The city’s abundant wealth and resources create a Palo Alto “bubble,” which often causes residents to be unaware of hardships that people from other areas experience: lack of resources, funding and a clean living environment.

Educational privileges

Palo Alto is known for its excellent public school system. According to Niche, all three Palo Alto Unified School District middle schools are among the 15 highest- ranked middle schools in California; Palo Alto High School is among the top 10 public high schools in California; and PAUSD is the best school district in America. Gunn itself is ranked first in California and 35th nationally among public schools, according to Niche. In addition, Gunn has high standardized-testing scores and a graduation rate of 94%, higher than the public school national average of 85%.

Gunn is able to provide its students with exceptional education largely through PAUSD funding. PAUSD is a basic-aid district, meaning that it receives funding from local property taxes in addition to basic-aid funding from the state of California. Partners in Education also works to raise money specifically for teacher salaries across the district. Altogether, PAUSD receives nearly $300 million each year to support students’ education, almost 90% of which come from local taxes.

Using these funds, Palo Alto provides educational resources such as Gizmos, Naviance and other applications, available in each student’s Rapid Identity portal. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, PAUSD spends approximately $25,000 to $26,000 per student every year, exceeding the national average of about $15,000 to $16,000.

These readily available funds give Gunn students access to a variety of resources and extracurricular activities. Junior Solyana Biadglegne, a transfer student from Leipzig, Germany, who moved to Palo Alto in November 2022, explained the disparity in resources between Gunn and her old school. “This place is just incredible — I think it’s obvious because it’s Palo Alto and Palo Alto is a rich city, but also there’s so many resources and opportunities for you,” she said. “At my old school, we had great teachers and a few clubs, but that was basically it.”

Gunn alumna Shauntel Lim, a freshman at Northwestern University, explained that the educational preparation and support that Gunn provided her made her college experience easier. “Within Palo Alto, we have access to good teachers, classes and extracurriculars, whereas I come here and I hear about (other) people’s high school experiences, and it definitely sounds harder where they’re living, where their schools are underfunded,” she said. “They definitely have to work harder on their own to reach the same amount of achievement (at Northwestern).”

Most of the resources PAUSD provides, such as Individualized Education Programs that ensure specialized instruction for students with disabilities, are state-mandated. However, history teacher Benjamin Beresford finds that Palo Alto often offers more than the minimum required by state mandates, such as co-teaching and the Academic Center, which has student tutors available to aid their peers. “At my previous school, which was very small, we didn’t really have all of these resources,” he said. “I had students who would have really benefited from the resources you could get at a public school like Gunn.”

Gunn students are instructed by a supportive and qualified teaching staff: Many teachers have pursued higher education, such as masters and doctorate degrees, further improving the quality of education in Palo Alto. PAUSD guidelines also require teachers to meet certain standards of accommodation and attention to students.

Environmental factors

Palo Alto, as a major center of technological innovation, is home to many of today’s most prominent, industry-leading corporations. Hundreds of startups have begun in Palo Alto, many started by alumni from nearby Stanford University, including Google and HP. According to data from Pitchbook, a venture-capital database, Stanford graduates have founded more startups and raised more venture-capital funding than graduates of any other university in the country over the past decade.

Many have moved to the city because of its reputation for technological excellence: Biadglegne’s parents relocated her family to Palo Alto for those very reasons. “Palo Alto and Silicon Valley are known for innovation and good schools, so education and jobs are the main reasons we came here,” she said. “We found everything we needed and wanted.”

Palo Alto also has shopping centers, restaurants and recreational spaces both in and around it. However, rising property values create high prices for foods and goods compared to other areas — one of the pitfalls of shopping in the city.

Since 2021, Palo Alto has been designated as a Gold-Level Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicycles, and has plentiful communal amenities such as parks, playgrounds, libraries, and walking and biking trails. In 2021, only 15% of cities and towns in the U.S. received a Gold or Platinum designation. Although many take these facilities for granted, they greatly improve residents’ daily lives. For example, research from the Journal of Transport and Health found that people in more walkable environments had lower rates of obesity and chronic diseases. According to KRON4, Palo Alto residents have a 22% obesity rate, 11% lower than the national average of 33%.

