District Communications Coordinator George Pinckney told NBC Bay Area that the spaghetti had contained moldy, burnt bell peppers. According to Pinckney, a new oven in the central kitchen — where all elementary school meals are prepared — alongside temperature increases from malfunctioning refrigerator fans caused the problem.

Since then, PAUSD has worked to prevent further meal spoilage. According to Pinckney, the district has been measuring the temperatures of all foods and closely monitoring expiration dates to mitigate future incidents.

“We will definitely continue to improve our protocols and make sure that our kitchens are safe and the food we serve is also safe,” Pinckney said.

The district’s spoiled-food situation, alongside its adjustments to post-pandemic regulations and mandated nutritional guidelines, raises questions about whether its current food programs fully serve its students.

Free Meals

To ease families’ burdens after the COVID-19 lockdown, on July 9, 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom included the Universal Meals Program as part of Assembly Bill 130. The program requires all public schools to provide students with two free meals each school day, without consideration of their financial background or eligibility for federally funded free or reduced-price meals. According to PAUSD Student Nutrition Director Alva Spence, the district currently offers free breakfast and lunch to students.

The bill also authorizes the California Department of Education to reimburse schools for the cost of the meals. PAUSD logs expenses for monthly reimbursements from the federal government, and the state government covers remaining costs.

Currently, the contract between PAUSD and Sodexo USA, a consulting and food-services company, has PAUSD paying $1.37 and $1.89 for breakfast and lunch supplies per meal, respectively. PAUSD has contracted with Sodexo for over a decade to help maintain adherence to local and federal food laws and ensure that students receive the correct portion sizes and nutritional components, per the California Department of Education’s guidelines.

Sodexo provides training for PAUSD’s 39 Student Nutrition Services employees, who learn knife-handling skills, from-scratch cooking and procedures for providing new vegetarian options. All meals are reheated or cooked in PAUSD facilities, according to Gunn Kitchen Lead Melanie Gomez.

Dietary Concerns

The PAUSD food program has followed the Biden Administration’s guidelines on added sodium and sugar levels in meals. Still, many parents and students remain displeased with the current quality, quantity and portion sizes of school-provided meals.

Sophomore Jules Nagayama noticed a decline in quality since the switch from paid brunch and lunch at the middle schools to free meals at Gunn.

“I liked lunch a lot better when it was before COVID, and we still had to pay,” Nagayama said. “The quality and portions were way better — you could even get two lunches if you wanted to. Now, I don’t feel like the food is enough for me.”

However, according to Assistant Principal of Wellness Courtney Carlomagno, PAUSD is restricted by the state program’s guidelines for caloric values per meal: School breakfast must remain within 450 to 600 calories and lunches between 750 and 800 calories.

The number of meal choices has also dropped post-COVID. According to Carlomagno, there are currently only three lunch options per day, down from four or five before the pandemic.

“We were able to charge for lunches (pre-pandemic), which meant we had a surplus of money, and that meant we were able to put that back into the food we were serving,” she said. “We were able to offer more options.”

Despite the decrease in overall entree options, Spence stated that the number of vegetarian options has remained constant since pre-pandemic times. Under the current program, students with dietary restrictions can struggle to find suitable lunch options. Sophomore Hannah Baum, an athlete and vegan, has always chosen to not eat school lunch, both pre- and post-pandemic times, and instead chooses to bring her own lunch every day.

“I don’t think they give enough food, and the food they do give isn’t necessarily healthy and also vegan,” Baum said. “(I’ve seen) vegetarian options, but they’re all like cheese and crackers, so I don’t think that’ll give me enough food.”

Creating Solutions

In response to these concerns, PAUSD has enabled students with dietary needs to submit requests on the Gunn website for special meals, according to Carlomagno.

“Not all of them are approved, but it’s definitely a way to put it in and have the district review it,” she said.

PAUSD is also working with Sodexo to add more food options in the 2024 spring semester, including chana masala over rice, vegetarian chili with cornbread, smoothies, parfaits with granola, General Tso’s chicken and tofu, teriyaki burgers, and quinoa salads.

In addition to expanded options, Spence anticipates fresher meals in the coming months: The district has bought three more trucks to minimize delivery times, and construction on the new kitchen facilities in the A- and B-buildings is expected to be completed in fall 2024, resulting in warmer, fresher meals.

To provide more locally grown food, PAUSD is partnering with Ag Link, an organization that helps PAUSD access organic produce from farms in Merced, Fresno, Salinas, Stanislaus, Butte, Yuma and Kern.

