Homecoming hype heightens following rally rivalry BY LAUREN LIU
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he term Homecoming is especially appropriate following students’ return to campus after more than a year of remote learning. Students are excited to display their school spirit for Lynbrook’s �irst Homecoming since 2019. With the overarching theme of “The Multiverse: When Universes Collide,” Homecoming also presents a rematch for juniors and seniors after the juniors’ �irst place win at the Welcome Back Rally on Aug. 27. Spirit shown by each class at the rally was the major deciding factor of the class rankings in the rally judged by four teachers. In response to the rally, juniors made no major changes to their Homecoming preparations schedule, although they extended decoration meetings to encompass the entire day on the Saturday and Sunday before Homecoming. Since it is the juniors’ �irst year as upperclassmen, it is important for them to display their spirit to the rest of the school. Junior and Decoration Head Sanika Mithbaokar noticed an increase in spirit in her class following the rally, and she is excited for her class’s decorations and dances. “Homecoming is a way for our class to create something that’s really ours,” Mithbaokar said. “It would be great if everyone was really excited for Homecoming because it’s basically
a re�lection of our own class.” Class of 2023 held a fundraiser selling Mickey and Minnie Mouse ears for $3 each the week before Homecoming. While any student can buy them, juniors will be wearing the distinctive headwear as a show of class spirit and unity. On the senior’s side, class of�icers began incentivizing people to attend planter decoration meetings with pizza and instant noodles, hoping to boost class morale. Additionally, they brought back 2022’s traditional all-nighter, held on the last weekend before Homecoming week. Huang is excited about the senior class’s backdrop, planters, skit and girls’ dance in particular out of the dances. “For the Class of 2022, we’re just making sure that our class is all together and we’re all as spirited as possible,” said Arianna Huang, Class of 2022 Secretary and Skit Head. Along with the freshmen, sophomores are experiencing their �irst year of homecoming this school year due to Homecoming being cancelled during the 2020-21 school year because of COVID-19. Sophomore and girls’ dance choreographer Vipra Bindal enjoyed witnessing everyone participating in girls’ dance improve. “Our class put a lot of energy and effort and heart into Homecoming, and I think it’s a good reminder of how resilient, strong and amazing our class is,” Bindal said. Although Class of 2025 encountered some time management dif�iculties while preparing for Homecoming, freshman Qia Zhang was excited for the chance to show school spirit. For Zhang, Homecoming represents a way to start off the year well. “I’m really excited to see what each of the classes come up with for their d e c o r a t i o n s ,” Zhang said.
“I think we’ll have a really nice week of Homecoming.” Homecoming week will conclude on Friday, Oct. 8 with a schoolwide rally, after which the winning class will be announced, and a home football game against Monta Vista High, during which the Homecoming court will be announced. In order to comply with the district’s COVID-19 guidelines prohibiting dances, the annual Homecoming dance will be replaced with Homecoming Fest, which will take place before the football game between the tennis courts and Stober Field. To determine the Homecoming winner, each class of�icer team nominated one teacher for a panel made up of four judges total, which is similar to the system used for judging the rally. Based on class performances, a timely clean-up and spirit shown during the gauntlet and rally, points are tallied up at the end of the week to decide the winning class. Despite differences in experience among the classes, Homecoming ultimately represents an opportunity for everyone to have fun and to display school and class spirit. Through a showdown on Wednesday and Thursday, the rivalry between the juniors and seniors will be resolved — or perhaps deepened — during Homecoming week. “I’m really glad that we’re having Homecoming this year, even though we have to wear masks,” Huang said. “It’s just nice to be able to do the things that we weren’t able to do last year.”
GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATION BY AMY LIU PHOTOS BY MEI CORRICELLO
CUSD school closures impact wider community BY LINA MEZERREG
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or the last few years, school closures have been a constant source of debate within the CUSD community, but a �inal decision regarding which schools will close is closer than ever. The CUSD administration presented possible solutions and next steps at a board meeting on Sept. 23, with the board aiming for a �inal decision of which schools to close by the end of October 2021. After the last meeting, a list of six recommendations was released to the public. The three elementary schools up for consolidation are Meyerholz, John Muir and Regnart Elementary, and there is an additional option of potentially consolidating a middle school instead. “I’d be really sad if John Muir closed down because I made a lot of memories there,” said senior Michelle Zhu, who attended John Muir. “I would want future generations to have opportunities to have the same experiences I had in elementary school.” CUSD has been considering closing local elementary schools since October 2020 as a last resort to an ongoing problem of decreasing enrollment and reduced districtwide funding. Enrollment in the district has steadily declined since the 2015-16 school year, with an estimated loss of over 4,900 students across all elementary schools districtwide.
Compounded with the fact that CUSD is already one of the lower funded districts in the Bay Area, it became too dif�icult for the district to continue supporting campuses with fewer students on government funding alone. “Many members of the community came up to us and mentioned donations and parents pitching in,” said Jerry Liu, CUSD Board President and a CUSD parent himself. “But the honest situation is that the money we need is in the millions, as an ongoing stream of income not just a one time offer.” The lack of government funding was an especially large concern in the 2020-21 school year when the district budget was cut by $10 million, making school consolidations an increasingly viable solution. Liu prefers the term “school consolidation” over the mainstream “school closure,” as schools would not be abruptly shut down. Rather, a plan would be implemented to combine elementary schools in the area and rede�ine neighborhoods to allocate more resources for the students. Measure A was a proposition that would have conveniently served as a stop-gap solution. The proposed plan would have added an extra tax to compensate for the lack of funding from the state, helping the district to continue supporting all elementary schools. It also involved a plan to put a moratorium on school consolidation. Measure A was defeated on May 4, failing to garner the 66.7% two-thirds
vote required to pass. The community voted 59.3% yes to 40.7% percent no. When considering schools for consolidation, the Citizens Advisory Committee compiled a list of the 10 most important criteria and weighed schools for each one to determine which schools to close. “The way we decided on the weight of the criteria was by doing a sort of exercise,” Liu said. “Each board member was given 100 points to distribute among the 10 criteria before we averaged it all out. We then published these criteria to be transparent with the community as to why some schools were considered for consolidation.” Some of the most important criteria presented were the projected enrollment patterns, the ability to support middle schools in the area and the presence of schools in the vicinity that could accept the students and keep neighborhoods together. It is evident that the talk of possible school consolidations is a very tense one — and one that the district does not wish to elongate. Following the meeting on Sept. 23, the board hopes to reach a �inal decision as soon as the next board meeting on Oct. 8, and by Oct. 28 at the latest. Once a �inal decision is made, families within the consolidated schools will be contacted around the end of the school year with information regarding enrollment for the following year.