Facts About the Construction at Lincoln Middle School
By
Anthony Harvey
April, 2024
​
At the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, Lincoln Middle School was put under construction. The construction company, SM Wilson, started to tear down part of the building in preparation for the construction project. When Ms. Metzger was asked three big idea questions, she provided insight about what is going on during the construction project.
The first question was, What is the biggest difficulty of the construction during the school year? She replied, “Having kids in the building and working around their class and after-school activities and not to have classrooms within trailers.”
Then she was asked, Why is this construction project necessary? Metzger stated, “The project is necessary due to a declining infrastructure meaning the mechanical, plumbing and roofing systems are all in need of a major upgrade.” She added, “Since Lincoln was a high school before a middle school and high school and middle school function differently, renovations are needed.”
Finally she was asked, Did you have any surprisingly positive things happen since this construction began? She answered, “The construction market’s lead time and availability of products with the addition of inflation has been very volatile post COVID. However, I am pleasantly surprised with how well the estimating team with our construction manager, SM Wilson, has projected the construction budget.” She added that, “We are trending with Lincoln and are hopeful to stay at or under the estimates.”
Stay tuned for more about the construction project at Lincoln middle school.
This picture shows the construction at Lincoln Middle School as of March 2024.
Learning CPR
by
Gracie Roberts and Natalie Bogle
April, 2024
Did you know that in Edwardsville, you can learn CPR in February? The amazing thing about CPR is that anyone can learn it! CPR stands for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. It is a very important thing that everyone should learn, and that is why The Fire Department of Edwardsville had free CPR lessons in February.
Cole Schrage, a member of the Edwardsville Fire Department, explained why it is important for people to learn CPR:
“The more sustainable a patient is, the higher the likelihood of that patient having a successful outcome. A rule of thumb is that for every minute CPR is not being done, the survivability of the patient decreases by 11%.”
You might be asking yourself, “When do I perform CPR?” Well, you perform CPR when someone’s heartbeat has stopped, which is when someone is having a heart attack. You also perform CPR when someone’s breathing has stopped or when someone almost drowns. Bystanders for such emergencies consist of all ages, so it is important for people of all ages to become familiar with this life saving process.
“I find it very important for all ages to be familiar with CPR and the process,” stated Schrage.
When you take a CPR class, the requirement is every two years that you need to be retrained for CPR. But, some people may be retrained every 4 years, as Cole Schrage, who works at the fire department says, “For a lay person, I would at the very least suggest every 4 years, considering that updates are normally every 4 years.”
The great thing is that bystander CPR has saved a lot of people! “The City of Edwardsville has seen great success over the years with bystander CPR, creating a more sustainable situation for the patient,” boasted Schrage.
All in all, CPR is a very important thing that everyone should learn. You never know, you could save someone’s life.
Advertisements like these spread awareness about CPR, and how to get CPR lessons. More than 240,000 people die a year due to cardiac arrests (cdc.gov). Many of those deaths could be prevented if more civilians learn CPR. (Image taken from Clayton County Fire and Emergency Services’s Website.)
The Solar Eclipse, Blinding and Bright
by
Annabelle Sirko
On Monday, April 8, 2024, students outside Lincoln Middle School took time from the school day to stare into the sky. The reasoning behind this event was the solar eclipse, which Edwardsville experienced 99.1% totality during the period of 2:00pm- 2:03pm (theintellengencer.com). During the rest of the day, students learned about what causes a total solar eclipse, created UV light color changing bracelets, learned about history of the eclipse, and did other solar eclipse themed activities throughout their classes. The last total solar eclipse took place in 2017, and this eclipse was about the closet point of totality Edwardsville will experience for almost the next 375 years! (livescience.org). Not only did this occurrence provide a new learning experience for students, but it also created a very memorable and fun filled day!