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T HE
SEPTEMBER 2018 Volume XXX Issue I
MHSTHEUNION.COM For the latest updates
STUDENT VOICE OF MILPITAS HIGH SCHOOL
N EWS IN BR IEF
SATs now available at MHS; exams aim for convenience
Grading Period Ends | Sept. 28
BY Vivian Tsang
Stephen Stewart Invitational | Sept. 28 - 30 Milpitas Speech and Debate will be hosting their third annual invitational at MHS. Milpitas Community Library Book Sale | Sept. 28 - 30 The Friends of the Library will be having their triannual book sale. Upcoming Standardized Test Dates | Oct. 6, Oct. 28 The upcoming SAT date is on Oct. 6. The next ACT date is on Oct. 28. Registration for these dates have ended. Day of Observance | Oct. 8 School will not be in session for Indigenous People’s Day. MUSD Board Meeting | Oct. 9 There is a board meeting from 7pm to 10pm at the MUSD Board room. Homecoming Dance | Oct. 13 The homecoming dance will be held at the gym from 7:30pm to 10:30pm. Latino Awards | Oct. 24 Latino Awards Night will recognize the efforts of Latino students in the MHS theater from 5:30pm to 7pm. Staff Development Day | Nov. 1 School will not be in session.
JONATHAN TR AN | THE UNION
Officers of True Colors promote their club during CLOG Rush, which took place from Aug. 28 to Aug. 30. Over 45 CLOGs participated in this biannual event.
CLOG Rush hosted on Green BY Kirk Tran
CLOG Rush was held on the Green from Aug. 28 to Aug. 30. CLOG Rush is a school institution for the purpose of raising awareness of CLOGs. CLOG Commissioner Tanya Saharan said that the biannual CLOG Rush is more or less a club recruitment drive. “To start off, just to be clear - CLOG stands for clubs and organizations.” Saharan said. “And, no I don’t know why Milpitas named it that, but I fully embrace it.” Several CLOG officers said that most of the recruitment is done
through yelling and making posters. “For Board Game Club, we had a chant that we would just scream, you know, at just the top of our lungs, and hopefully that would draw people in,” Board Game Club President John Beckman said. “Everyone is yelling to advertise their club,” Math Club Vice President Antoine Devictor said. “[Our club members make] funny signs, that are—apparently some members of our club like to make meme-worthy signs.” Music for the event is chosen by a
The SAT tests are now available at MHS, according to Assistant Principal Jonathan Mach. After gaining approval from College Board to become a supersite for the SATs, MHS can now offer tests to over 500 students, Mach said. Students with disabilities, approved for accommodations such as extended testing time, will also have the option to take the exams at MHS, Mach continued. Mach, who was in charge of the process, felt that it was important for students to have access to a nearby and familiar testing location, he said. “You get very nervous if you have to go far away,” Mach explained. “You’re already stressed as it is. You have to wake up earlier, and go to a campus you don’t know, find your name, and find your class to wait to get in, and by that time, that’s a lot of energy. It’s only fair that we can offer something like that.” It will be nice for students to take the SATs in a more familiar and comfortable environment, Assistant Principal Jennifer Hutchison said. “There is a lot of work that goes into
preparing and hosting the SATs, so in the past, there has not been the point person to take it on,” Hutchison said. “Mr. Mach has come to MHS with a wealth of knowledge and experience in this area, so he is excited to share that with the Milpitas community.” As with AP exams, SBAC, and other standardized tests, MHS does not receive any monetary profit for hosting the SATs, Mach said. The profit is being able to offer it to students living in the area, Mach added. Senior Snigdha Garlapalli is finished with her SATs, but she would have considered taking it at MHS, she said. “It’s great that the SAT is being offered at MHS,” Garlapalli said. “I’d be more comfortable taking it in a familiar area instead of a random place I’ve never been to before.” Junior Johnny Huang said he believes that other schools may be even more comfortable than MHS. “I would definitely consider taking the SATs here for the convenience and familiarity, but another school may have an even more comfortable setting to take the SATs,” Huang said. “Another school might have a more modern facility.”
