The Drake Jolly Roger

The 2011-2012 school year welcomes the new clubs that are now part of our school. The new additions include the Politics Club, the Ocean Crusaders Club, the Drake News Association, the CIVIC Club, and the Daraja Club.

Students in the Drake News Association (DNA), take their “Passion” from the “P” in PIRATES to make a video news online club. Vice president, senior Ben Oseguera, says, “There hasn’t been a designated site for this news to go on yet, but we’re thinking of putting it on the Drake website or integrating [it] into the weekly bulletin.”

Senior Willa Murphy has also created the Politics Club. In this club, students discusses international, domestic, and local affairs. The students are also working toward spreading this passion for politics throughout the student body, and even young people within the community. “The young generation is usually the least involved in what’s going on, and I created the club in order to get more people interested in current issues,” said Murphy.

Last year, the Politics Club helped organize the petition for the new salad bar that has brought new crowds to the canteen. Murphy is currently working toward abolishing plastic bags in local grocery stores.

President of the new Ocean Crusaders Club senior Alya Toquinto makes use of her love of the beach and interest in environmental causes. “We will do several beach clean-ups on the weekends this year and do some mini-fundraisers so that we can send money to environmental oceanic organizations,” said Toquinto. Even though SEA-DISC has educated her on environmental issues, her love for the beach and yearning to make a difference has been there since day one.

Other students take the “I” in pirates and turn it into inspiration – in this case, on an international level. The Daraja Academy of Kenya was founded by local residents Jason and Jenni Doherty for the purpose of funding a free education for Kenyan girls who have the potential to succeed. The academy provides food, housing and schooling for exceptional girls who are hindered by poverty.

The Daraja Club raises money for these girls' tuitions.

Daraja Club president, junior Maddie Barto, describes the Dohertys as “truly good people who found something that inspired them to make a difference.”

This inspiration for educating and helping those affected by poverty has trickled down to Barto. She originally heard about it from her aunt, Julie Whyte, who has been an active participant in Daraja for several years. Whyte believes that committed high school students will bring energy and creative ideas on how to build these bridges from the U.S. to Kenya.

Barto said that in Swahili, “daraja” means bridge, and in many aspects the Daraja Academy of Kenya is a bridge from poverty to success, as well as a bridge of connection from girls in Kenya to students in Marin.

Barto is hoping that students will be able to connect with the girls at Daraja through Skype or even travel to the school in Kenya if enough money is raised. “This is something truly close to my heart and I want that inspiration to spread and raise awareness for youths around the world,” Barto said.

Whyte wrote in an e-mail, “I hope that they are able to launch a couple of projects that can help raise funds for the school, enabling even more exceptional Kenyan girls of poverty to find success and [their] true place in the global community. These girls are so different from the students in Marin in terms of money and opportunity, but they are also similar in their desires to express themselves and find out where they fit in the world.”

Junior Lindsy Mobley, president of the CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict) Club, has also been inspired by international causes – in her case, Iraq and Afghanistan. Mobley said that CIVIC is a non-profit organization that helps the innocent civilians in war-stricken countries, by giving them resources, such as medical treatment.

Mobley plans on raising money from bake sales and car washes to send to the CIVIC foundation. “We are also going to be sending letters to the president and senate to gain their recognition,” Mobley said.

Mobley said that she was inspired to establish an organization herself, after learning about the reality these innocent civilians endure, but when she found out there already was one, she decided to help them.

Junior Manami Takashina, vice president of the club, hopes that students will be interested and excited in aiding this program by “helping to fundraise and brainstorm ideas of other ways to help the program and ultimately the people.”

Junior Jasmine Gardner, new member of the CIVIC club, said, “I want to make a difference for victims of wars who had no choice to be uprooted. Also, [these] people don’t get recognition or help so I’m glad to be able to help them get their life back.”

The Mock Trial team is off to a promising start this year. They’ve got more members, a new advisor, and high hopes for the upcoming competition.

