Climate and Culture Squad begins March Madness competition

February 22, 2023

The first AAHS March Madness tournament kicks off on Wednesday, Feb. 22, featuring a competition between 32 teachers and 32 lunches. The Inaugural March Madness bracket is posted in the closed cafeteria. The tournament will last until Friday, March 24.

The eight-day round of 64 begins on Feb. 22 with four games, two teacher matchups and two lunch entree matchups, per day. Students and teachers can vote during lunches using paper ballots. The winner of each matchup will be determined by whoever has the most paper votes each day.

The round of 32 begins Monday, March 6. Winners from the round of 64 will face off in pairs (one teacher matchup and one lunch matchup) each day. Students and teachers can continue to use paper ballots to cast their votes. The round of 32 will conclude on Thursday, March 9.

There will be a one-week tournament break, from March 13 to 17, where Student Council will hold Pennies for Pets during lunches.

The “Sweet Sixteen” round begins Monday, March 20 with three games per day. This marks the start of the Money Rounds; students and teachers vote with change or money instead of the previous paper ballots. Teachers can contribute a maximum of $5 to their chosen candidate. The winner is determined by whoever receives the most monetary donations in each matchup. All proceeds benefit the Altoona Food Bank.

The lunchtime winner will be served to students as a bonus lunch in early April courtesy of Metz. The winning teacher’s classes will receive a daylong celebration: donuts, juice and coffee for first and second period; Mrs. Grove’s pastries for third and fourth period; and pizza parties for the rest of the day courtesy of Andrew Neely and the principal staff.

Over the past couple of days, we have seen some really good buzz in the school. I think students are really looking forward to the strategy and the drama of the tournament.

— James Krug

The Climate and Culture (C & C) Squad originally came up with the idea to involve students and staff in an activity related to March Madness. Astronomy teacher James Krug, a member of the squad, worked out the details of the tournament with Stephanie McAleer.

“Our squad wanted to come up with something March Madness related to try to boost teacher and student morale,” Krug said. “We settled on this idea of having a bracket. I have long loved brackets. I use them in my astronomy classes every year with what is called Astronomy Madness. I had this really large bracket sitting in the planetarium. I often thought it would be really fun to have students vote on which school lunch they thought was best, but I also wanted to get the teachers involved too. So I met with Metz, who is the company that does the school lunches. They were very welcoming, and they were actually very interested in this idea. They explained to me a little bit about the hard work and love that goes into all of their meals here—how much preparation is involved, and how many of the meals are cooked right from scratch. They were very interested in it. Then, on the teacher side, we were excited but also worried because we didn’t want to just come off like a pure popularity contest. Teachers really stick their necks out there when they volunteer for something like this.”

In order to prevent a sole popularity contest between teachers, McAleer came up with the idea to implement prizes for the students in the winning teacher’s classes.

“First, we had talked about how the winning teacher would have to do something silly, but then we settled on the classes of the winning teacher getting special treats throughout a future day. That was a big revelation because then student strategy not only kicked into play, which teachers they move forward or not, but then it’s less about a pure popularity contest and more about who can reach out to their students best and which students are really looking to get goodies for themselves. On that side, Mr. Neely and the principals really helped out. Our squads aren’t really funded, so we didn’t have money to actually buy snacks for the winners. And so Mr. Neely generously volunteered to pick up the tab,” Krug said.

In order to set up the teacher bracket, McAleer sent out a Google form that teachers could fill out. The amount of responses was overwhelming.

“Within the first hour that she had posted the link, we already had 42 Teachers signed up for only 32 spots. So [the squad] locked the Google Form, and we took our time really making up the matchups in the regions,” Krug said. “We tried to combine showdowns in different departments with both veteran and newer teachers that will not only have an intriguing Round 1, but Round 2 rivalry matchups as well. And for the 10 teachers who didn’t get in, if the tournament is a success this year, they will not be left stranded on the bubble next year. They will have our first 10 bids into the 2024 tournament because we don’t want to exclude anyone.”

Krug is excited to get the first AAHS March Madness tournament underway. He feels that he sees the same feeling of anticipation in the students.

“Over the past couple of days, we have seen some really good buzz in the school. I think students are really looking forward to the strategy and the drama of it as well,” Krug said. “As long as everybody can follow the rules and be respectful of the students who are volunteering to collect votes during A, B and C lunches, I think we are going to have a wonderful bonus meal in April. And one teacher is going to have the privilege of being named the first ever AAHS March Madness champion.”

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