Student last day is now June 18!

BY  ATHEN HOLLIS
     You might recall the powerful hurricane that knocked out power to much of the MSAD6 district last October and kept us from going to school for an entire week. On top of that, we had eight more snow days, which pushed our end of school date to June 22.
      Superintendent Paul Penna recently announced that he was successful in getting the four "hurricane" days waived by the state, which means we will be getting out of school June 18. In a recent interview, Mr. Penna explained the process on how he got the four days waived.
      “The state law says you need to have 175 (days) and we have 177. For me to adjust the calendar I have to go to Dr. Hasson, the Commissioner of Education for the State of Maine and ask for a waiver,” Mr. Penna said.
       But first, he had to ask the permission of the school board to send the letter to Dr. Hasson.  Then, “the school board has to approve the calendar. To do that you have to show you have done something for the instructional time.  Finally, Dr. Hasson approved the waiver,  "because we really had done a lot to try and make up the time.”
     Mr. Penna said the main reason for getting the days waived was because so many students have jobs and take vacations around that time, and he wanted us to be able to enjoy our time. The school board recently voted and did decide to approve the calendar change. Now students can start their vacation four days early (while teachers finish up their year June 27).  

"Juuls Are For Tools"
at Bonny Eagle 

PicturePhoto from the vape.guide
BY LEA PILLSBURY   
        Puffs of sweet-smelling smoke drift up from bathroom stalls. One student says, “Look, I just ghosted it.” The words: “You must have rookie lungs,” followed by coughs, can usually give away what students are up to. Juuling on school grounds is the newest trend among teens, and Bonny Eagle High School is no exception.
       Vice Principal Mr. Jason Tarr explains, “It is a huge issue in our school. I have had to spend two days of my week every week for the past two months on punishments for Juuls and vapes, and I have much better things to do than that.”
      

 From BEHS to News Center 6

Picture
Screen shot by Brenna Finn
BY BRENNA FINN    
   ​ Have you watched Channel 6 News lately? If so, you might have seen reporter and 2010 Bonny Eagle graduate Samantha York on your television screen. Samantha joined News Center Maine during the summer of 2014 soon after graduating from the University of Southern Maine with a major in Media Studies and Communications.
    Samantha says she always loved writing in school. Her English teachers, Mrs. Kathy Field and Mr. Dan Murphy, pushed her to pursue a career in journalism. To gain experience, Samantha took over the school’s morning announcements for the athletic director and narrated school and library introduction videos, which helped her learn the functions of a camera. She also started "BE in the Spotlight," a radio show that talked about what was going on at BEHS. 
  

EDITORIAL
The death of the thinking student

BY ABIGAIL KOVACS 
​     I have spent over a decade in the public school system and am just now coming to the realization that I have been complicit in a massive fraud. While I may appear accomplished in the eyes of college admissions officers, it has not been in the way one might expect. Unfortunately, 10 years of traditional schooling and straight A’s has not made me any more intelligent. Despite what my grades may tell you, I am by no means smarter than any of my peers; I am, perhaps, simply the best at following instructions. ​

Bonny Eagle gets to state finals with one-act play, Humbletown

PictureDara Khin from a scene in Humbletown.. For more photos, click on the words Bonny Eagle in the story headline.

BY SARAH DUROCHER AND BRIAN WAKEM
​    The BEHS drama club's journey is over, but it's likely the participants won't soon forget the 2018 statewide one-act play competition. It all started with a trip to Camden-Hills Regional High School on March 9. The students, competing with their historical satire, Humbletown: The Greatest Town On Earth, crossed their fingers as the crowd roared its approval. They were competing against three other Class A schools (schools with 500+ students): Camden Hills Regional High School, Waterville High School, and Edward Little High School. 
     Bonny Eagle's performance was on the first day of competition. While the cast and crew knew that it had been one of their best performances yet, they were informed shortly after they finished that they had exceeded the time limit by 5 seconds, and that they had been disqualified. The students, angry and disappointed, headed back to their hotel for the night.

Watching the birdie

Photos by Tabitha Burgess
FROM STAFF REPORTS
     The Class of 2020 made over $100 at its fundraising badminton tournament in late March.  Close to 22 teams, made up of students and staff members, participated in the double-elimination tourney. Though the second day of competition was postponed almost a week because of our two snow days, competitors hung in there and put on a good show. A team named 'Samolia' (Sam Connell and Mollie Ward) won the tournament.
      "We had a few bumps in the road, but those were expected," said sophomore class officer Athen Hollis. "I would say this event was successful given the obstacles we had to work around."
Wrestling team rising
PictureAlex Smith, Tyler Fitz, Brian Dupuis, Caleb Frost, Hayley Grant, Emily Welch, Alivia Stanley (Photo Courtesy of Caleb Frost).
 BY HAYDN GOULET
     While it has yet to achieve the same immense following as basketball or football, the fan base for wrestling has grown immensely this year.  Seniors Caleb Frost, Tyler Fitz, Alex Smith, and star freshman Colby Frost have all played a key role in the expansion of the wrestling fan base. As a team, they only have a 4-10 record, but each have great individual records.

