TTHE AMITY V Q R [ T - Our School Newspaper

75,'(17 PLW\ 'LVWULFW DQG 6WDWH )DFH%XGJHW &KDOOHQJHVby Ryan Anastasio ‘19After months of discussion and debate at the statecapitol, the Connecticut StateLegislature and GovernorMalloy have not agreed ona state budget. The legislativesession started in Januaryand ended in June withouta definitive agreement onthe final budget. The Governor’s Budget plan includesmajor educational cuts totowns such as Woodbridge,Orange, and Bethany. Malloy plans to invest more incities like New Haven andHartford. He even suggestedfunding a 200 million dollarrenovation project to the XLCenter in Hartford.The current state legislature is unique to others inthe past as there are moreRepublicans in the legislaturethis year. Currently, the StateSenate has 18 republicansand 18 democrats. The StateHouse of Representatives has79 Democrats and 72 Republicans. The Republicanshave made substantial gainsin the past few years. Theyhave gone from 37 Republican members of the statehouse in 2008 to 79 today.In September, stateRepublicans passed a statebudget in the House and theSenate. Some Democrats inthe House and Senate joinedthe Republicans in votingfor the budget. The Republican budget limited cuts totowns, but did not bail outthe city of Hartford and madesubstantial cuts to the StateUniversity system which con-cerned some legislators. TheGovernor vetoed the budgetand now legislators are againtrying to create a budget thatthe Governor will sign.Not having a state budget has affected towns andschools. Many schools thatwere expecting checks havenot received them and theyare trying to find out howthey will make up for the lostrevenue. If Malloy’s budget ispassed, many towns will losemillions of dollars in statefunding, including all threetowns in the Amity district.Superintendents acrossthe state are concerned theywill not be able to make upfor the cuts. Amity Superintendent Dr. Charles Dumaissaid, “Amity is unique becauseit is a regional school.”Unlike other schools,Amity is composed of threetowns. Generally, the townswill receive money from thestate and from property taxesin the town, and then theywill approve a certain amountof money to Amity.Dr. Dumais said that sincethe school’s budget is setahead of time and the townshave already approved moneyto the school, the governor’sproposal and current lack ofstate budget will not affect usshort term. Dr. Dumais saidthe biggest issue for him andother superintendents acrossthe state is “not knowing aboutmillions of dollars in funding”. If a budget cuts aidto towns like the Malloy isproposing, it will affect planning for next year’s budget.Dr. Dumais stated that if thegovernor’s budget passes, itwill have a “dramatic impact” on the school in thenext year. “The only wayyou can make large cuts likethat is through staff cuts,”said Dr. Dumais. However,he stated, “I don’t think youcan cut five million dollarsworth of staff easily”.The school would not beable to cut required programsfor graduation but might haveto make cuts to extracurriculars such as clubs and athletics if the funding is lost.Regarding the Republicanbudget proposed, Dr. Dumaisstated, “The Republican package makes sense financially.”However, he said, “some ofthe language is not helpfulfor schools.”The superintendent suggested the state follow Amity’s budget plan, and createspecific budgets five yearsahead. Some students areconcerned about what couldhappen to Amity if cuts likethe Governor is proposingto go into place.Senior Patrick Burlansaid, “Dannel Malloy’s budget proposal is disastrous forAmity students and the stateas a whole. The Governorshould sign the budget thatwas passed with bipartisansupport.”Burland was referring tothe Republican budget thatpassed the legislature thatthe Governor vetoed. Currently, party leaders and theGovernor are still workingon an agreement but it isunclear when a budget willbe agreed upon.High School Debaters Compete at1DWLRQDO 7RXUQDPHQW DOH ,QYLWDWLRQDOE\ .D\OD 0RUJDQ µ The 25th Annual YaleDebate Invitational is anintense three day competition. During this competition,students participate in sixdifferent formats of debate:the Varsity and JV LincolnDouglas Debate, Policy Debate, Student Congress, PublicForum Debate, ParliamentaryDebate, and Speech Events.This year, Amity was wellrepresented with eight totalvarsity debaters.One pair Ananya Kachru‘18 and Mounish Anumolu ‘19advanced to quarter-finals.This was comprised of thetop eight teams in the entiretournament where a total ofeighty teams from coast tocoast as well as internationalpairs were represented.Ananya Kachru, captainof the Debate Team, said “Itis a really empowering expe-2&72%(5 NEWSrience because an individualdebater can represent anythingfrom the people impacted bythe International CriminalCourt to those involved inthe Dakota Access Pipelinedebacle, all within a singleday.”The first day was comprised of five rounds. If teamsbroke into the top sixteen,they would compete the following day.Competitor and DebateTeam captain Sam Farbman‘19 said, “It was a really longday, but I had a pretty goodtime with Andrew, my mainman (and partner).”The Amity Debate Teampractices at least once everyweek on Thursday where theywork on skill building likespeech tactics and currentevent discussions. Captains’practices are also offered forstudents to work on morespecific aspects of debatelike speech quality and rapidcase building.This may seem like a lot,but all of this practice paidoff last year when the teambroke their own record ofthe number of debaters thatqualified for state finals.At competitions this big,some people might get verynervous but Sophia Wang, asophomore at Amity and anactive member of the DebateTeam, said that since “thewhole team is really supportive, there isn’t pressure;we all just try our best.”Recently, the debate program has expanded to AmityMiddle School Bethany andOrange. In addition to this,the high school debate teamcontinues to grow.They plan on sending over20 debaters to their first season competition this Octoberat Seymour High School. Asthe debate season continues,the team’s goal is to onceagain break the record setlast year for qualifying debaters to state finals.Freshmen Representatives&KRVHQ IRU 6WXGHQWGovernmentby Danielle Grosso ‘19On Monday October 2,the 2017-18 set of freshmanrepresentatives were inaugurated into Student Government. These freshmen stoodin front of the lecture hall,facing all the other membersof student government, andrepeated an oath.After completion of theoath, the freshmen were officially inaugurated.Senior Christina Lee,Vice President of the Student Government, describesseeing the new freshmen getting sworn in as “refreshingto see a lot of friendly newfaces!”She said, “The freshmendefinitely looked like theywere ready to take an activerole as a member of studentgovernment.”Further, Ally Cooper‘21, talked about her highhopes for this coming yearin student government.She said, “I hope to raisea lot of funds for my classand be successful in gettingmy friends and my class toshow up to things.”In order to become afreshman representative ofstudent government, freshmenhad to go through a thoroughapplication process in whichthey were evaluated on theirabilities to act as an accurateportrayal of their grade.Cooper described wantingto join student governmentbecause she wanted, “to beable to have a voice in theschool and to help make thingsmore fun and enjoyable forstudents.”Applications were completed online through aGoogle form on the AmityHigh School Student Government website. The studentgovernment only allows 25representatives per classBecause more than twenty-five freshmen applied, therewas an election conductedto the whole class of 2021in which the freshmen classvoted on which twenty-fivestudents they thought wouldbest represent their class.This election processwas stipulated in the StudentGovernment Constitution asthe way to whittle down thenumber of representatives toan appropriate number.After the election, thefinal list of freshmen was determined, and those freshmenwere invited to come to thestudent government meetingin order to be inaugurated.After the inauguration, itwas time to get started. Thefreshmen began by hostingtheir very first class councilmeeting to start setting upsome council leadership.Christina Lee was in attendance to help them organize their first meeting. Shewas particularly impressedby the passion displayed bythe students.She said, “I think theyall want to play an activerole regardless of their position and want to work withother students at the school.I’m really looking forwardto seeing their growth andsuccess over the year.”However, Lee acknowledges that the freshmen willlikely face many strugglesthroughout the year. She advises them to “stay organized,to collaborate with their peers,and most importantly to havefun.”Debate Begins Regular Seasonwith Novice ScrimmageContinued from page 1different from most of theseasons where typically,judges are actually theparents of the debaterswho are competing.Jack Tajmajer ‘20 saidthat being a judge “gaveme the opportunity to helpnew debaters improve using tips I wish I had whenI was a beginner.”Due to the informalnature of this event, therewere no trophies awardedto top teams. However,the debaters received theirballots after the tournament, which included tipsand suggestions for thefuture.Overall, the NoviceScrimmage helped to introduce new debaters toCDA tournaments and hashelped them evaluate theirfuture plans.“This experience hasmade me more interestedin debate,” said ArnavPaliwal ‘21.“I plan to participatefor all four years of highschool.”

