The Night Out for Music concert has historically been the biggest music department fundraiser. Last year, they raised over $15,000. They do not reach this by at-the-door ticket sales, but by free-will donations and the silent auction. Bidding opens the day before the concert, so you can still bid on things you might want even if you can’t attend the concert. 

The silent auction generally includes themed gift baskets made by music department students and others, student artwork, some signed pieces, etc… It is all done digitally through BIDPARTNER.NET/NOFM, so you can keep checking your bids even during the concert. Keep your eye out for the goodies you want because bidding closes at intermission. At the end of the concert, you can pick up the things you bought or it can get to you another way if you are not there. 

Concert Starts at 7:30 pm and is completely free of charge. All are welcome and encouraged to show up.

Next year Crosland will be swimming at the collegiate level for Luther College in Decorah, IA. Going to college was already going to be a big change for Crosland, and losing the sport that she’d done for most of her life wasn’t a part of the plan.

“I’ve always wanted to swim in college just because I knew that I wouldn’t be ready to be done competing,” said Crosland.

According to Zoe Hiers ‘23 another aspect of competing at the collegiate level isn’t just continuing to be challenged, but doing it for the team aspect. Hiers is joining the swim team at Concordia College in St. Paul. Just knowing that there’s a supportive team willing to lift you up can make moving into a new situation a little easier.

“I’m looking forward to being part of a team atmosphere again,” said Hiers, “and just knowing that I’ll have a team that’s really supportive is going to be great and it calms some of the worries about making friends in a new place.”

For Crosland, making sure that she felt like she had a team that had her back was a very big deciding factor. She wanted to make sure that she fit in with the team and the coaching staff.

“I leaned towards Luther,” Crosland said, “because I enjoyed hanging out with the team a lot more than others. They seemed a lot more involved in getting to know me.”

According to Hiers, the memories made by having a good time with teammates last longer than the ones of winning a race or swimming at a meet.

“I loved the fun holiday practices we did,” Hiers said. “We always had fun sets to swim and we really grew as a team during those practices.”

Crosland and Hiers are both very excited to start a new chapter in their lives and are looking forward to making memories with their new teams.

On average, Prestidge spends about $500 a month on her expenses. She said that paying her own way with major expenses motivates her to have a good work ethic.

“I was 15 years old when I bought my first car with my own money,” said Prestidge. “I saved money and nannied for a whole summer. My parents basically financed it for me. When I turned 16 I got a job to start paying my parents back.”

“I just recently bought a new jeep. I had to take out a loan to help pay for it. I put a grand down for it, but other than that I am paying $300 a month for it. I have to pay for my gas, which kinda sucks because the jeep gets 14 miles per gallon. If something happens, I have to pay for the repairs. The one thing my parents do pay for is the insurance, and I am grateful for that.”

When Libbee Mattson ‘24 turned 15, she knew that the baton of expenses was getting handed down to her. She decided she was going to start working at Parkview Care Center 25 hours a week to make sure her expenses are covered.

“I bought my first car when I was 15 and it was in full cash,” said Mattson. “I had no help paying for it. I had money saved up from babysitting for three years.”

“For my current car, I just bought new tires, a headlight, a battery, and windshield wipers. I also pay for my gas and when I need oil changes I just do it myself. My parents pay for half of the monthly insurance and I pay the rest.”

According to Statista, the number of teens that have a job and are enrolled in school is 17.6%. At its peak in 1998, 31% of teens had a job during the school year. Jack Henry 24’ is a part of the 17.6% that has a job during the school year.

“I have a hand-me-down car but I am still grateful,” said Henry. “Besides that, my parents don’t give me any money. I have to pay for my own stuff and everything else that I want. To be able to pay for all the things I have had a job since I was 15 and I use my money sparingly. I still go out and do things but I try to save a good amount.”

“Of course, I wish I could have more of my parent’s money but I know that I learn way more this way having to keep track of money and overall money management,” said Henry.

Some parents may think it is cruel to make their kids pay for everything, other parents think they are teaching a lifelong lesson.

“I think it is a good thing my parents are making me pay for this stuff,” said Mattson. “It teaches me the value of money, independence, responsibility, and appreciation. I have a reason for the things I buy because it is the money that I worked for. Most parents aren’t going to hand their kids everything their whole lives. I learned a good work ethic at a young age.”

“I think my parents are trying to raise me so I know how to manage money…” said Prestidge. “It teaches me the value of money, to be grateful, and to have a work ethic.”

For students who aren’t involved in a winter sport like volleyball, basketball, or hockey it may seem hard to find a daily workout plan that’ll last. At-home workouts are becoming increasingly popular post-pandemic. Now, more than ever is a great time to blow the dust off those musty yoga mats and dumbbells you’ve been avoiding.

