A mutual groan erupted amongst students. “It was so pointless,” one student shouted out. Nods and grunts of agreement filled the room. For this class, it was unanimous: registration night, which had taken place the night before, was not worth students’ time.

While the night wasn’t completely pointless, it also wasn’t worthwhile for all students. So what are the reasons that it was beneficial? What made it unnecessary?

For students who need a lot of guidance, registration night was successful. Through an opportunity to touch base with their advisor and ask any questions they may have, students were able to successfully register in a way that was fit for them. Additionally, parents/guardians of registering students were able to better involve themselves in the registration process. Many parents/guardians find it important to be involved in decision making regarding their students’ education, and the night provided an easy opportunity to accomplish this.

“We want to be as effective as possible in setting up a schedule for next year that meets the needs of our students,” Principal Mark Mischke said. “So in order to do that, we need to have accurate registration information.” 

To accomplish this, advisors were involved in making sure all of their students complete their registration by filling out their whole schedule. Additionally, students were required to fill in alternate classes to ensure that they are taking classes they are interested in if they are unable to get into their first choice classes. By getting multiple sets of eyes on each student’s registration plan, incomplete plans were less likely to slip by.

In addition to current high school students, current eighth grade students were among the crowd present the night of registration. To begin their high school experience, eighth grade students and families met in the Performing Arts Center, where Mischke gave a presentation highlighting the core values of BHS, what it means to be a member of the BHS community, what students should expect out of high school and what is expected of them, and more. After the presentation, students and families were given the chance to explore the school, asking questions and talking to teachers and high school student volunteers about courses offered at BHS. To its credit, this was an effective way to involve parents and guardians in the registration process for their upcoming high schooler.

“The only people who bothered to go to registration night were the same people who would’ve been on top of it anyway,” one junior stated.

For students well-versed in the registration process, the night was seen as a waste of time. It was unclear to these students why there was a need to attend the event. After all, they were able to register on their own, and many took advantage of this opportunity. Additionally, not many people who needed significant help attended registration night anyway. 

As well as being unnecessary for students who were experienced in registering, the event was poorly communicated. Day of, many students were still confused about the format of the night. According to Mischke, communication with students was attempted, but he was aware that it didn’t get through to all students. 

“Last Thursday afternoon, just as an awareness, we shared our monthly newsletter,” said Mischke. “It isn’t always read by all of our students, but we send it to our kids [as well as families].” Other than the monthly newsletter, a voicemail was left in the inbox of BHS students and families, but there was minimal communication during the typical school day. Because of this, many students were unsure of what they were supposed to do for registration. Many thought the night would be an important communication of new information, but in reality, it was the same quick and easy process that many students have experience with and would have been able to complete on their own. Because of the lack of clear communication, many students were frustrated by the amount of time they spent at registration night. 

“I was there for 15 minutes tops,” said another junior. “There was no need for me to be there.” Because of this, many students took advantage of the ability to register at home. If this was the route they wanted to take, these students were required to turn in their registration forms with their advisor the next day.

Through talking with advisory teachers, many advisors were okay with their students not attending registration night, but rather registering for the upcoming year during advisory. The two advisory periods following the night will be dedicated to this, so why was there a need for a night dedicated to registration? Being that registration is something that needs advisor approval and checking, it would’ve been more worthwhile for students to get registration help during advisory, rather than spending a short amount of time at school for something that could have been completed in a more efficient manner.

Many staff members were just as frustrated with registration night as students and families were. BHS teachers are contracted to work four evenings outside of school hours each year where they are required to interact with students and families. While running the block schedule, all four of these nights were conference nights, which gave students and families a chance to check on student grades once per quarter. With the switch to the trimester schedule, only three conference nights are needed. Because of this, registration night was added in place of the last required evening.

Numerous families thought registration night was pointless due to the short amount of time they were in the building for. Many spent more time getting to and from the event than they did registering for their child’s upcoming school year. 

From the perspective of many teachers, there would have been a better way to build relationships with students and families. Some felt guilty about having families using their personal time to help with registration that students were previously able to do on their own.

Overall, it is clear that registration night was created with the intent to help make the registration process go as smoothly as possible, but it was partially ineffective in doing so, being that it only targeted certain people. It was beneficial to students who were in need of an adult to walk them through the registration process, but for experienced students, the evening was a waste of time. This event would be better approached as an optional event for students and families who are looking for extra help navigating the registration process.

Since third grade, volleyball has been an important part of life for Castle. Her volleyball journey started with Junior Bison, where she played until sixth grade. Once she got to seventh grade, Castle joined Club Bison, a club organization directed by her mother. Through Club Bison, Castle continued to work and grow as a player and person. In her freshman year of high school, she moved to MN Select, where she played on the 14U team. She attended camps, trained with her peers, and worked her way up to be one of the top players in the country.

