INSIDE
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - PAGE 3 Ms. Lawton and Mr. Roy’s response to The Onion
SPREAD - PAGES 8-9 Presidential Elections
LIFESTYLE - PAGE 11 Prom Essentials
T HE
APRIL 2016
Volume XXVII Issue V
UN I O N
MHSTHEUNION.COM For the latest updates
STUDENT VOICE OF MILPITAS HIGH SCHOOL
Lawton, Brittan resign BY ABIGAIL ECAL
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Julia Nguyen | THE UNION
The Class of 2016 assembles its pyramid for its theme “Prepare for Takeoff” and won first place in the category.
Class of 2016 victorious at Trojan Olympics SEE TROJAN OLYMPICS ON PAGE 2
School board allocates $450,000 to create girls’ team room BY CA-ZAO BUI AYSHA REHMAN
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oney has been allocated to construct new girls team rooms, as decided on March 8 at a school board meeting, Principal Cheryl Lawton said. Money to build the new team rooms will be taken from previous bond money, and these new team rooms will be similar to the boys’, Lawton continued. The girls team rooms’ construction is in response to the previous Title IX controversy regarding the inequality between boys and girls athletics
with the boys team rooms, according to Athletic Director Jeffrey Lamb. About $67,000 was spent renovating the boys team rooms, and $450,000 will be spent breaking down the storage room and building the girls team rooms, Lamb said. “Title IX requires that you have equitable facilities for the boys and the girls,” Lamb said. “For this [construction], it’s $450,000, so that would be related to not only building the team room, but also replacing the storage rooms that have to be broken down. Because those rooms are not designed to be team rooms, they’re
going to have to tear stuff out, move stuff, and do all kinds of other stuff to make that happen.” The girls team rooms will be very similar to the existing boys team rooms, Lawton said. Cheaper options were looked at, but the more expensive choice was ultimately decided upon to ensure the rooms would be as equal as possible, she continued. “The plan that [the board] came up with, even though it’s the most expensive, gives the girls an exact carbon copy of what the boys have. It’s going SEE TEAM ROOM ON PAGE 2
The Union apologizes Regarding the recent satire paper The Onion, we, The Union, would like to formally apologize to the students and staff of MHS and to the larger community, and most especially to Ms. Brittan and the other administrators for publishing the “Keeping Up with the Admin” article. It was offensive and should never have been published, and we sincerely regret that it was.
N EWS IN BR IEF Spring Break There is no school from April 11 to April 15. Class will resume on Monday, April 18. Stanford Blood Drive California Scholarship Federation and National Honor Society are hosting the Spring Blood Drive on April 22. Junior and Senior Prom MHS “Fields of Dreams” is on April 23 at Levi’s Stadium from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. Senior Awards Night Select seniors are to be recognized and awarded on May 18. The awards ceremony will start at 7 p.m. in the MHS gymnasium. Memorial Day - School Observed There is no school on May 30.
rincipal Cheryl Lawton and Assistant Principal Hilary Brittan have decided to resign from their positions, they announced in an e-mail on Mar. 1 and Mar. 23, respectively. According to Lawton, she resigned because of personal and family reasons. “My husband’s been entertaining some job opportunities up in the North Bay, and if he ends up taking one of those, we’re going to have to move,” Lawton said. The dynamics and size of MHS were a few reasons that working as the principal was a difficult job, Lawton said. According to Lawton, she made her decision to resign around March so it would alleviate the stress of finding a new principal. “I spent a lot of sleepless nights trying to go back and forth,” Lawton explained. “But this is the time of year when everybody’s looking, so waiting too late would be rough.” According to Brittan, she has accepted a principalship in Oregon for the upcoming school year. Her position was finalized earlier in the year, but she was unable to discuss her situation until her new superintendent allowed her to do so, Brittan said. “I’m looking forward to applying all that I have learned from this school, district, and community as I transition to a new school district in a different state,” Brittan wrote in an e-mail. “I’ll be taking over for a long-standing tenured leader and National Principal of the Year, so I have some very big shoes to fill!”
Search for new principal continues BY CA-ZAO BUI
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Crystal Tran & Courtesy of Michael Cummins | THE UNION
Mike Honda (left) and Ro Khanna address students during individual presentations in the theater. This is the first time either has come in person to MHS.
