March Madness ended with South Carolina women and UConn men winning. Even though the college basketball tournament is over, Altoona’s second annual teacher March Madness is still in full swing thanks to the Climate and Culture squad. 

For years prior, Astronomy teacher and “chief briqueteur,” James Krug, ran the Astronomy Madness in the planetarium. With the creation of the Climate and Culture Squad by Assistant Principal Keri Harrington united Biology teachers Stephanie McAleer and Jennifer Garner and English teacher Alyssa Hetrick so the tournament was able to be expanded schoolwide last year. 

In 2023, there were 32 lunches and teachers on the bracket who battled it out. In the end, chemistry teacher Christine Falger was the champion, so her classes got a day long donut and pizza party. 

“Mrs. Falger’s party was such a blast. We got pizza and the classes earlier in the day got donuts. It was a really great time just to just relax at the end of the year,” Junior Teagan Fanellli said. 

The winning lunch, mashed potato bowl, was served the following month an additional time. This part of the tournament was phased out.

“I noticed students were actually way way more into the teacher tournament than the lunch tournament. And honestly, who’s ever going to beat mashed potato bowl anyway,” Krug said. “Mrs. McAleer made the call. I thought it was pretty aggressive, but we tried it and it works.”

However, there have been other changes besides the absence of the lunch bracket.

“Last year, we did a pure paper ballot system in all of the lunches. This year to try to increase student participation and  streamline it more, we now have all the voting on Google Classroom. But beginning later this week with the sweet 16, we are still going to have the donation bins available in the cafeteria. And the exchange rate will be every dollar donated equals two additional votes. And all the proceeds will go to the Altoona Food Bank,” Krug said. 

Also changing this year is the sheer amount of students casting their votes. In the “instant matchup” between Physics teachers Diedra Dumm and Jermy Repecka 960 students casted their votes. 

“We have over almost 200 students and teachers participating in the online bracket challenge,” Krug said. “So far, thanks to all the hard work of the teachers on the squad. There has been very little confusion. Everybody has understood the rule changes and we’ve had a lot of participation.”

With students now having the ability to compete for some more prizes like the top five bracket makers getting a movie and popcorn with 10 of their friends, many are embracing the bracket challenge. Participants like Berkley Alexander, who after the end of the first round has 28 points and is tied for first with Trevor Wilson and Troy Peterman, attributes his success to his ability to have an idea who others in the school would want. 

“I had to think about what teachers other people would pick,” Alexander said. “I just picked who I thought was most popular.”

Other students who opted into joining like junior Andrew Quinn took a slightly different and self-serving approach. 

“I looked for teachers that I have had and picked them, but for my overall winner I picked Frau Mitchell because she’s the G.O.A.T.,” Quinn said. “I have a lot of my teachers this year going pretty far.” 

The new system also allows for students with teachers who aren’t competing to have a shot at winning something as well. A feature many see as an upgrade. 

“Now there’s also individual motivation for the students and the online bracket challenge because those top five will get the VIP movie afternoon here in the planetarium,” Krug said. 

Despite the tournament being competitive by its nature, Krug believes that it actually fosters community because it gives recognition to a diverse array of teachers and all the principals.

“This tournament highlights a lot of teachers that students either have never had, or they’ve seen them in the halls, but they don’t actually know them,” Krug Said.