“I have a lot of activity options to choose from,” says Evie Dockendorf ’26. “There’s a stable bike at home, the track after school, and my little brothers to play with if I really want a serious workout.” 

And if those mats and dumbbells aren’t intense enough, stop by the Weight Room. It’s totally free, after school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:35 to 4:45, although you can stay until 5:15 to finish your lifts. It’s an amazing workout for both in season and out of season athletes.

“When I’m out of season I use the weight room after school to stay active and prepared for when my season does start,” says Seth Cotton ’25.

If you’re looking for something more moderate, put on some running shoes and a jacket and you’re ready for a jog in the cold – just watch out for ice.

“I walk two miles a day,” says Elsa Emons ’26. “One mile to school, and one back, I’ve learned to look forward to it when I start my day.”

These are just a few ways you can keep your physical fitness up. Just don’t forget to bring water, a notebook, pencil, rest days, and a boat load of patience. Once you have all of that, you’re set to start your winter fitness plan.

“Currently for Q4 we have 244 filled seats in senior studies blocks 1-4, and there is no limit to the amount of students who can join” said Counselor Shanlee Maher. Others see Senior Study as a great opportunity for building connections and independence, and catch up on things overall, whether that is school work, or last night’s sleep.

Senior Lily Gruye 22’ spends most of her time either accomplishing missing work in her online stats class, trying to be on track to graduate in June. She thinks that she uses her time productively on occasion, but other times it’s a different story. She wouldn’t be the only senior, however, that doesn’t exactly use senior study for it’s intended purpose.

“One day I walked into the library and someone was watching Ru Paul’s Drag Race on the big TV in the corner, meanwhile across the room kids were laying on the floor and on all couches, sleeping with the purple necklace that reads “senior” around their neck,” said Gruye. “If I could pick any block to have senior study, it would be Block 4, so I could leave school early.”

Librarian Marissa Russell says that she loves her job, and enjoys the opportunity she has to visit with students in the LLC. She works with kids spending their Senior Study in the library, kids coming in for a quiet lunch, and Peer Coaches tutoring. With kids spread out all over the LLC, Russell makes her rounds during the day to connect with each student individually. Even though senior study can get hectic, she thinks that it fulfills students’ needs. It provides an incredible opportunity for library staff and even other BHS staff to connect with students uniquely outside the classroom setting.

“The conversations and interactions I’ve had with seniors the past two years here in the LLC have been priceless,” Russell said. “I enjoy the positive energy seniors bring to the library.”

Elise Beckman ‘22 has used her allotted Senior Study block different from most. While many seniors use this block to chill in the library either doing assignments from other classes or connecting with friends, Beckman has spent most of her Senior Study time at home, either in First or Fourth Block. While at home, Elise gets creative with how she chooses to spend her time. Beckman goes for a walk to pass the time at home, which got a lot more popular during the pandemic, but became less common when students started returning to the building.

“I would do a lot of different things during my senior study,” Beckman said. “For a while, I had a student that I was consistently peer coaching every day. Sometimes I would stay in the LLC & read or do homework, & sometimes I would just go home. When I was at home, I would do my homework, read, take a nap, go for a walk, etc. however, if I could choose any block I would pick Block 1, so I could sleep in.”

Some teachers believe senior study is not such a good idea, and it is impacting them personally, because seniors choose to have a “free” block instead of taking another period, so enrollment for their classes are down, and it is costing them their careers. Other teachers and staff believe that it is a great idea, and an option in the schedule that seniors in the future should be able to select just as our ‘21 and ‘22 seniors have been able to. Russell is one of those people.

“I am more than happy to have the seniors here in the LLC,” Russell said. “Senior Study provides students with a step toward independence, preparing them for next steps post high school. It encourages them to use their time in a way that can ultimately help them be more successful.” 

While some teachers and staff are more personally upset about BHS implementing this class into schedules, others take into consideration the wellbeing of the students, and wonder if the school could be doing better to celebrate or accommodate the seniors in the building. English Teacher Ryan McCallum stands behind this.

“Although I don’t believe that senior study is a bad thing,” McCallum said, “noticing how many students in our school are signed up for or plan on signing up for it in the future, makes me wonder if we could be doing better at making a more fun, engaging, and rewarding year for the seniors in our school, instead of having this class. It would be nice to see the school address the reasons why students would choose Senior Study over the options available to them.”

