First Day of School Special V98 by The Newtonite

The Newtonite v Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019 • Volume 98

Newton North High School, 457 Walnut St., Newtonville, Mass. 02460

Whitsons promises improved Volleyball gets set cafeteria food service options for upcoming season Dea Cela and Sophie fredberg New meals and environmentally friendly options will be added to the cafeteria this coming year with Whitsons Food Services becoming Newton Public Schools’ new food provider. The School Committee hopes the switch will increase the number of students who buy school lunch with healthier foods such as sushi and acai bowls. Although new items will be added to the menu, the snack shop in the cafeteria will no longer be offering coffee to students. “We felt that Whitsons, through their proposal and their presentation, really hit on some of the key points that we were looking for, which was increasing the quality and taste of the food,” said Newton Public Schools Grants and Business Operations Manager Stephen Marshall. He added that he hopes the offerings are “things that students want to eat and are willing to come back for.” Marshall added that Whitsons’ proposal included green initiatives and nutritional meal choices for stu-

dents. Ultimately, the district chose Whitsons because of their healthier and sustainable food options despite the higher cost, he said. Junior Juliette Catlin, who regularly eats cafeteria food, said, “I think that it’s always great to bring in new and various foods to cater to different people and change it up a bit. It also helps create more healthy choices, which are always beneficial.” While the fresh and locally-sourced food will cost the school system more money, the price of a typical meal for students will not change, according to Marshall. “The pricing is not going to change on a regular meal, and we are exploring what we would call a premium price point,” he said. “So for items such as sushi or something that does cost more to bring in, there would be a larger price tag on some of those specific items.” Whitsons also hopes to make the food better for the environment. The Green School Connections, a group of volunteers from Newton, has worked closely with Whitsons to ensure a more sustainable cafete-

ria in the Newton schools. “We know we have a lot to do but the goal is to start composting, fix our broken recycling program, reduce the use of paper and plastic products, and more,” said School Committee member Matthew Miller, who had the role of discussing the food service options with the community. According to Miller, the School Committee’s goal is to have students and faculty begin to compost. Whitsons will also begin using reusable containers for pre-made sandwiches and salads. The snack bar in the cafeteria will close, and Whitsons hopes to offer snack items in the cafeteria instead. With all the new changes, Whitsons will receive monthly feedback from a Food Advisory Group with representatives from each of the 20 NPS buildings, according to Marshall. The School Committee, NPS administration, and staff reviewed proposals from two food venders, Whitsons and Sodexo, earlier this year.

North’s community challenges simplistic depiction by ‘Journal’ Sophie Murthy North’s community reacted to a Wall Street Journal article questioning the process and criteria for students receiving accommodations under Individualized Education Plans (IEP) and 504 plans. In the aftermath of the college admissions scandal this past spring, the Journal looked into whether or not there were other ways wealthy families try to gain an advantage in the college process. One way the Journal explored was whether wealthier students by

receive extra time or other testing accommodations through IEPs and 504 plans. These plans are designed to accommodate students who have a cognitive or physical disability that limits learning or other activities. An analysis completed by the Journal found that students in affluent communities receive special education accommodations at higher rates than other neighborhoods. The Journal reported that in Newton 1 in 3 students are eligible for extra time or another accommo-

dation for the SAT or ACT. While Newton has the reputation as an affluent community, the district includes a relatively high percentage of students who are economically disadvantaged. According to superintendent David Fleishman, approximately 18 percent of North students have an IEP. He was unsure of the exact number of students with 504s, and counseling department head Beth Swederskas said she was unwilling to share the exact numbers. While principal Henry Turn-

Ella Bailey

Junior Emma Larson practices her serve during practice Tuesday, Aug. 27. Open to page 10 to read more about volleyball’s upcoming season. er acknowledged that North does have a higher percentage of students identified as having a disability than the state average, that does not mean people are cheating the system. “I think that the Wall Street Journal tried to make a very complicated topic very simple. By doing that, they just misunderstood how we support students at North,” he said. “North is much more economically diverse than how they try to describe us. In fact, if you go deeper into the data, you’ll understand that

many of our students with disabilities come from lower socio-economic families. We don’t consider a student’s wealth as a factor of why they have a disability.” According to Fleishman, the criteria for IEPs are based on a clear set of guidelines laid out in the Individuals with Disabilities Act, a federal education law. Students must have one of 13 listed disabilities and demonstrate that the disability ◆ continued on page 4

Newton teachers face new year with no contract settlement Maya Demissie and Amy Xue Newton teachers rallied at City Hall last Wednesday, Aug. 28 in response to entering another new school year without a contract. The Newton Teachers Association (NTA) and the School Committee have been negotiating a new contract since the last three-year contract expired in the 2017-2018 school year. After agreeing to a one-year contract extension for the 2018-2019 school year, the NTA by

and the committee began negotiations of the new three-year contract, but have yet to reach an agreement. This is the third contract cycle where teachers have started the year without an agreement. Superintendent David Fleishman cancelled the Opening Day celebration on Aug. 28. NTA president Michael Zilles then called teachers to City Hall for a union meeting to “make known our displeasure with the fact that we’re

Joel Schurgin

Teachers rally outside of City Hall to push for a contract settlement Wednesday, Aug. 28.