Furthermore, Palo Alto’s natural environment is well maintained and healthy thanks to environmental services provided by the city. These services include Zero Waste, a waste-management system that seeks to decrease landfill waste and encourage composting; Watershed Protection, which reduces the amount of waste entering local waterways; and the Sustainability and Climate Action Plan, an extensive strategy to reduce citywide carbon emissions in coming years. To receive funding for these services, Palo Alto has several community partners that provide financial support to the city, including Stanford University, Friends of the Junior Museum and Zoo, Palo Alto Arts Foundation and Neighbors Abroad.

Expectations

Living in a wealthy city replete with resources, Palo Alto residents, including students, can be isolated from the challenges that less wealthy communities face. However, mental burdens still exist. While — or perhaps because — Palo Alto is a center of technological innovation and excellence, students often feel pressure to succeed and surpass their peers academically. Biadglegne said the environment at Gunn is more competitive than that of her previous school. “At my old school, it was competitive, but it was also a small school,” she said. “Even if one had an accomplishment or internship, they would tell their friends to apply, and if someone has a big accomplishment, everyone celebrates it. But here, they (often) say, ‘Don’t tell that person I got an internship at this place.’”

This competition and pressure manifests itself most conspicuously during the college admissions process. Beresford noted that Gunn students often have high expectations to attend prestigious universities after high school. “There’s a culture that you’re expected to apply and go to some kind of elite (university) like the Ivy Leagues, or at least Berkeley, Stanford, University of Chicago,” he said.

As a result of this culture, students often become hyper-focused on their grades and test scores. “A student’s motivation to complete work is around getting a certain grade, not necessarily around completing an activity or understanding,” Beresford said. “As a teacher, it can feel like my intent for why I’m teaching you something feels different from (a student’s) reason for wanting to learn something.”

Additionally, with the abundance of engineering, computer science and science-based companies and opportunities present, students often face pressure to pursue and succeed in STEM-related fields. Gunn alumnus Michael Wang, a freshman at Brown University, said that if somebody mentioned that they were from Silicon Valley or the Bay Area at Brown, people would automatically assume that they planned to work in technology or computer science.

Palo Alto has established Wellness Centers and mental health resources to support students. Gunn has mental health professionals working on-site, as well as an established SELF program to aid students in social-emotional learning. The ability to create such resources is, in a way, yet another example of Palo Alto privilege: According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, during the 2021-22 school year, around half of public schools in the U.S. received funding for mental health services, and less than 41% of schools hired staff to focus on students’ mental health.

Ultimately, Lim believes many Gunn students are unaware of, or do not acknowledge, the privileges they possess. “It’s important to acknowledge problems (outside of our bubble),” she said. “(This includes) socioeconomic and racial problems. Living within the Palo Alto bubble, we don’t see a lot of that firsthand.”

Thirty-six years later, divides continue to persist, particularly in regards to schools’ resources and funding. While equity advocates may have won the legal battle through the Tinsley settlement, its application remains far more complex.

History of the VTP

In the late 1960s, Palo Alto and East Palo parents joined to form the Midpeninsula Task Force for Integrated Education, due to concerns regarding the racial disparity between RCSD and neighboring school districts. Tinsley attorney Jack Robertson noted the stark demographic statistics in an interview with the Palo Alto Weekly. “East Palo Alto was 100% Black [while the] other districts were practically all Caucasian,” he said. Eventually, the 33 parents in the task force worked with Robertson and two other lawyers to present their case in court, selecting Margaret Tinsley—an African American East Palo Alto mother—as the main plaintiff.

The VTP originally allowed for up to 206 minority kindergarten through second grade RCSD students to attend schools within eight surrounding school districts’ boundaries—including Palo Alto Unified, Menlo Park City and San Carlos. If more students applied to transfer than spots available, a lottery system would be used to determine who could participate in the Tinsley program. Once their racial minority population reaches 60%, districts are no longer required to reserve the court-mandated spaces for the VTP: As of 2022, the Redwood City School District and Belmont-Redwood Shores School District have met the population threshold, resulting in the current 135 annual transfer spots.

