D
FOR ENTERTAINMENT Bowie offers a new Outdoor Adventure class as a P.E. credit alternative. pg. 6
AGAINST
IN-DEPTH The recent ruling about Roe v. Wade places the decision regarding abortion onto states. pg. 8-9
PHOTO BY Nick Wood
ART BY Isabella Del Nido
PHOTO ESSAY Beloved Austin costume store closes after 38 years. pg. 16
SPORTS Senior defensive end Aaron Gall commits to Colorado school of Mines. pg. 10
PHOTO BY Emerson Traugott
PHOTO BY Nick Wood
Vol. 35, Issue 1 www.thedispatchonline.net James Bowie High School 4103 W. Slaughter Lane, Austin, TX, 78749
THE DISPATCH FRIDAY, OCT. 7, 2022
Pride in Publishing
Years of construction come to an end The opening of Bowie's new performing arts center welcomes the new school year 2022 Bond Proposal
Lucille Price Editor-in-Chief
AISD floats new bond package
Parents and teachers gather at the polls, anxiously preparing to vote for something that will impact their students daily. The Austin Independent School District (AISD) Board of Trustees approved a new 2022 Bond Proposal. On Tuesday, Nov. 8, the bond package will appear on the election ballot. “The 2022 bond proposal for Bowie has a couple of specific things, one is there are certain improvements that they want to see at all schools,” Principal Mark Robinson said. “For example, for all high schools, they want to have a secure vestibule, which is a facility designed around the entrance to the campus for campus safety and security.” According to the Bond Proposal, the package includes $2,440,000,000 much of it dedicated towards campus safety which benefits every AISD campus. “They also want to have all-purpose playing surfaces, turf fields, at all campuses,” Robinson said. “So there's certainly a commitment to equity in saying that we recognize that all facilities need these certain things, including secure vestibule and turf field” Football and soccer field upgrades, including artificial turf, lights, seating, concessions and restrooms, roofing repairs or replacement, heating and air conditioning improvements are a few of the stated in the Bond Proposal. “Bowie is earmarked over $25,000,000 and that will go towards critical infrastructure, specifically things like plumbing, HVAC, which I think when we think about who we are, those kinds of things that don't make Bowie very comfortable physically, that we would try to address through that bond,” Robinson said. “So to continue improvements in the HVAC and plumbing system, so that the facility works better.” STORY BY Lucille Price
It’s the first day back at school. The once-empty halls buzz with students' voices, chattering excitedly on their way to their first classes, talking to friends they haven’t seen in months. Among thousands of students and thousands of conversations, one topic keeps coming up: the new performing arts center. As Bowie’s renovation from the 2017 Austin Independent School District (AISD) Bond came to an end this summer, it included a new performing arts center. The enhanced building offers a much larger space with modern technology. “So one of the main initiatives in the 2017 Bond was right sizing our facilities for our extracurricular programs, that includes athletics and fine arts, and we realized that we had a theater with a stage that couldn't fit all of the entire band, or it couldn't fit all the students in dance, and we realized that there were a couple of spaces in those facilities that we knew we needed to get right.” Principal Mark Robinson said. “In the design process, the architects and the contractors were aware of the AISD Performing Arts Center and had incorporated some aspects of that in the designs for our performing arts center and for Bowie, obviously, we've always had the talent in our students.” As Starlight Theatre Company (STC) president, senior
Nadia Petru knows that having a new space for her and fellow theater students to work will influence the company. Being in the 2023 graduating class, Petru is part of the first class of many to use the new facility. “Being STC president while the renovation happens is crazy, because especially the construction in general, it's changed a lot of the ways that things were supposed to happen this year,” Petru said. “But it's really cool being able to help build up what a new expectation or what things are going to be like in the new theater, so it's been a little stressful, but overall, it's been really cool and I wouldn't have any other way.” While some portions of the facility are not yet fully functional, many students from across Bowie’s performing arts programs are able to use this space as of the beginning of this school year. Co-head theater director Marco Bazan now has an office space in the building. “It's still not fully operational, but when it's really all said and done, it's a space that is going to accommodate more people in the audience, it's going to come with more people on stage,” Bazan said. “It's going to be big enough for our band to fit, for all of our different departments to be able to be showcased in a way where it doesn't feel like they're cutting off the corners, again, anything that's new is really very nice.”