beginning the year without a contract,” he said. Zilles added that he estimated there were over 1,000 teachers there. “Unfortunately in Newton, we have a very long history of not settling contracts on-time,” School Committee chair Ruth Goldman said. “There have been issues that are taking particularly long because the two sides can’t agree on a fair contract.” Goldman added that state law requires teacher unions to renew their contract every three years to account for Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA), which increases salaries in accordance with inflation. In response to the 2011 recession, the NTA made “some concessions to the city around a number of issues,” according to Zilles. However, he added that “this time around, we need some of that back.” “We expect a better COLA, and we expect other benefits to improve this time,” he added. “Given the compensation that [teachers] are receiving right now, we’re falling behind the cost of living.” Goldman said that the contract negotiations have been slower because of added expenses to the budget such as the addition of full-day kindergarten, and the School Com-

mittee is unable to allocate enough funds for “the level to which the teachers and the union feels that they should have.” Zilles said that while the School Committee is working towards an agreement, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller “has really limited their ability to negotiate.” He added, “I think that [the committee] has their hands tied because of limited funding.” When Fuller took office, she wanted to keep Newton schools as some of the best in the Commonwealth, Zilles added, but “she is really, really backing away from that promise.” The contract has still been a top priority for the School Committee, according to Goldman. She said, “We’ve had probably over a dozen negotiating sessions, which is a lot more than is typical.” According to School Committee member Bridget Ray-Canada, at the beginning of the negotiation, “We all were aligned that we wanted full-day kindergarten. And so we started the school year with the negotiation on full-day kindergarten. So that took a bit of time and it was not the norm.” Goldman said, “Being without a contract is not ideal, but it’s not like the floor falls out from under anybody if you know what I mean.

They just get paid at the levels that they’re at.” In response, Zilles said the repeated inability to settle a contract on time “sends the completely wrong message to our membership that we can’t get this done before the last one expires. None of the other changes in the contract as we proposed will go into place—even the ones that they accepted—until we settle the contract.” He added that NTA members who can will remain silent during meetings to express their discontent. “People work really hard in the Newton Public Schools. Our teachers, our aids—all of our staff are incredibly dedicated,” he said. “They don’t want to do all this organizing work, all this protest work on top of everything else they do. It makes their lives harder too. We want it done.” After the teacher’s rally, the mayor’s office sent out an email with Fuller’s remarks. “While we will not be able to agree to everything that you have put on the table, I will meet with your leadership and the leadership of the School Committee and look at everything and work with everyone to figure this out,” the email read.

opinion

2 ◆ The Newtonite, Newton North

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019

Social media users: create don’t replicate

When students open their laptops to work on an essay or project, they usually have good intentions. They create a new document and type their name in the upper right-hand corner in Times New Roman. However, after a few minutes spent staring blankly at the blinking cursor, it often seems like the perfect moment to turn from the emptiness of a Google Doc to the bright colors of Instagram, just a click away. Good intentions can so quickly turn into hours of scrolling.

editorial Spending time on social media has become second nature for filling mindless hours, avoiding schoolwork, and stimulating the mind. The content of social media is endless, full of companies pushing products and celebrities promoting specific lifestyles, breeding a jealous desire. There are two general domains of online users: the influencers and the rest of us, the influenced. An influencer has the power to publish media that affects the choices— lifestyle or purchase-wise—of their audience. Most of us are the influenced, many of whom try, subconsciously or actively, to replicate and enter the world of the influencer, which seemingly bestows coolness. This replication can mean posting a beach vacation photo, identical to and posed in the same way as a thousand others. It can mean Snapping a picture of a Supreme t-shirt to friends. It can mean uploading a video with Juul smoke clouding the camera. The passive consumption and regurgitation of the posts is often mindless: a lack of reflection on the poster’s part is the basis for a mind-numbing feed filled with the same kinds of photos. Even posts promoting awareness of current events, which seem to be asserting influence and calling for action, are just another way for students to replicate the content they have seen. This jumping on bandwagons became abundantly clear with the recent internet campaign to stop the Amazon rainforest fires. As the news spread quickly, many

students reposted the information on their stories. What many did not realize was the images and statistics they were using were inaccurate. According to Forbes, some of the photos shared around social media were of past fires or even different rainforests. According to National Geographic, the frequently repeated claim that the Amazon produces 20% of the Earth’s oxygen is “a gross overestimate”—the more accurate count is closer to zero. While students may care deeply about these issues, the widespread sharing of these issues becomes less about the crisis itself and more about the people who share them. Reposting activist photos becomes an indicator of how socially aware, or “woke,” students are on social media and how well they keep up with trends. Thus, it becomes yet another form of mindless replication. Instead, we should strive towards its opposite: creation. The “creation” mindset is about bringing together your own ideas and others’ in an authentic way that reflects your own values to create original content. Just as musicians draw inspiration from other artists, social media users can use existing posts as a springboard for their own unique creations. It is impossible not to be influenced by the different posts we see online. But, rather than replicating, the “creation” mindset necessitates engaged use of social media, meaning going on social media to fulfill a purpose, whether it be to post a personal spin-off of a popular meme format, use a basic beach photo to update friends on where you are, or simply to find inspiration. In its best form, social media is a place to revel in the personality of each individual and actively engage with others. In its worst form, it is a place full of the same reflected personas. In the world of social media, where the influencers create and the influenced replicate, when we engage and take ownership of the content we consume, when we break free from complacency, then we truly become a person of influence.