Furthermore, the court order also allows students attending school in the eight participating districts who are not minorities to transfer into RCSD. This option, however, elicits significantly fewer participants: from 1986–2006, only two non-minority students transferred into East Palo Alto. In contrast, 2,508 students transferred out of RCSD during the same time period.

Transportation Issues

In accordance with the Tinsley settlement, Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) allows 60 students from RCSD to attend Palo Alto schools. Although these students could previously choose to enroll at the PAUSD site of their choice, the district terminated bus routes to several schools—including Gunn—at the end of the 2021–2022 school year.

Students at sites no longer served by the district’s buses can opt to attend a school that does have bus service or find their own form of transportation. Junior Stephanie Castillo Baltazar noted the adverse impact of the arrangement on both her and other Tinsley program families. “A lot of students that live in East Palo Alto have parents who work two jobs or have more than one kid,” she said. “The change was super stressful because we had to figure out how I was going to get to school and back home. My mom drives me now, but she’s emotionally drained and has less time to get dinner ready.”

According to Assistant Superintendent of Equity and Student Affairs Yolanda Conaway, two main factors drove the decision to cut routes: a lack of bus drivers and excessively long bus rides. “We are one of the most resourced districts in the area and yet we couldn’t find bus drivers,” she said. “This was also an equity issue, since we were essentially saying, ‘If you’re [a VTP student,] you have to get up at 5:00 in the morning and don’t get to sleep.’ It ultimately came down to the fact that getting kids to school was more important than having [their] first choice school available.”

Tinsley program parent Alma Navarrete expressed frustration with the district’s lack of communication regarding the substantial decision. “There were a lot of changes in the program like the termination of bus routes,” she said in a conversation translated from Spanish by her daughter. “While I appreciate the district helping us out and allowing my daughter to have a better education, it seems like they’re cutting off valuable resources and not eliciting feedback from parents and students.”

Social Impact

Beyond transportation, VTP students, such as freshman Elizabeth Perez, have noticed social impacts stemming from her longer commute to Gunn. “I wanted to go to some of the football games, but wasn’t able to because it’s too far away and my mom can’t give me a ride,” she said. Castillo Baltazar echoed Perez’s thoughts and offered deeper insights. “Living farther away changes everything,” she said. “A lot of people in Palo Alto view East Palo Alto as ‘ghetto,’ but most of us can’t afford to move to Palo Alto. Sometimes, I feel like I don’t necessarily belong at Gunn because I wouldn’t be going here without the Tinsley program.”

Data and Professional Development Teacher on Special Assignment Tara Firenzi points to the challenge of increasing student body diversity while avoiding feelings of isolation. “I would love to see more students from underrepresented backgrounds on campus,” she said. “That being said, [the students from East Palo Alto] are still a very small population of students when compared with the majority groups at Gunn, and it can be easy for them to feel a profound sense of isolation.”

Firenzi, a former Social Emotional Learning and Functionality (SELF) coordinator, began an attempt to ameliorate this issue in 2018. Alongside Assistant Principal Courtney Carlomagno, she worked to create a SELF cohort solely consisting of students in College Pathways, a program that aims to close the resource gap for underrepresented and first-generation college students. “The students had a stronger connection to each other and to their mentor,” she said. “They were able to talk about their feelings of being discriminated against and not feeling connected to the wider school community in an environment where they felt safe.”

World Languages Instructional Lead Daissy Tabares volunteered to mentor for the cohort—she noted the students’ unique perspectives on certain SELF lessons, such as ones on racial disparities and redlining, in which they may have personally experienced the consequences. “A lot of kids opened up more than they would have if they were in another class with other students,” she said. “I would often hear something along the lines of ‘[Things are unfair for us,] but how are we going to fix it?’ They didn’t believe that things could be better.”

While not all Tinsley students participate in College Pathways, many face similar challenges to those who do. Perez acknowledges the merits of the experimental group, but also believes minorities should not be treated as a monolith. “Every opinion is different and a lot of people want to be around the people that they most relate with,” she said. “Personally, I don’t like feeling different from the rest. I’d be okay with [being in a similar cohort,] but it wouldn’t be my first choice.”

