Marfa ISD Journalism Dispatches

Marfa Blooms 

By Isaiah and Messiah

In this month’s article, we decided to focus on Marfa Blooms by interviewing the students taking the class: Mia Dominguez, Kassanda Garcia, Piper Donaldson, Annaka Salcido, and their teacher, Mrs. Donaldson. 

We began by speaking with Mrs. Donaldson. When we asked her what exactly Marfa Blooms was, she explained, “So Marfa Blooms is our agro business. The girls that take this class grow flowers and then we sell the flowers wholesale.” She shared that last year the class created small decorations and vases for businesses like Hotel Saint George, Dairy Queen, and Bitter Sugar. They also sold large bouquets to Cochineal and Ocotillo. Ultimately, the class calculates their total expenses and earnings. They need to make at least $3,000 and pay that back to the Alamito Foundation to ensure the class continues for future students. Any leftover funds are split between a nonprofit and the student entrepreneurs. Last year, they donated some money to the Marfa Education Foundation, and split the rest, with each Marfa Blooms student taking home over $100. Since they are now down to just five girls, the more money they earn, the more each student can take home.

Mrs. Donaldson noted, “They spend a lot of time learning about business, how to run one, and all about growing plants.”  Mia commented, “Marfa Blooms is like a growing experience.” 

Next, we asked Mrs. Donaldson how she plans to improve this year. She mentioned, “Yeah, we had to move the greenhouse and start all over. Learning to figure things out has been challenging since we don’t have a gardener anymore. Hopefully, next year will be easier because we won’t have to redo all the boxes. This past semester, we struggled with goatheads, and moving the turf was tough, so we’re hopeful for a better start next school year. It really depends on how committed the kids want to be over the summer.”

We then inquired about any profit goals the class had besides the $3,000 minimum. Mrs. Donaldson expressed a desire to at least double the previous year’s profits. Last year, students made around $120 each and donated $500 to MEF, so doubling that could increase the donation to $1,000. The class started the year with $2,000 to spend on necessities, so better profits would allow for a larger starting budget for the following year.

We ended by asking the students how their experiences changed this year, especially for those who were returning. Piper and Mia shared that not having to drive out of town to the greenhouse was a significant change, and with the class now consisting only of girls, they had to handle all the physically demanding tasks that the boys did in the past. Sara added, “Well, since we don’t have Juan anymore, we have to do most of the work keeping the greenhouse up and running. I think next year will be better because we now know what went wrong this year and what we can improve going forward. This year was mainly about figuring out what works and what doesn’t.” 

The only newcomer to the class is Annaka Salcido, so we asked her how her experience is going. “Well, it’s been pretty good. I’ve learned a lot about business and money management as well as how to plant.” Finally, we asked the girls about their favorite aspects of the class. Piper shared that she enjoys the business side, while Mia and Kassanda highlighted their love for planting. Sara, who initially thought her favorite would be the financing aspect, said that so far, her favorite part has been working on the website and being hands-on in the greenhouse. Annaka added, “Whenever we finish a task, seeing the progress we’ve made feels really good.”

Spring semester gets off to a rocky start: An opinion

By Itzel and Asael

The spring semester at Marfa High School has officially begun, and already, 2025 is proving to be a tough year! Late starts due to cold weather and power conservation efforts have disrupted the usual flow of school, impacting students’ motivation and focus. It seems like everyone is getting sick. Teachers and administrators have been out, and with no substitutes available no one knows what is going on or where to go half the time, as our other teachers cram additional students into their rooms. These doubled classes can make instruction more difficult, too, even if the absent teachers leave lesson plans and Google Classroom work.

On Tuesday, the internet went down just as semester benchmarks were set to take place. It seemed about right that the morning would begin in chaos!

We are only a few weeks into the semester, and yet it feels like a struggle to maintain momentum. Two weeks of arriving at school at 10 a.m. due to weather and power concerns has only added to the frustration. Some students expressed confusion over the decision not to grant any weather-related days off, especially considering these days have not been used yet. Some teachers said that in order for school to be done by May, we need to conserve our inclement weather days, but the overall feeling among students is that the late starts feel disruptive and unproductive.

I spoke with Dariela Muñoz about her thoughts on the semester so far. She shared, “I am tired of school already. I want to go home every day because it’s just so annoying to be here all the time, and it’s really cold. I’m ahead in all my classes; why can’t I just leave school early?” As she said this, my reporting partner Asael nodded his head. “I agree completely!” he said.

