By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
The memory of Christopher Dietel will be forever etched into the Silver Lining Arts Center.
The teachers and classmates of Christopher Dietel, a West Bend West High School sophomore who died by suicide last August, have raised funds to purchase a memorial seat in the auditorium. The plaque on seat L118 will read, “In Loving Memory of Christopher R. Dietel,” and will be installed Thursday. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
By Rachel Gergetz, Current Staff
When Mattie Zautner enrolled in engineering, she decided to prove she belonged.
The significant ratio of girls to boys in technology fields is an issue that is present all over the country, and this evidently does not exclude the West Bend High Schools. There is a significantly smaller number of females than males enrolled in WBHS technology classes, with the exceptions of digital media and graphic communications. One notably divided class is engineering. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Proposed renovations will help control WBHS temperatures
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
As summer draws nearer students seem to be sweating to get out of school, literally.
The West Bend High Schools air conditioning system needed repair during the week of April 30. Officials advised teachers to bring fans from home. The air conditioning was turned on May 23, but many students report that some classrooms remain too warm.
Filed under Community, School News and Features
Samantha Dietel, West sophomore, will serve as the West Bend Current’s Editor in Chief for the 2018-19 school year. She replaces graduating senior Jessica Steger. Congrats, Samantha!
Filed under School News and Features
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
Few people can say they have discovered their true passion in life at the ripe age of six, yet Joe Heger can.
Heger, a West Bend East High School senior, has been a musician since he was a six-year-old. He began by experimenting with the piano, but then found a new companion with the accordion. From there, his passion for music took off. Today he can play the piano, accordion, trumpet, bass guitar, drums, and, most recently, the concertina. All of this started when Heger became infatuated by none other than polka music. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Student reporters earn 19 total awards
Five West Bend students earned blue ribbon honors in a statewide contest for high school journalists. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
West Bend poet invited to Carnegie Hall to receive award
By Samantha Dietel, Current Staff
A talent for poetry has earned one local student national recognition and a plane ticket to New York. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Synchronized swimming team successfully petitions the district to overturn lighting directive
By Mattie Zautner, Current Staff
Over 60 dolphins swam into the last school board meeting.
Members of the Dolphins, the West Bend High Schools’ synchronized swim team, crashed the April 9 school board meeting to persuade district officials to allow the natatorium lights to be turned off during their show scheduled to open just three days later. Traditionally the show depends upon a darkened room for effect, but this school year the team had been notified that the lights could not be turned off for safety reasons. Continue reading
Filed under Entertainment, School News and Features, Sports
Art show’s theme was inspired by 1937 Munich exhibit
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
This year’s art show, Forbidden Art of the Nazi Era, is celebrating what German Nazis had once deemed degenerate.
The art show is 4-7 p.m. Wednesday in the Silver Lining Performing Arts Center atrium. Art and written work from local students will be on display. Students of West Bend High Schools will be able to tour the gallery during the day with their classes. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
West assistant principal Patrick O’Connor monitors the West cafeteria during the first lunch period on Tuesday. Photo by Samantha Dietel, Current Staff.
By Samantha Dietel, Current Staff
Not everyone is satisfied with the safety of the West Bend High Schools.
After the recent shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., both students and staff at WBHS have expressed their own concerns about the building’s safety. Some even believe that the school would be unprepared for an attack similar to what occurred in Parkland. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Today students at the West Bend High Schools participated in a national school walkout. According to organizers, the event was intended to honor the 17 lives lost at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. and to encourage legislators to pass stricter gun control laws. These snapshots, taken by Current staff reporters, capture how the event unfolded on the WBHS campus.
Filed under School News and Features
Why did you participate in today’s national school walkout?
“I went just to support the kids that were killed in any school shooting. And I went to have that moment of silence for the people who died in the Florida shooting.”
Nick Matsunaga, West senior
Filed under School News and Features, Viewpoint
By Samantha Dietel, Current Staff
A typical classroom inventory contains plenty of paper, pens and dry erase markers, but now, some believe a gun should also be included.