Students have also taken initiative to address the inconveniences of the government-implemented program. According to Principal Wendy Stratton, a student helped facilitate the addition of vending machines to campus. Located near the K-building, Main Office and Bow Gym, these vending machines provide additional options to students seeking food on campus, such as chips and beverages. Their items have undergone a review process — certain items, such as soda and candy, cannot be served.

Community members can provide feedback on the Gunn food program at the monthly menu advisory meetings, usually held on Thursdays from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. via Google Meet.

Parent Kanda Ishihara noted the connection between subpar lunches and the overall culture of food waste on campus.

“They should do a better job of making (lunch) healthier and tastier, because otherwise the kids don’t even eat it — they throw it away and it’s a big waste of money,” Ishihara said. “It’s convenient, it’s a great resource, but it’s just such a waste.”

Gallery • 4 Photos

Chinyoung Shao

This November marked the end of the demolition phase of the A- and B-building modernization project and the beginning of the construction of the new buildings’ metal frameworks. The A- and B-building construction is scheduled to be completed by August 2024, and the buildings will be furnished and ready for use by December 2024.

Over the past three months, workers have installed slabs on the floors of both buildings to cover underground utilities and conduits, and have begun constructing the metal deck for the roof. According to the November Facilities and Construction Newsletter, the steel deck for roof installation will be welded next.

The construction team is working on developing the plumbing, electrical-wiring and fire-protection systems. They will continue to work on the frame, including wood framing, light-gauge framing, metal-stud framing, welding and steel frameworking, according to Senior Construction Manager Mohammed Sedqi. The construction crews will also install insulation in the walls and on the roof.

Currently, the construction project is on time, with crews caught up on last winter’s lost progress.

The assembly of the building’s metal framework, which requires welding and the use of a crane, presented noticeable changes. Though welding can emit concentrations of hazardous airborne contaminants, according to the Department of Industrial Relations, around 80% of welding is completed off campus, and any welding on campus is done at a safe distance from students.

“As long as we are welding (higher) up, it should not be a concern and is not in close proximity to the students,” Sedqi said.

Though there has been progress on the framework and flooring, construction has had to adapt to student needs. The pavement in front of the C- and E-buildings, fenced off during the second semester of the 2022-23 school year, was reopened with stairs and a ramp to provide students space to walk to classes.

This change, however, gave construction workers less room to work with. The opened area blocks the path of the crane, meaning that the crane needs to be wheeled between the A- and B-buildings to access the B-building construction.

“It was a tough decision (to open up the area to students) because it had a negative impact on the construction,” Sedqi said.

According to Associated Student Body President Nathan Levy, the Student Executive Council has not communicated with students about the construction. Levy said that the administrative team’s monthly newsletter will be the main source of construction updates.

Both students and administrative staff find the construction inconvenient. Although the administrative team has adapted to the current C- and E-building setup, the noise and dust from the construction present complications, according to Secretary Carole Main.

“It really is a problem when they use certain machines that vibrate or when they have machines that create a lot of dust,” she said.

Senior Alexander Lafler-Austern explained that the noise and location of the construction makes navigating the school day more difficult.

“It’s frustrating because sometimes I have to go out of my way (to avoid) the construction because I have a higher-than-average noise sensitivity,” he said. “The construction noises are literally painful when I am near it.”

However, Main is excited for the new building to be completed: It will have a central location on campus with modern amenities where visitors can come.

“The old offices were built in 1964, and we didn’t have air conditioning and we had rats, so it is nice to have (a building) that really represents Gunn,” Main said.

The two bike accidents, which occurred on Sept. 8 and Sept. 14, caused parents and bike advocates to call for increased transportation safety. In response to the accidents, Chief of Police Andrew Binder and Mayor Lydia Kou said in a Sept. 15 statement that the city is implementing new safety initiatives, which include reassessing traffic controls and assigning 30 new crossing guards near schools.

These incidents, however, aren’t isolated cases: According to the Santa Clara County Public Health website, Palo Alto has the highest rate of bicycle collisions in the county, with 133.5 bicycle collisions per 100,000 people. According to released police reports, a total of 23 vehicle accidents and four accidents involving either cyclists or pedestrians occurred in September and October. Nine of these 27 accidents resulted in injuries.

Although the City of Palo Alto had plans to improve roadway infrastructure before the accidents, according to City of Palo Alto Transportation Planning Manager Sylvia Star-Lack, a planned data-driven system for proactive safety measures will recommend solutions based on collision histories.

