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WASC schedules next visit for February Representatives from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) will revisit San Marin to check in on its progress on February 13 and 14, 2017. On May 5 of last year, WASC granted San Marin accreditation until 2020, after its two-year probationary period. Now they want to evaluate San Marin on how it is governed, its curriculum and assessments, and its student growth, to guide them towards improvement. Representatives will visit By Jenna Clark Editor
Amairani Roman Amanda Cardy Ben Rosenbaum Ben Rosenbaum Chloe Cheng Jackson Grover Julia Sudlow Katherine Minkiewicz Kimmy McIntyre Madison Mackensie Natalie Dybeck Nick Busselman Obed Ventura Rachel DeFelippis Savannah Brown Sumaiya Mubarack
Editor-in-Chief News Editor Features Editor Opinion Editor Centerspread Editor Arts & Culture Editor Sports Editor Backpage Editor Advertising Managers Circulation Managers Website Manager Social Media Manager
Daria Hoang Jane Williams Caroline Baetkey Katey Quinn Cate Guempel Sierra Ashley Jenna Clark Sarah Helmueller Hana Ongwongsakul and Liz King Mariana Warcholski and Shasta Parker Elise Chassman Cate Guempel
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Diana Alfaro, Rafael Arroyo, Jenna Beales, Elise Chassman, Zach Griggy, Dulce Hart, Aditya Katewa, Eliza King, Jose Negrete-Moreno, Hana Ongwongsakul, Shasta Parker, Alex Roman, Mariana Warcholski
Scott MacLeod Adam Littlefield
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classrooms and interview students. This visit will not be a full evaluation, but a check-in on the progress San Marin has made. In its 2016 report, WASC commended the school on its move to teach Common Core standards, added attention to English Language Learners, more positive school culture, increased use of technology, and equity team. “San Marin High School has undergone some strong changes in the direction we were encouraging two years ago,” the committee said. “Student engagement is noticeable in the classrooms at a higher level than before, teachers are more attentive
to struggling students and English Language Learners, and the school has less of a ‘two-tiered’ feeling about it.” WASC representatives still noted room for improvement in certain areas, such as communication with parents, implementing Common Core objectives, common assessments, and content strategies. During its upcoming visit, WASC will see what has been done to improve those areas and provide help as to how to follow through with those changes. _______________________________ jeclark18@students.nusd.org
Mental Health: Counselors and psychologists assist on campus continued from page 1
we had with the Novato Youth Center,” said Littlefield. The Youth Center still provides counselors for the Novato Unified District, but they are working with elementary schools rather than high schools. The two counselors are
Alumni
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October 7, 2016
Photo by Cate Guempel
“It can be really difficult for some people and sometimes they feel like they’re going through it alone, and especially in a school setting when you don’t know how to reach out for help.” -Sarah Morgan LMFT Intern
Meredith Simpson, LMFT, who is available Monday and Tuesday, and Sarah Morgan, interning to earn her LMFT, available Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday. Both have master’s degrees. LMFT stands for Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist; they provide therapeutic counseling for a variety of students based on their needs. “This might look like students who want to hurt themselves and they need to have some counseling, it might be students who have some type of abuse in their life and they need to work through that with a counselor,” said Littlefield. “We have students who really struggle, particularly in the springtime, with AP. ” To receive help, students can talk to their academic counselor or another school staff member and refer themselves. Or, students can be referred by another administrative staff who knows the student is going through a challenging time and wants them to get help. The two new school psychologists are Sunny Mim-Wang and Amy Westfall. All day, five days a week, there is a psychologist oncampus. “This year we are fortunate to have one person who is here one day a week and we have another person who is here four days a week,” said Littlefield. The main role of having a school psychologist is for testing students on whether they should be placed in special education and then helping those students through school.
These students are typically referred by a teacher or counselor rather than the student referring themselves.
Photo by Elise Chassman
“They don’t have to be
alone...there is always someone here who they can talk to about anything.”