Colin Foley

‘Abstinence-only’ drug education breeds resentment instead of trust Maya Demissie As the freshmen enter North this year, I wonder if our school will prepare them for more than higher education and employment. More specifically, I wonder if North’s drug education program prepares our youth for the reality of teen drug use today. High schools in America, North included, are preaching abstinence-only drug education, and it’s not working.

column Abstinence-only sexual education is a curriculum that some states use to teach teens to stay abstinent until marriage. It does not include further information about condom use, STDs, or pregnancy prevention. Abstinence-only drug education is the same principal applied to substance education—telling teens to ‘just say no’ without other information. Drug use among teens has always been an issue. It may seem pessimistic, but I don’t see a time in which we can fully eradicate drug use among teens. Today it’s almost inevitable for high schoolers to experiment with substances. According to Psychology Today, teenage brains are prone to risk-taking because of their underdeveloped evaluation skills. Drug use is a commonly taken risk. In 2017, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Ad-

The Newtonite The Newtonite, founded in 1922, is the news source of Newton North High School, 457 Walnut St., Newtonville, Mass. 02460. Editors-in-chief — Jake Forbes and Sophia Zhou Managing editors — Jacques Abou-Rizk, Zoe Goldstein, Carolyn McDonald Arts editors — Sophie Fredberg, Arjun Shatkin, Amy Xue Features editors — James Dun Rappaport, Kathy Mitchell, Helen Xiao News editors — Dea Cela, Maya Demissie, David Feng, Sophie Murthy, David Ren, Yesha Thakkar Sports editors — Griffin Bond, Emily Dhadly, Jeremy Frankel, Nichol Weylman-Farwell

Graphics editors — Ruchik Trivedi Photo manager — Ian Dickerman Business/advertisements manager— Isaac Tang Advisers — Tom Fabian, Derek Knapp, Amanda Mazzola Photo staff — Ella Bailey, Joel Schurgin Social Media coordinator —Amy Xue Graphics Staff — A.J. Chau, Jai Khurana

The Newtonite staff does all its reporting and photography to post content daily to its website, thenewtonite.com. Sign up for The Newtonite’s monthly email newsletter on its website. In addition to the first day of school special, The Newtonite publishes a spring special, a club special, a midyear special, and a graduation special. To place an advertisement in the online or print version of The Newtonite or to contact us by phone, please call 617-5596273. Readers can also reach us at thenewtonite@gmail.com. The Newtonite serves as a designated forum for student expression. Readers are invited to submit guest articles and letters to the thenewtonite@gmail.com. The Newtonite reserves the right to edit all letters, which must have the writer’s name and a student’s class and homeroom.

ministration (SAMHSA) found that 7.9 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 were current users of illegal drugs and 3.1 percent misused opioids. According to Project Know, an American rehabilitation and information resource, 13 percent of high schoolers in Massachusetts reported illicit use of prescription drugs in their lifetime and four percent reported using cocaine in their lifetime. According to retired health and wellness teacher Kirsten Tuohy, North’s curriculum covers “marijuana, juuling, vaping, and tobacco,” and focuses on the consequences of drugs. To me, this program can be described as an “abstinence-only” drug model. In the freshman health workbook, the only substance spoken about is alcohol, despite some teachers choosing to teach more. Assuming teens will only be interested in alcohol is foolish. According to the US Department of Health and Human services, currently more teens are using marijuana and cannabis products than alcohol. In my freshman health and wellness class, my teacher never mentioned drugs. North’s drug program is in need of improvement. These concerns about North’s program are substantiated by research done by Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), a non-profit organization, who “envisions a just society in which the use and regulation of drugs are grounded in science, compassion, health, and human rights.” According to the DPA website, abstinence-only drug education not only fails to teach students good decision-making skills, but also causes teenagers to resent drug education and reject any information coming from adults on the topic. Furthermore, DPA argues that “any approach to drug education that focuses on keeping kids safe must not only encourage young people to avoid drugs, but must also provide information on how young people can reduce risk if they or their friends do use drugs.” Abstinence-only drug programs also often demonize drug users. This can be difficult for a student to hear if someone they know, especially someone in their family, suffers from addiction.

Throughout my own childhood, teachers—and students who had learned from their teachers—told me drug users were lazy, or criminal, and when nine-year-old me found out a member of my family smoked weed, I was crushed. Additionally, the culture of addiction-shaming can discourage those who are suffering from seeking help or telling friends and family. Preventing addiction should be the number one goal of these curricula, and the shaming included only furthers the problem. Of course, I’m not advocating for drug use, or saying the administration should either. However, there are certain things health classes could teach students to make drug use safer for them and their peers if they happen to encounter it. Many teens are not taught how to effectively avoid peer pressure, and are more susceptible to its dangers. Drug education should be accurate, and shouldn’t try to exaggerate the effects of dangerous substances. Schools must acknowledge the difference between safer drugs such as marijuana and dangerous drugs such as heroin. Schools should also provide information about how to use safely, such as making sure there is someone sober around to prevent bad decisions while under the influence. Lastly, health teachers should provide instructions to follow if someone a student knows suffers from addiction. They should also show how to help someone who is overdosing. DPA has a program called Safety First, a guide on effective drug education. The program includes fourteen 45-50 minute lessons to be taught in class designed to “engage students through interactive activities such as discussion, research and role-playing.” North’s administration and health teachers should adopt it and better the school’s drug education program. If North continues this curriculum style, there will be more students who feel they or family members are evil, more addicts who feel ashamed to ask for help, and more teens who do not know how to use safely and responsibly. The abstinence-only drug model causes more harm than it solves for, and our school cannot uphold such a broken system any longer.