On October 12, 2023, Castle was honored with a jersey for the 2024 Under Armour Next All-America Game at a high school volleyball game in Buffalo. “Kaia has been chosen as 1 of 24 seniors in the entire country to participate in the 2024 Under Armour Next All-America Game,” said Ziva Recek-Blackmon, an All-America Camp & Game Coordinator. 

Recipients of this award travel to Orlando, Florida to train and hone their skills. Castle, as a recipient, will receive an all-expenses paid trip to Orlando for training and competition with other high-level peers. This high-stakes game features the best high school athletes in the country and will be broadcasted live on ESPNU from the University of Central Florida on January 2, 2024. 

As well as playing, Castle has been coaching volleyball through Club Bison since seventh grade.

“When I was young, I was just coaching first grade and stepping in on the court to help my mom toss balls,” said Castle. “I wasn’t actually doing much coaching.” 

Over the years, Castle’s coaching has expanded as she has learned from her mentors. Through watching and learning from her coaches, Castle has shaped her coaching style to benefit the team as much as she can. 

“The way I act sets the tone for the team,” said Castle. 

Castle’s coaching style is especially effective with young students. Emry Mullenbach, a 7th-grade student at STFX, has been taking lessons with Castle for four months. After breaking her foot, Mullenbach was even more determined to be on the court. Castle adapted the sport of volleyball as much as possible to ensure that Mullenbach could continue to play and grow, even though she couldn’t move around the court. 

“I really liked [Kaia] coaching me when I broke my foot,” said Mullenbach. “I had to sit on a block, but she would still help me so I’d stay active.” 

Castle’s way of modifying the game for Mullenbach stretched far beyond the physical sport.

 “She just gives me that encouragement that wants me to do better,” said Mullenbach. “She’s an amazing, loving, sweet person and I love her.”

Castle’s ambitions with volleyball stretch beyond high school, and past college, too. 

“I want to play pro after [college],” said Castle. “There’s kind of a wide variety of things [I want to do]. I want to be a D1 collegiate volleyball coach, but I’m also really interested in marketing and sports photography, so I’m probably going to major in sports and history with a minor in French and marketing.” 

Castle continues to share her journey through her Instagram, @kaiacastle.

60 years is a long time and Urdahl could already be retired, so what made him stay? “Teaching AP Calculus has been my savior,” Urdahl said. “I just love teaching it. It’s an exciting class, AP students take the AP exam, and every year my goal is to be better than the year before. It’s been fun to try to do that and come up with ideas that would improve things. I also love doing problems. One of my things is at breakfast every morning I work on a couple of problems from this 800 calculus problems book. If I hadn’t taught AP I probably would have retired 20 years ago.”

Students also played a big role in Urdahl’s love for teaching, some even kept coming around after they graduated. “A very good friend of mine I met when he was a freshman, I still keep in touch with him and we’ve grown very close,” Urdahl said.

One student in particular permanently altered Urdahl’s life.

“I became sort of like a surrogate parent for a kid who was a foreign exchange student and needed a host home,” Urdahl said. “I attended his graduation, and a few years ago I was actually at his wedding.”

Another student that Urdahl vividly remembers ran into him at a restaurant.

“I had this little kid in eighth grade who was always antsy and did some pretty silly things…He was so short that when he sat at his desk his feet wouldn’t reach the floor and he would always cross his legs and swing them,” Urdahl said. “Many years later I was at a restaurant and he walked in; I didn’t recognize this guy at all, but he sat at a table not too far from me. As I looked over at him, he was talking to a friend and his legs were crossed. I thought ‘my gosh, that can’t be the same guy.’ So when I left I purposely walked by him, he said ‘Hi, Mr. Urdahl.’ He was in his 30s or 40s by then.”

Even his recent students notice how passionate he is about his work.

“You could tell that Mr. Urdahl was passionate about teaching, he would always give us challenges and was always so excited when he was solving problems and it seemed like he loved what he was doing,” said previous Algebra 2 student Mackenzie Koren ‘25.

He loves to teach all kinds of math, but especially Calculus.

“He would always have calculus problems on the board,” Koren said. “He would teach us how to solve them even though we weren’t supposed to learn it yet, so we learned more than other kids who were also in Algebra two.”

A few of the teachers at BHS had him as their teacher when they were in high school. English teacher Ryan McCallum recalls how Urdahl helped him become the teacher he is today.

“I ended with a D in the first quarter of calculus, but I eventually got it up to a B,” McCallum said. “One day when I was struggling he pulled me aside and said, ‘I think you should be a math teacher.’ He asked me if I was sure I wanted to be an English teacher. I thought he was joking. He said, ‘you know what it means to struggle with math, and you figured it out on your own. … I’ve never struggled with math so I don’t understand it the way you do.’ He wanted me to teach something I struggled with so I could connect with future struggling students. That left a huge impact on me, and even though I’m an English teacher, I know I have to work at understanding students who are struggling because I haven’t struggled myself.”