School struggles to hire teachers By Jane Williams Editor San Marin has had problems in recent years finding people to fill teaching positions. This year, a Spanish teaching position went unfilled until September 8, when Ms. Maria Carrera was hired to take over for Mr. Nate Willis, the long-term substitute. Throughout California, schools have had difficulty finding teachers. Enrollment in teacherpreparation programs has dropped by 74 percent from 2003 to 2012, and the number of credentials issued to teachers trained instate has declined for the tenth consecutive year, according to the California Commission on Teaching Credentialing. In 1990-1991 and 19911992 school years, California had shortages in bilingual education, life science and physical science teachers. In the 2015-2016 school year, there were teacher shortages in English/ Drama/Humanities, History/ Social Science, Mathematics/ Computer Education Science, and Special Education, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Nationwide Listing. For the first four weeks of school, Willis, who has substituted at San Marin for over a year, was credentialed to substitute in the Spanish classes. Carrera has now taken over teaching the four Spanish 2 classes and one Spanish 3 section. Carrera taught at Pittsburgh,
Monte Vista, and Richmond High Schools, as well as tutored in Mexico. Before hiring Carrera, Principal Adam Littlefield had been in contact with Sonoma State University, Dominican University, and the College of Marin to see if they had students who could intern as teachers while still in school. Last spring, Littlefield went with other district representatives to job fairs at Sonoma State University, Chico State University, and University of California, Davis to recruit prospective teachers. Littlefield was looking for math and Spanish teachers, and at each of those fairs, he talked to and saw resumes of over a hundred people. “There might have been one or two out of those that were math or Spanish,” he said. Littlefield said that at one point over the summer, San Marin also had three math teaching positions not filled. Novato Unified School District may struggle to fill positions because it is expensive to live in Marin County. “It costs more to live here,” Littlefield said. “So we have teachers who live in the outside areas that are less expensive, and commute. And that has an impact on education as well.” Willis returned to being an at-will substitute while continuing to work for his teaching credential. _______________________________ jawilliams17@students.nusd.org
Solar: Installations provide 88% of school’s electricity continued from page 1
-Meredith Simpson LMFT
Sarah Morgan, one of the new counselors from Bay Area Community Resources, in reference to growing up, said, “It can be really difficult for some people and sometimes they feel like they’re going through it alone, and especially in a school setting when you don’t know how to reach out for help.” _______________________________ catemarieg@gmail.com
Construction: Teachers give up rooms and share spaces for time being continued from page 1
ables is to shape them into biology and physics classrooms that don’t need gas. “Our science department is growing and we have a few new teachers,” said chemistry teacher Mrs. Virginia Vogl. “Because of that we have taken over the 300 portables.” Although the goal was to have renovation finished by the time the first day of school rolled around, construction has not yet been completed. As a result of delayed renovation, a few teachers, including Mr. Claudio Tronconi, Mr. Nick Williams, and Mrs. Vogl have found themselves without a room. Until
construction is finalized, their classes “If we are here for much longer, I’ll are being held in the library. need to displace some other teachers “Since we have new teachers so we can get in there and do other in the department, we decided labs.” we didn’t want to put them into a Concerns about noise levels situation where they’re teaching in due to having two classes occurring in the library,” Vogl said. “Mr. Williams the same space at the same time hasn’t emailed all of us over the summer presented any major complications. and asked if anyone wanted to be “I haven’t found noise as a relocated.” problem, but since it’s chemistry, it Having classes in the library might be hard to get the resources has problems, especially for chemistry needed in a library,” said junior Ruby classes that need a fully functioning Jacobs. “I can tell that this will be a science room in order to do labs and struggle.” projects. “It’s hard to do chemistry ________________________________ labs in the library. I’ve adapted what mawarcholski@students.nusd.org we’ve done in the past,” said Vogl.
