Marshall FluhartyMaroon Echoes Reporter. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. As Neil Armstrong set foot onto the powdery surface his words still ring true today, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.".
To commemorate this grand achievement, and celebrate the race forward to Mars, this year’s Mt. Pleasant High School Band show — properly named “Children of Apollo” — is a musically choreographed tribute to that historical moment; lead by band director James DePriest. He spoke about his inspirations in great, expressive detail. DePriest began his journey down this path for his band with fond memories. A key element to how “Children of Apollo” came to be was this quote from John F Kennedy; “The Torch has been passed to new Americans born in this century.” Which dubbed the generation and every generation after who passed the torch forward, The Children of Apollo. DePriest spoke of the potential every generation has once gaining this torch of opportunity. “When I write music, believe it or not, I always start with the written word.” Says DePriest, speaking of his music writing process. DePriest also spoke of his love for science and space, which helped a great deal with the process. He also used some excerpts from Gustav Holst’s “Mars From the Planets” and used symbolic pictures of the moon, Kennedy, and Mars. “You’ll get us to Mars,” Says DePriest. “You’ll get us beyond where we started. Amazing things are gonna happen in your...lifetime, and that’s the whole premise of the show.” He spoke so passionately because of this small quote from President Kennedy. It set off a chain of reactions for DePriest to create this phenomenal show to mark the 50th anniversary. See “Children of Apollo” on the field during halftime of every home game this year. An inspirational performance by the Panther Marching Band!
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Liam HalawithMaroon Echoes Editor. The Mt. Pleasant Community School District Information Technology (IT) staff is pleased to announce that they have successfully rolled out a 1:1 computer to 1000 students throughout middle school and high school. The process started later than in previous years, as the computers were not handed out on Back-to-School night.
This is because the IT Staff could not finish the setup of the laptops until they had the student, in front of the computer, according to Chris Johnson, District IT Director. Over the summer, and during the few weeks before school, the IT staff started up and installed all of the software needed for the laptops to be used on school servers. The 2019 computer rollout has gone better than expected says, Johnson, “We set up one thousand laptops with just the three of us. I would say that’s pretty good.” Todd Liechty, Mt. Pleasant Community High School Principal says, “The process was long and tedious, but students were patient.” The rollout has not been without its fair share of technical problems. The IT Department had set up a new WiFi network to set up new laptops. The new network can only support 40 new computers at a time. They found this out when they crashed the network after overloading it trying to set up computers in the beginning. Johnson described his biggest set back as delivery times, on all of the electronics they needed to get the job done. “That kind of stalls projects, and then in the meantime you work on something else. Then you get momentum on that project and don’t want to stop unless you have to.” Over the summer, with their small team of interns, Mr. Johnson instructed them to, “Get as much done as you can.” This and lots of schedule conflicts have to lead to a longer process than normal. Their greatest accomplishment was to finish seven major projects, over the summer. Although, they have accomplished their fair share of tasks Over the summer Johnson, the IT Department, and a crew of interns. They swapped 181 wireless access points in the district or WiFi routers; upgraded servers to support all of the new computers; replaced all legacy Apple TVs at the middle school and high school with 4k versions; replaced projectors that weren’t compatible with the new Apple TVs; replaced all Promethean boards at the elementary schools with interactive panels; rolled out 200+ staff computers; they outfitted the Industrial technology room with new hard drives, graphics cards and 4k monitors for the computers in the room; they also recycled all of the old equipment in the classrooms; and rolled out 2:1 Ipads for Kindergarten through second grade and 1:1 Ipads for third through fifth grades in the elementary schools. Liechty is glad to have a great IT department, “They fixed a lot of problems, what more could we ask.” All High school computers were rolled out by the Wednesday before Old Thresher's and middle school rollout was completed after Old Thresher’s break. Issabelle SanchezMaroon Echoes News Reporter “Student Council is something I have really good memories of when I was in high school, so I want the students to have the same experience.” said Mrs Venghouse, who is the high school counselor. Mrs. Venghaus and instructional coach Mrs. Ensminger have teamed up to bring back Student Council to the Mount Pleasant Community High School.
Student Council is a way that students can show their leadership skills at school. They meet monthly so they can discuss things that are going on in school and ways they can help promote activities or fundraisers that will give back to the student body. The students that participate in the student council also get to choose what they want to do to help the school, environmental, socially, and influence policy. Student Council is a great form of social interaction, helping them become more responsible, and helps promote school pride. To become the Student Body President you have to be a senior and have the most votes in a school-wide election. The person with the second most votes becomes the Vice President. Another role that student council offers is Student Body Secretary, this position is determined by having the most votes as well. Followed by Class Secretary with the second most votes. The above list also applies for Class President, Class Vice President and Class Secretary for each grade level below seniors. In addition, student council also offers Class Representative for each grade which is a position for people that don't want to lead projects but have great ideas they want to contribute. Raven CorderMaroon Echoes News Reporter “I want students to feel more comfortable with reading and writing,” says the newest addition to the Mount Pleasant Community High School Language Arts Department, Ms. Mikaela Cook. As a dedicated teacher, student, and fiancée, she is a graduate from Solon High School in 2008, and a recent graduate from Iowa State University. Ms. Cook will be married in December to Mackenzie Burris. Her favorite sport is football and the team she supports is the University of Iowa Hawkeyes. She has a dog named Shakespear, and loves to ballroom dance. She is related to Mr. and Mrs. DePreist on her mother’s side, and they assist her around the school.
