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

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

LOCAL 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

Proposed affordable teacher housing

ADOBE COMMUNITIES, Mercy Housing California and the County of Santa Clara are planning to build affordable teacher housing at 231 Grant Ave. starting in spring 2022.

At the Oct. 19 Palo Alto Unified School District’s board meeting, Adobe Community representatives shared plans to create 110 available units on Grant Avenue that would house both PAUSD and other school districts’ teachers. If the project materializes, these districts will fund the housing by providing grants. PAUSD will be given 26 of these units.

One of the goals of this project is to provide easier access to housing closer to PAUSD campuses.

“I have an hour in either direction on the way to school,” Palo Alto High School photography teacher Kenna Gallagher said. “An hour where there is a large possibility for traffic accidents, getting stuck and not being able to make it to school. This [long commute] could impact students and also my health and safety.”

Gallagher believes PAUSD’s plan to provide teachers with affordable housing is a step in the right direction.

“I think it would be nice to have access to affordable housing,” Gallagher said. “The housing prices here are just kind of catastrophic ... the teachers make an incredible wage compared to schools just outside this district, but it’s still not comparable to what it would cost for rent in the area.”

by ALEXIS CHIU

PAUSD wins best K-12 school district

PALO ALTO UNIFIED School District was recently ranked best K-12 school district in California and the second best school district in the state, both from the Niche 2022 Best School Districts in California.

According to Niche, PAUSD also holds the title of best school district with 10,000 or more students; PAUSD’s stellar reputation was a primary factor in drawing Superintendent Don Austin to the district.

“I came here because there is only a handful of places in the entire country that can even have this kind of a conversation [about holding titles],” Austin said. “I like being at a place that is a model and is still looking for those next levels of improvement. In our case, we have tremendous depth and breadth of programs.”

Palo Alto High School junior and Associated Student Body Treasurer Vivian Trach also appreciates the resources provided and the organization modeled by the district.

“I’ve been to two board meetings and it’s very organized, they seem to be doing a good job of things,” Trach said. “There are a lot of good resources here, it’s cool to be in such a good academic space.”

ASB commissioner Evie Kramer feels Palo Alto has helped the school establish itself as a model district.

“The Palo Alto community’s support of PAUSD, through donations and participation, has really allowed the district to flourish,” Kramer said.

According to Austin, PAUSD still has many aspects upon which it can improve.

“We still have an equity gap,” Austin said. “We still have some students here that are not experiencing the same success as the majority of our students, and that’s not okay. I think when you are a beacon, a place that people look to, any missed opportunity is unacceptable.”

by MIYA WHITELEY

Quad watering frustrates students

The new grass on Palo Alto High School’s Quad raises student concerns of possible overwatering.

“Grass is good, but they definitely over water it,” junior Marco Hernandez said. “They had the sprinklers on for weeks, that’s bad for the drought.”

According to senior Agnes Mar, watering has made school navigation harder.

“When I walk through the Quad, half the time I find myself stepping in puddles of water from the sprinklers,” Mar said.

Overwatering has led to a discussion about alternatives to grass on the Quad.

“I think there could be a discussion about whether grass or turf should be used,” junior Ryan Lee said.

This overwatering is part of a larger issue of managing the California statewide drought.

“As the western U.S. faces a potential third year of drought, it’s critical that Californians across the state redouble our efforts to save water in every way possible,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in his emergency drought declaration on Oct. 20.

by GOPALA VARADARAJAN

FENCED-OFF FUN — With half the quad fenced off, students are restricted to the remaining grassy areas. “Overwatering of the Quad has made it harder to socialize there because everything is wet,” senior Agnes Mar said. Photo: Gopala Varadarajan

Mental health center continues efforts

TEEN MENTAL HEALTH center allcove, located in Palo Alto’s Midtown, is continuing to offer free mental health and wellness services to local teens since its opening this past summer.

“We opened on June 25 … and had over 100 youths who visited both centers, with 86 choosing to participate in some kind of service,” Behavioral Health Division Director Rachel Talamantez said. “Considering it was summer, considering the pandemic, we were actually quite pleased to see the response within the first two months.”

There are currently around 75 teens who utilize services like behavioral health, medical care, psychiatry, education or employment support, something Talamantez attributes to word-of-mouth between local teens.

“There’s the formal outreach that we do: going to different schools or fairs that young people would be at, going to different community locations, but … young person to young person has actually been the strongest referral source, which is really nice to see,” Talamantez said

Beyond individual services, allcove hosts weekly game nights on Thursdays from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and study lounges on Mondays from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Senior Mental Health Organizer Veronica Robles emphasized the wide variety of reasons students visit the center.

“You can go and you can study, or you can just relax, even if you … [don’t have] a reason to talk to someone,” Robles said.

The center plans to continue its mission to destigmatize mental health and foster community through these individual services, events and new projects.

“I hope that allcove will be a place that people will come to from the standpoint of when there’s a need, but also, when there’s not any,” Talamantez said.

by MELODY XU

by MELODY XU

IN THE COVE — An allcove member colors in a fall-themed book. The center offers space for youth to engage in activities like board games and coloring. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be a place where you’re doing something or getting a service,” Behavioral Health Division Director Rachel Talamantez said. “It can also be a place just to unwind and have space.” Photo: Melody Xu

ASB prepares for next year’s Spirit Week

AFTER REFLECTING ON this year’s Spirit Week, the Associated Student Body is working toward making next year’s Spirit Week run more smoothly by creating new committees.

ASB Spirit Commissioner and junior Evie Kramer said that this year, ASB had to essentially start from scratch. Since Spirit Week did not happen last year and the records from past years could not be found, the school had to buy new materials and create new spirit rally games.

“We are putting in place committees who are working together to set up formal plans and document sheets for the next spirit commissioners,” Kramer said. “There’s a lot of stuff that we could have done previously to make our actual week a lot easier, but a lot of the stuff that we needed to do just got pushed to the last moment.”

Kramer feels that despite all of ASB’s efforts, there are many aspects of Spirit Week that are beyond ASB’s control.

“While we did put in measures that will hopefully make things easier for next year’s ASB, many of the events that happened during this year’s Spirit Week can not be fixed by ASB alone,” Kramer said.

ASB president and junior Johannah Seah said that a major issue ASB dealt with was criticism from the student body.

“A lot of students were blaming ASB or jeering at them or shouting at them, and pinning anything wrong [on ASB], even if it wasn’t in their control,” Seah said. “That took a large toll on everyone’s mental health.”

Seah believes this stress can be fixed in the future, but the solution lies in the hands of the student population.

“ASB members, while we do have a responsibility to serve the school, and we do hold a position in which we are put under a magnifying glass, we are still high school students,” Seah said. “We are just classmates in your classroom, we’re not super humans, so they [the student body] should just really take things into perspective.”

by JONAS PAO