“Last year, we didn’t really do as well as we hoped,” said senior and second-year  Mock Trial member Will Gomez. “We did well. We just could have done a lot better.”

Senior Nicholas Carlson presents during last year's competition. (Courtesy of Eliot Zweig)

Spanish teacher Christine Garrabrant will be leading the team this year. Although she hasn’t led a Mock Trial team before, she does have experience in Forensics competitions (also known as debating).

“Mock Trial is so fascinating to me because it is complex and realistic,” Garrabrant wrote in an email. “My main goal for the team this year is to improve upon what we did last year.”

To start this year right, the team changed its recruiting process. Advisor Garrabrant brought members of the team together to think of new ways to bring in members. In addition to the usual posters, team members Gomez and Nick Carlson stood up and made a pitch for the team at the Homecoming rally. The idea seems to have worked—this year’s team is significantly larger than last year’s.

Gomez credits the rally announcement for the increased interest. “It wasn’t just the three or four kids that are really interested in doing something extra [who] found out about it,” he said.  “It was the whole student body.” Even some juniors and seniors joined the team for the first time

“As a coach, I am very pleased to see this mix of old and young, because it means we have a shot at having a great season with strong senior leadership,” Garrabrant wrote. “It means we can continue the trend next year, too.”

The competitions will be held in January and February, at the Marin Civic Center. Judges who have volunteered their time will preside over a  mock case, as students take on the roles of prosecutors, bailiffs, and every other participant in the case. Students will argue a hypothetical criminal case that includes a teen-relevant issue.

This year, the case is about a homicide. A young man is accused of murdering a childhood friend with a knife at a campsite in the desert. “Reading it, I feel like I’m watching a good episode of Law and Order,” Garrabrant wrote.

Garrabrant plans to change the way the team prepares for the competition. Instead of just two lawyer coaches practicing with the team, they’ll have three. In addition, a college student majoring in theater will be coming in to teach students to improvise and stay in character under pressure.

“We need to shift our focus from memorizing questions to memorizing information,” Garrabrant said. “You have to know your facts well enough to be able to change things at the drop of a hat.”

Garrabrant hopes that these strategy shifts will allow our school to finally challenge the dominant Tamalpais team.
“The team to beat is Tam,” said Gomez. “Tam has a phenomenal team; they’re doing practices every day; they have five or six lawyer coaches.” Last year, Tam extended its sixteen-year streak by winning the Marin County championship.

Despite this, Gomez isn’t intimidated. “They’re a great team, but I think we might have a shot this year,” he said.
Garrabrant agreed. “Our team is really talented… I think we’ll give Tam a run for their money,” she wrote.

Although the yearly competition is important, it’s equally important for the team to plan for the future. The team’s efforts this year have put them in a strong position for next year and beyond.

“There are a lot of kids who are really into it,” Gomez said of the team’s new members. “There are definitely people who are going to be there all four years and keep the team going.”

Senior Willa Murphy carries a sign near City Hall at Occupy San Francisco. (Courtesy of Justas Reskevicius)

Whether you’re with them or against them, you can’t ignore the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Beginning as just an idea on the internet, the Occupy movement has become a global phenomenon.

The Occupy protesters have no specific demands, but their main message is clear: they believe that corporate influence in governments and growing economic inequality is dangerous, unjust, and should be addressed by the government.

“Their message is relevant and powerful,” said senior and Politics Club president Willa Murphy. Along with other members of the Politics Club, she attended the Occupy San Francisco protest in October.

There have already been occupations in major cities of over 80 countries (see map below), and the movement shows no signs of slowing down.

Each bulls-eye on this map marks an Occupy protest. (Courtesy of Google Maps)

It’s been nearly six months since the Adbusters Media Foundation, a Canadian activist group, first proposed a non-violent occupation of Wall Street. According to the Vancouver Courier, Adbusters suggested the idea in one of its email newsletters, and internet activists quickly latched onto the notion. On September 17, the first group of protesters moved into Zucotti Park in lower Manhattan and set up camp.

