“We’re doing a ropes course in Kronberg, which is the town we’re staying in. And I’m personally going to France the first full weekend we have there, with my exchange partner, Caroline, but I don’t know what everyone else is doing,” said Junior Emily Linderholm. “I guess we’re just kind of traveling around, going to Frankfurt. I think the thing I’m most excited is to see Caroline, because I haven’t seen her in a very long time. I’m also super excited to go to Berlin, we are going to see the Berlin Wall.”

While some are looking to see the sights and meet with friends. Other students are looking forward to other sides of the trip such as eating some delicious food, parties and having a good time.

“We’re going to be going on a cruise along the Rhine River, which is gonna be pretty cool,” said Junior Parker Peterson. “We’re gonna eat a lot of German food, it’s gonna be pretty good, I’m a big fan a food. I wanna go to German parties, I feel like they’re gonna be way better than American parties. I’m definitely excited for the high ropes course and canoeing, but anything outside and anything active, is just gonna be fun, always good to keep an open mind.”

Either way, the German students should have a great time experiencing a different culture on the other side of the world. They will be doing different things with different people whether it’s going to parties or going on tours, they will have a great start to the summer.

Instead of just normal numbers on the posters, like in past years, this year’s Senior Class Cabinet decided to make the posters relate to this years quote which is, “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end,” by Ernest Hemingway. “We had to come up with the quote and Anna Demgen found that quote and we all decided we liked it so we all figured out what could go with it,” said Senior Madi Phyle. “We did things that had to do with journey and moving, like there’s a bike, a boat, one’s a parasail and the one for the last day is a rocket ship.”

The Senior Class Cabinet members are proud about the creativeness of the posters. They worked hard on the posters to make them different from past years’ countdowns. Some students may like it more because it’s something different, while some students don’t like the fact that there is a countdown at all.

“I think it’s a more creative idea [this year],” said Senior Jon Thielen. “There was more design to it than previous years. However, having the countdown constantly there and wanting to remind people how long they have left really doesn’t go well with trying to enjoy every single moment.”

Students are not alone in this view, some teachers such as English Teacher Joel Squadroni feel that “The more you count down, the less time you have to enjoy life.” Read more in a previous hoofprint.net article here.

What do you think?

About a month ago, high school Principal Mark Mischke and the school board decided to move the GPA back to a 3.5 for this spring only. After this school year, it will move again to the 3.67 GPA requirement to graduate with honors.

On May, 5th Mischke sent an email to all parents of seniors that were impacted by this decision.

Dear Senior students and parents/guardians,

At the end of last school year, we made a decision to move the grade point average needed to graduate with honors to 3.67. This information was presented and accepted at a school board meeting this summer, and included in our student planner.

Yet, we didn’t directly communicate with our Seniors at the beginning of this school year, regarding the change. Therefore, for this spring only, we are going to honor the previous grade point average requirement of 3.5.

The reason you are receiving this email, is because according to our records you have a GPA between 3.5 and 3.67 and would be affected by this decision.

I apologize for any confusion, and want to congratulate you on the hard work you’ve put in as a student at Buffalo High School.

This student was affected by the outcome of the change and was excited too graduate with honors.

“Mr. Mischke called me down and told me that they switched it back to a 3.5 for this year,” said Senior Anna Demgen. “I was happy to know that my hard work will now get recognized.”

“It starts with your PSAT test your junior year and based off your score there, you are given a selection index and Minnesota was about 215 for a required score,” said Senior Ryan Bowers. “Once you are elected to be a Semifinalist, from there you have to send in a full application, resumé, and you have to take the SAT as well and show that you haven’t started failing at school and the intermediate period. From there you move on to be a finalist and about half of the finalists get a college scholarship.”

About 16,000 semifinalist remain after you take PSAT and from there you have to do several  other requirements in order to be a finalist. There will be about 15,000 finalists and only about half of them will receive Merit Scholarships. For more information click here.

Both Jon and Ryan have big plans after graduating from high school.

“I am going to Iowa State University, planning on double majoring in mathematics and meteorology with hopes to go into a career with research in meteorology,” said Senior Jon Thielen. “I know I’m going to go for a masters and probably a PHD after that.”

“I will be going too the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities to study aerospace Engineering,” said Bowers.

