A Northwood High School Publication Volume XXII, Issue VII: April 23, 2021
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Leading the Pack: Northwood’s newest ASB officers By Annie Lee
www.TheHowlerOnline.org
Staff Writer
The new ASB officers for the 2021-22 school year were selected during the Election Convention on March 22. The elected students include: juniors Shan Syed (ASB president), Snigdha Maddula (ASB vice president), Jasmine Chhabria (Student Forum president), Luke Garcia (Spirit and Rally commissioner), Delaney Wong (Girls Athletics commissioner), sophomore Aditya Hari (Boys Athletics commissioner), juniors Yun Seo Lee (senior president), Andy Hoang (senior vice president), sophomores Rachel How (junior president) and Neela Michelsen (junior vice president) and freshmen Joy Bae (sophomore president) and Kristie To (sophomore vice president). Election Convention, held through a YouTube livestream, took four hours along with six rounds of voting. Current ASB president Kara Chu asked each candidate questions ranging from their leadership style to what fresh ideas they planned to bring to ASB. After each round of questions, student forum members voted for the candidates who they felt responded with the best answer. The candidate that won the majority of the student forum votes earned one point. Some candidates already earned one point from winning the popular vote, held during Advisement one week prior. The first candidate who reached two points won the position. For some of the
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SETTING UP FOR SUCCESS: Incoming ASB officers and juniors Snigdha Maddula and Yun Seo Lee help creatively decorate a mannequin for Northwood’s annual Fine Arts Week event, celebrating all types of art. elected officers, winning the position was a huge surprise. “My YouTube livestream was lagging a bit so as I watched Yun Seo being announced as the senior president, I suddenly got pulled into the Zoom and was not prepared for the news at all,” Chhabria said. “I think my hand was over my mouth for a solid two minutes. In all seriousness though, I was so happy when the news finally sunk in, and I’m just
really excited to work with a great group of T-wolves next year through student forum!” Already, many elected officials have clear envisions of improving the school environment and creating engaging school events for next year, particularly with Northwood planned to return to a five-day in-person schedule next year. “One aspect of Northwood that made me fall in love with our school,
especially ASB, is hearing about how exciting the pep rallies are and seeing how hyped the crowd gets,” To said. “I am very excited to decorate the sophomore section at pep rallies and choreograph sophomore Class Council’s pep rally dance. I genuinely want to bounce back from the pandemic and give the Class of 2024 the amazing high school experience that we deserve, with great vibes and tons of fun!”
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2021-2022 Academic Models Students speak out at Virtual Advocacy Trip By Cameron Arcand Staff Writer
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced at an April 6 news conference that schools should be able to reopen for full in-person instruction once California exits the current tier system on June 15. “I share Governor Newsom’s optimism that conditions continue to improve,” State Superintendent Tony Thurmond said in a statement. “As all Californians continue common-sense measures, such as continuing to wear a mask and getting vaccinated, there is a clear pathway to a safe and full return to in-person teaching and learning this fall.” This comes as coronavirus metrics in Orange County continue to see positive trends, sending the county into the less restrictive orange tier on March 31. Vaccines also continue to be administered to the community, and are currently available to everyone over the age of 16. Irvine students will have the option to continue with IVA, which provided an alternative to hybrid learning for students and teachers who were concerned about the spread of COVID-19 in schools. “Although the district will offer both online and in-person academic models in the fall, the revised guide-
lines will allow for more flexibility in the classroom, further supporting IUSD’s commitment of a five-day per week program,” IUSD Superintendent Terry Walker said in a letter last month. However, controversy surrounds next year’s bell schedule, which aligns all IUSD high schools together. The proposal includes an all periods day on Mondays, eliminates late start Wednesdays and adds extra time for tutorial. The final bell schedule also shifts the start time for schools to 8:30 a.m. and shifts the ending time to 3:45 p.m. “The district is in the process of developing a bell schedule that works for all six IUSD high schools (including IVA),” Northwood Assistant Principal Eric Keith said. “They are still in the discussions, but the hope is to have a common bell schedule set soon.” The district has indicated it will cooperate with public health guidelines in place during the fall, which Walker hopes will offer more flexibility than the current rules, such as less spacing between desks and allowing more students to be in each classroom. While it is unclear what the future will hold in terms of public health, the district remains hopeful that K-12 education will soon return to normal.
garding mental health services for students. We emphasized that if CaliStaff Writer fornia can introduce social-emotional Six Northwood students spoke learning in schools from a young age, directly with state lawmakers during the overall well-being of students ultimately the annual Sacramento Advocacy would be bettered,” Trip virtually on March 8-9. Students addressed issues sur- Scott said. Students rounding public education and procalled vided student feedback on the current also additioneducational system. Participants in- for cluded juniors Kaitlyn Cui, Anjana al funding for Narasimhan and Aditi Sreenivas, visual and perarts and seniors Rohan Agrawal, Kamryn forming programs and Scott and Colman Sun. “Through this program, students maintained the imcan delve into the deeply interesting portance of creatsubject matter of educational policy, ing a safe environment for which not only impacts people who deaf students during the pandemic. Among the state lawmakers in want a future in such areas, but any attendance were politicians such as student,” Sreenivas said. Sen. Dave Min and Assemblywoman Due to COVID-19 Cottie Petrie-Norris. restrictions, the pro“I was pleasantly surprised gram was held virby the amount of ditually over Zoom versity in the backinstead of in Sacgrounds ramento. It conof the sisted of two sixl a w hour meetings makers, in which Northas it was wood students interesting to were joined by Anjana Narasimhan The Northwood Howler other student representatives from see how such backgrounds shape our the six IUSD high schools in commu- political opinions,” Sreenivas said. After each presentation, the lawnicating student concerns. “Our largest platform was re- makers would respond to students’ By Rachel Yokota
concerns and expand upon any exi s t i n g plans to address these issues. S t u - dents found that many responses related back to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects. Applications for the program were submitted to Northwood Principal Leslie Roach during early January. Those selected to become N o r t h wood student representatives attended six meetings with IUSD policy makers in order to prepare their thoughts and research topics. Through this research and the program itself, students were exposed to state and local government affairs. “The program has taught me so much about education in California,” Sreenivas said. “I loved being able to speak to the people that determine the state of our educational system and being able to see how they were addressing issues that we were passionate about, as well as learning about other issues that need improvement in our district through the voices of my peers.”