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019

news

Newton North, The Newtonite ◆ 3

North community welcomes talented new faculty This September, recently hired staff looks forward to starting the school year compiled by Jai Khurana, Joel Schurgin, and Jake Forbes Faculty represented on this page submitted their responses as of press time.

Jolleen Filio Counselor Background: Filio earned an associate’s degree in social and behavioral sciences from Mt. San Antonio Community College, a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UCLA, and a master’s in education/certificate of advanced studies from Harvard University. Excited about… “meeting all the awesome students and learning more about how to best support them.” Fun fact(s): Filio’s hobby is collecting hobbies, but the activity she’s stuck with the longest is calligraphy.

Alexander Frail

Kristen Smith

History teacher

Director of swim program

Background: Frail earned his bachelor’s degree at University of Massachusetts Amherst in political science and English and his master’s in secondary education from Northeastern University. Excited about… “joining North’s vibrant community and its history department.” Fun fact(s): Frail was a vegetarian chef in Amherst and wrote three novels before teaching.

Background: Smith has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in sports management and a master’s degree in education from Cambridge College. Excited about… “coming home to my alma mater and passing along my passion for athletics and team sports.” Fun Fact(s): Smith enjoys baking, craft projects, and hosting events.

Alexander Laser

Lisa Berard

English teacher

Special education department head

Background: Laser earned his bachelor’s in English and his master’s in education from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He previously taught in D.C. for five years and Chicago for four years. Excited about… “developing students’ passion for writing and discussion!” Fun Fact(s): Laser enjoys travel, drawing and spending time with his one-year old daughter, Elliot. He took improv comedy classes in Chicago!

Background: Berard earned a bachelor’s in sociology at Marquette University, a master’s in mental health and behavioral medicine at Boston University, and an education specialist’s degree in school psychology. Excited about… “joining a great team of special educators and becoming part of the Newton North community.” Fun Fact(s): Berard loves spending time with her three children.

Heather Gilbert

Mary Vallo

Special education teacher Background: Gilbert earned a bachelor’s in English and creative writing at UNC-Chapel Hill and a master’s in education at Bridgewater State University in special education. Excited about… “witnessing students benefiting from an environment brimming with diverse learning opportunities.” Fun Facts(s): Gilbert is an identical twin, animal lover, and amateur yogi.

Science teacher Background: Vallo earned a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and behavior, and in English, and a master’s degree in biology from Wesleyan University. She also has a master’s degree in education from the University of Connecticut. Excited about… “sharing my love for learning with an enthusiastic community of students.” Fun fact(s): Vallo enjoys reading, hiking, and spending time with family.

Heather Hotchkiss

Megan Sun

Science teacher

Background: Hotchkiss earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from The College of Wooster. She taught physics and International Baccalaureate Physics for many years outside of Washington, D.C. Excited about… “getting the chance to collaborate with a team of such strong science teachers, and becoming a part of the Newton community.” Fun Fact(s): Hotchkiss loves biking and swimming. She met her husband as clarinet stand partners in college band, and they are now learning to play bagpipes.

Background: Sun earned her bachelor’s in chemistry and international global studies from Brandeis University, and her master’s from Marquette University in Milwaukee while serving as a Teach For America corp member there. Excited about… “meeting the students at Newton North as well as collaborating with and learning from other chemistry teachers.” Fun fact(s): Sun enjoys traveling and has taken her twoyear-old son to four different countries all by herself already!

Melanie Pennison

Theresa Karloff

Science teacher

Background: Pennison received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto, a master’s in public health from Boston University, and a master’s in teaching from Northeastern University. Excited about… “the programs North has to offer to its students.” Fun facts: Pennison is from Louisiana but went to school in Canada.

Background: Karloff received a bachelor’s in physics and high technology, a bachelor’s in education, and a master’s in physics from the University of Windsor. Excited about… “being here teaching, meeting a lot of new people, and a lot of really fun physics.” Fun fact(s): Karloff spent four years in Vancouver working in a particle accelerator lab during her undergraduate years.

Joseph Cahill

Sharon Loferski Engler

Academic support teacher

Inclusion facilitator

Background: Cahill received a bachelor’s degree in business management from Keene State College and a master’s degree in special education from the Van Loan School at Endicott College. Excited about... “working with all of the students and my colleagues.” Fun Fact(s): Cahill enjoys running long distances, spending time outdoors and at the beach, golfing, hiking, and traveling to new towns and cities.

Background: Engler received her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Brown University and her master’s degree in counseling and psychological services with a specialty in special education from the University of Pennsylvania. Excited about… “meeting all the new students, and faculty, and parents, and staff at Newton North.” Fun Fact(s): Engler loves to travel and loves her family. She plays the piano and likes to walk her dog for exercise.

