It’s Friday of homecoming week and the hallways are alive with the sweet sound of homecoming bells on mums as students sashay down the halls, heavy laden with several decorative mums sometimes from friends or family. This week the dress up days were: Monday Meme Day, Tuesday Twin Day, Wednesday Movie Character day, Thursday Tacky Tourist day, and Friday Love Navy, Live Gold spirit day.

Students and especially seniors were creative in their dress this week.

Photo by Hannah Veiser

Written By Staff Writer Cristian Velazquez

All across Texas, local elections will be held on May 1^st for citizens to choose who will be on their city councils, school boards, and other regional governing bodies. The city of Helotes is no different. In this election cycle, Rich Whitehead will challenge 14-year incumbent Tom Schoolcraft for mayor. We talked with Whitehead about the importance of local government, his campaign, and how students can get involved in their community.

  Whitehead started working in local politics 14 years ago when he ran for city council with the current mayor and got elected in 2006. He was a councilman for 4 years before deciding not to run for reelection due to fixing most of the problems that he wanted to solve in the community.

  “Public service is one of those things you do because it’s the right thing to do. You don’t make any money at [city council]. Zero dollars, zero cents an hour, as it were, but you get to see the effects of policy decisions you make that make people’s lives a little bit easier,” Whitehead said.

  The Helotes government is responsible for many things in the community such as regulating businesses, buildings, and even plants in the city. The local government is also responsible for our public safety organizations.

   “If you ever need an ambulance, or, God forbid, there’s a fire, or if you need the police, [those are] points of contact with the local government,” Whitehead said.

  When running a local campaign, a candidate usually doesn’t have the national stage, catchy political policies, or party affiliations to have people pay attention to their campaign.

  “Most people have very little idea of what goes on in the local government. They keep an eye on the national government or maybe the state government, but rarely judicial or local, and local government is really where the rubber meets the road,” Whitehead said.

  Candidates instead keep platforms and issues close to home. Whitehead is keen on knocking on doors and attending events to speak with his potential constituents. He also has a Facebook page where he lays out his issues extensively and information on events. One component of Whitehead’s platform is to bring back events in Helotes to reinvigorate our sense of community in the city and to local tourism.

  “We used to have a lot more things such as Jazz Fest, [and] Chuck Wagon Chili Cook-Off. Those things, unfortunately, have been canceled. […] I am definitely going to bring those things back and hopefully some others. People have good ideas all the time. Someone floated the idea of having kind of like a little ‘Helotes’s Got Talent’. […] Its community and family likes watching family. And so by having these things on a regular basis it just draws people from the surrounding areas. […] I don’t campaign to people outside of the area, but I listen to people outside of the area. […] I care about what [they] think because [they’re] a part of our community,” Whitehead said.

  Another major theme of the campaign is fiscal conservation. 

  “I feel that the current mayor, in his policy directions, has led us to some bad financial decisions: a frivolous lawsuit that cost us 1.3 million dollars, [the] dispatch center [that’s] losings about a half-million dollars a year. As a result, we’re losing police and fire officers to low salaries,” Whitehead said.

  Mayor Schoolcraft has been hitting back against these claims on his campaign page with paragraphs, bullet points, vertical selfie videos, and pictures of Whitehead’s Facebook posts printed out with critical annotations in red ink. He has attacked and refuted multiple points of Whitehead’s campaign and platform in a series of edits to his website he calls “The rest of the story”, creating it so, in his words, “you will truly be able to understand the what, when, where, and why of each issue. It will then be up to you to reach your own conclusions”. In a video called “Whack-A-Mole”. Mayor Schoolcraft criticizes the coalition between Whitehead and city council candidates Matthew Merchant and Matthew McCrossen.

  “They say ‘we need change’. What is that change? […] Have you ever asked them any serious questions when they’re talking about frivolous lawsuits and salaries being unfair and being mean to business and all that? Have you asked them any questions? (‘Hey, show me some examples of what you’re talking about because it doesn’t make sense’), that’s what I would do. Once they get off their talking points they’ll be lost because they do not know, really, what any issues are, because we have no issues. […] Hopefully you’ll stick with me, Burt Buys, and Paul Friedrichs if you haven’t voted yet,” Whitehead said.

  On how students get involved in the local government, Whitehead encouraged finding a candidate that one likes, and volunteering with their campaign. He also proposed creating an internship at Helotes City Hall for seniors interested in government or political science, should he get elected.

  “This is going to be your Helotes. […] you’re either going to take ownership […] at some point at an early age, or you’re going to sit by and it’s going to become something that you don’t like. And you just eventually […] get rolled over by the system or just move away to find someplace else, so get involved and make sure that the future is what you want it to be,” Whitehead said.

Information on the election can be found here on the Helotes website- City of Helotes | 2021 Election

By Micaella Rodriguez Staff writer

On Sunday, March 14, the 63rd annual Grammy awards took place. Artists dressed in designers from Harry Lambert and Oscar de La Renta to Versace and Nike ensembles. Now a 28-time Grammy winning singer, Beyonce has made history by setting the record for most Grammys by any female artist. Many celebrities experimented with pandemic-friendly, mask matching looks. Including Billie Eilish, Harry Styles, and Chika. With a limited audience, masks and social distancing, here’s the rundown of the event.  

  Dua Lipa presented a glittery disco look through the night. Wearing Atelier Versace for both the red carpet, and her performance. Taylor Swift brought warm, garden vibes with her on-brand floral dress. Adding on light pink Louboutin heels. Then, at her performance, wore a floor-length blue floral gown.