The city of Buffalo, students and administrative staff of Buffalo High School congratulate them on their achievements and commitment towards success and their desire to push themselves too the highest level.

Many students who expected to graduate with honors won’t be wearing gold cords at graduation because of this announcement. There will be a drastic decrease in students graduating with honors this year. This has resulted in frustration for the seniors who assumed they would earn the distinction.

“I was kind of angry at first, because beforehand it was at a 3.5 and then they changed this Spring to a 3.67,” said Senior Sydney Warheime. “I wasn’t aware of the change until a couple of weeks ago. The only people who knew about the change were the administration staff.”

This information, was in the student handbook which is given out at the beginning of the school year. However, many seniors assumed this change would apply to incoming students but not affect current seniors.

The change was made because the junior class at BHS has performed at a high level. Over a quarter of the junior class currently has a GPA above a 3.67. The change also makes BHS in line with neighboring districts.

“I asked our Assistant Principal Kris Thompson about the change,” said Senior Anna Demgen, “and she said that they wanted to be more in line with other schools in our district like St. Michael and Monticello. So that’s why they switched the NHS GPA because the junior class is inflated with loads of intelligence.”

Other seniors at BHS weren’t upset of the change but wished that school could have communicated it to them better.

“I’m not mad that they raised the requirements but I wish they could have done a better job of communicating it to the seniors,” said Senior Sydney Driver. “I do understand why they made the change though.”

Some of the students were motivated to try and increase their GPA so they could maybe graduate with honors.

“Before school started this year my GPA was at a 3.28 and after I heard about it, I worked hard in school and got it up to a 3.51,” said Warheime.

You don’t need to take MCA’s anymore! According to Supreme Court cases like, Meyer vs Nebraska say that, “In Meyer, the Supreme Court held that the right of parents to raise their children free from unreasonable state interference’s is one of the unwritten “liberties” protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. (262 U.S. 399)”

You will just need your parent or guardian to send in an email to the principle saying that you won’t be taking the test. Just follow the format on this article, on page 3.

Some reasons for not taking the MCA include:

Fosters test driven education that is not meeting the individual/intellectual needs of students.

Fosters coercion over cooperation with regards to federal funding for public education.

Promotes a culture of lying, cheating, and exploitation within the school community.

For more information go here.

An informal survey was taken by 50 BHS students. 21 males responded that they took 4 CIS classes. 29 females responded that they took 6 CIS classes.

If you pass these college courses you will receive college credit and won’t have to take those classes again in college.

“I took CIS classes in high school because ultimately I didn’t want to take them again in college and wanted to save money at the same time,” said (2013) Madison Loomis who goes to Winona State University.

Racking up a lot of college credits will help in the long run. Take advantage of the opportunity here at BHS to take CIS classes.

“I definitely benefited taking CIS classes! Throughout my junior and senior year of high school, I ended up accumulating 15 college credits. For most colleges that’s equivalent to a full semester of classes. Many colleges make you take a lot general education classes prior to getting into a program or prior to taking classes for your specific degree, and I was able to complete a lot of those general ed classes by taking CIS Economics, CIS Human Anatomy, CIS Spanish etc. Also, I thought CIS classes were easier than my college classes. I am able to have two majors and still graduate in four years thanks to taking CIS classes in high school, which is not typical of a college student these days! Many people graduate in five years with a single degree. I wish I would have taken more in high school! Plus it’s never a bad thing to have already taken classes and have a little extra cushion in case you decide to switch your major a few times,” said Loomis.

Every college is different but it costs a lot of money to pay for classes, materials and other supplies.

“Going to Winona State, I spend typically about $500 per credit. Since I received 15 CIS credits, that’s close to $7000 I saved by taking CIS classes! And that’s not including textbooks and other supplies and fees that need to be paid for each class, which end up costing a lot of extra money that are all provided for you when you take a CIS class. I have easily spent $2000 in books and extra fees in the two years I have been in college. So I always recommend people to take CIS classes, even if they seem hard! I can almost guarantee they will be 10 times harder in college and you save a significant amount of money,” said Loomis.

In college we exchange money, time and experience for education.  With the CIS program BHS eliminates one variable.  The additional cost associated with gaining college credit.

“The season is going pretty well,” said Head Coach Scot Sorenson. “We lost a couple close games but we also beat some very good teams. We finished 3rd in conference and we are the fourth seed going into sections next Tuesday against Moorhead. ”

There are six seniors on the girls’ basketball team this year and they have been leading the way.

