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. XCIX, No. 5
Palo Alto High School • 50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301 • www.thecampanile.org
Friday, December 9, 2016
EPA water supply falls drastically BETHANY SHIANG
BUSINESS MANAGER
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ALLISON WU/THE CAMPANILE
KAI ODA/THE CAMPANILE
Fiery Arts Glass sale showcases student talent
Clockwise from upper left to right: A new glass piece is put in the oven; visitors admire the 200 student-made glass pieces; a hand-made glass swan sculpture is on display at the sale. The sale funds the $50,000 program. Continued on A4
ast Palo Alto has plans to bring job growth which include a 120-unit affordable housing development and a private school funded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan that would create affordable housing and thousands of jobs. The only thing stopping them: water scarcity. East Palo Alto's lack of water has forced the city to freeze some of its new developments since June 2016. To combat this problem, four members of the Palo Alto City Council plan to allocate some of Palo Alto’s water to its parched neighbor. Council members Eric Filseth, Karen Holman and Tom DuBois proposed a solution in a memo to transfer or sell a “small portion” of the city’s water to East Palo Alto. Many businesses depends on the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System to deliver water from the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park to the Bay Area. The Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency (BAWSCA) works in negotiations with The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's (SFPUC)
WATER ALLOCATION
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Code Fest to MATD board proposes first Choir hosts 50th annual Paly be held at JLS draft of revised Equity Plan Madrigal Feaste, held in PAC CHARLOTTE CHENG
New plan sets forth 40 new goals for the district
STAFF WRITER
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or the second year in a row, the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) Code Fest will come to JLS Middle School. The PAUSD Code Fest is a conference-style coding event that will strive to promote the introduction and aspects of the field to the attendees, even those who may not have any computer science experience. Open to all PAUSD students, parents and the Palo Alto community, the coding event will focus on topics such as hardware, robotics, and app development. It is a volunteerdriven event and will feature many presenters, some of whom are currently Henry M. Gunn High School students.
“I started programming at around fifth grade when I made a toy robot drive. Since then, I’ve used computer science on everything from analyzing data from the Hubble Space Telescope to flying drones.”
Maggie Wang Gunn Student Guest speakers include Kenneth Hawthorn, a teacher at St. Raymond’s School in Menlo Park, Michael Vaganov, a teacher at Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, and Abhinav Mathur, a representative of Pythronroom, an autonomous coding education management system. Proving its success last year, the number of presenters that have offered to volunteer at the event has doubled. According to the official PAUSD website, there are currently 25 sessions in three time slots. CODE FEST
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SAM YUN
NEWS AND OPINION EDITOR
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artha Castellon, Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD)'s equity coordinator, held a meeting on Dec. 2 to discuss the achievement gap affecting Historically Underrepresented Students (HUR). Spearheaded by recommendations from the Minority Achievement and Talent Development (MATD) Advisory Committee, Castellon has proposed the first draft of an Equity Plan to a group of parents, students and District administrators. Traditionally, HUR students are those who come from low-income families who demonstrate a history of academic deficiency in the district. Of the 40 focus goals set in the Equity Plan, 12 were identified as “priority goals” by the MATD committee. Five of these proposed priority goals will be enacted by the 20162017 school year. Such plans include creating a process to expedite the process of soliciting feedback from HUR students and parents, finalizing the Equity Plan, continuation of the MATD Advisory Committee, ensuring that enrichment programs actively reach out to HUR families and encouraging school-based parent groups to share resources with HUR parents. Another main point of interest in the Equity Plan was creating the Parent Advocate/Liaison position at the District level. There are currently 11 part-time parent liaisons serving at the 18 schools in the District. According to the Equity Plan, “liaisons will help each school by reaching out to HUR families, creating opportunities for involvement. They
Fundraiser for choir attracts impressive turnout
will collaborate with parent groups that serve HUR families to increase parent engagement throughout the district, such as serving as interpreters for parent-teacher conferences if there are language barriers.” Currently, the District is already providing “ongoing administrator, certificated and classified [unconscious bias] training to support the Equity Plan,” as noted in the Equity Plan. PAUSD staff will undergo this training every four to six years.
“Staff of color will already have an understanding of the struggles that HUR students may feel so there’s no need for any additional training.”
Marcia Perez Immigration Attorney JORDAN SCHILLING/THE CAMPANILE
As stated by the MATD Advisory Committee, an underlying and likely unconscious “deficit mindset” as opposed to an assetbased mindset results in a narrative of bias associated with the capability and potential of HUR students. Students of color, regardless of socioeconomic status, are disproportionately likely to be diverted into lower lanes and special education. However, concerns were raised regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of such training. “Why not just hire a more diverse population of staff members for those classes who need it,” said Marcia Perez, a San Francisco Immigration Attorney and mother of two children in PAUSD. “Staff of color will already have an understanding of the struggles that HUR students may ACHIEVEMENT GAP
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Senior Jason Pollack stands center stage as he performs in his final Madrigal Feaste.
UMA CHOUDHURY
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
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he Palo Alto High School Choir performed at the 50th annual Madrigal Feaste on Dec. 3 and 4. The event was held in the Performing Arts Center for the first time. The Madrigal Feaste is one of the Paly Choir’s most widely-attended events and is the biggest choir fundraiser of the year. It is unique in that it includes a choral performance, a theater piece and a meal. The proceeds of the show will be used for the choir’s operating costs, including international trips that the choir takes. Other profits go toward scholarships for the choir students. Senior choir member Joao-Gabriel Carvalho De Pina will miss the
memories he made with his fellow choir members the most. “Madrigal Feaste is the biggest event for choir, and coming together, even pre-show and post show — I’ll miss those memories the most,” De Pina said. “High school definitely wouldn’t have been the same without choir.” The choir’s goal for the Madrigal Feaste was to take audience members back to King Henry VIII’s Westminster Palace from the 15th century. The this objective in part by wearing period clothing during the shows, as well as the Friday before the shows. Within the play the costumes highlight the different in hierarchy between the nobility, gentry and peasants. The choir owns over 200 of these elaborate costumes.
MADRIGAL FEASTE
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INSIDE
N ew s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A 1- A 4 Opinion...................................A5-A7 Editorials......................................A8 L i fe st y l e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B 1- B 3 , B 7- B 8 Spotlight................................B4-B5 H o l i d ay i B re a k . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B 6 Sports....................................C1-C6,C8 SportsiOpinion....................................C7
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OPINION
MOLECULOMICS/CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSED
LIFESTYLE
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SPOTLIGHT
Pre-college exploitation
Monopolies on vital drugs
The effectiveness of protests
PAGE A6
PAGE B1
PAGES B4-B5
A deeper look into the malicious nature of pre-college programs.
Vital medications have become expensive due to corporate greed.
Breaking down the past, present and future of this age-old method.
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SPORTS
Paying collegiate athletes
Payment is controversial when athletics are tied with academics. PAGES C4-C5