Madison Cash echoed these frustrations, saying, “It’s so boring being here. It was literally negative one degree outside, and they still made us come to school.” Giselle added, “I feel like this part of the school year just goes by so slowly. Everyone is kind of over it and ready for summer break.”

I also had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Powers, who had to leave school early last Tuesday due to a migraine. She reflected on the difficulties of the current school year, stating, “I really thought about how hard this school year has been and how much I have left to do. I still have so much paperwork, a big art competition to plan with my students, and field trips to organize. The sixth-graders need a lot of prep time, and the yearbook deadline is coming up, which is always stressful. Spring semesters are always hard.”

With students feeling overwhelmed and eagerly anticipating spring break, and teachers juggling various responsibilities as the testing season approaches, the current cold weather and constant wind has added to the strain. However, there is hope that if we can all make it through the next six weeks until spring break, the school year will be fun again! 

Darkroom

By Jose

So, across the street where the welding shop is, there are two classrooms. One, obviously, is used by  Mr. Martinez’s class when they aren’t in the shop. The other isn’t being used by teachers and is only used as storage. Recently, Mr. Martinez’s class has been cleaning that room out so the school can make a darkroom. It was really messy in there, but  we all helped out by throwing trash out and organizing the room so now it’s about ready to be worked on. 

We asked Martinez how he feels about the room next door being used as a darkroom and he said, “Well, I don’t know how I feel about them using the room next to mine because they might disturb my classes. But, it was either that room or the bandhall, and we need the bandhall for conjunto practice, so I told them to use the room next to mine.”

If you’re curious about what a darkroom is, it is a light-tight room used for handling light-sensitive materials, such as photographic emulsions. It can be completely dark or illuminated with the help of a safelight filter (which looks like a red light bulb) to process photographic films. You may have seen darkrooms in movies or on TV; they were once essential for developing film before the advent of digital photography! 

I believe some of the art students will be looking forward to this collaboration between Ms. Powers and the Chinati Foundation. Ms. Powers stated, “Film photography can be really fun. There’s a lot to learn about light, aperture, and focus, but no matter what, developing your first roll of film and printing it in the darkroom is actually magical! Learning about this many years ago as a high school student taught me about how my own eyes work and how cameras operate!”

Marfa basketball teams poised for playoff success

By Darren

The Marfa High School boys basketball team has been on an impressive journey this season, and excitement is building as they head into the playoffs. Members of the team and coaching staff are optimistic about their chances for success with three district games left before the playoffs begin. 

Alejandro Rodriguez, a junior and starting player on the team, shared his enthusiasm for the season: “I’m excited for our district … I’m ready for playoffs!” He believes that if the team keeps up a strong work ethic, the Shorthorns have the potential to reach the later rounds, stating, “If we keep working the way we are, we can probably make it to round 3 or 4.” 

Head coach Arron Luna echoed these sentiments, expressing his pride in the team’s progress. “I feel that we’ve worked hard and are in a good position. We need to see how far we can take this and make a run of it,” he said. 

Coach Luna is particularly eager to build on last year’s performance, hoping to advance further than the second round this time. “I’m excited. Last year we made it to the second round, and I would like to see us make history this year,” he added. Reflecting on his first year as head coach and winning district champs, he remarked, “It’s special, and I’m glad I got to do it with the guys I’m coaching. I’ll never forget it.” 

The team’s dynamics are also enhanced by their manager, senior Diego Jurado, who enjoys his role. “It’s pretty fun managing,” he said. “It feels great [getting to district champs], and I get to go on all the trips without practicing!” When asked about potential improvements, he suggested, “I would definitely suggest getting new water bottles.” Freshman starter Austin McGary, AKA Flipper, shared his feelings about the team’s success. “I feel honored to be a district champion,” he said, noting the significance of this achievement in his first year on the varsity team. He is confident in the team’s potential, stating that the team can make it, “As far as we wanna make it, it really depends on us.”

Fellow freshman Abelardo Marquez, AKA Bubba, also expressed optimism. “I feel pretty good, especially because it’s my first year,” he said. He highlighted the friendships within the team, saying, “It feels great making it with these boys.” Bubba is confident about their playoff chances, stating, “I honestly feel like we can win it.” As the playoffs approach, the Marfa HS boys basketball team is ready for the playoffs! Go Horns!

The Lady Horns are similarly dominating their basketball season having only fallen once to the Balmorhea team. Zoey Salgado, a sophomore, said, “I like playing basketball, I just like playing as a team. And I feel like basketball is funny to play, I just laugh the whole time, we do goofy stuff.”

“We’ve been doing pretty good, we’ve only lost one game in district,” said Junior Raven Martinez. “We’re getting better every practice, every game,” added sophomore Madison Cash. 