Eye on Campus: Senior Picnic
SEE CLOG RUSH ON PAGE 8
Pluses and minuses axed from transcripts BY Ashley Chen
Plus and minus signs will no longer appear on students’ transcripts, Principal Francis Rojas said. This change, effective this year, only applies to grades received during the 2018 to 2019 school year, he continued. Only the transcript will reflect this change and not the grades that teachers give their students, Rojas said. If a student receives an A- for the semester, it will go into the GPA calculation as a 4.0 instead of a 3.77, he continued. “It decreases the unneeded competition to just get that little [grade] bump,” Rojas said. “There are people fighting for a B to a B+. People are al-
ready stressed out and the colleges don’t even calculate it that way. They just give you what we’re giving you now: 4, 3, 2, or 1. In the end, the pluses and minuses are still there, but the way that the points are calculated are exactly the way that the UCs and the CSUs calculate it, and that’s where most of our students go.” This change will be beneficial for students, Senior Kally Pan said. However, the downside is that it would be harder to differentiate GPAs, she continued. “I like [the change] because it is easier for us to calculate our GPA,” Pan said. “Back then when our A minuses had a different GPA from our A’s and A pluses, it was really hard to keep up my A minuses, so I really like
that change.” Although transcipts will no longer have plus or minus signs, the math department has agreed to keep plus and minus signs for their grading scales, Math Department Lead MeiHsiang Tseng said. The math teachers made this decision because they wanted to be able to see a clear difference in their students’ abilities, she said. “More than five or six years ago, we didn’t have [plus and minus signs], and eventually they wanted to figure out who will be the top one for the class and who can speak at graduation,” Tseng said. “That’s the main problem [the administration wanted to fix].”
DEVYN NGUYEN | THE UNION
A group of seniors hike through a path at Saratoga Springs. Students participated in activites such as swimming, volleyball, table tennis, and basketball.
Lack of pads in restrooms remains an issue BY Loan-Anh Pham
Pads and other menstrual products were not stocked in MHS bathrooms for the 2018 school year, Principal Rojas said. The topic fell off the radar but will be back on the radar soon, he continued. The lack of pads can be tied back to budgeting issues, Rojas explained. For example, the X building offers free menstrual products since the building is under the jurisdiction of another district, he said. “[The X building] is operated by the San Jose Evergreen College District; what you will typically see is the community colleges, [products] are there, and in high schools, you will see that products used to be there,” Rojas commented. “Because our funding sources are very different, we can’t just buy those supplies.”
Vandalism is also a factor in the school’s decision to stock pads in the health office instead, Health Clerk Rona Tolentino said. The school restocks pads for emergency need consistently, and approximately five to ten students come in each week for the products, Tolentino added. “I don’t think the students know about these supplies because we do not have the obligation to advertise them,” Tolentino explained. “We as a school do not have the responsibility to provide these products. I believe students are expected to bring their own products, just like they would bring their cellphones and wallets.” Vandalism should not prevent the receptacles from being restocked, Senior Sana Jaffery noted. Vandalism is everywhere and providing the products in restrooms is a sign that MHS cares, Jaffery added.
“There’s a reason those receptacles exist,” Jaffery said. “It is one of the school’s responsibilities to make sure their students are thriving in the best way they can in the school environment. What better way is there to do that then by making sure students won’t have to worry about things like pads and tampons?” While she did know about menstrual products in the office, many other students do not, Jaffery noted. If the school cannot provide products in bathrooms due to financial reasons, it is up to the students to create a change, Jaffery added. “If anything, it should be mentioned in student handbooks, but I feel like the school wouldn’t want to offend those sensitive to topics like menstruation,” Jaffery said. “At this point, it’s kind of tell as many people as you can and spread the word.”
COURTESY OF KAZIM JAFRI
Saratoga Springs had a pool that students could swim in. Students lounged by the poolside, fired water guns from home, and cannonballed into the pool.