The City is also working on three other construction projects to improve bicycle safety in Palo Alto. The projects will create bike lanes on El Camino Real, connect the bike path near Paly to the Stanford trail near Churchill Avenue and El Camino Real, and improve the safety of the Alma Street-Churchill Avenue crossing. The improvements will be completed in this order, according to Star-Lack.

The City authorized a contract with Kittelson & Associates, a transportation consulting firm, on July 19, 2023, to assist with the developments. According to the City’s website, the updates have a budget of $340,000 and are projected to be completed in fall 2025.

To get Palo Alto residents’ input on future infrastructure projects improving bike safety on Palo Alto roads, the City is surveying Palo Alto residents for the Active Palo Alto: Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan Update.

Students are also taking action: Junior Nara Cammack is working on a bike garden — a “playground” for beginning bikers to practice safe biking skills — for her Girl Scout Gold Award project. She hopes to provide safe spaces for young bikers to make and learn from mistakes. “We should be safe coming to school and going back, and the fact that it isn’t safe to go to school and there’s a (high) risk of collisions is not good,” she said. “It should not be (happening) every year. The responsibility is on everyone, both the students and the drivers.”

Currently, the City of Palo Alto has 11 student bike-safety education programs that fall under Safe Routes to School — a partnership between the city, PAUSD and the Parent-Teacher Association — on their website. The initiatives aim to educate PAUSD students in grades K-5 about traffic safety and provide maps of the safest routes to school.

Students in grades K-2 learn basic pedestrian safety, including how to cross busy streets and read traffic signals, while students in third to fifth grade receive education on bike safety, including lessons on proper helmet fitting and the rules of the road. At the middle and high school level, though, events are limited. Cammack, who was in a minor bike accident in 2021, noted the importance of improving existing educational programs. “Increasing the frequency of our bike- safety education that Palo Alto offers is one of the most important things we can do, (because) frequency of exposure helps people retain information,” she said.

Junior Sera Singal, who was involved in a bike accident last year, also pointed to poor bike-safety practices among students, as well as the challenges of biking to school with construction blocking off certain parts of the road. “Students often aren’t paying attention (and aren’t) wearing helmets — especially the underclassmen — and do stupid things on the road such as crossing when the light is red,” she said. “I know (that) the district doesn’t have much control over (road conditions) besides telling students what they can do to stay safe.”

Star-Lack also emphasized that drivers, cyclists and pedestrians need to be aware of their surroundings. “When you have a lot of drivers in one place in a very short amount of time, people are not very patient and bad behavior tends to happen,” she said. “Speed is a major factor in collisions that cause severe injuries and deaths. Drivers (should) follow the rules of the road and be on the lookout for bicyclists and pedestrians.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, bank failures are an indication of an economic recession, a prolonged period of negative gross domestic product growth with a rise in unemployment due to decreased demand for goods. Although some local businesses still offer internships for high school students, options — especially through the district — have become scarcer.

According to Work Experience teacher Rachel Kaci, during COVID-19, most work-experience opportunities and industry-specific positions weren’t being advertised to high schoolers. “A lot of students (did) their own cold-calling (of) local university professors or local companies to say ‘I’m really interested in biotech or biomed or insert-the-area-of-interest,’ and students were getting responses,” she said.

Even after the pandemic, cold-calling has retained its importance: Students must continue to take take initiative to get industry-specific internships. Even then, many businesses may not respond, which Kaci attributes to students’ lack of continued inquiry. “The cold-calling should not be sending an email once and never following up,” she said. “(Managers) care about refilling the (supplies) for the next day so they can actually serve their (customers). They’ll just work overtime themselves in order to fill that hole. They (cannot) even dedicate one hour to an interview or (call) back to say you got the job.”

Economic instability

Business, Entrepreneurship and Math Program founder Cristina Florea recognizes that the ongoing layoffs and economic instability have contributed to the diminishing number of high school internships. “At this time, the companies need to focus on their own mission and make sure they’re progressing,” she said. To maintain sufficient funds, companies often eliminate opportunities for high schoolers.

The BEAM Program used to allow Gunn students to apply business knowledge to the real world by connecting them with companies that were offering internships. Most companies were based in Silicon Valley, including TIBCO Inc., AppLovin, Google, Facebook, Cisco and Brainvyne. According to Tom Berquist, chief financial officer at the Cloud Software Group, TIBCO used to offer around a dozen Gunn students internships in the finance industry. “When the BEAM Program wound down (for Gunn), we also wound down our use of high school interns,” he said. “We do still use college interns, but not as many as we would if the economy was better.”