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Photo by Cate Guempel
Solar photovoltaic systems were installed in four locations across campus. dicted to “save $43,000 in the first year, and $1.8 million over the life of the project,” said David Williard, principal and co-founder of Sage Renewable Energy Consulting, the company that was hired by the District to conduct an investment grade feasibility study. Williard also said, “The money that is saved will go towards the General Fund, which is the fund that the district uses to pay teachers and use for educational expenditures…all the savings will be directly going toward educational programs and classroom
expenditures.” The company that installed the solar panels is SolarCity; they are engaged in a Power Purchase Agreement with NUSD. This means SolarCity owns and runs the solar PV systems, and the district can buy the energy from them, instead of from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). This benefits not only the schools, but the environment, as the energy produced by the panels is clean and renewable, opposed to “grid
Scheduling issues rear their heads again
Photo by Mariana Warcholski
Mrs. Laura Triantafyllos helps a student with a scheduling conflict. dropped off at preschool or daycare. By Caroline Baetkey Another issue arises with Editor English Language Development San Marin’s academic classes. Students are expected to counselors estimate 350 students filed advance quickly through each level of course change requests this year. Many ELD; therefore, switching into the next wished to change their classes because course must be uncomplicated. All the their schedule didn’t fulfill the session ELD classes must occur during the preference they desired, or because same period, so students can progress they wanted to be in a class with their to a higher level without disrupting the friend, or they didn’t get the teacher rest of their schedule. they wanted. In terms of equity for non “Kids and parents will write English speaking parents, San Marin down anything on the blue [course has a community liaison, Carmen transfer] form,” Assistant Principal Moreno, who is available to aid Spanish Leslie Norinsky said, “just so they speakers with any issues or questions can get in to see the counselor, when they have about their students’ really, we’re trying to do two things: schedules. we’re trying to fix the schedule, like For seniors who are holes or double classes, or if they’re in dissatisfied with their schedules, it the wrong level class for some reason, isn’t possible to run every class during we’re trying to balance the workload.” periods one through five. There aren’t The workload that needs to be even enough classrooms to have every balanced isn’t always the students’, but class take place in periods one to six. the teachers’. Teachers are not allowed As a solution to the lack of classrooms, to have more than 155 students in the and to deter seniors from leaving entire school day or classes with more school so early, the administration than 34 students. If too many students has tried to place senior classes sixth wish to move into a certain class, it may or seventh period. But twelfth graders become too full to be contractually will often attempt to transfer out. This admissible for the teacher. is effective if a class is only offered Staffing for this school year at a later period and no other time; was decided in May 2016, when otherwise, students will transfer into students first signed up for their the earlier period, which is then likely classes. The administration assessed to become too full. how many students wanted to take Any transfers must take place each class, and then determined the within the first ten days of school. scheduling from that. Norinsky said she has denied a few In terms of constructing students from transferring out of their the master schedule, there are classes since the end of the ten-day challenges. For its creator, Norinsky, period. “The hardest part is that [San Marin Of this inclination to get out has] seven periods, but teachers at lunchtime, academic counselor Mr. are on a six-period contract.” Jim Hu said, “Our priority is to give That means they’re contracted access to academics, not leaving school to teach at San Marin for either periods at lunch.” one through six or two through seven. Similarly, Norinsky said, “It’s Teachers aren’t always like, ‘Are you serious about the class?’ satisfied with the schedules they’re and if you are, then you’re going to given; for many, San Marin’s earlier have to stay a little longer…We’re not a start time—compared to many other private school. We’re a public school.” high schools—is difficult, especially if _________________________________ they have young children who must be cabaetkey@students.nusd.org power that is generated far away...using natural gas or other pollution-causing generation fuels,” Williard said. Previously, the District had to pay $0.1982 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for electricity at the campuses that received solar panels; now, NUSD will be purchasing energy from SolarCity at a permanent rate of $0.1471 per kWh, with no escalation for the next 20 years, creating a steady increase of savings for the district. The solar PV systems will produce 88% of the school’s electricity
usage. The investment in the solar PV systems is long-term, “with considerable benefits that actually provide greater savings later in the system lifetime,” said Williard. Additionally, electric vehicle charging stations will be implemented at all parking lot sites that have solar panels, as a later part of the project. _________________________________ cabaetkey@students.nusd.org