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news

4 ◆ The Newtonite, Newton North

Sara O’Brien

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019

Stephen Jamele

English teacher Background: O’Brien has a bachelor’s degree in English, and an educational master’s degree from Harvard University, and a master’s degree in education from Stanford University. Excited about… “getting book recommendations from my students.” Fun Fact(s): O’Brien likes traveling, knitting hats, and watching baking competition shows on TV in her free time.

Special education teacher Background: Jamele earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of Vermont and is completing his master’s degree at Bridgewater State University. Excited about… “joining the amazing culture at Newton North.” Fun Fact(s): Jamele enjoys traveling, playing softball, and spending time with his two corgis.

Sumit Majumder

Michelle Coughlin

Science teacher

Special education teacher Background: Coughlin received a degree in marketing from University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a severe disabilities license from Lesley University. Excited about… “the school community. Everyone seems so friendly here at Newton North.” Fun Facts(s): Coughlin went to Iceland, Panama, and Tanzania this year.

Background: Majumder earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology and a PhD in electrical engineering from Northeastern University. Excited about… “teaching for the first time.” Fun fact(s): Majumder enjoys reading locked-room mysteries and other stories about impossible situations.

Gregory Drake seeks to support teachers as history head David Feng How long have you been teaching at North? I’ve been teaching at North for 15 years. by

What courses have you taught? I’ve taught nine and 10th grade at all three levels, and AP European History. Where did you teach prior to North? I taught English in Germany for a year, but this has been the only school in the United States that I’ve taught in. What is your favorite part about teaching? My favorite part about teaching is the idea that you’re always learning. You’re always learning more history, and you’re always learning more about kids, and learning about how to make the material interesting and accessible to them. What have you learned through teaching? One thing I’ve learned is that being enthusiastic about the subject matter is really important. I think it’s important for kids to see you think that what you’re doing is important, but at the same time recognizing that not all students are go-

ing to be as excited about it as you are, and finding ways to make history relevant to kids. I want to get kids to understand why things matter, even if they happened hundreds or even thousands of years ago. What’s your favorite part about history? For me, I think it’s about multiple causalities, thinking about the different factors that lead to an outcome. How did you become interested in history? I always loved history. In high school, my favorite subjects were probably history, English, and German. I took German in high school. In college, I was a history major, and what really got me interested in history was that I did a lot of traveling, lived in a lot of different countries, and realized how much history plays a role in everyday life. To really understand how societies work today, you need to have a solid understanding of how they got to where they are. Could you give an example? I spent a couple of years working in Kosovo, in the former Yugoslavia, and that’s a place where history plays a role in everyday life.

How people interact with each other has to do with what ethnic group they’re from, and how they feel with other ethnic groups around them has to do with events that might have happened 10 years ago or 800 years ago. Knowing some of the backstories helps you understand how the society functions. When did you know you wanted to be a teacher? I would say that two things happened. One is I did my student teaching here at North and went back to graduate school and decided to take some time doing other things before I became a teacher. Being with the teachers and the students and seeing them interact with history really inspired me. The other thing is that I was working for a non-profit, and I was doing workshops for teachers, and I really enjoyed it. I realized that I am a teacher at heart and I wanted to spend my whole day doing that kind of stuff instead of like one workshop a month. What are you most excited for this coming year? I’m most excited for us as a department to really think and talk about what we are teaching and how we’re teaching it. And to think

about how we can be more creative and make history more exciting for kids that maybe haven’t found it as hands-on as some other subjects. How would you hope to achieve those goals? I think that as a department, we’ll have some good conversations about it. We’re a department filled with really good teachers who like to work with kids and think about history. To have conversations about why we are doing what we’re doing and what we should do, we’ll probably want to talk to some kids and hear about what their experiences have been like in history class and what could improve their experience. Why did you take the job as department head? I love this school. It’s really the only place I’ve ever taught. It’s really become a professional home for me, and I think we have a great department with some amazing teachers. I like the opportunity to be part of the leadership of the school and help the school grow and, at the same time, really work closely with my colleagues in the history department. We have a lot of experienced people who have been teaching here for a long time, and

Sophia Zhou photo

we have a lot of new people who are just starting out, and to be a resource and an advocate for them is the main reason I took the job. What was your reaction to getting the job? It was pretty intense in terms of the interview process, and I had to meet with lots of groups of people. I was excited that they chose me after that long process, and I think I had an appropriate amount of excitement and anxiety in thinking about what this job going to be like and if I’m going to be good at it. Interview edited for length and clarity.

Administrators dispute ‘Journal’ special education portrayal ◆ continued from page 1 affects their ability to learn. The criteria for 504s requires even more decisions from the school. “Our job as a district is to make sure students who are eligible for special education receive the services they need. It is our moral and legal obligation, and we take it extremely seriously,” said Fleishman. Junior Dylan Fort, who has an IEP to help with his ADD, experienced trouble receiving an IEP even despite the guidelines. He said he was originally denied one because he is “very good at taking tests,” but struggled in other areas of learning, such as paying attention. “They finally gave one to me this year, and it’s been so incredibly helpful for my ADD,” he said. The process to obtain a 504, according to Turner, is even more “arduous.” First, either a teacher or family member comes forward seeking testing for a student. Families can also come forward with testing results from a psychologist, but the school psychologists will conduct tests again. Afterwards, according to state regulations, the family meets with teachers and counselors to make the identifica-

tion. The long process can make it hard for students, such as junior Gwen Bankmann, to obtain an accommodation. “I have general anxiety disorder, and I didn’t do as well on the pre-ACT as I had wished as a result of test anxiety. I think it’s really upsetting how hard it is to obtain services that should be easily accessible to any students who need them,” said Bankmann.