Similarly structured Occupy protests quickly began springing up in cities across the United States. San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Washington D.C., and Houston all saw Occupy protests in late September or early October.
“I think it’s getting bigger and bigger, and more people are supporting it,” said Murphy.

Most of the U.S. protests have avoided violence, but there have been conflicts between some protesters and police. On October 25, members of the Oakland police force marched into the Occupy Oakland camp. Their stated intention was to remove protesters due to poor sanitation at the protest site, but a confrontation occurred and police officers began firing rubber bullets and tear gas.

Although the majority of the protesters escaped unharmed, ex-Marine and Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen, 24, was hit in the head by a police projectile. Videos of an Oakland police officer intentionally throwing a tear gas canister at the people trying to help Olsen, and of Olsen being carried from the plaza bleeding and unable to speak, quickly spread on the internet.

Olsen is currently hospitalized but expected to recover. Oakland’s mayor Jean Quan backed down on the evictions following this incident, but now Oakland police are again serving the protesters with eviction notices, raising fears of a second confrontation.

Senior Kiara Owens thinks that the violence in Oakland may be a preview of what’s to come if politicians don’t start paying attention. “The peaceful part of it is going to stop soon because they’re getting so little response,” she said. “I think Oakland is the forerunner of that trend.”

Despite the continually increasing size and spread of the Occupy protests, there has been no significant reaction yet from members of the U.S. government. Polls have shown that the U.S. public generally supports the movement, but no congressional actions have resulted from the demonstrations.

“It’s hard to believe that they’re going to get anything done because they’re not asking for anything specific,” said senior and Politics Club member Claire Asselstine. “They’re just angry. They have to say, ‘We want this to be passed.’”

Senior Justas Reskevicius, who attended Occupy San Francisco, thinks that the impact of the protests may not be felt immediately. “I think because of the protests, [economic inequality] will be a lot more relevant in the next election. It’ll come up a lot more. It’s being brought to the forefront of issues,” he said.

Murphy agreed that the movement could have a significant influence on next year’s  presidential and congressional elections. “It’s going to develop… My hope is to see Occupy candidates, just like the Tea Party had Tea Party candidates,” she said. “It’s good that this is happening.”

Sand dunes at Limantour Beach, California

A little over three weeks ago, a number of Drake students threw a bonfire party at Limantour Beach, leaving fifty pounds of trash and a still-burning bonfire for park authorities to find the next morning.

According to a mass email written by Don Drake to students and parents, over fifty pounds of garbage were left on the beach after the April 21 bonfire. Much of this weight came from heavy wet towels and clothes, and park rangers also reported finding numerous empty alcoholic beverages scattered across the beach.

Park rules state that all people must leave the beach no later than 11:00 p.m., and a permit from a park official is required to start any sort of fire.  According to an anonymous senior, the bonfire lasted until well past the curfew although multiple students did obtain fire permits.

Park authorities were also worried about the possibility of drunk driving. In the email, Principal Drake wrote that he was disturbed by “the exceedingly large amount of alcohol” that the empty bottles indicated had been consumed.
He went on to write that the potential for drunk driving on the way back from the bonfire, combined with the twisting and dark roads leading out of the beach, could have been a lethal combination.

The community is still reeling from the recent tragedy in which one Novato teen was killed and four others were severely injured after crashing a car under the influence of alcohol last fall. “That is an experience that no principal ever wants to live through with their students,” wrote Drake.

The recent bonfire didn’t result in any injuries, and the administrators hope that it will be an occasion for parents to discuss the risks of underage alcohol consumption with their teens.

“We hope this incident provides you with an opportunity to discuss with your student how to safely and appropriately celebrate the upcoming conclusion of high school,” the email concluded. “We hope that all of our seniors take care of themselves, each other and their community as they approach this momentous transition in their lives.”

