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Two Dreadnaughts spend a day at Dexter’s rival school and realize how a school so close in proximity can have so many differences
WRITTEN BY SEFINA PATTERSON AND NATALIE SATTLER
On Thursday, January 12, two Squall staff members were given an opportunity to attend Chelsea High School for a day. They went with one purpose in mind: to investigate how similar and different a school less than eight miles away can be. Here are their experiences:
SEFINA
We walked in the Chelsea doors at 7:45 to meet the girls we were shadowing in the main office. One of my best friends actually drove us to school so we wouldn’t have to figure out parking complications. Mitchell, our friend, was able to walk us in and show us a lay of the land right off the bat. We were escorted to the principal’s office and the office was directly above the lunch room (you could essentially see into Dr. Angel’s office from the lunchroom).
I was then introduced to the girl I would be with for the day. I shadowed Lily Snyder, a 16-year-old junior, and she made me feel comfortable right off the bat. My first hour went well, and I actually knew a couple kids in the class. The teacher, along with his student teacher, were very high energy.
After the first hour, we stopped back at Lily’s locker and I definitely felt like I was back in elementary school because I had not used a locker in years. It almost felt inconvenient to use a locker because I noticed kids often forgot supplies for classes, and running back to a locker was a hassle. It felt like there were a million different hallways in comparison to DHS, and it was almost overwhelming because hallways felt a lot more crowded. I think they felt so crowded because people were stopped at lockers on both sides.
My second hour class had a substitute teacher for the day, so I kind of got to wander around with Lily and get a true feel of the school.
We happened to be at Chelsea on a Thursday, so it was one of their “Bulldog Block Days.” During Bulldog Block, I noticed 9-14 students placed in each classroom. Some were diligently working on homework while others, if they had completed their work, could go see other friends.
I actually interviewed a large group of students that were in the school store. Their school store had couches and almost felt like a hangout area. I was able to talk to many students throughout the day.
THE LUNCH ROOM: Chelsea students have a wide variety of food options along with plenty of table options to pick from. The Principal’s office has a great view of the lunch room.
When lunch rolled around, I was in shock. I felt like the food selection Chelsea had to offer was significantly larger than the food selection Dexter had to offer. There were 3-4 main meals you could choose from and things were more self-serve which I found nice. They also had a larger range of drink options.
I felt like a zoo animal at lunch in all honesty in the sense that 100 people were staring at me. I definitely feel like girls did not welcome us as much as guys did. Their lunch periods are shorter though, but I kind of enjoyed that in all honesty; I feel like our lunches are too long.
As I continued my day, I noticed how structured classes were. I feel like at Dexter I see at least five kids outside in every hallway; it feels like there is more freedom.
In comparison, Chelsea students have to get permission to go to the bathroom and can’t just roam around. Similarly, you cannot use your phone in classes. To prevent phone usage, they turn off any public Wi-Fi, so there are dead zones everywhere. The no phones policy, honestly, is pretty useful, and there seems to be a common respect between teachers and students regarding the phones.
Lily walked us a mile to the WSEC to see the medical classes and tech classes. They had some awesome technology and machines to enhance education in these areas.
MILLION DOLLAR MUSCLE: The newly remodeled weight room at CHS, funded from bond money, seems to have something for everyone, including LED lights.
Overall, I would say Chelsea felt a lot stricter, but not in a bad way. I felt like I learned a lot from the rooms I was in. The weight room had also recently been renovated and it had LED lights built into it along with amazing speakers. Their weight room was upwards of $1 million as well.
NATALIE
Sefina and I walked in the Chelsea doors at 7:45 to meet the girls we were shadowing in the main office. Lucky for us we had a good friend Mitchell who was able to walk us up and make it less intimidating. But as any new environment feels,
especially in a new high school, we felt eyes on us at all times.
Once we got introduced to the girls, we began to split up and walk with them to their classes. The first thing I noticed about Chelsea was the school seemed bigger – like it had more hidden hallways and stairwells, and everything looked very new.
Once we arrived at the class Jasmine, a senior, was supposed to be in, I was greeted by a very friendly teacher, Mr. Pedalo. He made sure to make me feel comfortable in his classroom even though I was from the rival school; he asked many questions about myself to get to know me as well. Then he began teaching. This is something I took note of because I wanted to see if the learning styles were different between schools.
What I noticed was that he gave 25 minutes for work time and then continued to go over the assignment with the class so the students could get a better understanding of the material. Personally, I thought this was a really effective learning style, and I felt I could learn from it.
On the day we went it was a Thursday, so all Chelsea students had eight-minute shorter classes. Usually the classes are 72 minutes, but on “Bulldog Block Days” the classes are shortened; the eight minutes subtracted from all five classes add up to a 40-minute extra class period where the kids have time to study, meet with clubs, finish homework, or socialize with friends. When I asked kids in the classes I attended how they felt about Bulldog Block they only had good things to say.
“We started Bulldog Block during Covid and everyone loved it so they just never got rid of it,” one student said.
WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS: The newspaper room is where Chelsea works on their journalism publication, The Bleu Print. Each kid has their own desk with an assigned job for writing and publishing the newspaper.
As we continued throughout the day we got many tours from the students and the two things that stuck out to me were the lunch room food and the gym/weight room. The lunch at CHS was very different from DHS. Chelsea seemed to have more food options with bigger portions. Some of the students we interviewed said it costs around $4 everyday, so many Chelsea kids do not get the school lunches. However, when asking the kids how they felt about the school lunches, many had negative thoughts (it wouldn’t be high school without students complaining about school lunches, right?). Nevertheless, to a Dexter student, this seemed like an upgrade!
When we moved on to look at the lifting room it was just as beautiful as everyone made it out to be. We were informed that the lights even changed colors to the beat of the music.