Some minds are wondering what exactly senior study was created for, why a senior may select this class; is this answer being students are worried about their GPA before heading into college? Are they trying to fill empty blocks in their schedule? Others are wondering how they can join too, and if there is a limit on students able to join based on popularity. Counselor Shanlee Maher has the answers.

“I believe the reason students may join senior study is a mixture of all possibilities,” Maher said. “For so long, we didn’t have a Study Hall option and once COVID hit, we were forced into a situation where it was applicable. The feedback we received about Senior Studies was – it gave students ample time in their day to outweigh the 3 CIS/AP classes, and it gave other students the ability to sign up for classes they wanted to take and not ones they felt they were forced to take for lack of options once they got to senior year. When done well, senior studies are a great option for students who qualify. Seniors have to qualify for a senior study based on how many earned credits they have and a certain GPA at specific times in the year. If a student qualifies for a senior study, they have to get a permission slip signed by a parent/guardian verifying that is okay.”

When a senior has a free block, some decide to take up a new class while others decide to use their block to do homework for their difficult classes or make connections with their peers. There are mixed opinions on whether Seniors are using their time productively, and if this should be a continued offered class for years to come. No matter if you believe this class was a good idea or not, many seniors this year, and the year before, have appreciated the opportunity to have the choice of what they are completing in their free hour and a half of the school day.

Majority of students with jobs at Buffalo High School have been mistreated at their place of work. Some people have been treated poorly by customers and some by their own co-workers. 

A 17 year old student is an assistant manager at her job. She works food service, which is an average job for most teenagers, but she does more than what you’d expect. Her work days start at 4:00 p.m. most weekdays right after school. Being a manager at 17 is already stressful but for her it’s even worse because she is trying to balance work and school.

“Most of the time, I’m on track or only a day behind, but sometimes I fall more behind because of the stress.” 

She said she works by herself and closes her store once or twice a week. She has worried about simply taking the trash out because she fears an angry customer is waiting for her to come out. She is expected to do everything while she closes. Basically, she said she feels like she is working a full-time job for part-time pay. 

“[It’s expected] that the store is clean, both drive thru and in store customers are tended to in a timely manner, and inventory is done,” she said. 

Inventory itself can take up over two hours of her shifts, so that with everything else is very overwhelming. She said that she often doesn’t get off work until 11 p.m. after working seven-hour shifts.

This isn’t the case for just this one student. Many other students at Buffalo High School have jobs and have had a negative experience at their place of work. 

In an anonymous survey, students said how they were mistreated.

“I’ve been yelled at by multiple customers for things that I have no control over,” one student said.

They said there’s nothing they can ever do about it. Customers tend to assume they’re always right, but is it worth bringing down an already stressed teenager? 

Another person said that their boss told them, “I pay you too much for you to be sad” after they showed emotions at work following the death of a close family member. 

 The Pew Research Center found that 70% percent of teenagers think anxiety and depression is a big issue. That would be over 1,200 students at Buffalo High School.

“My boss was kind of crazy & she would yell at me for not following rules that she made up,” one student reported. “One time I asked a question & she said, ‘What do you think?’ and  then I made a guess and she said, ‘Good girl!’ but not in a nice way.” 

For this particular student, it made them not want to work as hard as they knew they could. 

Twenty-percent of surveyed students talked about how they were sexually harassed or assaulted at work. 

“I was sexually harassed by a coworker. I tried to laugh it off but I was finally fed up,” one other student said. 

This is a regular occurrence for them and they still work there.

“The guys at my work would constantly sexualize me,” another student said. “This one guy was obsessed with me and said he loved me everyday. He even came to my house one time, when I told him to leave me alone his friends tried to jump me.” 

They said that they told their managers and they did nothing.

Over 15,000 cases of sexual harassment are shown to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission every year. It’s very frowned upon to talk about it, especially in the workplace. These students expressed how management did nothing. Companies don’t want to ruin their reputation, but is it worth it at the expense of these poorly treated workers?

William Besonen was a freshman at BHS last year when classes went online and found himself wishing that school would return to in-person learning. Besonen would have been an exchange student in Finland this year, but his exchange was canceled due to complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“When I’m at school I can focus on the class that I’m in and ask teachers questions,” Besonen said, “but at home when I could see my whole day’s worth of assignments it was easy to get overwhelmed and lose focus. I was missing social interactions that I normally would get at school.”

Besonen says that he really began noticing the effects of quarantine during the beginning of this school year, noting that it was easy to fall behind and lose motivation when he was learning

“This year really taught me the importance of face-to-face conversation and how much body language and facial expressions contribute to human connection,” Besonen said.

Besonen is one of many students that welcomes the shift back to in-person learning. However, many students have found that they enjoy certain elements of the distance learning model as well as in-person school.