Likewise, Firenzi recognizes the importance of striking a delicate balance between the sides of this dynamic. “It’s really hard because you don’t want to tell students that they should only be with others that look like them,” she said. “At the same time, that can also make minority students feel much safer and more connected. Ultimately, you need to have specialized opportunities for students to feel safe, and you need to do a better job of creating a school culture where everyone feels welcome.”

Student Supports

Although the PAUSD website states that one of the goals of the VTP is to improve educational achievement of Ravenswood students, some are concerned with their teachers’ approaches in meeting the aim of “achievement.” “Teachers will ask if I need help, but it doesn’t seem like they actually mean it,” Perez said. “They ask for the sake of asking and don’t truly want to do anything.” For Castillo Baltazar, her experience was less about teacher apathy, but rather teachers failing to properly advocate for and believe in their students. “I feel like we get cushioned compared to everybody else,” she said. “In middle school, other students got a blank set of notes, but my friend [who is also from East Palo Alto] and I received filled-in ones. I was in sixth grade and definitely could have done the blank notes on my own.”

Castillo Baltazar also noted a less-subtle ordeal with a teacher that made her feel uncomfortable. “[During] my freshman year, I remember one of my teachers saying that I was having trouble in his class because I was Latina, and that I would need to put in more effort to pass,” she said.

Granted, these experiences are not unique to students in the VTP. “These are much larger systemic issues that we’re looking at,” Firenzi said. “We need to be focusing on all the factors, including how accessible and safe we make a student’s social and academic environment across the board.” Conaway shared similar thoughts. “We should do our best to make sure families and students from East Palo Alto feel welcome here,” she said. “But from an equity leader’s perspective, there’s just a lot more work we need to do in general to make people of color and people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds feel like they are welcome in a place that is predominantly wealthy. We have work to do, but that’s our nation’s work, not just Palo Alto’s.”

Future Outlook

While a major component of the Tinsley settlement order was the creation of the VTP, two additional parts, the Models Schools Study and Ravenswood Improvement Program, are often overlooked. “The consultant shall estimate the high, average and low enrollments expected in model schools, develop a plan for a model school(s) and explore the problems, costs, advantages, disadvantages, feasibility and reasonableness of said plan,” the Tinsley settlement states. “The consultant shall consider the creation of one to three model schools designed and located to attract both minority and non-minority students.”

Unfortunately, a model school was never built in East Palo Alto, leaving the district with no dedicated high school. Currently, students in RCSD attend Menlo-Atherton High School, located in Sequoia Union High School District, to finish their secondary education.

Firenzi believes the unrealized part of the settlement is a crucial aspect of achieving education equity through the VTP. “We shouldn’t need to have students take a bus and be dislocated from their communities,” she said. “They should be able to go to a good school with lots of resources in their neighborhood. Without a secondary school in the Ravenswood community that serves the needs of East Palo Alto, you get stuck with some non-ideal options.”

Conaway reiterated Firenzi’s thoughts while considering realistic benchmarks for the near future. “I do agree that we need to think about a better solution because every community deserves a high-quality school,” she said. “There are some rockstar teachers in East Palo Alto that just need more pay and more opportunities to do what is right for students. I don’t know if that’s going to happen soon, but I do know that in the meantime, the 600 to 700 kids that we have in the Tinsley program deserve our best.”

Although the VTP is far from perfect, those in the program—such as junior Andy Vega—appreciate its ability to provide opportunities for underrepresented groups. “Being able to help students go to better schools for multiple years is [in itself] a success,” he said.

In a survey sent out to VTP parents in Fall 2019 and published in the 2021 PAUSD Western Association of Schools and Colleges report, one parent voiced similar thoughts. “As a mother of a child in special education, one can see the difference in the amount of support that my son receives,” she said. “My children are exposed to a diversity of cultures and this allows them to learn new languages and traditions. [Overall,] the academic level is much better.”

