Sandwiches are a staple food that is open to creativity with the ability to have many different ingredients. Quick to make with various versions of sandwiches such as peanut butter and jelly, BLT, grilled cheese, and many others. Some sandwiches can last for a long time, allowing you to premake sandwiches and take it as lunch for school. A meal I regularly made for school lunch since freshman year, sandwiches are a quick and delicious food to make. Included with the ability to change the ingredients for the sandwich, you won’t get as easily tired by it when eating it repeatedly. Here is a recipe of the sandwich I have been making and changing up for the past four years of making school lunches.
Ingredients: 2 slices of bread, 1 egg(optional if you want to use a pan or not), 1 tablespoon of any oil, pinch of salt/pepper, ham (amount of slices is up to you), 1 tomato slice, pickles, japanese mayonnaise
Estimated Time: 5 minutes
Heat up a pan with the oil on medium heat
Crack egg on pan and let the whites cook and form around the yolk
Flip the egg and sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper
After a minute, turn the heat to off and flip the egg again to sprinkle salt and pepper on the other side
Have your two pieces of bread out and drizzle Japanese Mayo on both pieces
On one piece of bread, place your ingredients together in the following order to have the best stability and spread of ingredients:pickles, tomato, ham, egg, and finally place your other piece of bread
Sandwiches can have multiple recipes to make many different flavors and variations. This variation lets your creativity and tastes show in making your own unique sandwich. Many changes can be made to the recipe of this sandwich and can be made with cheaper ingredients. Especially with the increasing egg costs that are currently happening, the removal of the egg will make the sandwich cheaper, and removes the need to use a pan then clean it. Sandwiches are open to creativity and are able to be made in the way you can enjoy while being a quick meal to make. As you can see from the images of the sandwich I made, I had different types of twists or changes such as the bread or the ham. You can always change the sandwich to your liking making it one of the best foods to make that is quick and easy.
McClatchy’s annual International Film Festival has had another successful year! From April 23 to April 26, foreign language classes featured international movies in their language with English subtitles. Admission was free, but German Club provided snacks for a price. Students could receive extra credit for their foreign language class. HISP students could also use the film festival as a cultural event.
Monday was the German film, Tuesday was the French film, Wednesday was the Japanese film, and Friday was the Spanish film. There were no films on Thursday because of Senior Projects.
The German film was Rubinrot (English: Ruby Red). In the movie, Gwendolyn “Gwen” Shepard learned about her family carrying the time travel gene. It started with Gwen dealing with her snobby relatives prasing Charlotte.
The French film was Au Revoir les Enfants (English: Goodbye Children) and based on the director’s childhood, Louis Malle. It followed Julien Quentin’s life during Nazi-occupied France. Then Jewish boys like Jean Bonnet came to Quentin’s school. Quentin tried to figure out Bonnet’s identity.
The Japanese film was Jiro Dreams of Sushi, documentary about sushi chef Jiro Ono. Ono ran Sukiyabashi, a three star Michelin restaurant. The documentary revealed his daily life shopping, preparing, and making sushi.
On Friday, the film was Voces Inocentes (English: Innocent Voices). Unlike the other films, the Spanish film was rated R, so students must showed permission slips from Spanish teachers. Voces Inocentes took place in 1986 El Salvador and followed Chava growing up in the civil war. Guerilla forces tried recruiting new members as the Salvadoran military tried preventing that.
Frau Rice, the former German teacher, started this tradition 15 years ago. The goal was to show a type of film teachers wouldn’t show in class. “Something a little bit more thought-provoking or controversial…or representative of the language’s culture,” according to Japanese teacher Mr. Fisher. The genre could be anything. Teachers announced their film choice to their classes. Most of the time it was a surprise to students not taking those classes.
Teachers were also excited for this film festival, “I’m excited that the new German teacher, Frau Templeton, is keeping the international film festival alive,” Mr. Fisher said. Frau explains the excitement of watching foreign films, “That’s the fun part about it, you get to see how much you understand.”