Students and staff members of the West Bend High Schools have been left with many thoughts, questions and even some concerns due to recent proposals to allow teachers to possess a gun in the classroom. Such proposals began to circulate through the nation in the wake of the tragic shooting that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Even Wis. Rep. Jesse Kremer proposed the arming of private school teachers in February. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
What do you think about arming teachers as a safety measure?
“I think that arming teachers is unnecessary. If teachers want to have a gun, I think that they can. I don’t necessarily agree with it but they are their own person, they are independent. However I don’t think it should be a mandatory thing.”
Alex Schloemer, East senior
Filed under School News and Features, Viewpoint
Student band will perform at the Hub’s ribbon cutting ceremony
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
No Nonsense is making its big break into the community.
The band will help kick off the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Hub Thursday at noon. The Hub is a coffee shop opened by the Washington County Volunteer Center on Water Street in West Bend. There have been several soft openings, and a weekend-long Grand Opening will begin May 17. The ribbon cutting marks the beginning of regular business hours. Continue reading
Filed under Community, Entertainment, School News and Features
Rory Kurtz is an award-winning illustrator
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
West Bend East High School alumnus Rory Kurtz has a personal reason for hoping “Baby Driver” wins an Oscar on Sunday.
Kurtz, an illustrator who graduated from East in 1997, created the official movie poster for “Baby Driver.” He also produced the alternative key art for “I, Tonya,” another Oscar nominee. Kurtz creates art for many clients, including Mondo-Alamo Drafthouse and well-known publications such as the New Yorker and Rolling Stone. Continue reading
Filed under Entertainment
Playoff basketball might interfere with Saturday’s Charity Ball
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
Scheduling Charity Week proved much more difficult this year as compared to the past. Continue reading
Filed under Community, School News and Features
Last week the West Bend High Schools announced that the schedule on Tuesdays will be adjusted to ensure students receive the proper number of instructional minutes. The new schedule starts March 6.
How do you feel about the elimination of early release on Tuesdays?
“Personally I don’t think it makes that big of a difference, it’s only 20 minutes. But I’d like to know how this was overseen, because it’s kind of a big thing, how many minutes you go to school. So how did we not realize this earlier?”
Libby Willkomm, West junior
Filed under School News and Features, Viewpoint
By Lauren Oppermann, Current Staff
Right now, one can enjoy the thrilling Winter Olympics on TV. However, in the middle of May, students from the West Bend High Schools will be participating in their own Olympics.
Students with special needs have the chance to participate in the Job Olympics. Though it is comparable to the Special Olympics, the event focuses on career-related competitions rather than sports. Ten different local schools participate in this event. Continue reading
Filed under Community, School News and Features
When the Blood Center of Wisconsin asked for help, WBHS anatomy students answered the call
By Priyanka Trivedi, Current Staff
As southeastern Wisconsin is running low on blood, the West Bend High Schools’ anatomy classes are coming to the rescue.
After Slinger High School dropped out of their annual blood drive due to construction at their school, West Bend science teachers David Clark and Kara Petzold decided to create a blood drive revolving around the anatomy classes they teach. Each student in anatomy class is responsible for bringing at least one person to donate blood, taking over Slinger High School’s obligation of donating at least 100 pints of blood to the Blood Center of Wisconsin. Continue reading
Filed under Community, School News and Features
English classroom at WBHS was flooded last week
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
The weather has been quite ambitious this winter, what with the cold snaps and heat flashes, not to mention the indoor rain.
West Bend West High School English teacher Tiffany Gitter encountered a surprise Jan. 22 when she walked into her classroom and found a pool of water, due to a leak in the middle of the ceiling. She experienced a similar leak during her first year of teaching, but the leak had remained dormant since 2014. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
Exam exemptions will not be back this school year.
With the removal of Galileo testing, an opportunity arose to restore an old West Bend High Schools policy regarding semester exams. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
An early Christmas surprise was delivered today to Cheryl Johnson, a lunch aide at the West Bend High Schools. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
By Samantha Dietel, Current Staff
In a high school history class, one might not expect to hear about the current threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons.
