epitaph
Past and Present
the
HOMESTEAD HIGH SCHOOL
VOL. 52
ISSUE 1
Life at Homestead 50 years ago
THURSDAY, OCT 2, 2014
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21370 HOMESTEAD RD. CUPERTINO, CALIF.
Changes on the horizon
New principal’s advisory council reviews senior walk in, dress code Priya Sodlapur Business Manager In an attempt to make amends with the student body from previous miscommunications, Principal Greg Giglio said he set out to make the voice of the student body heard. His new program, the Principal’s Advisory Council, he said, will consist of about 30 students whose overall opinions represent the general population of the school. “It’s really a chance for students to voice their opinions to me,” Giglio said. “It gives me a chance to to answer questions, or go out and seek answers, and kinda figure out what’s going on... it’s a chance to sorta be an unfiltered communication channel.” Giglio noted that miscommunication was the source of many of the problems that arose last year, despite the open-door policy held by the administration. “[The administration] always said we were free to talk to them,” last year’s Senior Class President, Paul Baik (‘14) said in an email, “and when we did, they gave austere answers with no enthusiasm to take our ideas into account.” Currently, there are 15 students in the Advisory, all of whom are students who had approached Giglio in some form last year, voicing their opinions about campus policies. “I think there is room to expand,” Senior Adam Schwartz said, “but for the most part it is a pretty good representation [of the student body] because it is
Senior Walk-in adjusted: Class of 2014, pictured above, celebrate their senior walk-in. After miscommunications lead to the cancelation of the tradition last school year, administration has been attempting to improve relations with the student body. people who all care about the school and are passionate about it.” Last year, controversy over the dress code and cancellation of the senior walk in provoked a series of conflicts between administration and the student body, which ultimately led to the creation of the Advisory. These miscommunications trace back to inconsistencies in regard to the changes made to the senior walk in. “I made a decision that the conduct of the students during the senior walkin was unacceptable and inappropriate,” Giglio wrote last spring in an “April response to the staff senate” email. “The
student leadership of the senior class, after hearing from me that I was thinking of canceling it, talked to me, so we worked on some ideas, which I took into consideration in regard to altering the walk-in... I would have come to the same conclusion even if they [students, staff, and parents] thought the senior walk-in was appropriate.” However, when questioned about the same topic this fall, Giglio said, “I never wanted to cancel, I didn’t cancel last year... I wanted to change some of the behaviors going on, and get a control on it. Seniors didn’t like that, so they ended up canceling it.”
Baik confirmed these inconsistencies. “What the seniors ended up doing was NOT what they originally wanted us to do,” Baik said. “They wanted the whole thing eradicated. When we objected, they forced us to find an alternative or have nothing at all.” Ultimately, the seniors fought back against the changes in protest by dressing in all black and remaining silent throughout the entirety of the rally. Despite, last year’s controversy, for this year’s Welcome Back Rally, the vote of Giglio and the Advisory was unanimous in favor of reinstating the senior walk in. The students in the council sug-
Flaws found in NHS selection process A look into the club’s controversy surrounding admittance Arisa Faron Reporter Seniors aren’t the only ones struggling through applications this fall. Would be- National Honor Society’s members, until recently, have been filling out applications, too. This year, after a stringent application process, NHS accepted 25.7 percent of new applicants, the lowest acceptance rate in at least the last five years. Comparatively, UC Berkeley’s acceptance rate is 17.7 percent and UC San Diego’s acceptance rate is 33.4 percent, according to University of California’s admissions website. While the competitive edge is a topic of discussion, especially among students who were not accepted, the club’s selection process has been stirring up controversy lately. According to the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the organization that oversees chapters of the club nationwide, “NHS is the nation’s premier organization established to recognize outstanding high school students,”
through volunteer service, leadership, and character. NHS has been a long-standing organization at Homestead since 1965. But this year, the low acceptance rate prompted an investigation by The Epitaph into the club’s selection process. In at least the past nine years, since history teacher Scott Wilson began advising the club, member applications have been reviewed, graded and selected by student officers. The application process is lengthy. Prospective members fill out a form, which includes a personal information section, short answer questions and two essay questions with prompts from University of Chicago and Tufts University said president of NHS, Matthew Sit. David Cordts, associate director of honor societies at NASSP, said in a phone interview that student officers should not be reviewing applications because they are not trained to read and review them. “They may be excellent stu-