Overall, the international film festival was not to be missed! It was a perfect way to relax and destress from a long day at school.“It’s an important part of foreign language department’s contribution to McClatchy’s culture and spirit,” Mr. Fisher stated. The International Film Festival at McClatchy will continue for years to come.
Mr. Machschefes, in his first year at CKM, has had a successful year teaching mathematics. He teaches Integrated Math 1 and Integrated Math 2 in Room 26A, which used to be an art room. Mr. Machschefes taught at other schools as well, “I spent a couple years in Merlin, Oregon, and I taught at middle schools and elementary schools there for seven years,” said Mr. Machschefes.
One of the many reasons why Machschefes moved to CKM was because for many years, school districts mainly gave out temporary contracts. CKM wasn’t like the rest, “McClatchy offered me a full-time position. McClatchy is close to home, and I felt welcomed by staff and admin, which is different from what I experienced in the past, and I appreciate that a lot,” said Mr. Machschefes.
Students enjoy having Mr. Machschefes as a teacher, because of his dedication and passion for math. To Mr. Machschefes, mathematics is a step by step process that requires skill and thought, “I often push students to really use their brains instead of just crunching numbers.” Machschefes aims to make a change in the lives of students through his class.
Mr. Machschefes remembers a quote he once read while growing up, “When you are young, you’ll learn. When you are in your middle ages, you will do, and when you are older, you teach.” Such an idea was very prevalent in Mr. Machschefes’ life and his career, “I didn’t plan to teach right after college or out of high school, so I worked in the construction industry for more than a dozen years. When an opportunity came up to getting into teaching, I took that opportunity.”
Mr. Machschefes attended to City College of San Francisco, known as Harvard On a Hill, then he went to California State University, finished up with his construction and technology degree. He began teaching in 1996, and has taught a variety of grade levels since.
Mr. Machschefes enjoys McClatchy more than other schools he has worked at, as he has felt welcomed by staff and administration, “I haven’t felt any hostility here. I’ve seen other schools where teachers attack each other, admin attacking teachers, students being very difficult, and I run into much less of that here. I feel supported by both staff and admin, I really appreciate that,” he commented. Mr. Machschefes hopes to stay at CKM for a long period of time to continue helping students out with math.
An example of the counseling hall girls’ bathroom by the end of the day.
Many students who use the girls’ bathroom in the counseling hall have noticed a growing trend as a result of the lack of feminine hygiene product trash cans in stalls: trash all over the floor.
Each stall in a women’s restroom typically has a small metal trash can attached to the wall of the stall that is used to dispose of trash from feminine hygiene products like pads or tampons. This trash includes products that have been used, as well as the wrappers from the products.
There are none of these trash cans in four out of the five stalls in the counseling hall girls’ bathroom. The only stall that does have one is the wheelchair accessible stall.
Due to the absence of these trash cans, people who need to change a pad or tampon in that bathroom have nowhere to dispose of their trash, leaving them with only a few options: carry the trash to a large trash bin somewhere else in the school, flush the trash down the toilet, or simply leave it on the floor of the bathroom stall.
Few people would feel comfortable carrying trash from the bathroom to another location in the school, especially because of the stigma already surrounding menstruation.
Flushing the trash down the toilet may get it out of the way, but it could potentially cause enormous plumbing issues that the school would have to deal with down the line.
Most people seem to leave their trash on the floor, seeing no other reasonable option.
As more and more students find themselves in this situation, the trash begins to build up until the floor is essentially covered in trash.
“They don’t have any trash cans anymore so [the trash] is just sitting on the floor,” said sophomore Mackenzie Crall, who uses that restroom almost every day during second period.
Callie Wong (‘19) added that the bathroom “just smells really bad.”
“I only use that one if I really have to pee and it’s my only option,” said Wong.
There is no excuse for leaving students without access to a way of disposing trash from feminine hygiene products. Whether the trash dispensers were purposefully taken away or it was just an oversight, this is an issue that needs to be rectified immediately. It’s unhygienic, bad for the school’s plumbing, and puts students in unfair and uncomfortable situations.