Senior Gabe Maria rides his human-powered vehicle in the Saunders lot. (Sam McLaughlin | JR)

The Engineering Academy held its annual human-powered vehicle showcase on Friday, May 20, despite the theft of one of the vehicles earlier this year. The students in the academy displayed the pedal-driven projects that they have been working on since November.

Although most of the Engineering project teams brought their vehicles out to ride around in, one was missing from the line-up. After months of work by all of the students, a series of unfortunate events led to the theft and irreparable damage of one of the human-powered vehicles (HPVs).

The theft occurred in late March. “It was the day that everything flooded,” said Engineering teacher Ben Varvil. When the water rose to a depth of three feet in the academy’s storage space, teachers and students moved the vehicles outside.

“Some of [the vehicles] were completely submerged,” said Varvil. “We had to pull them out.” Seven vehicles were left in the corridor behind the academy’s workspace. “We were hoping we wouldn’t have any issues,” he said.

However, during the night, an unidentified group of people walked onto the campus and began riding and vandalizing the HPVs. “They got one of them on the football field,” Varvil noted.

Four times, the night custodians chased the offenders away. After the fourth incident, the custodians called the police. When the “hooligans” (as the Engineering Academy now refers to them) returned for a fifth time, the police were waiting. The police told the group to leave the campus, but no arrests were made.

The night custodians managed to fit the vehicles into the academy’s building to prevent any further damage. When the students returned the next morning, they believed that all of the vehicles had been returned. One group, though, noticed that their HPV was still missing.

“We realized that it had been stolen,” Varvil said. “Lena [Herrera] took it upon herself to go walking around.” After analyzing footage from security cameras to determine which way the vehicle had been taken, Herrera located the vehicle a mile up the creek. School staff transported it to the Engineering Academy in the back of a truck.

Unfortunately, the students failed to properly lock up the vehicle after it was returned. It was stolen again, and finally found on the roof of one of the school buildings. At this point, the HPV had been damaged beyond repair. “It was recovered too late to actually salvage,” Varvil said.

With the deadline for the showcase rapidly approaching, and insufficient time for repairs, the members of the group whose HPV had been stolen were reassigned to other groups.

Administrators were never able to identify any of the people who vandalized the HPVs during that night of flooding. “We looked at security footage, we saw the people, but we couldn’t make out any identifying marks because the lighting was dark,” Varvil said, with a hint of disappointment.

Reflecting on the frustration of losing a project after so much work, Varvil remarked that “this is just another example of us having to overcome obstacles that we didn’t anticipate. Sometimes it comes in the form of ‘how do we get our steering to work?’ and other times it comes in the form of ‘my goodness, what are we going to do when our storage unit floods?’”

He added, “I at least want the community to see that a student group didn’t get to do this because somebody thought it would be fun to steal from kids.”



Sydney Silver | JR

A new and perhaps familiar face will now greet people in the College and Career Office. Lisa Neumaier, a Drake alumnus and mother of former student Andrew Skaggs, has been hired as the new college and career counselor, replacing the late Barbara McCune.

Neumaier is excited to be back at her alma mater. She has many fond memories of her four years here: “I was really involved when I was at Drake; I wrote for the Jolly Roger, I was a student body vice president at one point. I was a cheerleader and I was a homecoming princess. I was very involved in athletics and I kept stats for the boys basketball team for four years, played sports a little bit, basketball and softball during freshmen year.”

After graduating from high school, Neumaier attended College of Marin and UCLA, and then graduated from San Francisco State. However, Neumaier’s college experience is not entirely what shaped her decision of becoming a college counselor, which came later.

Before coming here to be the new college counselor, Neumaier worked at the non-profit Canal Alliance. However, before working at Canal Alliance, Neumaier worked at The Branson School for about sixteen years, in the admissions and college counseling office. While working at Branson, Neumaier learned that she loved working with kids.