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dents,” Cordts said, ”but we believe that staff members must be reading those essays.” Cordts added that students should not be the ones who determine who becomes a member of National Honor Society. “There is a weakness in the selection process at your school,” he said. According to the National NHS Constitution, each chapter should have a “Faculty Council” consisting of “five voting faculty members appointed annually by the principal... The term of the Faculty Council shall be one year,” and “the selection of each member shall be by a majority vote of the Faculty Council.” After learning about the requirements of a faculty council, which Homestead NHS does not currently have, Sit acknowledged this error in the selection process. “We are working to be in complete compliance with the National NHS Constitution as soon as possible,” Sit said. “Every officer was only looking at one specific part of the applica-
tion,” in order to ensure all applications were reviewed the same way, Wilson said. “We are going to make changes next year that fall in line with the national constitution,” he added. In regard to school policy about clubs with selective applications, ASB Activities Director Sara Frausto said that the requirements for an academic club are different from those of an extracurricular club. While extracurricular clubs must be open to all students on campus, academic clubs, she said, are allowed to be selective. To her best understanding, however, there should still be events that are not just restricted to members of that club. In an email addressed to students who were denied admittance to the club, NHS officers encouraged students to participate in select aspects of their annual project that will be available for the entire school body. Of the 175 students that applied to be a new member of NHS this school year, 45 of them were ac-
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gested the addition of a red carpet to give Seniors a specific pathway. Giglio noted that topics discussed so far have been mostly related to dress code, although students are in the process of synthesising new topics. “We’ve mostly been discussing dress code, and so we’ve come up with a sort of a student version or student wish of what it should look like or could look like,” Giglio said. “It’s a chance for me to put out that this is what kids are asking for or saying they think is appropriate.” Giglio said the Advisory’s unofficial revisions include changes to the language stating, “Additionally, students should show discretion with the following clothing items...” While the revised dress code is currently only being informally looked over, it will take approximately a year for it to be changed, if it is even changed at all, Giglio said, since it is a district-wide policy. In addition to the student version of the dress code, the Parent-Student handbook has undergone changes in the language used. The dress code in last year’s Parent-Student handbook leaves the decision of whether or not students are in violation of the dress code up to the discretion of the teachers. The dress code in the 2014-2015 Parent-Student handbook, however, clearly states that students “are not permitted to wear” certain articles of clothing, such as “garments exposing bare midriffs” or “muscle shirts.” While the process is a long haul, the work of the Principal’s Advisory Council is the first step towards potential changes to the dress code policy and other campus rules, regulations and traditions. cepted, resulting in the 25.7 percent acceptance rate according to an email sent to all accepted members. In addition, 55 returning members were re-admitted to the club. NHS officers have made efforts to keep a balanced member base among the grade levels, according to the email sent to this year’s accepted members. Even with equal grade representation, the club still has a total member cap of just 100, according to NHS club officers, making it the most selective club on campus. Capping the club at 100 members “is one key element of creating a small community of people who are like minded,” said Sit, “allowing people to develop a long-term relationship with other members.” Some students however, disagree with the club’s decision to have cap the club at 100 members. Senior Lee-Or Scarlat said she applied to NHS her sophomore and junior year and was denied admittance both years. “I think I am a qualified student,” Scarlat said in an email, “so I was left kind of confused as to what the NHS application review process really looked like and whether it was a system or a game of luck depending on an officer’s opinion of you.”
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PAGE DESIGN BY SHIRI HUBER, NOOR BAIG AND PRIYA SODLAPUR PHOTO BY SARA HANSEN