Coach Pippen, the girls’ team coach, said, “I feel that the basketball season is going pretty good. It started off slow but they progressively got better as the season went on. We weren’t winning too many games before district, but now we’re at the top of our district, only one game behind Balmorhea. We have a good chance of getting district champs. And our first game in the playoffs looks like it’s going to be Buena Vista. And the first time that we played them we hung in the first couple of quarters, and then it got away from us, so I feel like our girls are able to compete with them and maybe, possibly, bring in a district championship, even a bi-district championship.”

On Tuesday night, the Shorthorns had their first home game in a while and celebrated Senior Night, for the students in the Class of 2025 on the basketball team. Loretta Rivera, Maryfer Martinez, Janayah Villa, Diego Jurado, and Derick Campos were introduced with their parents and given baskets full of goodies to celebrate their final season as Shorthorn athletes on the court.

The girls playoffs begin the week of February 10, and the boys’ playoffs are the week after, starting February 17.

Benchmark testing

By Giselle

This week we are beginning to take benchmark tests. Tuesday, freshmen and sophomores took the English test, and freshmen also had their biology benchmarks. Wednesday, freshmen did math and juniors did history. I decided to ask students how they felt about benchmarking. (Benchmarks, by the way, are just fancy practice tests meant to be like the STAAR, sometimes they are old STAAR tests.)

The first person I asked was Dariela Muñoz, a sophomore at Marfa ISD. She said testing “is really annoying,” and, “I just try to get  it over with, and not worry about it too much.” She continued, “I think this benchmarking was on very short notice. And so I just went with it and got it over with.”

Zoey Salgado, another sophomore at Marfa ISD, said, “I slept during the benchmark, for a power nap.” She told this reporter that she stayed up past 1 a.m. playing Minecraft. So, during the benchmark, which is untimed, Zoey began with a nap. She continued to explain, “Then I would wake up and get studious, then I would fall back asleep, then get studious again.” 

Overall, personally, I also think that the benchmark is sometimes administered out of nowhere, and find it a little bit annoying! In general, the test itself wasn’t bad. The English 2 test wasn’t super long, it was just 36 questions. Overall, the only really confusing part was a poem at the end. After the English benchmark, we talked a bit after, and we all agreed we didn’t really understand what that poem was about. 

Ayven Pippen, a junior, said that he feels pretty confident in his history benchmark test because he said it will be easy and that he usually always passes his history test. Ayven continued that history isn’t really a hard subject because many things are mostly common sense. Ayven overall doesn’t enjoy benchmarking, but he also isn’t worried about his outcome because he is confident he will pass.

Ms. Powers, the art teacher, pointed out that the benchmark can throw routines off, she said, “It’s a little hard to do lesson plans when you don’t know what students are going to be in your class, and it is also hard to get students motivated after they are all done benchmarking! So I try to just give fun, easy assignments like the stickers we’re doing now. I wouldn’t want to make people do something difficult right after benchmarking. Testing for hours makes y’all totally zoinked out. And really, anything outside the regular school routine really throws the students off, so it’s best to just make stickers and listen to music.”

Finally, the sophomore class found it a bit annoying that someone’s car alarm kept honking for the longest time ever outside the window of the room where we were testing! And we were just kind of wondering who it was, but we couldn’t even say anything since we have to pretend like it’s a real test! 

But, this week has been benchmark week, even if the Wi-Fi was messed up, even if we stayed up all night playing Minecraft, even if we don’t want to be here, even if there was a car alarm going off outside. 

Overall, though, everyone understands that the benchmarks are very necessary, especially at this time of year, so the school can get an idea at where we are at with our learning before STAAR testing.

DON’T EDIT YET

Misuse of Quick Tipping

By Kassandra 

Over the past couple of months at Marfa ISD, there has been a lot of drama in the high school. This led to the misuse of Quick Tipping, the online platform Marfa ISD uses so students can anonymously report suspicious or harmful behavior. On Wednesday, January 22, our fifth-period class was interrupted for a meeting held in the auditorium by our principal and guidance counselor. During this meeting, they addressed the alarming trend of students using the online resource not to help each other in serious situations but rather to bully and target their classmates. The principal reported that she has never encountered so many Quick Tips submitted over such a short time span — just five to six hours. The guidance counselor added, “I do not think people actually bully or get bullied by each other, but students can just be ‘mean’ to one another.” He emphasized, “You all are using Quick Tips to be mean to each other.” 