“At that point I said, ‘This is what I really want to do, and this is what I’ll try to do for the rest of my career,’” said Neumaier. She said that she was very happy with her job at Branson and became a part of the community, attending all of the basketball games and mentoring a group of students.

“I only left Branson for that year and a half when I worked [at the Canal Alliance] because I got laid off,” said Neumaier. During the year and a half that she spent with the Canal Alliance, she realized that she missed working with students.

When Neumaier learned that the position of college counselor was available here, she applied, and is now delighted with her decision. She is excited to be working with teenagers again, and enjoys helping them make decisions with college and informing them on other opportunities that they have. She added, “It feels good [to know] that you’re providing a service that is potentially going to make a difference in a kid’s life.”

Neumaier has already begun to aid students. Senior Jesse Lee said, “She has helped by giving me all sorts of information that I didn’t know was out there for colleges, and she really helped me get over all the hurdles.”

Counselor Sheila Souder describes Neumaier as “[having] amazing energy. She loves kids. As a Drake graduate and a parent of a student who graduated last year, she’s totally in support of the community. [She] really wants to be a part of it and make a difference in the lives of students. I think her personality is a perfect fit for our school.”

Although excited to be in her new position, Neumaier has had some difficulty adjusting to it, because at The Branson School she was the expert. “I think it’s a job that no one, no matter how long they’re working there, will ever know everything,” she said. “When you go from being the expert to the new person, there’s definitely an adjustment period.”

Neumaier anticipates getting to know her students better and establishing her presence here. “For me the best part is building connections and relationships with students. I get to know them on a personal level and then I’m able to help them in some way, even if it’s just some little piece of information that I give them, something that’s going to make the process easier for them,” she said.
Neumaier is ready for the challenges ahead and is excited to aid students in their decisions for the future.

Courtesy of Drake White Mountain Research Project

If you are interested in being part of a science research program that would allow you to work alongside local professors and work on projects that would give you the opportunity to explore a world bigger than your own, you should consider signing up for Research Projects, an elective potentially being offered next fall semester.
ROCK science teacher Michael Wing, is hoping to offer the class next year. Previously known as Senior Projects, it’ll be renamed Research Projects. As one may guess, the course will entail doing research, some in class but mostly out of class, and completing the project by the end of the year. Upon completion, the projects would be publicly presented, either in a science fair or competition.
The class has never been offered at Drake before, but has been offered at Redwood. Currently Wing and a group of Drake students have been working on projects similar to that of those that would be done in the Research Projects class. Junior Sarah Melbostad has worked at the White Mountain Peak Research Station and said, “We get hands on experience to something that is not normally available to high school students. Plus it’s a lot of fun!”
During the summer and fall, Wing and some students maintain a green house at White Mountain Peak (the third highest summit in California) near the California-Nevada border. The program is known as the White Mountain Peak Research Station. Its website states that it is: “higher than any other test plot, greenhouse, cold frame, farm, or garden in California.”
The Research Projects class would be available for juniors and seniors to work on projects like the White Mountain Peak Research Station, or conduct similar research projects on their own or in a group.
The in class research projects themselves could have the potential of being recognized, such like the White Mountain Peak Research Station has-grants have been donated to the group by Toshiba, PG & E, and other science agencies. The White Mountain Peak research project has also been written about in the Marin Independent Journal.
Wing believes that exciting benefits could be gained from the class: “You are answering questions that nobody has ever answered. They’re really world science projects; it’s really engaging for a certain kind of student.”
What is this “certain kind of student,” you may ask? Prospective students would be, “science orientated students that like to do outdoor stuff,” according to Wing.
Principal Don Drake is optimistic about the future of the class.
“Given Doc Wing’s vast credentials and experience as a researcher, I anticipate this will be a great class for students interested in sciences,” he said.
Currently the course is in the works of becoming an official class. Wing said that the class would most likely be offered as an eighth period five credit course. It would be an elective, not a substitute for any science class such as physics or biology. If interested contact Michael Wing or the counseling center for further details.

