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The West Wind
Board meeting covers budget shortfall, accreditation Ripples continue to be felt
in wake of food regulations
Sam Sobczyk
Reporter
Photo by Grant Harrison
Superintendent Frank Harwood discusses with Board of Education members Nina Wolford and Cindy Copich. Among
other things, the board discussed the coming budget and accreditation.
Grant Harrison
Editor-in-Chief
On Dec. 8, the Bellevue
Public Schools Board of
Education held their monthly
meeting discussing both budget shortfalls and impending
accreditation.
The theme of the night
was increased conservative
spending in the upcoming
two years.
“We need to reduce the
use of cash reserve,” Harwood said. “We can’t afford
to keep spending $3 million
year after year.”
Bellevue Public Schools
lost much of its Impact Aid
funding--a major source of
federal revenue for the district--after the 12-13 school
year.
For the coming 14-15
school year, the district received just over $2 million, a
marked decrease from previous years when Impact Aid
was more than $6 million.
The board predicts they
will have to draw from their
cash reserve in the 14-15 year.
The district plans another
year of budget reductions.
Around 60 percent of the
previous reductions were
in spending delays, things
like $1.2 million of new social studies materials and
$800,000 in technology hardware purchases.
“We didn’t spend it, so
we didn’t really save it,” Harwood said.
Other ways Harwood
noted to reduce expenditures
cies, hiring delays or even
reducing employment.
“In order to make ongoing, lasting budget reductions,
we will probably have to talk
penses,” Harwood said.
The board said they budgeted $3.5 million from cash
reserve for the 14-15 year.
For the coming 15-16
year, the continued trend is
expenditure reductions and
saving; the board predicts
another $2 million in Impact
Aid and another $4 million
in other federal funds for
that year.
“After that we’ll have to
see how things are changing
on the federal level,” Harwood said.
The other topic of the
night was Bellevue West’s accreditation renewal.
AdvancEd, a school accreditation organization serving thousands of schools
across the country, will be
sending an External Review
Team on Jan. 11-14. Currently
Bellevue West is an accredited
school, and to keep that valued status an External Review
Team must visit the district
“Accreditation means
that you are meeting a certain level of excellence and
standards,” Bellevue West
school improvement chair
Kim Gangwish said.
The External Review
Team will meet on that Monthe School Board, and with
parents and community members.
On Tuesday, the team
will go out to the schools and
observe, meeting with staff
and students.
To meet the standards
of these External Review
Teams, BPS has developed
school improvement teams to
continually push for positive
change.
“Currently we have a goal
about building the relations
between students and teachers,” Gangwish said. “That’s
what that, two times a month
during reading time, your
teacher goes over different
things with you--that’s part
of that.”
The team also created
a literacy goal due to the
positive correlation between
independent reading and
improved test scores.
“That’s a part of what
reading time comes from,”
Gangwish said.
With future budget talks
and accreditation renewal
looming in the future, the
board will meet again on Jan.
5, 2015.
Anyone walking through
the halls of Bellevue West
has likely heard the students
complain about the changes
in the lunch room. Many students are not fans of the new
healthier food options.
Among other things, the
vending machines are turned
off during lunch passings.
This is done to reduce
competition in the lunchroom. Similar to the vending machines, food-based
fundraisers such as FBLA’s
doughnut sales or DECA’s
cookie store are not aloud to
be conducted during lunch or
breakfast.
“Due to federal regulations we can’t sell anything in
vending machines that would
compete with the school
lunches,” activities director
Jon Mauro said.
Recently Bellevue West
underwent an inspection by
a federal food inspector. The
inspector was sent to ensure
that Bellevue West was implementing the new law in the
correct manner.
Although the results of
the inspection have not yet
been released, Bellevue West
expects to pass the inspection
without any problem.
“I think Michelle Obama
is annoying and she should
bring back our good food,”
sophomore Jesse Lewis said.
The new food laws were
put into effect by the federal
government to try to encourage kids to eat more healthy
food with the hope of lowering the childhood obesity rate.
Some students believe
that they do not need the new
food laws in order to make
healthy choices. By removing
all unhealthy choices from
the lunch room, students may
have a harder time learning
how to make healthy choices
on their own.
