Mr. John Michell, the chair of sustainability at Brophy, spoke to an Advanced Placement Environmental Science class Oct. 27, about the school’s sustainability plans.
This board seeks to educate Brophy students, teachers and parents on how to be sustainable, as well as finding ways to make the current campus, the sports campus and other future projects more sustainable.
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Do you hear that?
That silence at the start of every fourth hour?
The time that used to be filled with announcements booming over the loudspeakers is now filled with the clatter of keyboards, the whirl of computer fans and students staring at their computers screens with an almost audible intensity underlined by the chatter of quiet conversations. Instead of a student council member reading out loud, the daily announcements are now sent to students’ e-mails, and students have five minutes to read them before their fourth hour class.
Several dozen workers laid down sod Oct. 5 for Brophy’s new sports campus that has been a long time coming.
Crews toiled away with heavy machinery, installing massive rolls of grass and laying down limestone for the track.
Throughout its lifetime the annual Summit on Human Dignity has engaged Brophy students in discussion about important issues, a tradition which Brophy will continue this year with the topic of globalization and the economy.
The topic is a broad one, and is intended to be that way. This is because the planners want to cover a variety of subjects over the course of the Summit, according to Assistant Principal for Ministry Mrs. Kim Baldwin, who is chairing the planning committee.
Many students have been affected by the swine flu, or have at least thought that they have been affected by the new H1N1 virus.
The number of absences around Brophy due to illness recently spiked to around 130 to 140 students per day, though that figure has since stabilized.
This new threat to the health of Brophy has led to a couple of changes around campus, such as the new Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer dispensers in each class room, the new warning/symptom posters in the Dean’s office and even the occasional swine flu joke.
Rumors of Brophy having to close due to the swine flu were shot down by Principal Mr. Bob Ryan who says that while we might not have seen the worst of the flu “we weathered it pretty well.”
But this is not to say the school is taking the H1N1 swine flu lightly. Mr. Ryan said that he has even found himself washing his hands and using the school provided hand sanitizer more frequently.
Mr. Ryan also said that because Brophy’s population spans much of the valley, the idea of closing and letting the flu “run its course” in the community is not as feasible as smaller schools with much smaller communities might be doing at this point in time.
“Keeping everything running 24/7 is one of the hardest parts,” said Mr. Blair Cook when asked about the most difficult aspects of his job.
The Brophy Tablet Program launched four years ago, and now all 1,270 students each use a Tablet PC computer as a tool in their classes.
It takes a team of fulltime professionals who work mostly behind the scenes to keep the school’s computers, network and data systems running smoothly.
Widespread wireless connectivity problems on campus appear to be fixed.
After summer, schools have to get back into routines, but for a school based on technology problems can occur that are much more crippling than normal. Brophy this year faced a problem with connecting students and teachers to the Internet.
There were two problems interfering with the Internet connection at the beginning of the year: the random shutdown of access points and a conflict between sophomore computer network cards and the network.
Eighty-five students and six faculty members donated blood on Oct. 2, saving up to 243 lives.
Students who donated had to sign up online, and were e-mailed the time of their blood donation appointment.
The first students and faculty members began arriving by 8:30 a.m. to the south side of the Harper Great Hall where staff members from the United Blood Services were ready to collect blood, which will be used to help those in need.