Harbinger The Algonquin
April 2015 vOL. 27 NO.4
New start time for a new year
The Student Newspaper of Algonquin Regional High School 79 Bartlett street, Northborough MA 01532 | arhsharbinger@gmail.com
Soulfege performs at Acapella night
Brian Barr
Editorial Board Changes to Algonquin’s current order of periods appear to be on the schedule for the 2015-2016 school year. Efforts to improve student performance have culminated with an array of 12 proposed schedules for the next school year. Meetings after school have been conducted over the past weeks in an attempt to bring together various schedule ideas by administration, led by Principal Thomas Mead. “What we’re trying to generate is a lot of conversation and discussion about this stuff,” Mead said. The push for a new schedule to improve student performance comes after several years of discussion around the sleep schedules of Algonquin’s students. Among these 12 proposed schedules lies an object of much controversy: the Flexible Learning Block, which would occur from 7:20 to 7:45 every morning. “Kids can sort of choose what they want to do, use the library, extra help, etcetera,” Assistant Principal Michelle Tontodonato said. The block of time serves as a way to ease students into the start of a school day, rather than waking up and directly going to a first period class. “It was suggested that we pilot this, try it out, and take stock of how it’s going at some point near the middle of the year,” Mead said. The plan is not without its detractors, however. “It avoids the whole issue of students not getting enough sleep,” senior Emily Seiple, a member of the school’s Student Advisory Committee, said. “Administration felt pressure from parents and decided to throw this 25 minute flexible learning block in that will end up being a waste of time for students.” The inclusion of the Flexible Learning Block in next year’s schedule is not definite. In fact, it’s not known at this point which schedule of the proposed 12 will be implemented.
“Start times” con-
tinued on page 4
WHAT’S INSIDE:
Unity through maroon Zoe Michas
Editorial Board
photo rafaela coelho
Acapella group Soulfege sings “Barbra Ann by Beach Boys” at Acapella Night on April 2.
New traffic cop appointed be an excessive amount of snow, and also an excessive amount of cold,” Laughton said. “The days Editorial Board have averaged 5.7 degrees colder than normal, so The presence of a new police officer directing there are parents who don’t want their kids standing traffic at the Bartlett Street school entrance is stir- out in the cold waiting for the buses.” ring up mixed opinions from staff members and Many students have mixed feelings about the students. presence of the new police offiAccording to Assistant cer. Principal Mel Laughton, com- “Given the right “I think he was very helpful plaints from students and parents tempo for getting when the weather was bad, but prompted action towards fixing now that it’s getting nicer, it feels the problems facing the intersec- people in here, I like he’s slowing down the traffic tion. The intention is to prevent think it could be getting in to the school,” sophoaccidents and create a more effi- helpful. Traffic more Kelly Slovin said. “At the cient flow of traffic. same time, it seems safer with him “Given the right tempo for was backed up there.” getting people in here, I think it before, and I think “I definitely think that even could be helpful,” Laughton said. sometimes it though it makes the process of “Traffic was backed up before, getting into Algonquin slower, it’s and I think sometimes it takes a takes a while for a good to have someone there to while for a change out there.” regulate traffic and prevent accichange out there.” Laughton suspects the traffic dents like we’ve had in the past,” issues are related to the intense junior Kavya Verma said. Mel Laughton winter that residents faced in the Laughton believes the situaAssistant Principal tion could be changed by student past few months, leading parents to drive their kids to school in the action. morning instead of having them wait for the bus. “A lot of this could be resolved by people start“A number of factors are contributing to the ing 10 minutes earlier,” Laughton said. issues this year, one of them being what seems to Eileen Moynihan
photo clare strickland
Cars line up down Bartlett Street and Maple Street, waiting to enter through the main entrance for the start of the day on April 10.
Robotics competes, wins page 3
The gender spectrum explained pages 8-9
Diverting from the tradition of boys wearing maroon gowns and girls wearing white gowns, all graduating students will be dressed in maroon at this year’s graduation ceremony with hope that a singular color will unite the class. Principal Thomas Mead believes that the maroon gowns will allow students to feel connected as a class one final time, highlighting that the decision to switch to a singular maroon gown color was a choice to promote unity. “It’s better to have that show of unity that that one color represents for a school than having two different colors,” Mead said. “It’s one more time, in a very symbolic way, to pull the class together by all wearing the same color.” Senior class advisor Nicole Ruffo also said that the color change centered around unity. “This is one class; we’re not a white and a maroon class, we’re an Algonquin class,” Ruffo said. “We were steering towards one color because it’s for unity.” The two colors of gowns at graduation started in 2006, so having one color gowns is not unprecedented. A state mandate on gender discrimination stating “schools should eliminate gendered policies and practices such as [gender-based dress codes]’’ was also taken into consideration in the process of switching to maroon gowns. “We’re a group of leaders here. We’re not a group of followers, so we decided that we were going to stand up to this mandate and follow it,” Ruffo said. “Other schools will have to follow soon too. This is a positive step in the right direction.” The decision to wear maroon gowns shocked many students who felt like they did not have a say in the decision. “I think there are a large amount of people who also believe that this did not have to be changed,
“Robes” continued on
page 4
Spring sports preview pages 14-15