A student sits cross-legged at the end of the second corridor during lunch with a brown cardboard box. Inside are a hamburger, a small package of baby carrots, and a carton of milk. He lifts the bun, removes the lettuce with his thumb and index finger, and leaps to his feet in frustration. Discouraged, he complains about the quality of the vegetable as he examines it between his two fingers.

“What is this?” the student asks. “When are they going to give us the leaf of the lettuce?”

Simple, informal complaints like the one expressed by the anonymous second corridor student prompted seniors Camila Flowerman and McCoy Tamler to determine what students and faculty think of the food served in the Canteen.

“My friends and I have been having random conversations about the food at the cafeteria for years now and we were wondering whether or not [others agreed],” Tamler said. “We wanted to know what the school thought about it.”

Seniors Camila Flowerman and McCoy Tamler polled students in a survey about food served in the Canteen.

The seniors drafted a survey about the quality of food served on campus, including questions on nutrition and taste. After having AP Statistics teacher Jennifer Noland and SEA-DISC teacher Steve Bluestone approve the questions, Flowerman and Tamler sent their survey to each advisory, polling a total of 808 students.

“The results told us overwhelmingly that there is a problem, something that needs to be looked at, or something that at least needs to be discussed. There’s no question,” Tamler said.

Although Tamler said that he originally had no intention of “spearhead[ing] a movement,” he and Flowerman quickly became responsible for presenting their results and representing the voice of students.

Tamler and Flowerman compiled their results for Assistant Principal Katy Foster, who organized a meeting with Director of Student Nutrition Services, Margan Holloway.

Holloway assumed her position as Director in 2009, when the district wasn’t in compliance with meal pattern requirements and laws SB12 and SB965, which outline the nutritional guidelines regarding the sale of food outside the California Department of Education meal program.

In order to meet nutritional guidelines, Holloway was forced to eliminate some options from the a la carte room, which primarily sells snacks and beverages. She also created school menus, a requirement that she said was also previously unfulfilled.

The changes that took place from 2008 to 2009 are what most of the staff and seniors have informally referred to when describing a decline in the quality of food served in the cafeteria.

Science teacher Barton Clark is one of these teachers. Earlier this school year, Clark and students presented the matter to the school board. Clark believes that the cafeteria should model healthy choices, and that education should extend beyond the classrooms to awareness about food. He believes that the choices offered in the Canteen don’t meet these standards.

Clark proposes changes that will encourage students to make healthier choices outside of school, like meat-free Mondays and free-range Fridays. He argues that what the district has tried to do is honorable in intent, but a failure in execution.

Such changes would be more expensive, but Clark said, “I’m spending my tax dollars. I should have a right to say where I want them to be spent. We don’t buy Physics books based on what’s cheapest. Nothing is purchased on that basis other than food here.”

Physical Education teacher Mary Boston, who has a degree in nutrition and food science, has also expressed disappointment in the food served at the Canteen. Boston, whose curriculum includes nutrition, feels as though the food sold doesn’t support the ideas she teaches.

“When I teach about nutrition during second period, but then my students walk over to the cafeteria and get Cheetos or pizza, it seems like we’re banging our heads against a wall,” she said.

Like Clark, Boston feels that the food offered in the cafeteria influences what students choose to eat outside of school.

“When an adult serves a child food, there’s a sense that the kid can trust what’s given to them,” Boston said. “When the gift is tainted, the young person still trusts that it’s okay; that’s why it’s so easy to sell [the food served in the Canteen].”

Since Flowerman and Tamler organized the survey, Foster and Holloway have expected them to develop solutions and specific demands to address cafeteria complaints.

“Realistically, we have to realize that we can’t change everything and turn the cafeteria on its head,” said Tamler. “We need to figure out what we want.”

The survey results have indicated that while taste is important to students, the quality of the food and where it comes from is equally important. Students and some of the staff have made it clear that they want to see an increase in organic and locally grown food in the cafeteria.