“We are making sure that we’re not using a biased lens when teams are making decisions.” - principal, Henry Turner

Yet, the difficulty of receiving an accommodation seems to vary by student. For junior Jacy Alpert, who has a 504 plan to help her deal with anxiety, the process began last year when her history teacher referred her to her counselor. After

obtaining a letter from her pediatrician explaining Alpert’s history of anxiety, Alpert met with her guidance counselor and a teacher to finalize the plan. She did not have to go through testing by school psychologists. “For me, the process was really, really simple, and it didn’t take much time. I have no idea why. But for a lot of people, it takes a lot longer,” she said, but “there are people that really need 504s and haven’t gotten them. My friend was denied a 504 plan and told that her grades were too good, and therefore she didn’t need one. The school doesn’t see what’s actually happening: how late we were staying up to study or how many tests we failed that our teachers let us make up.” Alpert also added that rather than focusing on whether too many students have accommodations, the school needs to focus on why so many students need them. “If this many students need them for anxiety or any other purposes, they need to look into more than just who they give them to, but rather how the school system is affecting the workload, the education system, each individual class,

and that kind of thing,” she said. “They need to look into more than just whether this person’s situation is worse than this person’s.” History teacher Insongesit Ibokette added that some students who have 504 plans don’t really use them. “Some students don’t need these accommodations, but their parents think they do. Some students in elementary and middle school needed accommodations, but the developmental process took them out of those needs.” “It becomes hard to empathize with a kid who really needs it because the first instinct is ‘hmm, this must be something that their parents are doing to game the system,’ which is really disadvantageous for those students,” Ibokette said. However, Turner expressed confidence in the school’s process of providing accommodations, emphasizing that all students who are considered for a 504 plan are tested by the school’s psychologists. “Do I think it’s possible that some people have tried [to cheat the system]? Sure. But I think we have a pretty strict process that would flush that out,” he said. He added, “While I think the

process is sound, it is also a human process. We are evaluating our decision processes and making sure we’re not labelling someone who has a disability who may not have a disability.” According to Turner, the school is trying to evaluate whether the over representation of certain groups, such as African-American students, is a problem of over identification. This is also an issue nationally. “We are making sure that we’re not using a biased lens when teams are making decisions,” he said. Due to the difficulty of receiving an accommodation, the school is also looking at how to support students with disabilities without having to go through the arduous process of obtaining a 504 or IEP. “A good example would be elevator access. In some schools, you may have to write a 504 for a student to ride an elevator. We don’t have to do that at our school because we can provide that to our students without having to create a process,” he said. The Journal interviewed several editors of The Newtonite for their story.

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019

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Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019

6 ◆ The Newtonite, Newton North

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Sustainable future requires community effort According to the national Energy Information Administration, energy consumption reached a record high in 2018, despite the shift to renewable sources like solar and wind energy. With a projected population of 2,108 students enrolled in a sprawling 413,000 square foot campus, North’s ever-growing size poses a concern for the environment. This increasing population has prompted many to consider how to counter some of the most pressing environmental problems in the school. While some students point to North’s lack of infrastructure and inflexible system to explain sustainability-related issues in the school buildings, the administration often attributes these problems to the absence of a sustainability-centered mindset in the North community. We on The Newtonite wanted to better understand the dynamic between individual actions and administrative reform, as well as how students and the administration can work together to make North more sustainable.

Recycling Recycling, one of the most prominent sustainability-related issues for Newton Public Schools, has proceeded haphazardly at North over the years, prompting many to question whether the school even recycles. According to principal Henry Turner, the answer is yes. The current system is designed to properly discard recycling because “there are recycling bins in almost every classroom, that our custodians collect, and we work with a recycling company to dispose of that,” he said. The problem lies in the expectation that students and faculty will appropriately sort their own trash into the proper bin, which students do not do well, according to Turner. Even a single contaminant, like an unrinsed soda bottle, means an entire recycling bin is thrown out as trash. Turner explained that North offers an environmental science elective for seniors, which “makes it possible for those who are the most

passionate about it to be leaders in our school.” However, more efforts are necessary to raise awareness about recyclables, according to senior Dina Gorelik. “The school hasn’t been doing a great job of educating on recycling. Everyone needs to know what to put in the recycling bin, regardless of their interest in sustainability,” she said. Senior Emily Davis-Morin added, “The sustainability elective is only offered to seniors, which leaves other grades in the dark about recycling. This elective should be open to anyone who wants to take it.” Despite their differences, both groups are working to change the community’s behavior to promote recycling. According to Turner, the school has made public service announcements on NNTV, and students are forming recycling clubs. Gorelik said that the Student Faculty Administration is “spreading more awareness about what and how to recycle” and “trying to get different bins for different items, such as a paper bin and bottle and can bin for each classroom.”

