Behind the scenes

Homecoming production
Junior Hanna Dahlk rolls out the red carpet hours before teens
arrive Oct. 12 for the Lights, Camera, Action-themed
homecoming dance.
requires large volunteer
effort to ensure success
Brennen Hautzinger & Ariel Lopez
Staff Writers
Many months before Student Council members hang
decorations or sell a single ticket, planning for Indian Trail Bricks painted by student musicians
High School’s biggest dance begins. from the Class of 2018 remain in Jeremy
Students launch into the lengthy process of picking a Kriedeman’s band room.
homecoming theme and getting approval from administra- Photo by Isabella Montemurro
tion last May. They select and order dozens of decorations,
design tickets, and refine details. The work starts in May and “.. just another brick in the wall”
doesn’t end until hours after the dance.
“Homecoming is heavily attended compared to other Music wing brick
events in the school. Over the past few years, we sell out of
dance tickets in roughly five days,” said Megan Awe, sci- painting tradition
ence teacher and Student Council adviser.
This year’s event drew a crowd of more than 1,300 stu- comes to close
dents, underscoring the immense responsibility resting in Isabella Montemurro
the hands of student leadership to ensure a successful home- Staff Writer
coming week.
Over the years the band and orchestra se-
Not only does Student Council plan the dance itself, it
niors of Indian Trail High School & Acad-
also organizes the spirit week that precedes dance night.
emy have made a tradition of claiming and
Homecoming float planning, homecoming decoration cre-
painting a brick of their own on the walls of
ation and ticket sales during lunches are a few examples of
their respective classrooms before graduat-
tasks vital to making the event a success.
ing, as to “leave their mark” on the school.
Homecoming 2019’s parade drew 29 floats featuring
Photo by Brennen Hautzinger The graduating band class of 2015 start-
See Setup, Page 15 ed the practice that the orchestra graduating
senior class of 2016 soon after adopted, but

IT officials push for greater effort to recycle school waste in recent years much dispute has arisen re-
garding the long term sustainability and au-
Sohi Kang thorization of this tradition.
Staff Writer That clash between district policy and
Between paper handouts in class and food waste during student tradition reached crescendo last
lunchtime, it’s easy to produce substantial amounts of waste summer, when new facilities staff began
at school. As the new school year kicks off, Indian Trail High painting over the student bricks.
School & Academy hopes to head in a greener direction to Kenosha Unified School District officials
minimize some of this waste. say the painting of the bricks on the class-
Sheri Reget, a special education teacher, leads the recy- room walls is considered defacing district
cling program at Indian Trail. Being the largest high school property which is not permitted. Walls of
in the state, she was surprised by the lack of recycling at the corridors can be painted with decorative
school. scenes or murals on substrates, but only with
Currently, the students in her vocational education depart- approval from facilities, said Kevin Chris-
ment work two to three days a week to collect and dispose of toun, KUSD Maintenance, Environmental
marked cardboard bins for paper. She hopes to extend the re- & Safety facilities manager.
cycling collection program to the entire school, starting with The original painting of the bricks in
the purchase of six large blue bins to be used in the lunchroom 2015 was not proposed to or approved by
for plastic and bottles. She is also interested in partnering with facilities, nor reported by any of the custo-
others to improve the school recycling program. dians as it should have been, Christoun said.
“We’d love to partner with other departments, other The handbook rules state: “Any employ-
clubs… we’d love partnering with other students,” Reget said. ee who observes graffiti on District property
There are many benefits to recycling, such as collecting shall immediately report such graffiti to the
aluminum which can be sold for money. It reduces the amount human resources department or their super-
of trash sent to landfills, prevents pollution, and conserves visor so that the graffiti can be promptly re-
natural resources such as timber. However, problems arise moved.” The previous custodial staff at In-
when students and teachers alike put non-recyclables into the dian Trail ignored these handbook rules for
school’s blue recycling containers. When waste is found in years which then allowed the brick paining
the bins, custodians are forced to throw the whole load into to continue and turn into the tradition it be-
the garbage. came.
Daniel Uelmen, IT’s new head custodian, has also ex- With a new custodial staff this year, the
pressed the need for additional support for the recycling pro- bricks were reported as they should have
gram. been back in 2015 and subsequent years. In
“It is helpful if we can get some kids to help us…(take) the 2019, facilities employees did their job and
bags of recyclables out to wherever it needs to go,” Uelmen acted accordingly after getting the reports
said. See Recycle, Page 2 Illustration by Angelica Gonzalez See Bricks, Page 2