Retirements and post-COVID-19 layoffs have also led to fewer internship opportunities for high schoolers. Kaci explained that, in some cases, the high school internship director may retire or be laid off, and the company may not appoint another employee to continue program oversight. “The bottom line for a company is to make money, and so the first place they’re gonna pull from is (high school internship programs),” she said. The number of available STEM internships have also begun to decrease due to similar problems. According to Kaci, the Lockheed Martin internship offered fewer spots when the internship director retired after the COVID-19 lockdown. The internship positions available at Lockheed Martin for rising seniors decreased from six positions pre-pandemic to three during the pandemic to two spots currently. “Six to two in five years is a pretty significant drop in opportunities, especially at such a coveted (company) like Lockheed Martin,” she said.

Students have witnessed the competition for internship positions. “I feel (that) especially (because we are back) in person, the opportunities come to you through flyers and social media,” sophomore Anriya Wang said. “They are more available (and) more people notice it.”

Lack of internship culture

Companies are often hesitant to have high school interns because of the lack of high school internship culture in general. This problem was present even before COVID-19, according to Florea. “(Companies) think of college internships, but they never think of high school internships,” she said. “So even when the economy was going well, it was still hard to get internships for high school students.”

Although many local service-oriented businesses are providing opportunities for high school students to work or intern, the current economy and the impacts of the post-COVID-19 economy are hindering businesses’ abilities to create high school student job and internship opportunities. While some companies are still offering such positions, the fewer opportunities available make them more competitive.

Despite hesitations, high school interns can bring value to a company, according to Florea. “The CFO of TIBCO, now acquired by Citrix, was saying that some of the high school interns actually produce more results than some of the actual adult employees,” she said.

Vega has enjoyed Gunn’s highly involved student life. “During Homecoming Week, everyone was super invested in (showing) school spirit, which is not something we have in Spain,” he said.

Vega was also surprised by the amount of time students dedicate to school sports in the U.S.—back home, sports are more like a hobby. Vega, who plays tennis, appreciates the consistency. “I like that we have practice every day,” he said. “In Spain we have practice two days a week, but here people are very serious about their sports.”

At the same time, Vega didn’t expect the academic environment to be as competitive as it is, due to his more laid-back high school experience in Spain. “Gunn is very competitive compared to (high schools in) Spain,” he said. “Everyone takes everything so seriously here, but in Spain it’s more about having fun. People are way too stressed.”

While most of his expectations were met, he was still surprised by the academic rigor Gunn offered. “I thought school was going to be super easy,” he said.

Prior to attending Gunn, Vega saw videos online poking fun at American students’ lack of basic knowledge on certain subjects like geography. “I was expecting that,” he said. “It was shocking when kids here weren’t like that.”

However, Vega found Gunn’s social life very similar to his high school experience in Spain, and didn’t find it hard to adjust. “Getting used to the schedules was very easy for me,” he said. “It was very similar to Spain, but it was exciting to see a lot more diversity than I expected. There are more nerdy people than I thought, though.”

Yet, Vega also experienced hardships during his time studying abroad. “Being without my family and living by myself was difficult,” he said. “I had to learn to be more mature. Since I lived with a host family, I had to balance being a part of the family (while) not being too dependent on them.”

Overall, the experience of adjusting to Gunn has been positive for Vega. “Being an exchange student didn’t make the adjustment hard,” he said. “I think it was mainly because I’m a new student. It was a cool experience, and I definitely recommend it to other students.”

At her ballet studio, “The Nutcracker” has always been a critical part of their curriculum. “This is probably my fifth year [participating] in ‘The Nutcracker,’” Qian said. “However, this is the first year that I’m not stuck in a bulky lap mouse costume or a clunky soldier hat. It’s pretty exciting to actually be dancing and not acting and strutting around the stage.”

This year, she has been rehearsing for 13 hours per week due to her multiple roles in the upcoming ballet production, including a flower in the “Waltz of the Flowers,” a Spanish doll in the party scene and a snowflake in the “Waltz of the Snowflakes.”

Qian was introduced to the art of ballet at three years old. Despite its challenges, Qian has always enjoyed doing ballet. “It’s really physically demanding,” she said. “You also [need] to have a lot of stamina. Mentally, you have to be prepared for everything.”

Qian has also found leisure in ballet. “When I go to ballet [practice], I feel relaxed,” she said. “It’s not just another [activity] that I have to do.”

Ramon Moreno School of Ballet has been rehearsing for performances since the summer. “We have to work a lot in advance,” she said. “Finals week kind of clashes with theater week, but in the end, it’s totally worth it when you go on stage and perform. The atmosphere makes it really great, [and] it really gets you into the holiday spirit.”