  Then there’s Harry Styles, donning his usual Gucci. In particular, sporting a Grammys-themed manicure with gold, brown, gray and black polish. He wore a 70s inspired set as well. With a yellow houndstooth blazer, brown velvet pants, and pink shirt with a v-shaped neckline. And of course, his purple colored, feather boa. Styles opened the show with a performance of his hit song, Watermelon Sugar. He wore a custom leather suit, without a shirt underneath, black shoes, rings, and accessorizing with the same boa, in green.  

  However, many artists and fans were upset about the Grammys this year. Artists including Zayn, The Weeknd and Halsey spoke out about the award show. While Zayn wasn’t angry about not getting nominated, he expressed this with a grim tweet that he felt the Grammys do not showcase all artists. Saying the Grammys is in need of “inclusion” and had a “lack of transparency”. He mentioned the Grammys allows “favoritism, racism, and networking politics to influence the voting process”  Overall, the Grammys had positive feedback. Fans and artists are just hoping for better inclusivity, diversity and less favoritism in the coming years.

By Patrick Dawson Guest writer

  With quarantine making everyone bored as ever, I decided I was going to rewatch all of Star Wars canon, everything officially in the Star Wars storyline. Every movie and every TV show. My favorite of them all is Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith. They made the movies backward, so it was technically the 6th episode, but if you’re looking at it in order of the storyline, it’s episode 3.

  This movie, along with episodes 1 and 2, otherwise known as the prequel trilogy, gets a lot of hate. Some of it is warranted, and some isn’t. In the prequel trilogy, there’s a lot of cringey “love” scenes, poor writing, bad CGI, unnecessary characters, things of that nature. But not Revenge of the Sith, which I will call ROTS from now on. 

  This movie’s storytelling is amazing. You can see, every time the Jedi disrespect Anakin, every time the Chancellor praises Anakin, every time Padme tells him something about her pregnancy and their future, and every time Anakin has a nightmare, how it just destroys him. He’s caught in a tug of war between the Jedi, who believe he is the chosen one but continue to disrespect him, and the Chancellor, a Sith Lord disguised as the Chancellor who is in need of a new apprentice. Every single thing that happens has an effect on Anakin’s mind and directly changes his actions. Eventually, the Chancellor wins. He convinces Anakin that by using the dark side of the force he can save his wife from certain death, as Anakin has been having nightmares about her death. You can tell that this is what made him go over the hump. From the battles, to the emotional conflict, to the storytelling. It’s all great. The effects are beautiful. The volcano planet Mustafar looks amazing. The music in the Order 66 scene just crushes you. It’s truly a work of art. ROTS has some of the best elements of Star Wars as a whole, the moral conflict, war, good vs bad, will to do anything to save the ones you love, and pure manipulation by the dark side. It’s an amazing movie, and I’d for sure recommend you watch it.

Faith Collins

The newest campus change, FLEX, was adopted by faculty and staff to provide students with extra time for homework and assignments between class periods. Other schools such as Clark, Harlan, and even the local community college, Northwest Vista, have already incorporated FLEX into their schedules with the intention to create a 30 minute time period for students to visit any teacher on campus and get much needed work done. A teacher can “flag” a student to their classroom, or the student can flag themselves to the teacher.

  The campus provided five days of FLEX training before fully applying the program to everyone’s schedules. FLEX days are every Tuesday and Thursday after second period and before third period.

  While faculty and staff may have introduced this program to reduce the stress on students and teachers, there is some mixed feedback.

  “I think FLEX benefits the students by giving them more time to focus on finishing up any work that’s due,” freshman Caitlyn Poehler said.

  For junior Emily Kramer, an athlete in Water Polo and Swimming, FLEX sends a negative message for students who are on top of their work.

“It’s a crutch for kids who don’t necessarily want to get their work done. It wastes time for kids who actually do their work outside of school like they’re supposed to,” Kramer said.

  Kramer said she plans to do Drivers Ed during FLEX since she’ll already have her work done.

  Senior Daniel Guerrero, however, has a slightly different perspective.

  “So far I’m comfortable with FLEX. It’s really easy to manage the sessions that I want to participate in,” Guerrero said.

  Some students like Guerrero are neutral about FLEX and may only have a few components they want to see changed.

  “I would change how students who are eligible to go off campus cannot leave campus during FLEX. This is really unfair to the students who don’t need tutoring or to make up any missing work” Guerrero said.

  Mrs. Thornton, the director of FLEX at on campus, shares advice for getting comfortable with the program. She also answers questions that some students might have about FLEX that may not have been clear in the training

“If a student isn’t flagged by their teacher, and hasn’t flagged themselves by the time Flexisched locks at 5pm the day before FLEX, I assign the student a place. The first place I fill is the computer labs. If students are near a computer or in a quiet computer lab they can still work even though they may not have found a place on their own through FLEX. The second place we fill is the library, and then after that, the Cafeteria. If the student’s teachers have open spots, I’ll flag them there too,” Thornton said.

  Some students may also wonder what classes can override what other classes in order to flag a student that had already been flagged somewhere else.

  “Core teachers will have priority days that go in alphabetical order. The first day of FLEX, English held the priority, the second day will be math, science, and then social studies,” Thornton said.

Thornton also states that if a teacher wants to flag a kid from another teacher, but neither have priority, the teacher who flagged the student first takes the priority.

  If students or parents have any questions about FLEX, they can as their teachers or Mrs. Thornton in room B102.