Volume 5, Issue 13

BPA wins big

MCHS’s new BPA team gets ready for nationals after dominating at state last month

The Business Professionals of America (BPA) hosted their annual State Leadership Conference the last weekend of February in Oakbrook where McHenry dominated

The annual State Leadership Conference held about 1200 competitors from around 50 schools where the best of the best competed in separate events such as mock interviews, accounting, broadcast news, small business management consulting work, etc

13 of McHenry’s own students qualified for nationals in all different categories

“I'm competing in two categories,” said senior Rachel Krey “I’m in Presentation Individual and Ethics and Professionalism I’m very excited for how it will turn out ”

Krey ended up qualifying for nationals where she received fifth in ethics

and professionalism and fourth in Presentation Individual

“This opportunity allows me to meet other people in the area from other schools who are also competing,” said Krey “It is fun to see the competitive environment that’s out there

The BPA has given students opportunities of a lifetime

MCHS Senior Micheal Os, who is the Vice President of Finance and is in charge of the school store where he does things such as inventory to make sure things are running smoothly Os was recommended for this position and started going to the meetings to get where he is now

Competitions can sometimes be stressful, but overall a good experience

“The competition was a stressful kind of weekend,” said senior Ary Juarez, who placed second in Broadcast News Production Team “But at the same time, it did have some ups where we got to meet some really cool people and make really good friends It was a really good experience, and

Igot to get out of my comfort zone and have fun ”

Preparing for a competition is important to ensure success

“The first day, me and my partner sat down and went through our clips and made sure everything was perfect,” said Juarez “We did last minute changes with things such as audio signal changes, etc [ ] The next morning we got up and worked on our presentation and figured out what to say and talk about to ensure success ”

If one wanted to get involved with the BPA, they would be able to do so

at the beginning of next school year

“To get involved in the BPA, you can attend the first meeting which will be at the beginning of next school year in August,” said Business Education Instructor at MCHS Nicholas Valenziano “They’ll pick your events and compete in three competitions: regionals, state, and nationals Behind the BPA, they are doing everything they can to ensure success and bring previously unseen opportunities to light to kids who want to do something important for the school, there is something for everyone

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that the states cannot take former President Donald Trump off the ballot for this year's election

Wednesday, Feb 28th for the state election because of alleged actions that he had done back on Jan 6 Illinois, with Colorado and Maine, were waiting to see what the Supreme Court would say in this case before officially removing Trump from the ballot

stormed the Capitol

Despite this, many voters and MCHS students disagree about whether Trump should be removed from the ballot

In the state of Colorado, Trump was taken off of the ballot for the 2024 election, citing the 14th Amendment, which prevents those who participated in an insurrection from running for office Colorado’s supreme court claimed Trump participated in a violent uprising against the government on Jan 6, 2021 during the attack on the U S Capitol

In Illinois, a Cook County judge took Trump off the primary ballot on

The Supreme Court ruled that States do not have the authority to remove candidates from federal ballots, and decided the 14th Amendment does not apply

During and following the 2020 election, Trump spread false claims about the voting system being rigged and that he actually won the election

On Jan 6, 2021, he gave a speech to supporters encouraging them to stop lawmakers from certifying the election Many of his supporters violently

“I think it’s wrong,” said senior Elliot Cowgill about making Trump ineligible to run for public office “I think it’s how you started a dictatorship where you take the freedom of Republican Party to vote for who they want And if you take that out, you’ve just started a dictatorship and it’s not free That’s what America is about, and that’s not what it’s giving an example of taking them off the ballot ”

Cowgill agreed with the Supreme Court’s ruling, while some other people do have some other opinions on what is going on

“I think it’s a good thing,” said sophomore Liam Llamas about the possibility of removing Trump from the ballot “Because when he was president, he did do some things for this county But overall he’s like not in favor, He’s not trying to help the entire country He’s just trying to help the white males of the country ”

All nine justices sided with Trump on Monday so he can remain on the ballot Trump swept the primary elections on Super Tuesday, causing his Republican rival Nikki Haley to suspend her run for President

Trump and his legal team claim he should be immune from further responsibility for Jan 6 because he was president at the time The Supreme Court will hear that case in April

Students in MCHS’s AP Environmental Science constructed a soil-less garden that runs on fish

Last school year, Tim Beagle, science division chair and environmental science teacher, introduced an innovative and unique method of farming to MCHS’s greenhouse: aquaponics

Aquaponics is a sustainable form of agriculture that combines aquaculture raising fish with hydroponics cultivating plants using water rather than soil The system was assembled and has been maintained alongside his students The group has been nurturing the complex gardening system for several semesters, utilizing live fish to grow plants