The solution to this issue is not complicated. The school just needs to ensure that every stall in women’s restrooms have a trash dispenser for feminine hygiene products. It’s an easy action that will drastically improve students’ experiences using the bathroom at school.
An example of the counseling hall girls’ bathroom by the end of the day.
Students walkout in protest of administration handling of sexual harassment and assault on March 21st
The March 21st walkout in protest of school and district handling of a former McClatchy student’s rape stirred the McClatchy community to action. Since the walk-out, student organizers have met with various staff, administration, and community leaders to enact the change that the walk-out prompted.
The week of the walk-out, students had a preliminary meeting with McClatchy’s administration, and district officials; Jay Hansen, the President of the School Board Jessie Ryan, and the District’s Superintendent Jorge Aguilar were all in attendance. The meeting laid out what students would like to see done to ensure the protection and well-being of students.
Since, students have met with Geral Lowe, the new Student Support Center Coordinator to discuss improving the Student Support Center, with talks of starting up a Community Mentor Program, as well as a peer mentor program.
“[a community mentor program] would allow community members to access guidance counselors, while the peer mentor program would train upperclassmen to handle low level underclassmen problems,” says Maya Steinhart (‘19), a student organizer.
The McClatchy administration has met with the student organizers and encouraged the group to edit next year’s student handbook, to make it “more accessible to students, and make it actually make sense,” says Steinhart.
The group is also working with the city and the Sacramento Police Department, discussing School Resource Officers (SROs) on campus, “We have had a meeting with [city council member] Jay Schenirer to discuss the district’s role in influencing the SROs, next week we will be having a meeting with Captain Kathy Lester to discuss SRO training and policy.”
The group would like to see even more meetings in the future, “We would like to have a meeting with district officials to ensure that district policy is improved and that the school will be held accountable to get the things they have said they will do, done,” commented Steinhart.
“So far, it really seems like they’ve been cooperative, but it’ll be whether or not they actually follow through on the things that they have said, that will be the true test,” she added.
Students walkout Students walkout in protest of administration handling of sexual harassment and assault on March 21st
Every McClatchy student remembers taking the physical fitness test in their P.E. class freshman year. The state-mandated test is comprised of six tests, including cardiovascular, push-ups, sit-ups, trunk lift, flexibility, and Body Mass Index (BMI). In the past, BMI was treated as its own pass or fail test. This year, the test has been updated, and now the standards for each test are based on an individual’s BMI.
To determine a student’s BMI, they are measured for their height and weight, and then a formula is used to determine what the state of California considers a healthy weight range for a particular height. A student with a high BMI is considered overweight, and a student with a low BMI is considered underweight.
In the physical fitness test this year, students with high BMIs are required to do a higher number of pacers or a faster mile-run, depending on which one they choose to do, while students with low BMIs have lower requirements.
Students have to pass at least five out of the six different tests in order to pass the fitness test as a whole, meaning that in the past, if a student failed the BMI test, they would have to pass each of the other five tests. This year, it will be harder for students with an “overweight” BMI to do that, because the requirements for passing are much higher.
“If you have a higher BMI, you have to do an unreasonable amount,” said freshman Carenna Thompson. “BMI is messed up, anyway,” she added, referencing the growing idea that BMI is not actually an accurate measure of health and fitness.
BMI considers a person’s weight relative to their height in order to determine whether someone is healthy or unhealthy. It equates weight to health, without considering a number of other things that can affect a person’s physical fitness, especially when you consider the fact that muscle weighs more than fat.
As for the reasoning behind updating the fitness test, P.E. teacher and athletic director Mr. Feickert said that the state of California had a conversation with the school district, and “questions are being asked, ‘are we holding the kids accountable that did not pass the test to continue to take P.E.?’”
