News in Brief: Catch up on school, local and national news

East

After a year of activity restrictions due to COVID-19, the Shawnee Mission East cast for the musical, The Wedding Singer, plans to open this year’s show on Jan. 26 with as few constraints as possible.

This year, the musical will generally follow the original plot of the movie. However, no East performance is complete without adding unique elements to the plot and design of the show according to English Teacher and musical director Brian Cappello.

“There are a couple of kissing scenes that we obviously can’t do,” Cappello said. “So we’ve come up with hopefully a clever way for the audience to laugh at how we get around that.” 

While the cast hopes to perform without masks, they are fully prepared to take any COVID precautions necessary in order to protect the cast and audience, such as masks or a modified script.

However, the cast is currently required to wear masks in both on stage rehearsals and off-stage, according to junior Fritz Sullivan, who plays the main male role of Robbie Hart. They plan to keep masks on any time they’re offstage during the performances.

Cappello says that COVID didn’t have an effect on the musical chosen this year — instead, the skillset of the group was taken into consideration while choosing the musical. 

Tickets will be available for purchase at the show and on the SME Theater Department website along with other information such as the cast list and script. 

Local

Westwood View Elementary School has continued its construction for its new building on 4935 Belinder Avenue since its groundbreaking on May 26, 2021.  The construction is scheduled to be completed in 2023.

Construction on the new school resulted from the 2021 bond that approved the request to renovate Westwood View as well as Tomahawk Elementary. This project should finish in 2023 as well. 

The district purchased the Entercom radio tower site in 2016, allowing students to continue learning uninterrupted at the current location at 2511 West 50th street while construction moves along just down the road. 

Westwood View currently has approximately 300 students. The new, larger school will be able to accommodate 550 students. Along with being able to fit more students, the new building will also increase resale value for houses in the area according to local real estate agent, Erin Dreiling. 

“I’ve heard it’s going to be bigger and it’s supposed to help with the traffic while picking up or dropping off,” said freshman and Westwood View alumni Kennedy Smith.

While most families and students are excited about the new space, some residents have voiced concern about increased traffic in their area. Officials have put these worries to rest with traffic studies resulting in no issues with the school’s placement. 

National

With spring break just around the corner, many members of the East community are wondering if airlines will be able to handle the high air traffic that many travelers have faced. 

When COVID first hit in 2020, many airlines canceled flights due to health concerns, travel bans and lack of staff according to USA today. 

Near the end of 2021, citizens started to resume travel, but airlines continued to suffer. In 2021, Southwest Airlines canceled 67.1% of its flights, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Now, after months of reinstated travel, travelers are finding themselves in the chaos of drastic and last minute flight changes.

Around New Years Eve and Christmas, the Omicron COVID variant broke out. By the afternoon of Dec. 31, about 2,300 flights were canceled on the East coast alone according to Market Watch. On the same day, Southwest Airlines canceled 13% of its flights. 

Freshman Sophia Marien-Brovont found that finding a hotel last minute was difficult, but they ended up finding a room that was reimbursed by the airline. They arrived home the next day. 

“The day before school came back we were told that one of the captains [on their flight] had gotten COVID,” Marien-Brovont said. “We were on the plane until like 1 A.M.  or 1:30 when they finally canceled our flight out of Denver.” 

Many other East Students had similar experiences with their flights over break. An Instagram poll showed that 37% of East students experienced difficulties with flights over winter break.  Airlines recommend that people hoping to travel soon might consider taking recommended precautions such as wearing masks, distancing as much as possible and getting vaccinated.