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Last September, Forum Editor senior Carly Liao took her swing at tennis, and in December, Lifestyle Editor junior Becca Wu tackled wrestling (and it tackled back). For the spring season, I wanted to find a sport I could simply survive—a task which proved to be surprisingly difficult. As a non-athlete whose workouts consist mostly of lugging SEC equipment around campus, I decided to go with track and field, a discipline in which athletes could go at their own pace and where I’d be welcomed despite my shortcomings.

As that first day approached, I grew more and more excited at the prospect of practice. It’d been years since I was a part of one of the school’s sports teams, so I donned my Gunn P.E. shirt, grabbed some sunscreen and set off to the Hal Daner Track and Field after school.

I started off with the throws team, a group which competes in the shot put and discus events. In retrospect, choosing to throw on a day with 25 mph winds was a slight mistake. After one wind-buffeted lap, we began to practice throwing the shot put, and I was pulled aside by an assistant coach to learn proper form and safety procedures. Twelve-kilogram metal balls are about as heavy as you might expect them to be, so I appreciated the run-down.

After about an hour of practice, I had finally managed to get the shot put to a third of the distance that the actual team members could reach. But I only had a moment to celebrate my success before we were whisked off to the weightlifting room.

This first day was the squats day, so my friends on the team guided me through proper form and safety protocols once again. I managed to get a few good sets of squats and box jumps in, but it wasn’t until I finally got home from the first day of practice that I realized just how sore my leg muscles were. Walking up the stairs that evening was one of the most humbling experiences I’ve had in recent memory.

As practices continued through the week, I found myself working with the throws team on technique for shot put and eventually discus, too. There was something magnetic about throwing heavy objects as far as you could get them, and it was extremely gratifying to feel slightly stronger day after day. Although I wasn’t exactly breaking any records with my distances, I had a great time out on the field.

When it came to track, however, I had my apprehensions about the events. When looking through the different track and field competitions, there were a few that I thought might be beyond my reach in the one week I had. For groups such as the distance and sprints teams, which are reputed for doing copious amounts of running at each practice, I knew I faced a very real and very serious risk of vomiting on the track. Out of respect for our custodial staff and everybody who uses the track, I refrained from participating in those events.

What I was most interested in were the jumps. With mats and sand pits to cushion the falls I surely would have, I felt confident that I could avoid any unfortunate instances of my lunch coming into contact with the floor. I began with the high jump, an event reminiscent of my middle school P.E. days. Although the objective was to jump backwards over an elevated bar and onto the mat behind it, I ran into trouble clearing any height taller than a kindergartener. Out of all of the events, high jump might have been the one that I was worst at, but it was exhilarating each time to run up to the bar and never know for certain if you were going to hit it. In my case, I was in fact certain that I would hit the bar when I went, but the actual team members’ jumps were extremely impressive to watch in terms of both form and distance cleared.

The last event I tried out was the long jump, which required a speedy running start and a solid takeoff to maximize horizontal distance. Possessing neither the speediness nor the technical know-how for a proper jump and landing, I nevertheless had a blast sprinting at full force toward a sand pit and seeing how far into it I could end up. Although the sand-in-shoe problem was a bit of a hassle to deal with, the explosive nature of the long jump made it one of the most enjoyable events I tried.

Beyond the events themselves, though, I found that the most enjoyable part of my week with track and field was interacting with the members of the team community. As a no-cut sport, the team had a place for everybody willing to try their best at whichever event they wanted to compete in—even someone like me. Because of this, there were members from every background imaginable, with both veterans of their events and total newcomers working alongside each other to better themselves and their skills.

To my surprise, almost all of the team members were extremely supportive of my efforts, with many of them going out of their way to correct my form or give me tips to better my performance. As a non-athlete, I felt inspired by the top-performing athletes in the team, and even more inspired by my fellow newcomers who were giving their all and learning all the while.

Developing strength, balance and coordination made me feel more capable overall. By the end of the week I was exhausted but also motivated to continue practicing the stretches and exercises I’d learned beyond my stint for Staff Sports. So to anybody out there with apprehensions about trying a sport, at Gunn or otherwise, just remember this: If even I was able to make it work, anybody can.

At 1:20 p.m., power went out throughout campus. Around this time, administration received a report that a large tree branch had fallen on a power line in the parking lot, causing a large spark. Principal Wendy Stratton and other administrators called emergency services and oversaw the immediate response. “We heard that (a tree branch) was down so we moved to a shelter in place for the campus before we could assess it,” she said. “We assessed it and saw that the wire was fine. The power outage was another thing that was happening at the same time. (The two events) are not necessarily linked.”

Because of the power outage, the school-wide intercom was disabled. Administrators emailed all teachers at 1:30 p.m. to enforce a shelter-in-place order while they could determine whether it was safe for students to proceed to their next class. “We were just taking precautions,” Stratton said. “We did not think anyone was at risk.” 

