PALO ALTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT PALO ALTO HIGH SCHOOL 50 EMBARCADERO RD. PALO ALTO, CA 94301 NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE
PAI D PALO ALTO PERMIT #44
The Campanile
Vol. XCVI, No. 7
Palo Alto High School • 50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301 • www.palycampanile.org
Friday, March 7, 2014
Superintendent Skelly announces June resignation after serving for seven years Board of Education begins search for a new superintendent as Skelly prepares to leave
Student alters school transcript Administration takes preventative action to avoid future incidents By Will Snodgrass
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Hillel Zand/The Campanile
Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) Superintendent Kevin Skelly announced his resignation, which will take place after the 2013-14 school year ends. Skelly has served for seven years, but is looking for more personal and family time during his retirement. See SKELLY, A3
New California test replaces STAR testing Smarter Balance Test parallels Common Core State Standards By Lauren Gargiulo
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Staff Writer
n Oct. 2, California Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill ending the Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) tests that have been administered to students in California for many years. The assembly Bill 484 passed and will replace the STAR test with the Smarter Balanced Assessments, which will test to the newly-implemented Common Core State Standards. The Smarter Balanced Assessments were formed in order to meet the U.S. Department of Education’s standards, the Common Core was developed in 2010 and implemented this year. The Common Core “provides a consistent, clear understanding of what students are expected to learn...designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers,” according to Common Core State Standards. Juniors will take the Smarter Balanced Assessments this year on March 18 and 19. The major difference between the old STAR tests and the Smarter Balanced Assessments is that the Smarter Balanced Assessments “will use computer adaptive testing technologies,” meaning that instead of using pencil and paper, students will type their answers. Another aspect of the Smarter Balanced Assessments are its results. “The interesting thing about this test is that we are never going to see the results of the test — they are testing questions essentially,” Principal
See TESTING, A3
College Board implements major changes to SAT I testing Revised SAT diagnostic test debuts in spring of 2016; new scoring system, optional essay, 1600-point scoring system By Stephenie Zhang
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Editor-in-Chief
he College Board announced that it will implement major changes to the structure and execution of the SAT Reasoning Test at the start of spring in 2016. Changes to the test are, most notably, the new scoring scale, the now optional essay, the removal of the guessing penalty and the replacement of esoteric words to those common in college courses.
David Coleman, president of the non-profit College Board since 2012, released the changes on March 5 in a speech given in Austin, Texas. He hopes that the revised version of the test will align more with the work that students are doing in high school and will do in college. “We hope [students] breathe a sigh of relief that this exam will be focused, useful, open, clear and aligned with the work [they] will do throughout high school,” Coleman said.
The SAT will return to its previous 1600 scale, with three sections: two mandatory and one optional. The two mandatory sections are the reading and writing section as well as the math section. The optional section is the essay. The math and the reading and writing sections will retain a maximum score of 800, and the essay score will be separate. Currently for the essay, students write about a given topic, using
See SAT, A3
Staff Writer
Palo Alto High School student gained access to school transcripts and altered certain grades, according to Principal Kim Diorio. Diorio recently notified the Paly community that the student used a staff member’s password to make changes to a transcript on Infinite Campus. “The system was not violated or hacked,” Diorio said. “It was not a brute force attack.” The administration was alerted in mid-January when an unidentified college notified Paly that it had two nonidentical transcripts for the student. Diorio said that the student received severe consequences and the proper educational institutions were notified, but withheld certain details regarding the severity of the punishment. It is undisclosed whether any criminal charges have been filed, but Diorio confirmed that the school has been in contact with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office and the crime in question is a felony offense. At this point, there is no evidence that any other students were involved. Diorio said that Paly will take precautions to prevent an incident of this nature from occurring in the future. The Paly administration will begin to keep a closer eye on student transcripts, with Diorio adding that the administration will review its transcript log every two weeks to prevent unintended changes. “We’re constantly checking and double checking,” Diorio said. “We’re pretty confident that the system is good.” Additionally, two information technology security experts from the Palo Alto Unified School District offices will visit Paly to speak with teachers and make sure that teachers are careful in maintaining secure possession of their cyber information. “They’ll talk about passwords and make sure that students aren’t using [their] school computer,” Diorio said.
New staff to fill positions for second semester Health technician and campus supervisor hired to replace retired staff members; new library assistant hired to increase staffing for daily student support in the library By Jensen Hsiao
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Editor-in-Chief
s of this semester, Palo Alto High School’s staff has three new members: a new health technician, campus supervisor and library assistant. Both the health technician, Jennifer Kleckner, and campus supervisor, Chase Hartmann, have come from Jordan Middle School to fill newly vacated positions at Paly. “I’m just shuttling between Jordan and Paly until they have someone settled in at Jordan,” Kleckner said. “I’m [at Paly] early in the morning and late in the afternoon and at Jordan in the middle of the day for the moment. But we should have someone over there shortly; then I’ll be here full time.” The health technician that Paly hired at the beginning of the year re-
Jeffrey Ho/The Campanile
Jeffrey Ho/The Campanile
From left: Health technician Jennifer Kleckner works part time both at Jordan Middle School and Paly; library assistant Katie Hom works to assist the current librarians in many tasks during the day. signed when she received another job at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, according to Principal Kim Diorio. Kleckner’s move to Paly was in part due to the sudden opening, but also because she wanted to try something
different after working at Jordan for many years. “This is an opportunity for me to work with a high school population, which is a little different for me, and do something a little bit different,”
SPOTLiGHT
sPORTs March Madness
Kleckner said. “And of course my kids all came through here.” New campus supervisor Hartmann replaced Mary Puorro as Cam-
See FACULTY, A3
INSIDE N e w s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A 1- A 5 Opinion................................A6-A8 Lifestyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . B1, B7, B8 StudentLife................................B2 C o m m u n i t y. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B 3 Spotlight ..................................B4-B5 Music......................................................B6 Sports..............................................C1-C7 OlympicsRecap....................................C8
LIFESTYLE School Traditions
Annual traditions are central to many students’ experiences. B2
Shmacking the System
The movement uncovers colleges’ true partying cultures. B4-B5
It’s almost time to get those brackets ready. C4-C5
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