In the State of California, you are required to take four years of P.E. Our district signs a waiver for the Sac City Unified students to only take two years, on the condition that they pass the physical fitness test. So if you pass the physical fitness test, you only need to take two years of P.E. If you don’t pass the physical fitness test, you don’t get the waiver. So if you don’t pass as a freshman, you have to take a P.E. class and retake the fitness test your sophomore year. If you don’t pass sophomore year, you have to take it again junior year. However, if you don’t pass it senior year, you still get to graduate, because you met the state’s requirement of taking four years of P.E.
The issue that arises is that students in programs that require an extra class, like the academy programs or VAPA, have no room in their schedules for extra years of P.E., but would have to take more P.E. if they failed the fitness test, meaning that if a VAPA student can’t pass the physical fitness test because of their BMI, they might not be able to be in VAPA anymore because of the schedule conflict.
This has left many VAPA students worried.
“I’m not worried for myself, but I’m definitely worried for some of my friends that are worried about it,” said Carenna Thompson. “They still deserve to be in VAPA.”
Thompson also mentioned that in her VAPA class, her teacher helped students do push-ups and train for the fitness tests.
VAPA students aren’t the only ones who feel that this test isn’t great for students.
“In my opinion, it’s not a fair test,” said Mr. Feickert. “But we don’t get to determine what we have to test.”
“I think in the P.E. department, we’re doing everything we possibly can to get all our kids to pass,” he added.
This year, for the first time, the P.E. teachers are offering a walk test as an alternative to the mile-run and the pacer test.
“We’re gonna time you to see how fast you can walk the mile, and then we’re gonna put a heart monitor on your thumb so we can determine what you heart rate was at that time with your mile run time, put it into a formula, and they will tell us whether or not you passed,” said Mr. Feickert.
“We try to do different tests to try to get the kids to pass. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
The fitness testing occurred the week after spring break, so students are currently learning whether or not they passed.
On March 14th, students participated in a walkout to protest gun violence in schools and mourn the loss of those killed in the Parkland, Florida shooting. Many McClatchy teachers voiced support for this cause, although they themselves were not allowed to attend.
“Many of the advancements during the course of the 20th century in terms of women’s rights, civil rights, and more came as a result of protests,” said history teacher Mr. Limonoff. “So I continue to support those efforts to make a better world for us all.”
Other teachers voiced a similar sentiment.
“Shooting in school is a topic that needs to be addressed, and to me the safety of our students is the most important thing,” said German teacher Frau Templeton.
Along with their support, teachers expressed some worry surrounding the walkout.
“I think that if it’s used properly, and students have context and they’re not using it as an excuse to get out of class or just to give vent to shallow emotion, it could be profitable,” said English teacher Mrs. Downey.
“But the risk is that it’s difficult to reach every student on a level that is meaningful for political protest enough so that politicians actually look at a population of youth without disregarding them.”
Other teachers were wary about administration’s encouragement and seeming sponsorship of the event.
“Civil disobedience, like a walkout is supposed to be, isn’t supposed to be free from repercussions. If you’re doing civil disobedience you gotta figure you’re gonna pay the price for it,” said science teacher Mr. Warren.
Teachers by and large were not worried by the prospect of class time being disrupted because of the walkout, “We have too many disruptions throughout the year. One more is really not going to matter,” said math teacher Mr. Granados.
Teachers also felt a lack of organization leading up to the event. “One of the things I’m concerned is they keep saying ‘we have a plan’ and we don’t know what the plan is,” said science teacher Mrs. Coleman, the day before the walkout. “I emailed and said ‘when are we going to know what the plan is?’ Has anybody answered my email? Nope.”
Teachers were told by the administration that they were not allowed to participate in the walk out, even if their classroom was empty. Many teachers with empty classrooms gathered by windows to watch the event.
Still, teachers were supportive of a student-led movement, and have hope for the future.
“I fully support the students continuing to feed this movement that they started,” said government teacher Ms. Jablonski.