Mr. Urdahl influenced many students’ lives throughout the course of his career. BHS is forever grateful for all he has done and continues to do. In and out of school, teaching or not, he will definitely be remembered as an admirable teacher who cares about each and every student that crosses his path.

For more Urdahl stories check out this story from The Drummer.

Students gathered by the Rock, a meaningful spot for many BHS students. The Rock is a monument unique to BHS. To memorialize significant events, students get the chance to spray paint the Rock, a boulder that has been part of BHS history since 1984. It has also been the site of multiple walkouts and marches among BHS students. This walkout, like previous events, was organized and publicized by students. Principal Mark Mischke emailed families later in the day, saying that administrators were present to ensure students stayed safe. 

As students surrounded the monumental place, Ella Kragerud ‘25 and Mae Knoell ‘24 stepped up onto the rock and addressed the crowd of their peers. They started the gathering with a moment of silence to honor the lives that have been lost to gun violence and to acknowledge all that are affected.

The moment of silence was followed by powerful testimonies from several students. Olivia Telecky ‘24 was one of many to speak.

“We, as students, don’t deserve to live in fear and shouldn’t have to. In order to make things safer, we all need to join together as a community,” said Telecky.

Between suicide, homicide, murder, and accidental firings, there have been 18,056 gun related deaths in the first 5 months of 2022 in the US (gunviolencearchive).

In 2014, there were 12,356 gun related deaths in 12 months (gunviolencearchive). The numbers are only rising. BHS students are pushing for action. 

“There needs to be a lot more ability and willingness to want to try something for change because not everything is going to change overnight. I don’t even know if I’ll get to see it in my lifetime, but to get the ball rolling is the most important part,” said Jack Hintz ‘22.

“We can write letters to our congressmen or to local state officials. We could even write [letters] federally. And even though they may not read it, if we crowd up a room full of mail, or clutter their inbox on email, that sends a message enough and then they’ll get annoyed,” said Hintz. 

Gun violence lies close to the hearts of many BHS students and Buffalo community members. In February of 2021, Allina Health Clinic suffered a major tragedy. An active shooter walked into the clinic and opened fire, injuring 4 and killing 1. After the tragic event, BHS students wanted to get involved. Andrew Macheel ‘23 took an extra step to make a change.

“Following the tragic shooting at Allina Clinic, Zach [Muellerliele ‘23] and I were upset and saddened and it was scary to see this happen in our own community. Obviously it’s sad whenever something like that happens, but when it happened in our own community, it was almost unreal. So we decided to take action,” said Macheel. 

He and Muellerleile planned the March For Change, a march through downtown Buffalo to protest gun violence. They planned the date, made an Instagram page to spread the news, found a location, and found guest speakers from different organizations. Around 100-200 students and community members took part in the event.

The Allina Health Clinic shooting was a turning point for many BHS students. Macheel and other students are working to make a change in their community and the world.

“The walkout didn’t immediately change anything,” said Macheel, “but it was a step in the right direction.”

Meanwhile, Paola Linares-Santiago ‘24 has been refreshing Infinite Campus, waiting for an updated grade. Linares-Santiago is one of 15.7% of students at Buffalo High School that says Infinite Campus has made her life worse. Checking the app became a routine for Linares-Santiago.

“Today I took a geometry test. The second that I turned it in, I was already checking to see if [Linares-Santiago’s teacher] put the grade in. Then he told me he was going to curve [the test grades]. I’ve continued checking the portal like every five seconds to see if he’s put my grade curved or not. I don’t want [my current grade] to go down. I’m going to be checking probably every 10 minutes. I check on the app to make sure, just in case the notification didn’t show up,” says Linares-Santiago.

The illusion Infinite Campus is creating may seem like it is raising more responsible students, however, this is not the case. The need to be perfect in school is increasing students’ stress levels. Along with that, the app is creating trust issues between students and their families. 43% of 115 students interviewed said that Infinite Campus has been the source of a family conflict.

“My parents get really mad at me when they see my grades come back. My mom doesn’t allow me to hang out with anyone until I get the grades up,” says Chloe Nyland ‘24.

In a survey conducted six years ago, in June of 2016, 5.2% of students said that Infinite Campus made their life worse. A similar study done in March of 2022 said that 15.7% of students say that Infinite Campus has made their life worse. The increase in this data shows that Infinite Campus is gaining power over students, teachers, and families. Parents and students having the availability to receive constant grade updates anywhere only makes this issue worse.

“[My dad] will see a notification and won’t ask me what the problem is. He will go on a whole thing about how I need to fix [a grade]. He doesn’t understand why the grade was wrong, like if I was just gone that day,” said Tatum Kjellberg ‘23.

Although the school is taking action to change grading, Infinite Campus is still the deliverer of news and is creating a sticking point between teachers and families. A cohort of teachers is working to find a solution to the grading problem, but Infinite Campus is still overlooked as the root of the problem.