The Importance of a Moment of Silenceare not gaining the recognition that they deserve to begetting within our country asI am a patriotic Ameri- D ZKROH EXW PRUH VSHFL¿ FDO can. I take great pride in the ly the communities that theyfact that I am a citizen of the grew up in.United States and would goThroughout the year thatgreat lengths to ensure the I have been at Amity Highsafety of my family, friends, School, I have noticed thatand fellow Americans. This is within the morning announcewhy I am enlisted in the U.S. ments one student will say,Army.“Please remain standing forOn a day-to-day basis a moment of silence ” andI think of those who have this statement is immediatelyVHOÀ HVVO\ JLYHQ WKHLU OLYHV LQ followed by, “You may nowa manner that many people be seated.” I do not believewould not dare to take upon that the length that is giventhemselves. Taking into con- to the moment of silence issideration their morals and enough time for students andabilities, they took the oath staff to be able to designate ato protect the country they thought or prayer.love. They earn the title of aThe length of time deditrue hero. However, we--as a cated to the moment of sischool--only receive 2-3 sec- lence should be long enoughonds a day to recognize this to allow students and facultyVDFUL¿ FH to think of what they desire.As someone who has For some people like myself,enlisted in the Army, as well it may be to think of thoseas watched many of my close who have or will put theirfriends become successful in lives on the line in the past,all branches of the military, present, and future.I have learned and heard ofFor others, it may bemany stories that are distress- substantial time to say aLQJ DQG WUXO\ VKRZ WKH ¿ JKW prayer, think of a loved oneservicemembers have to go we have lost, or even just tothrough each day, whether on have a peaceful moment inthe job or not. I am appalled a potentially stressful day.at how although these brave There should be at least a fullmen and women put their minute provided for the relives on the line daily, they À HFWLRQ RI HDFK LQGLYLGXDO¶V by Courtney Lepore ‘18choosing.Secondly, as a schoolcommunity, we need to cometogether to ensure that all students and faculty are fully engaged during the moment ofsilence. Often times duringthe moment of silence I lookaround and see my fellowclassmates on their phones ortalking with their friends. Inaddition to this, many teachers sit at their computers attempting to take attendanceRU ¿ QLVKLQJ DQ XUJHQW HPDLO We have, as a community, forgotten the purpose andimportance of the moment ofsilence. The importance ofstanding and participating inthe moment of silence is tooffer a gesture of respect.Out of respect we shouldstand silently and attentivelyto ensure that everyone in theroom is able to gain something from the experience.We all should take itupon ourselves to remain silent, so others can make useof the time, even if we personally do not take full advantage of it.All in all, I think thathaving a longer moment of silence within our daily morning routine would allow a majority of people to be able tostart their day in a more positive manner.3HS 5DOO\ ([FLWLQJ RU :DVWH

Amity Regional High School called for a profes-sional development day on Friday, September 29, resulting in an early dis-missal for students. This professional development day was to get an under-standing of where teach-ers are in the process of setting up their Unified Classroom pages. Amity adopt