Three weeks ago, two McClatchy students, myself and Zach Neff (‘18), traveled to Las Vegas for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games Rugby Americas North Qualifier representing the United States’ U18 men’s and women’s sides. The Youth Olympics, held every 4 years for both summer and winter sports, aims to showcase talented young athletes aged 15 to 18.
This year marks the 3rd Summer YOG and will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina of 2018. Each country is only allowed to have one female and one male team in the YOG. USA chose rugby as their Youth Olympic team sport for both men and women.
In order to qualify, USA’s boy’s side had to beat Barbados, Canada, and Jamaica. The girls played Barbados and Canada in addition to Mexico.
Before even making it onto the pitch, both boy’s and girl’s sides trained for 4 days before cuts were made. The girls team cut 1 player from the squad while the boys cut 7; each final team had 12 players.
“Even as we strove to build continuity with each other, those three days were essentially a competition, so everybody worked and performed at a high caliber,” said Neff.
Both Zach and I made the cut, although I was unable to play due to a concussion sustained during practice. Despite not being able to play, I was still named co-captain. I fully embraced my new role as a leader and as a second pair of eyes for the team. The game became far more intellectual than ever before.
While every player on both the boy’s and girl’s squads was assigned an individual role by their coaches, no two people shared the exact same duties. Some players roles were specific to their style of play, other’s roles spoke more to their responsibilities as a teammate and player.
Zach played a rather important role, as he was an asset for both his skill and sportsmanship. “I played the last 5 to 3 minutes of all of our games. I was valued for my knack in making quick line breaks through a defense, and held down the crucial role as a finisher. Of course, I also consider my role as a ‘team player’ notable,” he said.
The motto for the U18 boys and girls teams became “overachieving at your role” for the benefit of the team. This selfless mindset helped carry USA through the tournament.
Preparation and attention to detail also helped, “Playing for the Youth Olympic team is no joke” said Neff. “I’ve never been immersed in such professionalism in rugby before. During every training, we wore GPS devices that measure speed, position, and effort on field. We were also filmed by a drone to analyze precise details and identify the causes of our successes and failures. Every training was planned to the last 30 seconds. Our recovery regiment was also emphasized and mandatory. I’m talking ice baths, pool sessions, and protein bars.”
This hard work evidentially paid off, as both USA’s boys and girls sides had little trouble beating Barbados. Neither team allowed Barbados to put up a single point. The boys won 57-0 while the girls finished the match with a 29-0 lead. The boys then went on to beat Jamaica 38-7, but the victory wasn’t as easily won.
“Barbados couldn’t hang with the USA for a moment,” said Neff, “but Jamaica put up a good fight both times they played us.”
The girls squad ended the day with a 41-0 win against Mexico.
The next day, both boys and girls would face their toughest foe: Canada. The Canadian squads aren’t notably big, tough, or quick, but their organization and discipline are excellent.
“It was Canada that gave us trouble,” said Zach. “While I believe we were a more talented team with threats everywhere on the field, the longer-trained Canadian squad didn’t allow too many small mistakes.”
The boys lost to Canada 19-12, but went on to beat Jamaica 33-14 in the semi-final. The girls team also fell short to the Canadians, losing 5-14. They also bounced back in the semi-final with a 53-0 win against Mexico.
USA was scheduled to play Canada in the final the next day. While the past four games were held at a nearby recreational sports complex, the final was held in the Sam Boyd professional stadium.
Walking up to the tunnel entrance to the field was dreamlike. Fans dotting the stadium seats cheered for the YOG athletes. Photographers peeked at the entrance of the tunnel and snapped shots of us waiting to run onto the field. “The large cheering crowd contributes to the feeling of otherworldliness. It was, simply put, an amazing feeling” said Neff.
Although both USA’s boys and girls teams lost to Canada in the final, the boys team will still advance to the YOG as Canada’s boys ice hockey team had Olympic priority over their rugby team.
Neff will have the opportunity next fall to represent McClatchy, Sacramento, California, and the United States as a whole.
(Left to Right) Junior Waqavesi (‘18), Olivia Popp (‘19), and Zach Neff (‘18)