Currently, our district participates in the National Student Lunch and Breakfast program, which is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This program involves serving food that meets Recommended Daily Allowances (RDAs), which limit the calories, fat, and saturated fat intake as well as set minimum amounts of certain vitamins and minerals.

Holloway chooses the companies from which she purchases, and says that switching suppliers would be a “matter of shuffling paperwork.” She receives over $20,000 in entitlements per year, and uses that money to pick ingredients and foods from a list of available food offered by the USDA. Among the products purchased and served in the Canteen are eggs, cheese, and chicken. Holloway also selects specialty items like pinto beans and marinara sauce.

The critics of the food served in the Canteen have objected to the practices of some of the companies the USDA uses, specifically the chicken processor Tyson.

In January, Holloway received the Silver Rising Star Award, which recognized her as a rising leader in student nutrition. The award is sponsored by Basic American Foods, Schwan’s Foodservice, and Tyson.

“Tyson actually has better quality products, which is why we use it,” Holloway said. “It’s not a contract; it’s just a choice.”

But students who took the survey and staff members who spoke to us want to see more locally-grown and organic options, and not food bought from large corporations with tainted reputations.

“Tyson has farms all over the United States so I can’t necessarily say if the chicken comes from California,” Holloway said. “The company that we get our beef from is located in California but I don’t know if the cattle are raised there.”

While the products from the USDA may not be locally grown, Holloway stresses that she wants to use companies in Marin for her other products. Holloway purchases milk from Clover (Petaluma), bread from Bordenave (San Rafael), bagels from Redwood Bagel (Novato), and Marin Produce to supply produce.

“People don’t know,” Holloway said. “They don’t know about our program, so there’s a misconception about [where our food comes from].”

Flowerman and Tamler continue to develop potential solutions for making the Canteen a more organic and healthful outlet. But without a lot of knowledge, it’s difficult for the seniors to produce specific requests. The seniors know that the district operates $300,000 in the red, which means it’s encroaching on the general fund by that amount.

“If somebody sat me down before all this happened and said students and faculty use the Canteen and they’re happy and they love it, or we can save $100,000 by reducing that number and the satisfaction rate would go down, I don’t know if I would’ve made the tradeoff,” Foster said.

Foster says one of her main goals is mediating the discussions between the seniors and Holloway. She is new to the process and the Wellness Committee, which, as its name suggests, focuses on the student wellness. She says that she doesn’t know how difficult change would be, but that in public education there are a lot of “bureaucratic hoops” to jump through.

However, when Flowerman and Tamler met with Foster and Holloway, they were able to make progress. Holloway came to our campus before break to talk to students during advisory about the district’s food program, and even organized her first taste test with workers in the Canteen.

Flowerman, Tamler, Foster, and Holloway ultimately have the same goals: to make sure students are happy and healthy. Holloway said she has to think of her work as a business, and wants it to be successful.

“I certainly want to satisfy my customers,” Holloway said. “That’s the ultimate goal.”

“I would love to see students stay on campus, so if making the food change in whatever way that would keep kids on campus more that would be great,” Foster said. “The days where there are more kids on campus are more fun; it feels like a high school.”

Flowerman and Tamler want to turn the anonymous complaints into data that can produce a solution to student dissatisfaction about food served in the Canteen.

But all three parties have admitted that change takes time.

“I think unfortunately not much is going to get done that we [seniors] will ever see, but that’s really okay,” Tamler said. “The data is not really going to change. I think we’ve got their attention now.”

Mills, lathes bandsaws, and electronics—and no, this isn’t the Engineering Academy. Although Engineering gets most of the credit on campus for elaborate mechanized projects, there’s a small group of students building more complex machines after school.

