB programs from [Midwest IB Schools] have been asking Kansas state universities to reconsider their credit policy for IB exam scores,” Goodeyon said. “Many schools and former IB students felt that the credit policy for AP was far more generous than the IB policy at these schools.”
The new policy will go into effect for the 2019-2020 academic year, so current seniors in the IB program who score accordingly will benefit from the policy this coming fall.
Senior Anika Radadiya, who commutes 30 minutes each morning and pays a fee to attend East from out of district so she can do IB, believes that the college credit she will now receive makes her long commute and fee payments worth it. Radadiya, who will most likely be attending University of Kansas next fall, says the establishment of the new policy influenced her college decision.
“I was deciding between a couple of schools, and I think this [policy] is what helped me make my decision to go to KU, because I was able to get everything I want to get done and I can get credit for all of it,” Ridaddiya said.
National
The Justice Department reported on March 22 that Special counsel Robert Mueller has determined in his investigation that neither Donald Trump nor any of his aides were directly involved in Russia’s interference with the 2016 election.
The special counsel investigation, which began in 2017 and is commonly known as the Mueller Report, did not recommend any new charges, but also does not exonerate Trump from potential obstruction of justice.
International Relations teacher David Muhammed related the situation to an agnostic when explaining the report’s outcome.
“It’s kind of like an agnostic, who says ‘I’m not saying that there isn’t a God but I’m not saying there couldn’t be,” Muhammed said.
The Justice Department has announced that a version of the report will be made available to Congress and the public within weeks. This update has come as a response to an uproar of Democrats demanding the release of the report to the public. Junior and policy debater Graham Revare believes Democrats will seek further investigation into potential Trump and Russia collusion.
“I don’t think Trump is going to get impeached,” Revare said. “The Republicans tried that with Bill Clinton and it didn’t work. If he did get impeached it would probably be over something somewhat minor.”
While some are focused on the possibility of impeachment, Muhammad believes society needs to turn its attention towards other questions.
“I feel like if your only hope for justice in a system is for corruption to be found, then I think you need to start questioning your democracy,” said Muhammad. “Regardless of whether you like Trump or not, he won the election right, and one man winning an election is representative of a society.”