“Our aquaponics system that we have set up is a small-scale version of it, but basically, it’s a way to grow food, both animal sources of food and plant-based sources of food, in a closed ecosystem,” said Beagle

The system operates on completely natural processes, mimicking conditions observed in nature in lakes, ponds, and other bodies of water Aquaponics relies on the natural fertilizer produced by the fish This provides the necessary nourishment for plant growth, simulating the presence of soil

“Bacteria that’s naturally in the fish gut starts to break-down and decompose all of the fish waste, and turns that into nitrates that then the plants, on a separate part of the system uptake through their roots,” said Beagle “So, you are growing plants in water with the nutrients the phosphorus, and nitrogen and so forth that they would use coming out of the soil, but this you’re just using through the water ”

The nutrient-rich water created by the bacteria and fish waste supports the opportunity for plant life, while the plants help filter the water The water continuously circulates to keep the environment clean

The group has been working on this project since last school year, but has seen several bumps in the road Currently, the garden has no fish and nothing growing in it Last year, they experienced a major setback when struggles arose with the health of the system’s fish

“It was up and running last year and we had fish in it and we were growing plants Throughout he course of last year, we noticed that the fish t were kind of starving to death,” said Beagle “There wasn’t really an explanation because everyday you check pH levels, you

Is NCAA allowing double contacts invalidating the work setters put in

The NCAA recently changed one of the biggest rules in volleyball Double contact from setters is now legal within limits in a match

The NCAA released some new rules for volleyball on February 20th These include a new jewelry rule, a new libero rule and most importantly, the new double contact rule Double contact is when a player hits the ball twice OR when a setter sets the ball and the ball does a full rotation is a sign of a double contact Originally the “No double contact” rule would be followed by some referees but not by all This caused a lot of tension on the courts

“Honestly it’s kind of upsetting,” said setter Ella Jenkins “You work so hard to get good hands and not get any doubles Personally it’ll be nice to be able to just not be afraid to use my hands all the time because sometimes there's really spinny balls and you don't want to use your hands to get a double during that type of situation but now you'll be able to use your hands all the time and not be afraid The cons are it just kind of feels unfair, right? It ruins what volleyball has been for years ”

Looking from an adult’s perspective a lot of people have questions How is training going to look now? Will the

check nitrogen levels, you check dissolved oxygen all these different factors that can affect the balance of the ecosystem ”

After performing biopsies on the tilapia, it was discovered that the issue was not their fault, but actually a problem with the salt levels in the school’s water With the source of the problem pinpointed, the group devised a solution and plan to get the garden back up and running

“It took the entire first semester this year to get it done,” said Beagle “We have installed a reverse osmosis system which takes our school water, that comes from the city, but goes through the salt tanks of our school It goes to our reverse osmosis system and we recleant

“We started out very simply with lettuce last year, because it’s hard to kill it,” said Beagle “You can grow anything in there They just have a lower tolerance level for

any kind of changes, and as we’re kind of new to this, we wanted to do [lettuce] because they’re nutrient dense and hardy ”

As an environmental science teacher, Beagle passionately teaches about sustainability and hopes to educate his students about being environmentally friendly and conscious of resources

“It’s not just from an ideological standpoint, like a consumer society, but actually cultivating and taking care of the land that we have and the food we have and being mindful about it I’m trying to get people interested in it,” said Beagle Establishing an aquaponics farm for students to collaborate on managing has been a great learning opportunity so far for the students in Environmental Science and other students at MCHS who are interested in the environment The group hopes the aquaponics system will soon be back up and running

setter stress still be there? But most importantly what will volleyball look like moving forward?

“Right now, I really can't say ” said Kara Baysinger, MCHS’s dean and coach “It is very new to everyone We will see what happens in the next few years I believe a lot of calls or lack of calls involving double contacts are subjective depending on which official you get So it could be good or bad As a coach, I will continue to teach the proper techniques for setting a volleyball The training will be the same It has changed volleyball for how we know it ”

Referees will have less sway over who will win the games due to this new rule

“They definitely could sway the match,” said junior Maddy Smith “I’ve personally had a ref who always called doubles on my team but wouldn't call doubles on the other team It would get very heated between the two teams, because each team if we see a double will yell “double, double” and it gets to the point where even the parents get into it then the coaches It takes a really long time because the coaches would argue with the refs It almost made it seem like the refs just started not liking us more ”

Will this new rule cause more stress to the players or will it resolve these heated problems? Only time will tell, currently this rule has not yet traveled over to high school teams but is expected to in the next two seasons