Greg MerrickNikki Merrick TINO’s CROSsing GUARDS

Greg and Nikki Merrick are beloved teachers at Cupertino High School and a famous couple. Both teachers currently teach AP Literature and 9th grade Literature and Writing. To Greg Merrick, CHS’ campus holds great memories of his wife, Nikki Merrick, as they met on campus during their first years of teaching and are both CHS grads, but during different times. British and World Literature teacher Michelle Avvakumovits introduced Mr. Merrick to Mrs. Merrick in the teachers’ lounge. Mrs. Merrick shared how Mr. Merrick would walk across the hall and ask to borrow paper clips or staplers to talk to her. On a Memorial Day weekend, Mr. Merrick attended a party at Avvakumovits’s house where he planned to ask out Mrs. Merrick.

“Earlier in the week, I was playing basketball with some Santa Barbara friends, and I knocked [out] one of my front teeth,” Mr. Merrick said. “Even though I was missing a front tooth, I found the courage to ask her out. She said yes.”

Mrs. Merrick shared how sometimes they do not see eye to eye on certain curriculum. Said Mrs. Merrick, “One thing that’s been great is that we can work together and even disagree with each other.” By working out their differences through communication, Mrs. Merrick has gained an added respect for Mr. Merrick. Pursuing the same profession, the two can closely understand and empathize with each other

From keeping roads protected to brightening the mornings and afternoons for students, crossing guards keep pedestrians safe and are essential to our Tino community. Shuhong Mandel has worked for six months as a crossing guard at the intersection of Finch Avenue and Stevens Creek Boulevard near Main Street Cupertino. She said she enjoys her work as a part of the Cupertino community.

“It feels like an honor to work for the students,” Mandel said.

Prabha Sriram’s radiant smile reflects off students’ faces every morning as she guides them safely across the busy intersections between South Tantau Avenue and Barnhart Avenue.

“The main goal of this job is to keep the pedestrians safe as they go to school,” Sriram said. “It takes a community to work together in order to achieve this goal”

EVELYN LIAO writer

As late January approached, and the moon completed its final lunar cycle, the last finishing touches were placed in anticipation of the Lunar New Year. Preparing to leave the Year of the Tiger, families hang paper lanterns from doorways, carefully choose Hanboks and decorate houses with peach trees and yellow blossoms.

Lunar New Year is a holiday celebrated by many cultures. People bid goodbye to the lunar year and welcome a new one. The lunar calendar follows the phase cycle of the moon, causing Lunar New Year to be celebrated on a different day each year between late January to mid-February. In 2022, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill allowing California to recognize Lunar New Year as a state holiday. Immigrants across