soaring in style: Conestoga students, staff support the eagles
be honest about your hatred for dynasties
Page 5
The Spoke’s special edition: Go Birds!
Conestoga High School, Berwyn PA, 19312
the road to victory: students, staff keep up with eagles
PagE 8
Volume 75 No. 4
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february 19, 2025
glory in green
www.spoke.news
Philadelphia Eagles soar past Kansas City Chiefs 40-22 to second-ever Super Bowl win
Rowan Chetty/The SPOKE
“E-A-G-L-E-S! Eagles!”: Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, alongside Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts and owner Jeffrey Lurie, holds up the Vince Lombardi Trophy during the Feb. 14 victory parade. The team’s win on Feb. 9 marked Barkley and Hurts’ first Super Bowl victory.
By Rowan Chetty, Rajan Saha and Nolan Talley, Co-T/E Life Editor and Staff Reporters At 4 a.m., junior Maggie Barnes woke up to catch a train to Philadelphia, joining other Philadelphia Eagles fans as they lined the city’s streets on Feb. 14. The fans cheered for the team as players and their
families paraded through Philadelphia, celebrating the team’s second-ever Super Bowl win. On Feb. 9, the Eagles played the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIX, winning 40-22. Five days later, on Valentine’s Day, more than one million poured into Philadelphia to attend the victory parade and honor the newly named NFL champions. “The energy (at the parade) was so hype,” Barnes said. “Everyone was so excited to be there. Everyone
was in such a great mood, and everyone was jumping, happy, dancing with the music and screaming.” Three days before the parade, Superintendent Dr. Richard Gusick sent an email to T/E families congratulating the Eagles and announcing that students whose families submit a note to attend the parade will receive an excused absence. Junior Maddie Rakes attended the parade with friends, seeing various Conestoga students in the city.
“Everyone came together. There were a couple people around us that I have no idea who they were, but they would make small talk and be very welcoming,” Rakes said. “There was this guy next to us, and he was telling us about how this is the city of brothery love, how it’s all love here.” At the parade, players and coaches gave speeches to celebrate their win and honor MVP and quarterback Jalen Hurts. During
the game, Hurts rushed for 72 yards, a Super Bowl record for quarterbacks, helping the Eagles start the game off strong with 24 unanswered points. In the second half, the Birds maintained their lead with a receiving touchdown from DeVonta Smith and three field goals. Senior Anika Maganti went to the Super Bowl game in New Orleans and felt energized by the other fans in the stadium. “The energy was high. In our section, we got to sit with
people who work within the Eagles, so they knew a lot of information. They had so much more energy and they knew the players personally, so everyone was cheering,” Maganti said. During and after the game, hundreds of fans took to Broad Street and neighborhoods in Philadelphia to cheer on the Eagles. Donning Eagles gear and waving flags and signs, they celebrated the Birds’ second-ever
Super Bowl win outside city hall with fireworks and chants. “Originally, I was watching in my friend’s house. Then, since we were destroying the Chiefs, we decided to go down and celebrate in Philly,” senior Will Johnson said. “It was incredible. Every single person, from the second I got onto the train until I was leaving, was absolutely fired up.” Continued on page 10.
Administration, staff, students discuss possible changes to device use Ashley Du, Zara Samdani and Faith Zantua Staff Reporter, Co-Managing Editor and Co-News Editor
This year, the school board, district and community have discussed implementing policy regarding appropriate use of computers, phones and artificial intelligence at school.The district has also mentioned possible standardizations for phone holders, hosted workshops and created a workgroup for researching generative AI. Initially presented by director of educational program Dr. Michael Szymendera alongisde other school administration at the Jan. 9 education committee meeting, the original plan included phasing in the mandated use of district-issued devices with each new class of freshmen and starting with the Class of 2029. At the meeting’s conclusion, the committee suggested accelerating the process, removing the option of only using “bring your own devices” (BYOD) for all Conestoga students starting in the 2025-26 school year. “It’s a little strange to have a rule that you can’t have a cell phone out during class but you can have a personal laptop that’s not really managed by the district because the difference between those two things is vanishing, particularly if you have an iPhone and if you have a MacBook,” Szymendera said at
the education meeting. “The majority of our students who bring their own device to school bring a MacBook.” Szymendera sent an email to all Conestoga guardians on Feb. 4 confirming the accelerated rule’s implementation. In the weeks before the educa-
tion meeting, he emailed current eighth grade families to inform them of the possibility. Szymendera oversees the district technology department, with approximately 22 members overall, consisting of the Network and Security, IT Support, Instructional Technology and
Information Services teams. They look into technology initiatives for all district schools, aid with issues and advise administration on related policy. Although students had access periodically to devices such as laptops and iPads before 2020, Szymendera said that the
COVID-19 pandemic increased the integration of technological use across the district with K-12 students attending online classes. With the district’s current updated 1:1 Technology Initiative, K-4 students can have an iPad and case, fifth to eighth graders can access laptops, and
ninth to 12th graders can use laptops or BYOD. Conestoga first offered BYOD as an alternative to district-owned devices during the 2015-16 school year, phasing in the option with each new class of freshmen. The reasons behind advocating for its dis-
Photo illustration by Mary Wolters and Faith Zantua/The SPOKE
continuation include BYOD creating distractions; staff being unable to resolve technology issues with BYOD; the devices having functionality problems; and BYOD providing access to applications that are not easily available to district laptops and can lead to academic dishonesty. With the change, students must bring a district-issued device with them for school. Conestoga department chairs discussed their thoughts on BYOD with Szymendera and principal Dr. Amy Meisinger before the education meeting. Szymendera said BYOD use was “widely unpopular within the school, with the adults at least,” at the education meeting. Computer science teacher Kim McPhillips feels that BYOD users in her classes can get distracted with access to applications that are banned on district-issued devices. She also said that it can be harder to help them with potential issues. “I have seen specifically students using MacBooks to send text messages, and that can be a distraction because it’s the same reason that I require phones to be away,” McPhillips said. “Some students have a little bit of trouble just installing (initial programs), and with the BYOD, I can’t really help them. So if they’re strug gling, if it’s not working, there’s nothing I can do, unfortunately. Whereas with the school laptop, I can pretty much guarantee that we can make it work.” Continued on page 3.