In light of these concerns, we interviewed several staff members at Marfa ISD to gain their insights on the situation. The first person we interviewed was our science teacher Mrs. Donaldson. When asked about the misuse of the Quick Tip system, she replied, “You definitely don’t want to discourage students from using the online platform to report things, but it can be abused in different ways. The administration has to follow up with the report … I think it might end up making things harder on y’all if everything is being investigated. Quick Tips are anonymous. Whoever is making the Quick Tips — if they aren’t false — then fine, the administration should take action. But if they’re just making things up, that’s not cool. I would say don’t be afraid to use this system because that’s what it’s there for.” 

We also spoke with our superintendent about the issue and asked for his thoughts on the students’ misuse of the online resource. He stated, “We are using it for the wrong reasons. The Quick Tips, the anonymous tips, were created for safety purposes. We need to know if there’s a student in danger, if there’s a staff member in danger, or if there’s any situation that could potentially harm someone in the school. We shouldn’t be Quick Tipping about dress code or things like that — only for safety reasons.” 

However, Marfa students aren’t entirely in the wrong here! The Quick Tip form on the website doesn’t say it’s only for safety concerns. It doesn’t say anything, just “Quick Tip Anonymous Reporting” and then a place to write your message. We’ve never been told until now that it’s only for students and teachers at risk of harm. And, yeah, some people were messing with the system and taking advantage of it, but I wouldn’t say that the majority of Marfa High Schoolers are “mean” to each other. In fact, a few teachers after the assembly took pains to let us know that we’re nice, and one even recounted life at a school where the students had “real behavioral issues” and threw chairs and lit trash cans on fire. If students exhibit negative behavior, the administration should consider how they can improve the school environment to better support students. And if there needs to be a schoolwide assembly, maybe it’s best if it’s informative rather than punishment! 

Anyways, every staff member we interviewed agreed that students should not abuse the Quick Tip online resource and should use it only for legitimate concerns, particularly those related to safety. I share the views of my teachers and administrators on this matter. The Quick Tip system is a valuable resource that could help if there is ever a real danger. We have to use it responsibly, as you never know what might happen when a student is truly in need of help.

Art class is awesome!

Zoey Salgado

The advanced art class at Marfa ISD, which happens during 6th period and of which I am a member, has produced a stunning array of unique pieces, each filled with personal meaning and creativity. You can see these pieces at Ballroom Marfa or at MHS. From collages to imaginative dog portraits in many mediums, students have crafted diverse artworks over TWO shows! The collages displayed at Ballroom were recently sold to the Marfa community. The purpose? To raise funds for an exciting field trip, allowing us to let off steam at a cool theme park in Odessa (we haven’t decided which one yet!) The art show that is still up in the hallway was also made by the advanced art class, and showcases art in a variety of mediums that are the result of a semester of a lot of hard work and good times!

The art teacher at MISD, Ms. Powers, is one of the most realest teachers out there! She has helped students with their art projects in many ways, with technique, creativity, knowledge on what to do and tips for how to do it! In art class, students have sharpened their skills, explored new techniques, and expressed themselves creatively. 

To gain more insight into my peers’ experiences, I interviewed a few participants involved in the recent art show, starting with one of the standout artists, Francisco Rosas.

I asked Kiko why he has taken art for four years in a row. He shared, “I like doing art because it’s one of my passions. I find it calming at times, even though others might see it as stressful.” 

When I asked about his aspirations in art, he said, “Hopefully, I’ll make it to regionals for VASE, and from there, I’d love to go to state in San Marcos.” 

If you haven’t seen Kikos’s artwork yet, it’s incredible — check it out in the hallway outside Ms. Powers’ classroom!

I also spoke with Maryfer Martinez for her perspective on the art show. She’s not in Ms. Powers’ art class, so I thought it would be interesting to see what she thought of the show! She did attend the reception for the show at school, which had sparkling white grape juice and cheese and grapes and cookies, and took place right before Christmas break. I asked Mary what her favorite piece was. She enthusiastically responded, “Itzel’s portrait of her face.” Curious about her choice, I asked why it stood out to her. Maryfer replied, “It’s beautiful! Her eyes look so demure, and I love the color pink. Seeing it in real life, it looks so perfect!” When I asked if she’d like to see another art show with snacks, Maryfer said, “Absolutely! It was awesome. I think more snacks would make it even better!” Finally, I asked her to rate the show on a scale of 1 to 10. She replied with a smile, “I give it a 12! Two extra points because my friends were in it.” 

The commitment and passion of the students in the art class, along with the support from Ms. Powers, creates a really fun class and some really good art! Heck yeah!