“I would prefer to make
my own healthy choices,”
senior Sophie Otto said.
According to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture,
“Kids are eating more fruits
and vegetables as a result of
updated standards.”
No matter how students
feel about the introduction of
these new laws, the results are
undeniable. Students are not
eating more than 350 calories
per meal now--partially because they can’t-- and without
these extra calories they will
not be as likely to become
obese.
Although the new rule
has not been met with overwhelming support from the
student body, the new rules
may have a lasting affect on
the well being of each and every child who is affected by it.
“The provided school
lunches are never enough so
money each time trying to
Pojar said.
The goal of the new
law is to encourage kids to
make healthy choices in what
they eat.
The thought behind implementing the law in schools
is that due to the fact that
teens are growing and developing now, and so the regulations will encourage students
to eat healthy through the rest
of their lives.
GAMEFEST
g
h
a
Senior born halfway around the world granted citizenship
Put to the test
Answers
The path to citizenship is much longer than just the journey to
America. Applying for naturallization, among numerous other
stipulations, requires that a person take a test over U.S. civics.
Out of a pool of 100 Questions, 10 are chosen for the exam; to
pass, an applicant needs to answer at least six correctly. Here
are some of those questions. How would you do?
American Government (47)
Senior Viatcheslav Merinov (right) works on a chemistry worksheet
in Ms. Lemke’s room. Merinov became a citizen on Nov. 17 after
immigrating from Russia over four years ago.
Grant Harrison
Editor-in-Chief
While most students at
West learned what they know
about citizenship from their
textbooks, senior Viatcheslav
Merinov lived it.
Merinov, who most know
by his preferred name “Slava,”
became yet another West student to attain citizenship after
he was accepted on Nov. 17.
Merinov was born in Russia
and has lived in the U.S. for
more than four years now.
After his mother took a
citizenship test and became
a legal U.S. citizen, Merinov
joined her through a policy
which grants citizenship to
children under 18 who both
live in the U.S. and have one
parent who is a U.S. citizen.
“I didn’t have to take a
citizenship test. But I saw
what it looks like. There’s a
lot of questions about who’s
the president, what are the
amendments--all these government questions,” Merinov
said.
Merinov went to the
on 1717 Avenue H, to apply
for citizenship. The office
serves the entirety of Nebraska and 29 counties in Iowa.
Though the implications
of citizenship are still new to
Merinov, he says he plans on
voting when he turns 18.
“That’ll be interesting,”
Merinov said.
The West Wind
[email protected]
Editor in Chief
Grant Harrison
Intergrated Civics (13)
9) Name one state that borders Mexico.
1) What is an amendment?
2) If both the President and Vice President can
no longer serve, who becomes President?
Rights and Responsibilities (10)
3) Under our Constitution, some powers belong
to the federal government. What is one power
of the federal government?
10) How old do citizens have to be to vote for
the President?
4) What is the name of the Speaker of the
House of Representatives now?
Benefits of citizenship
5) Who is the Commander-in-Chief of the millitary?
Voting
American History (30)
1) Change to the Constitution
2) Speaker of the House
3) Print money, declare ward,
create an army, make treaties
4) John Boehner
5) The President
6) American indians or Native
Americans
7) James Madison, Alexander
Hamilton, John Jay, Publius
8) World War I, World War II,
Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War
9) California, Arizona, New Mexico,
Texas
10) Eighteen and older
Questions and answers from the
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services website.
Eligible for federal employment
6) Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?
7) The Federalist Papers supported the passage of
the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.
Bring family members to the
U.S., Citizenship for children
abroad
8) Name one war fought by the United States in the
1900s.
Sports Editor
Katie Allen
Features Editor
Rae Rangel
Entertainment Editor
Em Brandon
Commentary Editor
Kylie Fenger
Copy Editor
Elle Lowe
The full staff list is available at www.thethunderbeat.org
The West Wind is published six times a year by Bellevue West, 1501 Thurston Ave. Bellevue, Nebraska 68123. The West Wind is a student-run publication in conjunction with TheThunderbeat.org.
The West Wind is published by White Wolf Web in Sheldon. Iowa.
Adviser
Julie Rowse