NOCTILUCA Feb. 2016

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AREYOUAWARE?
Appleton, Wisconsin February 2016 Volume XXI Issue I Page 2
There are many different
ways that Appleton North stu-
dents get to school every day.
Some drive themselves. Some
walk. Some take the school
bus. And some take the city
bus.
Taking the Valley Tran-
sit city bus is an option at
all three of the major high
schools across the city as well
as at the middle schools, but
the bussing system makes
it much harder at Appleton
North.
While Appleton East and
West are regular bus stops,
meaning that the bus stops
are once an hour, Appleton
North is a peak stop, meaning
the bus only stops here during
peak traf¿c hours; for North,
that means the bus stops here
twice – once before school
at 7:17 a.m. and once after
school at 3:10 p.m.
The fact that the bus is a
peak stop rather than a regular
stop can be problematic for
kids who rely on the city bus
for transportation to school.
“Because the bus only comes
twice a day, if someone who
relies on the bus to get to
school misses the morning
bus, they have no way to get
to school and will likely end
up missing the whole day,”
said Mrs. Debbie Strick, Ap-
pleton North’s social worker.
“Whereas if North became a
regular bus stop, they could
catch the next bus and only
miss an hour or two of class.”
The bus leaves right after
school and doesn’t come back
means that students who rely
on it for transportation can’t
take part in after-school ac-
tivities, whether it be a sport,
a club, theater, or even attend-
ing events like football games
or plays.
“Not giving these students
easy access to transportation
after school is cutting off an
entire population of our stu-
dent body,” said Mrs. Strick.
Over the past year, she has
been involved in contacting
Valley Transit to advocate
making North a regular bus
stop. The bus stop is seen
by many as something that
would greatly help students in
poverty or with mental health
and attendance issues, since a
majority of students who rely
on the city bus fall into this
category.
While as of right now, there
are no immediate plans, ne-
gotiations between Assistant
Superintendent Ben Vogel
and Valley Transit have been
taking place, and attempts are
being made at making North
a regular stop on the bus line.
AASD seeks new
public bus policy
North student population exceeds 1,700
Are you aware that Apple-
ton North’s entire student
population has exceeded 1700
this year? This ¿gure includes
students from the Appleton
Career Academy, Renaissance
School for the Arts and Tesla
Engineering Charter School.
The Àuctuating size of the stu-
dent community at North has
generally grown due to many
factors, producing both chal-
lenges and bene¿ts for stu-
dents and staff.
There are several factors
behind the surge in student
population at North, the most
prominent being the increased
open enrollment at North.
More students who live in
boundary areas are choosing
to come to North for region-
ally acclaimed programs such
as music, theater and sports.
In general, North receives the
most open enrolled students of
the high schools in the AASD.
Another external factor in-
Àuencing the growth in student
population is increased preva-
lence of businesses such as
Kimberly Clark and Thrivent
in the community since North
opened, drawing more families
into the Appleton area.
Because of the growth in
North’s student population,
some challenges are posed to
both students and staff. One
of the greatest challenges per-
tains to scheduling conÀicts
with many students. “Because
there is a greater number of
students who want to take the
same courses, scheduling has
become more rigid in many
cases,” associate Principal
Dave Pynenberg said.
Required courses such as
gym and PFM have become
more dif ¿cult to secure a
place in, and class sizes have
sometimes swelled in required
courses. “The PFM courses that
I teach have become more full.
I would say that they’ve grown
in size from around 25 students
to around 30 students,” North
PFM teacher Mrs. Roberta
Baker said.
Similar growth is evident
across many required courses
at North. The student growth
often translates to an increase
in staff members, as more
teachers and support staff are
required to maintain a feasible
ratio of students to staff.
Along with these changes
and challenges, there are more
opportunities open to North
students because of the student
population growth. In the past,
advanced courses such as AP
Physics, AP Calc BC and AP
Statistics were not able to run
every year because of a lack of
students to ¿ll classes. Now,
with a larger student body,
more classes are recurrently
available and full. Staff have
expressed their excitement for
the increase in curricular op-
portunities.
“It’s de¿nitely positive that
a greater number of students
means a greater number of
courses for students,” said Mrs.
Baker.
As for North’s future stu-
dent population, it is not en-
tirely clear as to whether it will
continue to grow. If so, city
school boundaries may even-
tually be modi¿ed in order to
equally distribute students at
each of the three Appleton high
schools.
Additionally, if the city of
Appleton grows signi¿cantly, a
fourth Appleton school may be
constructed in order to curb the
inÀux of students attending the
three existing high schools.
By Erik Bakken
By Ally Price
This bar graph depicts the number of students for all grades at Appleton North,
Appleton Career Academy, Tesla and Renaissance. Growth in the number of stu-
dents has caused scheduling conÀicts and opportunities. Graphic by Erik Bakken
North’s Student Population
Data as of Sept. 18, 2015.
North ACA Tesla Renaissance
Freshmen 414 37 1 6
Sophomores 410 24 2 4
Juniors 376 27 3 6
Seniors 414 23 2 10
Uberoi:
Awarness
importance,
from page 1
than a conversation interrupted
by tweets and updates to your
snapchat story.
This is partially the reason
why the staff of the Noctiluca
decided to dedicate a whole is-
sue to awareness. We collected
stories that (we feel) students
should be aware about ranging
from student features to policy
changes.
Giving these stories the
coverage they deserve is hope-
fully a small step towards be-
ing more aware. Awareness
will make us more compas-
sionate and knowledgeable.
So take out the earbuds, look
up from your phone and give
people the attention they de-
serve. There is so much going
on around you if you just pay
attention.
Megha Uberoi is a senior and
Editor-in-Chief of the Noc-
tiluca. Contact her through
school e-mail or Facebook.
Talks have resumed between Valley Transit and
AASD Assistant Superintendent Ben Vogel. Photo by
Katharine Hackney
Related Editorial
Creating a public bus line
that serves all students
equally, Page 5