Scholastic writing award winners to be honored

PictureSome of the award winners: Back row, L to R, Logan Hiltz, Michael MacFarland- Foley, Ian Jarvis, Lauren Bearor and Cassidy Grass. Front row, L to R: Michaella Tillo, Julia Morin, Kinsey Oliver, Tayler Johnson-Hartley, and Sydney Gillingham. Photo by Joanne Lannin
BY GARRETT HAWXWELL
      Fourteen BEHS students earned an award or recognition for their writing in the Scholastic Writing Contest. They will be recognized at a ceremony at Hannaford Hall, at the University of Southern Maine, Portland campus on March 16 at 6 p.m.
     Ian Jarvis was one of the winners, earning a Silver Key for his poem, Renaissance.
     “I enjoyed entering my piece in the contest and was happy to have been recognized,” said Ian.
     Two students won Gold Key awards: juniors Lauren Bearor for her short story, “Dark,” and Michael MacFarland-Foley for his poetry collection, “Outliers.”

Robotics build season begins

BY KADY MURPHY
​    ​High school students around the world have questioned for years what the future will look like. Will there be robots to do our work for us? We might have the answer to this question because of FIRST, an organization dedicated to spreading the recognition of science and technology. FIRST Robotics Competition is the subdivision of the program for high-school aged students, and it’s also the program in which our MSAD 6 robotics team, BERT 133, competes.
​    Every year, FIRST reveals the theme of the competition season. Last year’s theme was called FIRST Steamworks. This year, the competition is called FIRST Power Up and is video-game themed.
     Robotics teams from all over the world have six and a half weeks to build their robots and prepare for competitions. BERT has been brainstorming the best ways to tackle this year’s game.
​    

Chinese spoken here at BEHS

PictureMrs. Ji Wenhau during a Chinese language class at BEHS. Madison Chayer photo.
BY  MADISON CHAYER
​    Growing up in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of North China’s Hebei Province, our new Chinese language teacher, Mrs. Ji Wenhua, says that her experience in school was much different from what she is encountering at BEHS. In China, schools were much stricter and the students were forced to wear uniforms. She likes the fact that the students here are allowed to express who they are.
     Mrs. Wenhua says she was interested in working in the U.S. because the students know very little about China, and she’d love to give the students more in- formation about the culture.
“I think your country has the most advanced educational system,” adds Mrs. Wenhua.

Students with special needs learn how to cook

PictureAdam Carberry, Darren Gravenstien, and Chris Pillsbury. Photo by Lea Pillsbury.
BY LEA PILLSBURY
     On Wednesday’s the special needs students load the bus from the high school and are taken to the Jack Memorial School. Their faces light up as soon as they see Chris Pillsbury, who started the program in 201, with the hopes of teaching students in the special needs department to cook and have everyday life skills.
     The students yell “Hey Chef” and go in for personalised handshakes and hugs. One of the students, Dean, says “My favorite thing about coming here is seeing Mr. Pillsbury, don’t tell him this but I think of him as an older brother”.
    Pillsbury has always been a chef, working at places such as Fore Street and Becky’s Diner, running the Royal River Grillhouse, and previously having two restaurants of his own. 

 Unified basketball has another good year

PictureColbe Lewis (13) goes up for a shot in a 2017 Unified basketball game. The 2018 season is in full swing. For more photos, click on the words Unified Basketball in the story headline.

China trip shows similarities

PictureMrs. Napolitano takes a selfie with a group of Chinese students.
 BY ATHEN HOLLIS
     After a 10-day trip to China, Bonny Eagle High School Principal Mrs. Lori Napolitano has learned that Chinese education is more similar to America’s education than it is different, and she hopes other teachers can get this experience in future years.
     Mrs. Napolitano traveled to China in November with Mr. Benjamin Harris, the Bonny Eagle Middle School principal, and Mr. Douglas Parker, the Steep Falls Elemenary School principal, as part of the Chinese Bridge Delegation, a group sponsored by the national College Board.

Inside was so delightful at the BEHS winter talent assembly

FROM STAFF REPORTS
     As the snow came down outside, a cavalcade of voices entertained students at the annual holiday assembly on Dec. 22, hosted by Zach Klein as Santa and Nathan Carlow as the Grinch. Below, a group of select chorus members perform a vocal percussion rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" during the annual holiday assembly.  Staff photos and video

Teachers give Class of 2017 a deserving send-up/send-off

A modest proposal indeed

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following video captures Eagle Times editor Ronahn Clarke's farewell to BEHS at the Senior Last Assembly June 7 at the University of Southern Maine. Ronahn was Salutatorian of the Class of 2017. He will be attending Colby College in the fall.