Besides English, Ms. Cook’s favorite subject is History, but Math is not one of her strong suits. Ms. Cook wants her students to thrive and feel comfortable with reading and writing, and she wants to continue to teach English for as long as possible. One of her favorite things about high school is the students. Before working here at Mount Pleasant, Ms. Cook was a preschool teacher in Solon. “I love working with students, seeing those Ah-Ha moments.” In the future she wants to continue to teach, getting to know students and watching them improve is what she strives for in her teaching career. Hailley GrahamMaroon Echoes News Reporter. MPCHS welcomes their newest staff member, Mr. Matt Jones. Jones starts his career as the new Agricultural Education teacher. He teaches Agriculture Business, Intro to Agriculture and Animal Science. Jones is also hoping that he can bring in another new class to his curriculum, Advanced Animal Science. A more science based course that involves animal dissection instead of a book heavy course. This great new program was brought to Mount Pleasant Community High School by the Mt. Pleasant Agricultural Education Task Force are dreamt up by a former MPCHS student in the C.E.L.L. Class, Austin Burkhart.
Mr. Jones attended Iowa State University he was in the graduating class of 2019. Jones has a degree in Agricultural Education. All his life he has loved agriculture mostly due to the farm he grew up on, in Richland, Iowa. On the farm they raised both cattle and pigs. The reason Jones says he became a teacher is that, “Education has always been really important to my family and I love being with people and teach them new things.” says Mr. Jones. “Agriculture just always been a big part of my life so they just went hand in hand.” In a way to get to know his students better, Jones actually interviewed them in all of his classes so he could learn about them on a personal level. He is hoping that since he is younger than the other teachers that he can be better equipped to help his students. Being a recent college graduate, makes him more connected to the kids and he hopes he can give seniors advice on college. All Photos Taken By Andy Krutsinger Written by Liam Halawith & Brevin Wilson Last Friday night at Clear Creek Amana, the Panther varsity football team brought home a big win in their season opener. They won 42-20 against CCA in an amazing first game of the season.
In the first quarter, Running Back Jack Johnson scored two touchdowns, one in the first and one in the second. The Panthers led 14-0 at the end of the first half of the game. The Panthers showed power on both sides of the ball in the first half, using their strong offensive line to push back CCA to a big lead in the first half. In the beginning of the second half CCA scored a touchdown gaining them 6 points. The Panthers responded with two more touchdowns by Logan Bass, a running back and defensive linemen for the Panthers. With a total of 21 points in the second the Panthers drove home to a final score of 42-20 at the buzzer, giving the Panthers a big win at the beginning of their season. Quarterback Brody Bender went 8-13 for 149 yards with two scores during the game. The Panthers brought home a similar win just two years before when they beat CCA 14-7. They play again this Friday at home against #8 Pella. Kick off at Mapleleaf is 7:30. All Photos Taken by Liam Halawith Dani FluhartyMaroon Echoes News Reporter. It’s a hot summer morning, people are filing in and getting ready to enjoy their day at Old Threshers. As the sun creeps up and people are preparing to see the day's events, something very important is going on within the hectic preparations.
Nearly a dozen girls are preparing to find out who will be crowned. Dressed in classical attire, they line up and await the results. Erin Andreason’s face became one of shock, surprise, and happiness as she is named Miss Sweet Sixteen for 2019. When former winner, Lillian Pereria, placed the crown on Adreasons head, she was overjoyed. Andreason, a young Junior in Mount Pleasant Community High School, is a cheerleader, drum major in the marching band, and an avid participant in the school music programs. “My favorite part was just sitting down and meeting everyone, I really enjoyed talking to each and every one of them.” Said Andreason, speaking of her experience as a volunteer and as a contestant in the contest. She greatly enjoyed the chance to help others on her own time. Before Andreason can be crowned as Miss Sweet Sixteen, the runner ups must be crowned. The first runner up is Eli Liechty, a very sporty girl who is also a junior at MPCHS and enjoys time with her family. Liechty was very well known for her volunteer work, especially with the older folks. Liechty reacted fast to rescues and other volunteer emergencies on the grounds, working well under pressure. The second runner up is Grace Kelly, another helpful Junior. She particularly enjoyed working with the younger guests. “I love meeting kids, they look up to us and think we’re princesses,” said Kelly. Danielle Davidson was the real mastermind behind the contest, taking care of the planning and set up all on her time off from work. She coordinates and makes sure every girl is signed up and everyone gets rotated properly around Old Threshers, as well as making sure they’re safe. “It’s a little nerve-wracking…But they’re wonderful girls, so nice and courteous to all the visitors.” Says Davidson. She’s been a volunteer for years and begins to enjoy her work more every time. Without her, the contest wouldn’t be the same. |
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November 2020
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