Khanna, Honda visit MHS
SEE CAMPAIGN ON BACK PAGE
CSL policy may change for next year BY ABIGAIL ECAL BRENNA HENTSCHKE
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he MHS community service policy may be revised for the 2016-2017 school-year, according to Vice President of the School Board Gunawan Alisantosa. According to Alisantosa, the School Board of Education voted 4-1 to approve Clerk Member Daniel Bobay’s proposals for community service. Alisantosa was the sole dissenter because he wanted to gather input from the community by forming a committee, he said. “I would support the modification later, but it would have to be done
with input from the community first,” Alisantosa said. According to Bobay, he proposed a number of changes to the current community service policy. Changes include approving an event that is sponsored by a teacher, an approved school organization, or an approved outside source, Bobay said. “Community service should be a mix of different activities, such as, for the athletics department, in support of sporting events, drama, band, other club-supporting activities, and ROTC,” Bobay said. “Regardless of that work being in a river-bend or at SEE CSL ON PAGE 2
Leaving MUSD has been one of the toughest decisions that she has had to make during her professional career, Brittan said. Another reason for her decision was that she needed to move closer to her family in Oregon, Brittan continued. “I love the [students] who make me smile everyday, the community members who dedicate themselves to creating a wonderful environment for our students, and the staff who go out of their way each and every day to make MHS an excellent place for kids,” Brittan said. In the meantime, Brittan has stated that she will be doing what she can to make the transition next year run smoothly and will remain in her position until June. According to Lawton, she will also maintain her position until June. “It’s going to be interesting to see who ends up [as principal], but I want to make sure I do whatever I can to get them settled,” Lawton said. “I think the district is working on setting something up before school starts too with some of the staff so that they can work with the new person coming in because I didn’t have that opportunity. I think they’re being wise by starting to have some meetings before school starts so that people have a chance to talk about things and get a sense of the culture. “This is an awesome school. We have amazing students; we have great staff. I’m going to miss it, and there’s a lot of great things going on in this community, so it’s going to be really hard to go,” Lawton said.
he process of choosing a new principal has changed to better select candidates, according to Superintendent Cary Matsuoka. The process is more authentic and effective in seeing how these potential future staff members would react in real-life situations, he continued. The process has evolved into a performance-based interview, Assistant Superintendent Matt Duffy said. Assistant principals are to be tested on April 5 and principals on April 7. Instead of just being asked questions, these candidates will spend time with a panel and get evaluated in a more true-to-reality manner, he said. “The first part is the paper screening. [Matsuoka, others, and I] will be leading the screening using criteria that we have,” Duffy said. “Then we’ll invite between four and eight finalists to a performance-based interview day.” Principals and assistant principals, on their respective days, will be put through different activities that test their leadership and management skills, according to Duffy. Different people will rate the candidates and voice their opinions and concerns, he said. “[The candidates] will go through five different activities that include case studies, instructional feedback, an interview about leadership and management, and a station about parent and family engagement,” Duffy said. “In each of those stations, there will be three observers, so we’re talking about twelve to fifteen total
people.” The panel to judge the candidates will include MHS staff representatives for more variety of opinion, Duffy said. The panel will then decide who moves on to the next stage of application, he continued. “[Matsuoka] and Cheryl Jordan are working on getting about nine representatives from MHS to be a part of [the panel], so there will be lots of eyes there,” Duffy said. “Then we’ll score them together as a big group and talk about who met the criteria and who didn’t. The folks who do well on those performance-based interviews will be passed down to the superintendent for final recommendations.” “[The old process] is not very authentic, and so what we’re going to do is create scenarios, case studies, and situations that a principal faces. Then [the candidates] have to demonstrate to [the panel] that they know how to lead a small group,” Matsuoka said. “If you ask them if they know how to lead a meeting, they’ll say ‘Of course I know how to lead a meeting; I do it every day.’ So, well, then do it.” The new principal should be able to listen to the rest of the MHS staff, Matsuoka said. He hopes that the new principal will build trust and strong relationships with his or her fellow staff members. “[The staff ] really needs someone who will get to know them, someone who will listen to them and build relationships,” Matsuoka said. “Without that, you could have the greatest vision in the world, but nothing would happen.”