Social studies teachers at the West Bend High Schools have been educating students about current global events in subjects such as U.S. history, global studies, and world affairs. In recent weeks, topics such as North Korea’s missile testings and the investigations into Russia’s possible interference in the last U.S. presidential election have both been discussed, with an emphasis placed on the importance for students to be aware of and understand global issues. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
By Elise Marlett, Current Staff
It’s always important to stay focused in school, but Eleonora Madmarova pays particular attention to her business classes.
Madmarova, an exchange student from Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, is spending this school year at West Bend East High School. Madmarova arrived Aug. 2 and is living with the Strassburg family in West Bend. She has come to not only experience American culture, but to explore her passions by learning business skills through the classes offered at the high school. Madmarova aspires to be a successful business woman in her adult life and believes that this experience can get her there. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Book-giving event is just one of many planned service projects
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
For the West Bend West High School staff, the ‘giving season’ began before a single Christmas ornament was prematurely sold.
On Tuesday the West staff hosted a book-giving event in the West Library. Prior to the event the school ran a book drive lasting from October to November. During this time over 2,000 books were collected, which were then offered at the book-giving event. Local organizations Family Promise, Boys and Girls Club, Friends Incorporated, Youth Treatment Center, and the Youth and Family Project attended the event, with an open invitation to their clients. Continue reading
Filed under Community, School News and Features
WBHS takes steps to combat vermin after mice sightings
By Kaitlyn Von Behren and Gabrielle Diaz, Current Staff
The East Library has a new mascot: The Sun, a small mouse often seen scurrying for a crumb or in between book aisles.
Mice have been seen roaming the West Bend High Schools since early August, most commonly found in the West science area, the East Library and the Nifty Nibble, which is the student-run campus restaurant. The mice are sometimes dead and sometimes alive. The most recent sighting of mouse droppings was today in the West social studies area. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
The West Bend High Schools Student Council hosted their annual blood drive today in the south gym by partnering with the Blood Center of Wisconsin. Both students and staff turned up to donate, along with some community members as well. This year’s theme was ‘Superheroes.’ Below four of the superheroes explain why they chose to donate.
“I donated because I have O blood and I figured it’d be a good idea because everyone gets it. I hate needles, but I still decided to do it. This is the one thing where I’m like, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’”
Samantha George, West senior
Filed under School News and Features
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
A West Bend High Schools tradition that dates back to the 1970s is now at risk. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
Is hallway wandering a problem at WBHS?
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
Lately passing time has extended beyond the customary five minutes.
When the bell rings, signifying the end of a class period, students at the West Bend High Schools are given five minutes to report to their next class. During class time the hallways are expected to be mostly clear, with only students carrying passes allowed to walk the hall. However, many students and staff members report an apparent increase this year in “wanderers,” which are students roaming the halls when they are supposed to be in class or in a supervised location. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
How do you feel about students roaming the halls during class?
“It doesn’t really affect me, except for the kid who goes around knocking on doors.”
Caitlyn Klostermann, East senior
Filed under School News and Features, Viewpoint
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
For one West Bend teacher, Hurricane Maria meant immediate separation from her husband. Continue reading
Filed under Community, School News and Features
STAR replaces Galileo as the district-wide standardized test
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
The new STAR testing has mostly received stellar reviews at the West Bend High Schools.
For the 2017-18 school year, the West Bend School District implemented a new standardized testing system, STAR 360 Assessments. Although this system is used globally, it is a product of Renaissance Learning, which was started by a parent here in Wisconsin. STAR tests students’ core reading and math skills. Ninth and tenth grade students at WBHS took the math test Sept. 21 and the reading test Sept. 26, and will take them again in January and April. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
“American Idol” is making a comeback, and this time it has local connections. Continue reading
Filed under Entertainment, School News and Features
East High will participate in Hurricane Harvey Donation Drive
By Jessica Steger, Editor in Chief
While a problem may be approximately one thousand miles away, part of the solution is located right here in the West Bend School District.
Seven West Bend schools have joined to create the Hurricane Harvey Donation Drive. The donations will go to the KIPP Prime College Preparatory School in Houston, Texas. The drive begins Monday and continues through Thursday. Each day the drive will run from 7 a.m to 3 p.m. Continue reading
Filed under School News and Features
The West Bend Current 