Teachers without access to their school email on their phones (or who were not connected to Wi-Fi via hotspot) may not have been able to receive directives from the administration. Without knowledge of the shelter-in-place order, some classes were let outside. Students who were off-campus during PRIME may also have been unaware of the situation on campus, too. 

Physics teacher James Lincoln updated his CAASPP testing classroom on the current situation. “This is a significant hazard, so we are sheltering in place,” he said. Since the black-out was unexpected, there was no contingency plan in place, according to Lincoln. 

Juniors working on the English Language Arts Computer Adaptive Test portion of the assessment were told they could complete it at a later time, possibly during Wednesday’s testing session. “It looks like we’re going to have to look at the CAASPP testing schedule because they had no access to the Wi-Fi to finish,” Stratton said.

Junior Sophia Turean was distressed by the prospect of having to finish the test on another day. “I feel a little upset because I want to finish my CAASPP test,” she said. “I don’t want to have to redo it because it didn’t save. I don’t want to do the rest of school in the dark (either).” 

Junior Aeron Man was surprised by the situation. “I think the current wind trends and situation led me to believe that it would be problematic, but I didn’t expect it to be during CAASPP testing, which is the worst situation,” he said. 

At 2:00 p.m., students were released to their second-period classes. Campus supervisors directed students to remain under overhangs and avoid all trees. 

Due to the recent increase in strong winds, the administrators have taken safety precautions toward falling debris, especially as this is the second report of large objects falling on campus in a week. “MOT (Maintenance, Operations and Transportation) has come between last week and this week and they actually assessed all the trees and cut down some limbs that looked fragile,” Stratton said. “There have definitely been efforts made to ensure that if we see something, we do something about it, (but) we can’t anticipate everything.” 

The past weeks and months have been particularly hectic for Smith, who has needed to work with teachers, counselors
and administrators in order to finalize transcripts for colleges. “It’s really busy and there’s a lot of communication in order to make sure that everything is streamlined, clean and on the transcript,” she said. “We work together to make sure that transcripts are 100% accurate, because that’s the final report for the students.”

Despite this year being her first as Gunn’s registrar, Smith is an experienced educator and previously handled registrations at the school district office. Originally coming from a political science background, Smith ended up pursuing education after a longstanding interest in the field and a passion for service. “It’s really nice to be able to see firsthand how what you’re doing is affecting everything that the students are doing,” she said.

Smith finds the most satisfaction in her work from the tangible impact she has on the Gunn community. “There’s a lot of frustrating moments, because you’re trying to do something and there are deadlines and different things that come into play,” she said. “But once you’re able to complete that task, you’re able to look back and say, ‘Okay, I made a difference.’”

Between staff, students, parents and all the groups in the greater Gunn community, Smith recognizes the unified effort toward student success and empowerment. “We’re all trying to work together and we all have the same goal, but sometimes misinterpretations or miscommunications happen,” she said. “You have to work through those, and that’s where it gets rewarding.”

Recently, however, differences between Gunn and Paly’s campuses have grown, with Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) spending more on improving Paly’s over the past decade than Gunn’s. The history behind the two sites is complex, involving public funding, private donations and relative facility ages.

Construction Funding

In PAUSD, school construction projects undergo a lengthy process for funding and approval, involving various organizations. The Board of Education approves each project and directs the overall plans, the equity committee promotes diversity and equity, and the bond oversight committee ensures projects align with the directives of government bonds.

The three groups come together to decide what facilities problems need to be addressed at each of the 17 schools in the district. According to Director of Facilities Eric Holm, the majority of the sites’ issues are reported by community members, including teachers, principals and parents. From there, the projects are prioritized from most to least important, before the project list and budget plans are approved by the Board of Education and formatted into a grant proposal.

After construction plans and funding methods are finalized, the district submits the specifications to the Division of the State Architect for approval. The entire process, from the initial project idea to the start of construction, can take around two to three years.

Gunn and Paly have similar acreages of developed space—such as athletic fields, classrooms and construction spaces—with 39 and 41 acres respectively. However, annual financial reports of the public bond program from 2011–2022 show that PAUSD spent $149.8 million in improving Paly’s campus while only $100 million was allocated to Gunn.

Board of Education Vice President Jennifer DiBrienza attributes the imbalance to the age of Gunn and Paly’s respective campuses. “[Paly] was the first high school [built in the district] so those buildings hit the end of life before [Gunn’s] buildings,” she said. “At some point, [the board] is going to say, ‘That building has hit the end of its life here at Gunn, so we’re going to need to replace it.’ That’s why Paly has newer buildings. [The same will] start happening [at Gunn] in the next couple of decades.”