The Marin Robotics team is preparing for an upcoming regional competition in Davis. The team, comprised of students and adult mentors, designs and creates robots to meet specific objectives for various challenges. The current challenge is to create one robot that can lift inner tubes of different shapes onto a nine-foot-high rack, and another smaller robot that can climb a pole.

“We only have three or four weeks to actually build the robot,” said sophomore Johnathan Scopazzi, a first-year member of the team. FIRST, the non-profit organization which runs the competitions, provides a standardized set of the most necessary parts for the robot, but the team needs to fabricate all other components from scratch. By the second week of February, the team had finished the main structure of their robot, as well as the claw to grasp and lift the inner tubes.

The amount of work requires that the team members meet seven days a week during the build period. “We meet at a warehouse… just a cold, empty warehouse,” Scopazzi said, laughing. “No, we share a space with Autistry Studios in San Rafael.”

Robotics member Eamon Kummert prepares for competion. (Alex Allen-Hyma | JR)

Not surprisingly, building a fully autonomous robot brings quite a few obstacles in construction and programming. “Last Sunday, they lost a part,” said Scopazzi. “It’s kind of a complicated part…I had to make one on the mill, which took me all day. They use computer controls in China, and I had to do it by hand.”

The team isn’t just for experienced robotics experts, either. “If you have never done it, you will learn,” Scopazzi said. After four weeks on the team, and with no previous experience with many of the tools, he has become the lead fabricator. It’s a fast learning curve, he said.

It’s also not just for fans of R2-D2. “I wouldn’t call it robotics,” said Scopazzi. “I’d call it engineering.” The skills used in conceptualizing, designing, and building robots can be applied to plenty of other projects or challenges. “If you are interested in engineering at all, or even going into the Engineering Academy, this is a great jumpstart for that.”

In addition to the team’s engineering aspects, they’re promoting environmental sustainability. As Team Recycle-It, they’re reusing scrap materials to build their robot. According to the team’s official website, one of their goals is to “develop systems to handle both conventional and electronic waste.”

The regional competition will be held in Davis on March 17. If the team does well there, they will have the chance to go to national or even international competitions. “We want to go to World,” Scopazzi said. “If we go to nationals, we’ll be happy. If we even get past anything, we’ll be happy. It’s just fun.”

For more information on Marin Robotics, visit the team’s website, marinrobotics.com. Information about the competitions is available at usfirst.org.

Many students look forward to seeing an army of women (and a few chosen men) make Lady Gaga’s dancing entourage look like a group of amateurs. Dance Troupe is sometimes the reason a student decides to attend a rally at all. 

Funding through Drake Athletics has put the swing in their step for the past few years, but that support is now in jeopardy. 

Specifically, a funding conflict between cheerleading and Dance Troupe is the cause of this event. Currently, their instructor, Jolie Jacobs, manages to spend hours a week coaching the team with the help of a modest stipend from the school. 

But changes in the department’s monetary distribution could soon leave Dance Troupe without any instructor at all. 

Without an advisor, the team can have barely any practice time, which would mean disaster for its meticulously choreographed routines and the existence of the group itself. 

The core problem in receiving funding is the fact that Dance Troupe is considered a club, not a sport. While our sports teams have thousands of dollars in funds, the most a club can receive from the school supply is 300 dollars. 

“Dance Troupe has always been on the borderline between a club and a sport,” said Samantha Stone, a captain of Dance Troupe. Although it is considered a club, Dance Troupe practices can be as long and physically intensive as a practice session for a school sport. 

“I get the feeling people don’t know how athletic dancers are,” said Jacobs. 

Regardless of the true nature of dance, Dance Troupe will likely have to find resources elsewhere. Unfortunately for them, instructors, costumes, and competition entry fees are not free and cannot exist without money. 

For these expenses, Dance Troupe members may have to undertake a large fundraising project. Currently, their only fundraising task at hand is to pay back team members for the costumes they purchased themselves. 

If the end is near, Jacobs is confident the community will step in. “I’m positive the student body and parents would fight to keep Dance Troupe,” she said.