Hello again readers, and welcome back to the Carlé Chronicle, your primary news source for all things Carlé High School.

Carlé’s student of the week last week was Kim Nelson, a hardworking student who is always willing to take time to help out around the campus.

We’d like to welcome four new students to our school: Candice Saferino, Bryan Prothro, Kenneth Martinez-Meth and Rebecca Ford. Each of these students brings something new to the school, and we can’t wait to help them reach their goals and graduate.

Carlé’s student designers have been busy with a holiday bookmark project, which is aimed at all our students and adults who have given their support to our school.

Here in Lake County many have struggles, particularly around the holidays, and many people come from backgrounds where fortune doesn’t always favor them.

As a way to give something back to so many great souls in our school community, our 15 designers are designing personalized bookmarks for more than 100 different staff and students. We wish them happy holidays and wish them the best in life.

Here at Carlé High School, many of our core classes are also currently engaged in a number of exciting projects.

Robin Shrive’s primary English classes have been reading the best-selling novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.

The book has been a great success, with students focused on creative arguments and sharing their own varied opinions on different issues, in both their own writing and during classroom debates.

In her other English classes, students are focused on common core work, reviewing things such as the issue of sugar taxes and bans on many different products.

In our civics class, lead by Alan Siegel, after an essay test rewriting, explaining and discussing key paragraphs from the Declaration of Independence, we have been watching the movie 1776, which shows many of the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence and showing the different perspectives and issues each of the founding fathers faced.

We’ve tackled many different issues in our notebooks, including the impact of wars, citizens’ natural rights, and determining the balance between liberty and safety. 

In history we are mired in the trenches of World War I and have been analyzing primary source posters from the different countries engaged.

In Angie Siegel’s environmental tech science class, we have spent the past few weeks on a project called environmental detectives, in which our students are tasked with investigating the fictional gray area to find out why fish are mysteriously dying and washing up on the shores of the Gray Bay.

As more and more details are revealed, students must use the given data and their own problem solving skills to find out who and what is most responsible for the impact on the environment.

Select board members and other leaders from the district have come together for the District Site Leadership Team, or DSLT, in which participating members help to evaluate the district and what works best for the Konocti Unified School District.

Their last two meetings involved the LCAP, which will review key district standards and see what needs to be changed to keep the school system working well and help to continue and advance the pursuit of knowledge further.

Finally, we’d like to bid a fond farewell to Konocti Unified Board member Anita Gordon, who is retiring this year.

Anita has worked for the KUSD school board for many years and has given many great contributions to the district. We wish her the best of luck in the future!

Charles Warren is a student at Carlé Continuation High School in Lower Lake, Calif.