The Peery Family Center—Paly’s new gymnasium complex—finished construction in May 2017 at a cost of $44 million. PAUSD, however, footed only $18 million, with the majority coming from a donation by the Peery Foundation. Paly’s state of the art complex cost significantly more than Gunn’s Titan Gym, which came in with a price tag of $12.9 million in 2012. While the Peery Center includes partitions to allow multiple teams to play at once, an athletic store and a coaches’ suite, the Titan facility only consists of a main gym, weight room and dance room.

Holm noted that the Peery Family Center was an anomaly, with 99% of PAUSD’s facilities funding coming from bond funds. The bonds that are still available to fund projects are the 2008 Measure A Strong Schools Bond and 2018 Measure Z Strong Schools Bond, providing $378 million and $460 million for expenditures on district facilities. Funds for both construction and maintenance of facilities in PAUSD come almost exclusively from bonds. Since the district’s founding in 1893, only two modern construction projects have been predominantly funded by private donations: the Peery Family Center at Paly and the multi-purpose room at Addison Elementary School. Paly was due for a new gymnasium, and with the Peery family donation, Paly’s new athletic center project was moved to the top of the project list. Paly’s original design would have been simpler, but the donation resulted in a more elaborate design and complex layout.

Recent Projects

The Building A, B and K construction project is part of the 2018 bond funds to renovate Gunn administrative workspaces and move science classes out of the Village portables. The project is currently projected to total $30.8 million, with plans to demolish and rebuild the area. The parallel project at Paly is the renovation of the original, 100-year-old Tower Building. The structure has needed significant repairs during the past decade, including a boiler replacement that cost nearly $1 million in 2012. Currently, the entire renovation and preservation of the Tower Building is estimated to cost $20.1 million.

One difference between the two schools is the technology in their theaters, both of which have undergone recent renovations. The Spangenberg Theater at Gunn includes basic lighting, audio and video services. On the other hand, the Performing Arts Center (PAC) at Paly has a Meyer Constellation sound system with improved acoustics and a two-way radio in addition to the features in Spangenberg.

Furthermore, the Gunn dressing rooms and green room do not directly lead to Spangenberg. Instead, the two areas are shared with the Little Theater; accessing the Spangenberg stage from the green room and dressing rooms entails long walkways and multiple sets of doors. In contrast, the PAC has backstage hallways, green rooms, bathrooms and dressing rooms that are all directly connected to the stage.According to Holm, the differences can largely be attributed to the two projects’—Gunn’s Central Building and Paly’s PAC—distinct needs. “Because [PAUSD] has older campuses, they are constantly in a state of renewal,” he said. “Paly [had] the PAC built because the Haymarket Theater was too old,” he said. “The addition to Spangenberg was an effort to provide classrooms that were needed for [subjects] that supported [Spangenberg and the arts].”

Although practical reasons may underlie some of the differences in Gunn and Paly’s facilities, many students have noticed the inconsistencies between the two schools. In a poll sent to all Gunn students with 200 respondents, over 90% of students surveyed said that the disparity between facilities was significant, with 36.8% saying that the difference was very significant. Junior basketball player Ethan Fu, who has played in both Gunn and Paly’s respective athletic facilities, commented on the matter. “I don’t think Paly’s better facilities give their team much of an upper hand,” he said. “The Paly facilities are definitely better though.” Having been on both campuses, former Paly student and now Gunn sophomore Nithila Subramanian has also noticed differences between the two facilities. “I’m on the fence about which school’s [campus] I prefer, but the differences between [Gunn and Paly] are stark,” she said.

The wheelchair attachment operates by dropping soccer balls onto a flywheel that is spun at very high speeds, which then transfers its kinetic energy into the soccer ball and propels it forward at the speed of a light kick. Ethan Liang, a GRT member who helped finalize and present the project, noted that there were complex elements of the project that went beyond a typical GRT robot. “It’s really different from what we usually build—for this one, our [electronic circuit] is completely from scratch using Arduinos, so it really challenged our electrical engineering skills, which is not something we practice otherwise,” Liang said.

GRT members were able to design much of the initial project plans over Zoom, but they were unable to come into the workshop and begin construction due to COVID-19 restrictions. GRT mentor Kristina Granlund-Moyer noted that students encountered difficulties during the first year back from distance learning. Through trial and error, however, the members became able to create a product that would satisfy Vasquez’s request. “It’s really been a good process for the students because it’s a product for somebody else. It’s easy to make something for yourself, but for somebody else you have to make it reliable, make sense to use and safe,” Granlund-Moyer said.

After showcasing the project and providing instructions for continued use, GRT and Granlund-Moyer were pleased to have completed their project and to have helped Vasquez come closer to accomplishing his dream. “I am very happy,” Granlund-Moyer said. “[Vasquez] was very happy—I think [the attachment] does what he wants it to do, which is the goal of the product.”