news District updates attendance system The Palo Alto Unified School District will be implementing a new District-wide Attendance System (DAS) in spring 2022 to continue meeting the goals listed in the Attendance Improvement Initiative (AII). According to the AII, PAUSD aims to work toward lowering all identifiable student groups’ chronic absenteeism to below 5%. The Nov. 2 attendance report states 6.5% of PAUSD students are chronically absent this semester, a 1.8% increase from the 4.7% absenteeism recorded in semester one of the 2020-2021 school year. “This attendance platform is really about identifying early on when we are seeing a student who will need intervention related to attendance,” Yolanda Conaway, Assistant Superintendent of Equity and Student Affairs said. “It is designed to both promote and respond to attendance concerns and we expect to see that that is going to have us get some energy around the positivity of attending and rewarding attendance in some way.” School Board member Jennifer DiBrienza hopes the attendance efforts will increase inclusion of African-American, Pacific Islander and Hispanic/Latinx students who have the highest rates of absenteeism (1419%). “Absenteeism probably isn’t just the problem itself, it’s the symptom of a bigger problem, so if our students are feeling the effects of systemic racism and bias, it’s gonna be harder to come to school,” DiBrizenza said. by PAISLEY ANNES
10 NOVEMBER 2021
FROYLAN’S FLOWERS — Farmers Market vendor Edgar Froylan helps package sunflowers for his customers. Froylan said his farm has had to make changes to their cultivation strategies due to the drought. “We’ve had to cut back on how much we water our lilies, because they take a lot of water,” Froylan said. Photo: Bella Daly
Farmers Market faces drought
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OCAL FARMERS are facing the effects of California’s three-year drought, impacting their cultivation and sales. Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide proclamation on Oct. 19, extending the drought emergency across the state. Newsom also introduced water conservation efforts to combat California’s driest years since the late 1800s. Farmer Chia Thao of C-Farms, a California Avenue Farmers Market vendor, said the drought has affected his livelihood in multiple ways. “I end up spending close to $3,000 to $5,000 per month on water, which is equal to my salary,” Thao said. “I also can’t grow the variety of crops I’ve always grown [due to the drought].” According to the California Water Science Center, California’s Central Valley produces 25% of the nation’s food, including 40% of the nation’s nuts, fruit and table foods. The region’s arid climate has significantly decreased crop production, as stated in a recent New York Times article. If this trend continues, it would likely come with
nationwide repercussions, as reported by the United States Department of Agriculture. With California frequently moving in and out of drought conditions in recent years, some farmers have adapted their practices. “A lot of our crops we actually dry farm,” farmer Jessica Iacopi of Iacopi Farms said. “We rely on heavy rain in the springtime and then we plant our peas with a fertilizer so that [the fertilizer] holds the water in.” Though this year has been difficult on farmers, experts worry about the effects of a possible fourth consecutive year of drought conditions. “We think we’ll be able to manage through this year,” David Pettijohn, director of water resources at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said to CalMatters. “Next year is the issue. And we don’t know what the water year is going to look like. Nobody can predict the weather.” by BELLA DALY and AKHIL JOONDEPH
