Senator Square: School is back in session

Welcome back to the first edition of the 2014-2015 Senator Square column ... all news about Carson High School. Hope the summer was great for all of our staff and students. Staff returned last week and have been busy preparing for the students to arrive Monday.

The bell schedule Monday will be an all-period day, which means students will go to every one of their classes. The A-B Day rotation of classes will start on Tuesday when students will go to their A Day classes and Wednesday to their B Day classes. Classes begin at 7:40 a.m. and conclude at 2:05 p.m. each day.

Even though I am starting my 16th year of teaching, I am always very excited and nervous to begin a new year. I know that excitement and nervousness sits with all my co-workers, but probably especially for the 21 new faces on staff, including a new principal, Tasha Fuson. So welcome back to the staff old and new. Let’s have a great year! Go Senators!

CHS DRESS CODE REMINDERS

Students and parents, please visit www.carsonhigh.com to view CHS’s complete dress code. Some highlights from the dress code are: Blouses and shirts should not show cleavage, and skin should not be visible at the midriff. Backless shirts are not allowed. Shirts must have sleeves and cover the shoulders. Shorts, skirts, dresses and tears in jeans must be below the fingertips in a relaxed position. We will review the dress code with the students for the first two full days of school, and after that the dress code will be enforced.

MATH TUTORS NEEDED

CHS will be hiring math tutors and the MASH program in the first two weeks of school. Students enrolled in honors algebra II, trig/precalc, or calculus can pick up an application from their math teacher. Applications need to be completed and returned by Aug. 29 to Ms. Mannschreck, Ms. Cavener or their math teacher.

RESULTS FROM HOSA NATIONALS

Carson High School HOSA – Future Health Professionals had 22 members qualify for nationals at the state conference in March. Twelve were able to travel to Orlando to compete in the national competition held in June; Robyn Adkins, Maricsa Cabrera, Tony Cacioppo, Bethany Kniffen, Michael Leiken, Selena Ruby Martinez, Sabdi Perez, Tallon Rauch, Vanessa Rauch, Mikayla Standefer, Jenna Wong-Fortunato and Tony Xie.

Bryen Halloway attended as the Nevada HOSA second vice president. Maricsa Cabrerra (with the work of Ana Casas back in Carson) received the Outstanding HOSA Chapter Silver Award — Top Honors for the documentation in our scrap book. Tony Cacioppo was top 25 in Medical Assisting. Jenna Wong-Fortunato was called to the stage as a top 10 in the nation for Dental Science.

AUGUST TEACHER

Shawn Schneider works tirelessly for her students throughout the school year and in addition even came in this summer to ensure her students’ needs were being met in summer school. She has a great passion for education and it is reflected in her students. This is why Shawn Schneider has been celebrated as Carson High School’s Teacher of the Month for August 2014.

CHS FOOTBALL

Our CHS football team has been invited to participate in the fifth annual Honor Bowl to take place in Loomis and San Diego, Calif., on Aug. 30. The Senators will play Clayton Valley High School of Concord, Calif., at 8 p.m.

The Honor Bowl is a charitable series of games that is sponsored by the Honor Group. The Honor Group is a nonprofit organization whose sole purpose is to raise awareness and educate students, coaches, and communities about the needs of our military veterans. The series of 10 games being played that weekend (played in both San Diego and the Sacramento areas) pits top programs from four western states in non-league games to support disabled veterans.

The goal of the event is to buy Action Track Chairs for disabled veterans.

Clayton Valley is an outstanding program that will be a formidable opponent for the Senator’s first game this season. The game is being broadcast live on the radio in Sacramento and streamed nationally. Go to www.nfhsnetwork.com for live stream on the night of the game.

Also, Carson High Football is sponsoring a drive to purchase T-shirts and/or hoodies through the Graphics Factory on Highway 50. All profit from the sales will go aid the purchase of an Action Track Chair for a disabled vet. The deadline for purchase is Aug. 25, and all items for sale can be viewed and purchased at www.graphicsfactorystore.com, and picked up at the Graphics Factory.

Congratulations Senator Football on the invitation to play in the Honor Bowl! Please support this cause and make a purchase today.

CHS SCIENCE

Two Carson High School students got the chance to do real science research at an Arizona observatory this past summer, thanks to the National Science Foundation, Project-RECON, and Western Nevada College’s Jack C. Davis Observatory. Shelby Brown and Lake Shank, who will be seniors this fall, worked actively with scientist Dr. Marc Buie of the Southwest Research Institute collecting data at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.

As part of Project RECON, the CHS students joined other students and amateur astronomers from around the West to measure the size of asteroids in the Kuiper Belt region of the solar system; beyond the orbit of Neptune. The students got an authentic experience of real astronomy by the direct examination of photographic data and light curves. This study will add more information to the theory on solar system formation.

The purpose of Project RECON is the determination of very precise positions for a number of Kuiper Belt Objects, KBOs, and use these precise positions to refine their orbits. The refined orbits will then be used to predict when a KBO will pass in front of a star. By timing the disappearance and reappearance of the star when the KBO passes, the size can be measured.

​During the data analysis, Shelby and Lake detected several objects as possible Kuiper Belt Object-candidates. Following further peer review, an opportunity to name them may be possible. Congratulations Shelby and Lake.

• Angila Golik is a government teacher at Carson High School and also a member of Senator Pride.