Compiled and written by Yesha Thakkar Designed by AJ Chau

Utilities Food Waste The 13,000 students enrolled at Newton Public Schools (NPS) generate a significant amount of food waste. The North community and administration are working with the city to reduce the excessive amount of waste produced. This joint attempt to reduce this excessive amount of waste has led the city to consider changes to counter the problem. According to Newton’s Sustainable Materials Management Director Waneta Trabert all food waste from NPS schools is taken to a waste-to-energy plant where it is incinerated to produce electricity—annually creating enough energy to power up to 55,000 homes. The City of Newton is in the process of considering other forms of food waste disposal, including composting, but “none of these are easy to implement,” Trabert said. Despite the challenges to bring about change in the food waste disposal system, students, parents, and the administration have taken on conservation efforts to reduce food waste at North. According to local advocacy group Green Newton, several North students wrote letters to the school committee to avoid unsustainable practices from Whitsons, the new food provider. Several parent volunteer groups are also discussing an option where students can place unwanted, unopened food on a ‘Free Table’ for other students, according to Trabert. According to NPS Business and Grant Analyst Stephen Marshall, a proposed ‘Preserve’ program is looking to replace single-use plastic with reusable containers. Due to North’s large population, programs like these will be implemented at the other public schools earlier. While it takes longer to see the change at this school, programs like these can help make significant headway into the food waste problem. Trabert added, “it’s important for students to be a part of the discussion about food, so I’m always willing to work with students who are interested in helping further the conversation” about sustainability initiatives in the food waste system.

The North building, constructed in 2010, is built to be energy efficient, with technology such as LED motion-sensor lights to reduce energy usage. The school relies on natural gas and electricity for power to run lights, heating, and other building functions. According to head custodian Tim Keefe, the auditorium, Little Theatre, gym, SOA, and all classrooms are installed with vents for heating and cooling. The temperature is set at 70 degrees year-round, with room for a two degree adjustment based on personal comfort. Keefe explained that typically, air-conditioning is on from late May until early September, at which point heating is turned on for the winter. The amount of energy needed to power the system, which runs on natural gas, depends on the weather. Students and faculty have minimal control over the building’s energy utility usage, limited to small actions such as opening windows. As a part of the City of Newton’s efforts to use more sustainable energy sources, North also has solar panels on the roof, with new ones anticipated for the faculty parking lot by the spring of 2020. According to assistant superintendent Liam Hurley, the power produced by the panels makes its way to the cityand therefore back to North, improving the overall sustainability of the school.

Student Initiatives Student-led initiatives are a driving force for more sustainable practices at North on both an individual and community level. Despite the administration’s efforts to support students in these endeavors, many students have felt limited by school rules. According to principal Henry Turner, North’s administration encourages student-led sustainability ventures. “Students are the best advocates,” he said. “In your school, it is important to take on some leadership, and you know the best ways to reach out to shift those practices with your peers.” At North, several students have been staunch advocates of sustainability, often by creating their own projects. Senior Emily Davis-Morin, who has worked with the administration to plant raised garden beds as part of North’s Envirothon team, said that the review process can be rigorous. “The

administration has a lot of things to consider with projects, so even though a task or idea may seem straightforward, they have to look at the project in different ways.” This stringent approval process is often timeconsuming, and students believe that their efforts to create a sustainability-centered mindset are subject to administrative criticism. Senior Dina Gorelik, a member of the Student Faculty Administration and an advocate for recycling measures, said that “some student actions in the name of sustainability have broken very specific school and NPS policies, so their actions were shut down.” Davis-Morin said that the administration was not receptive to her team’s raised garden bed proposal and expressed concern about “the aesthetics of the beds.” Aside from administrative challenges, student initiatives struggle to create lasting changes due to time constraints. “It’s hard for students to implement long-term change because we leave every four years, so a lot of student solutions are more short-term.” Several initiatives, like the Recycling Club and Gardening Club, have ended for these reasons.

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8 ◆ The Newtonite, Newton North

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019

Confusing data hides gender gap in areas of STEM Helen Xiao Once, when she attended North, Noa Rensing ‘81 sat in a math classroom full of boys, waiting for her first math team meeting to begin. The room was decorated with posters of math equations, and in front of her were packets of math problems, ready for her to delve into and deconstruct. Most of her friends had gone home after a long day of learning, but Rensing, now the adviser of Ligerbots, North and South’s co-op robotics team, stayed because her math teacher had encouraged her to come to the meeting. Even though Rensing felt at home among the math problem sets and other eager students, she felt isolated. Rensing was the only girl in that room, and she would be the only female competitor on the team for the rest of her high school career. Her experience reflects the larger issue of an imbalance in the number of men and women in STEM fields that persists to this day. The push for creating gender balance in STEM fields has long been an issue. A quick glance at the data comparing women to men in STEM occupations does show some improvement. But, a closer look at the numbers shows that the increasing population of women in STEM fields appears limited. This imbalance found in industry is reflected in North’s advanced science classes. “I am optimistic about more women going into STEM in the future,” Rensing said, “but only cautiously so.” To address this imbalance in North’s enrollment students have taken matters into their own hands, creating events such as Women in STEM Day which runs in the fall, and groups like Girls’ Coding Club to encourage more young women to enter STEM classes and hopefully continue a career in STEM. According to research conducted by the National Girls Collaborative Project, an organization focused on encouraging girls to pursue careers by

in STEM, women accounted for 28 percent of STEM related occupations in 2018, an improvement from a mere seven percent in the 1970s. The fact that women account for roughly a quarter of professionals in all STEM occupations demonstrates the strides taken to achieve equity in these fields. Upon closer examination, however, this growth does not present the whole picture. Women make up varying percentages of people working in given STEM fields. They make up 48 percent of occupations in life sciences, but only 26 percent in computer science and 15 percent in mathematical science. Based on last year’s course enrollment data, North has achieved a near equal balance between boys and girls who express an interest in all STEM fields, at least in the courses they choose to take. Girls made up 47 percent of the students taking Honors or AP level STEM courses. However, the trend of girls favoring life sciences still holds true at North. According to North’s data analyst and scheduler Meghan Smith, 55 percent of Biology Honors students are female, yet only 32 percent of AP Physics students are female. In STEM-related electives, the percentages of girls enrolled are even lower, ranging from 39 percent in Honors Computer Programming to none in Honors Computer Repair and Support.