“We have 6 seniors this year and they have improved so much and I am very proud of them. They have been great leaders on and off the court,” said Sorenson.

St. Francis is 8-16 and 3-8 in conference play going into Friday night against Buffalo.

“It will be a game that will equally matched, and it should be interesting,” said Freshman Bailee Larson. “We can win if we can stop them from shooting outside. Varsity will win because we have an all around pretty strong team.”

The Buffalo Bison and the St Francis Saints tipped-off at 7:15 p.m. and the halftime score was Buffalo 22-St. Francis 20. The leading scorers for the Buffalo Bison at halftime were #11 Senior Chloe Boster and #44 Sophmore Cadyn Luedemann. The leading scorer for the St. Francis Saints was #34 Molly Kungel with 6 points.

It was a nail-biting finish; Buffalo was down by 3 with 7 seconds left in the game and Sophomore Hailey Sorenson tried to make a 3 as the buzzer went off but it went around the rim and out. The final score was St. Francis 50-Buffalo 47. Leading scorers for the Bison were #11 Senior Chloe Boster and #35 Hailey Sorenson. Leading scorers for the Saints were #35 Ameh Ogbemudia with 16 points and #1 Sydney Zgutowicz with 13 points.

The varsity girls play at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, March 4th at St. Michael-Albertville High School against Moorhead for their section quarter-finals. Buffalo’s record going into Wednesday night is 15-11 and 7-6 in conference.

The game started at 1:15 p.m. At the end of the 1st period the Buffalo Bison and the Edina Hornets were tied at 0. Buffalo had 5 shots on goal and Edina had 16 shots on goal after the 1st period.

The game was still tied at 0 after the 2nd period. At the end of the second period the Buffalo Bison had 9 shots on goal and the Edina Hornets had 29 shots on goal.

Then in the start of the 3rd period the Bison scored with 51 seconds into the period. Abby Halluska scored the first goal of the game.

Emily Oden from the Hornets responded immediately with a goal with 12:30 left in the 3rd period.

With 54 seconds left in the game Edina took the lead over the Buffalo Bison by a score of 2-1. Emily Oden scored her second goal of the game.

The Bison tried to re-group by calling a timeout. After the timeout Buffalo took their goalie off the ice with 30 seconds left. Buffalo Bison wanted to have another player try and tie the game and force OT but Edina scored a empty net goal with 15 seconds left.

Taylor Williamson scored the goal for Edina and Buffalo lost. Sadness was felt in the arena. The hard work and commitment was felt by the fans but lost in that moment.

The Final Score was Edina-3 Buffalo-1. Edina had 40 shots on goal and Buffalo had 18. Edina will play against Hill-Murray in the State Semifinals on February 20th at 6:00 p.m. at the Excel Energy Center.

It appears that curriculum and engagement of positive interaction between students and teachers is the decisive factor.

“It doesn’t matter to me because if the teacher is a good teacher, I’m going to like them. It doesn’t matter if they’re male or female, as long as they are willing to help you and actually put effort into teaching, it shouldn’t matter,” said Junior Emily Linderholm.

Students were also asked what characteristics they preferred in a teacher. There was a uniform response with students stating that most of them felt that they were cared about on a personal level as well as at an academic point of view. Leadership was listed as important along with confidentiality. It seems logical that students learn best and are engaged knowing that they have the trust and respect of their teacher. This concept goes both ways. In order for learning to take place there must be a mutual respect. The responsibility of learning is a two-way street. The student must show effort and interest in learning. The teacher must grab onto that slice of effort offered to guide it and nurture it.

“I want to be able to relate to the students on their level and I want to be open and honest to the students so they know that I am genuine. I don’t think gender matters in having a favorite teacher as long as the student and the teacher have a good relationship,” said Social Studies teacher Mike Curry.

Students want to have fun while they are learning and a little humor along the way by a teacher could help the students stay engaged while they are in the classroom.

“Since I can learn from any style of teaching, I think a good teacher is just someone who knows the curriculum and can teach it in a fun way. A little sarcasm and humor is always good too. Like Davidson, Keif, Knutson, and Schneider,” said Junior Dominick Dahmen.

Photo: Andrew DesMarais