AWAITING PERFORMERS: The auditorium's empty seats provide are all facing the stage. The auditorium has a 600-person capacity. PHOTO BY Austin Ikard
IN THE ZONE: Senior Cailyn Scott brushes a wig in the makeup room. Featured in the new facility, the makeup room is equipped with proper lighting, seating, and mirrors for actors to prepare for performances. PHOTO BY Lucille Price
The Bbond allocated $85,368,925, which allowed the building to include a new auditorium with a 600-seating capacity with heating, air conditioning, new dressing rooms, a technical theater room, makeup room, state-of-the art lighting and sound system, backstage space, catwalk, and a lobby space. “There's just a lot of great things like the fact that we have proper dressing rooms, we have like a makeup room,” Bazan said. “We have dedicated spaces for students to change costumes and have a place to hang out, it's not just backstage, it's pretty cool to be able to have for my students.” With 62,648 sq. ft. in the facility as a whole, the building now better accommodates Bowie's large student population. Expansion into a large space specifically impacted choir teacher Randy Cantu as
his students transitioned from learning in a portable to the new piano room. “It's remarkably different and one of the main obvious differences is where we were before we were in portables, and there was a lot less room,” Cantu said. “The pianos were all squished up next to each other, and in some regards, I think about it now and it’s not the most ideal environment, but it was a space we got used to, and it was a space that we did a lot of really great work in that space.” Similarly, Petru reflects on her feelings about the old space from last year. Petru is involved in the technical sides of productions and is able to use the new technical room which was formerly a garage type space. “It's kind of sad because the old theater is really cozy and yeah, so many like memories
there,” Petru said. “So, it's a little bit of both, like you get to experience the new but you still miss the old but it's good to be able to use both.” As student musicians aim to grow in their arts, the new facility aims to help them in their journey. Directors and students alike find fellow artists and form bonds with those around them, which the new building helps foster. “That is an absolute aspect to growing as a musician is being aware of what other musicians do, so we have families, but when we're all spread out, sometimes it's harder for those in those musical families to interact, but having them a lot closer, it really just provides an opportunity to create a bigger fine arts community culture at large, which is something that I think we all value as directors,” Cantu said.
Accessibility to feminine products concerns needy students Savannah Linscomb Dispatch reporter
Menstruating students are facing uncertainty around the most compulsory products. The same dispensers students came to rely on last year are now unfilled and students are doubtful they’ll be full soon. Prior to the official start of the school year Austin Independent School District (AISD) stated that they would be providing “free sanitary napkins and tampons” in an article posted under the announcement segment of AISD’s website. “The district will be providing free sanitary napkins and tampons that otherwise would be hard for some students to get,” the article stated. The steps to provide students with menstrual products comes after a recent growth in concern over the issue of period poverty. Some states have addressed the issue by mandating schools to provide period products, Texas is not one of them. “Installing the dispensers will cost the district about $85,000,” the article listed. “Providing the supplies will depend on student usage.” Amidst the promise of free period products as well as last year's contribution, students have started to rely on the free products from school. Bowie junior Kennedy Kilday conveys the importance of free period products in schools. “Students who menstruate can't really get through the day if they don't
INDEX:
FILLED WITH WORRY: A student places her head on the empty product dispenser in a bathroom. The installation of the dispensers costed the district $85,000. PHOTO BY Fiona Padalino
have the necessary products,” Kilday said. “It's important for our education to be able to attend school.” Period products are more often than not considered to be a basic need in the bathroom like soap and paper towels, hence the increase in concern for school district mandates. Just like soap and paper towels, students rely on the school providing these products.
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“Students start to rely on having these when they need them,” Kilday said. “When when they're not there, it's a bad situation.” According to the Alliance for Period Supplies, one in six women and girls ages 12 to 44 live below the poverty line and struggle to afford period products. This includes the entire age demographic of the Bowie student body.
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“It would be easier to not have them with me because then I wouldn't have to awkwardly dig for them (period products) during class,” Kilday said. “And feel like I'm being a distraction to my class.” Having period products available in the bathrooms alleviates stress students feel over having the right products at the right time. This leads to a more positive campus and school environment. “Period products are so necessary and you never know when you are going to get your period,” Kilday said “So you might not always be prepared for it. So it's good to have some provided by the school.” Throughout the entirety of this issue it is clear a different path could have been taken in order to supply students with period products. Some students have even come up with those ideas on their own. “I would allow donations from students and teachers or allow teachers to keep them in their own classrooms,” Kilday said. “Like in the same way that toilet paper and tissues are donated, that way they're high quality products and you can rely on them.” Teachers also have a stake in this plight, not only in the common good of their students but in the learning loss suffered when students do not have basic resources available to them. Bowie English Teacher Gayla Hayes who understands from both a student and district standpoint. “I know that the administration
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here gave us the teachers a big bag of products," Hayes said. “So that if somebody needs some, they could also ask us in the event one of those machines isn't working.” Prior to administration supplying teachers with products, many opted to purchase products using their own money, however, many students are apprehensive about asking staff members for products. “If the machine is empty or damaged, and they can't get it in the restroom, they could ask their teacher,” Hayes said. “I realize sometimes maybe they don't want to ask their teachers.” Although this issue is still highly relevant at Bowie, the recent attention to the issue brought by AISD, has led to breakthroughs in the fight against period poverty. Teachers continue to speculate on how they can improve the issue. “I don't have any solutions that are not already trying. I think they're doing the best they can,” Hayes said. “I think it's probably better this year than it has been in past years already.” With the year progressing, the dispensers will eventually be filled. Until then, students can ask their teachers and the nurse. “This issue has kind of gotten more attention lately,” Hayes said. “So people pay more attention and maybe we'll be better about keeping those stopped and, and the machines in good repair.”