The Way Things Are Many students say that the need for gender equity comes down to the importance of role models. “It’s hard to do anything that seems impossible until you see other people do it,” said Eve Martin ‘19. “Seeing women who have been successful in male-dominated STEM fields encourages us to embark in STEM.” According to Jane Alandydy ‘19, who took high level STEM courses, “I think it’s really important to know that everyone has options. Being able to see people to

look up to, and have experiences to draw from, is important.” Throughout her career in STEM, Rensing noticed how watching the difference in the way boys and girls respond in classes affects the gender dynamic. “For example, boys’ self-confidence makes them feel that they know more coding than they actually do, making them more confident to go in and start coding,” she said. In the classroom, this same display of confidence can potentially have a negative impact on female participation and engagement. Martin added, “I feel as though there are always some overconfident boys who like to call out in class, and I think that this makes girls speak up less who may not be as confident in that subject.” Martin was one of the organizers of Women in STEM Day, a full day event dedicated to celebrating and discussing women in STEM. “I feel like a lot of people think that STEM as a field only operates in the mindset of strictly right or wrong,” said Alyndydy. “When there are so many guys who are confident in their accuracy in STEM classes, it is harder for us female students who aren’t as confident,” she said, Alandydy added that the lack of female participation in class may result from the fear of being incorrect. According to Rensing, this lack of confidence may be what steers girls in the direction of material and life sciences as opposed to mathematical and computer sciences. “Chemistry, biology, and material sciences have less of the issue where students may have the impression that other students, predominantly male, have a head start,” said Rensing. “It is important for women to know that just because of gender, that doesn’t mean someone is less qualified and capable of embarking on STEM fields,” Martin said. Rensing added as well that an increase in female participation would improve the accomplish-

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ments of the STEM field in general. “Most of STEM is studied to solve problems. If a larger group of people are aiming in search of answers, there will be more relevant answers found, and a larger range of answers found,” Rensing said.

“I am optimistic about more women going into STEM in the future, but only cautiously so.” - Noa Rensing ‘81

Student Action in the Past Students have taken steps to encourage more girls to enter STEM classes. Martin, who was also a co-captain of Girls Coding club, said girls-only clubs are important because they provide spaces where girls can feel comfortable and confident. “In many cases, particularly in STEM classes, there is a difference in the way boys and girls get treated, at least in my own experience,” said Martin. “Having a club specifically for young women, especially one focused on a STEM subject that so many men go into, gave me a greater sense of my own ability,” she said. Despite understanding the objectives of girls-only opportunities, Rensing said she feels they can be ineffective at training girls to engage in STEM later in their lives. “I don’t like girls-only programs in the sense that while girls get training in STEM fields, they aren’t getting prepared to engage in the real world where there are both men and women,” said Rensing. “Addressing this problem in mixed gender situations is more effective and important since it exposes girls to how to act in environments with many guys. It teaches boys to acknowledge the contribution that girls provide, and it makes guys acknowledge that girls do have ideas of their own.” Regardless if clubs are single sex or co-ed, Martin said she thinks the next step to increase the number of girls interested in STEM is to “definitely check out all the clubs and

electives at North, because we have a wide range of those.” Currently at North, there are many opportunities for girls to engage in STEM extracurriculars. STEM-related clubs that focus on areas aside from life sciences include Math team, Science team, and LigerBots, while electives at North range from Website development to Astronomy. Besides encouraging girls to explore the STEM opportunities provided, Rensing said creating a classroom environment where girls feel comfortable and confident is important, which would require changes in the attitudes and behavior of boys and teachers. Alandydy shared that sentiment: “I think that girls should strive to ask questions, and overall have an active presence in the classroom. Teachers and male students should acknowledge their presence, and respect it, along with respecting their ideas and contribution.”

Future for Women in STEM According to Rensing, motivating girls to explore other STEM areas such as engineering, computer science, or physics may prove difficult due to people’s tendency to follow only where others go, and with more women in biology and chemistry currently, these STEM areas may continue to dominate for women in the future. According to the Fortune article “Report: Disturbing drop in women in computing field,” while the number of women in material sciences is growing, the number of women in computer science is actually dropping. Companies in the computer science field favor male employees and have a general bias against women who want into such a male-dominated field, the article said. If the long term goal is to achieve an equal balance of men and women in all fields of STEM, a change in mindset must occur. That change will begin once students explore new STEM interests, perhaps on an academic team, where they can develop a passion for hard science or advanced math. Ultimately, they may inspire other young women as role models in a cycle that bends towards equity in all areas of STEM.

Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2019