This proposition relates to Proposition 98, which guarantees a minimum annual funding level for public education. Under Proposition 28, schools would receive an amount equivalent to 1% of the funds they received from Proposition 98 the previous fiscal year.

Proposition 28 does not implement a new tax for California citizens, instead relying on California’s recent budget surpluses. The California Legislative Analyst’s Office notes that the ballot initiative would lead to $800 million to $1 billion in additional state spending.

If the proposition fails, schools would continue to receive state funds under Proposition 98, but no fund would be created specifically for public music and arts education.

To succeed in this class, AP Economics teacher Philip Lyons encourages students to be fully attentive in class. “We learn during class time, not outside of it,” Lyons said. “I recommend you focus 100% during class. No sleeping, no phones, no texting, no daydreaming. Focus.”

Alumni Atul Gavande also believes that regular attendance is the key to success, despite feelings of senioritis. “You’ll learn everything you need to know in class,” he said.“As long as you pay attention for [the three periods each week], you’ll be fine.”

Despite being at a college level, the course is not inherently difficult, according to Lyons. Nevertheless, students are strongly discouraged from expecting an A for simply showing up to class and completing in-class assignments. “The workload isn’t challenging, and neither is the content,” Lyons said. “I think what’s challenging is changing student behavior—you can’t be passive. You can’t just sit there. [Students need to get] away from the idea of grading based on effort to [the idea of] grading based on mastery.”

According to Lyons, the tests in class are designed to be straightforward provided that students pay attention in class and responsibly make use of their resources. Prior to every unit exam, students take three practice tests designed to prepare them for the actual assessment. If unsure about the material, students can read the textbook or watch short tutorial videos posted on Schoology about each concept.

Lyons encourages students to take AP Economics because it exposes them to an entirely new field of study. “I tell my students often that studying economics is like putting on a pair of glasses,” Lyons said. “After you take the course, you will see everything from a different point of view. [You’ll] analyze things like a scientist.”

Gavande found that the real-life implications of economics remained with him even after graduation. “I liked how Mr. Lyons applied [economics] into real life situations,” he said.

According to Jeffrey Selingo’s book “Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions,” the use of the word “elite” to describe colleges wasn’t even commonplace until after the 1940s, when it surged in popularity. “An elite college now is almost exclusively defined by how hard it is to get into,” he writes.

Part of this new definition has been the evolution of the U.S. News college rankings system, which rates colleges across the nation. Currently, there are nine major criteria considered, each with a different weight in the overall ranking. These factors are graduation and retention rates (22%), social mobility (5%), graduation rate performance (8%), undergraduate academic reputation based on peer assessments by other colleges (20%), faculty resources (20%), student selectivity (7%), financial resources per student (10%), alumni giving rate (3%) and graduate indebtedness (5%). Based off of this alone, it’s evident that the rankings favor selective, wealthy colleges—they give low weights to categories that most profoundly influence life after college (such as indebtedness and social mobility), while prioritizing criteria which don’t represent what students actually learn within a college and can be easily manipulated (such as peer assessments). Historically, this manipulation has occurred: colleges lower in the rankings have attempted to “game” the system, increasing selectivity and extricating favorable peer assessments from other colleges in order to improve their standings. In this way, schools can make surface-level changes without improving the quality of education and end up being ranked higher, which means they are then perceived as being “better.”

Another major trap students and parents fall into, perhaps partially because of the ranking system, is the association of the students in a school and the school’s worth. Seeing that students graduating from Harvard or Yale are strong thinkers or great innovators, they assume that the colleges themselves offer the best education. In reality, this is because the students that these schools accept are already motivated and overachieving; it’s the students that create this outcome, not necessarily the education they receive. This is called selection bias, and it’s nothing new. It’s akin to how one might assume that the National Basketball Association molds superstar basketball players, when the players were only selected in the first place because of their inherent talent and work ethic. The experience itself doesn’t make them extraordinary, but rather the honor of being selected.

Selection bias also spills into how much money students make after college. Seeing that students who graduate from selective schools earn more isn’t necessarily an indicator of these institutions’ quality of education, given that many of the students admitted to these colleges are wealthy even before setting foot on campus. In a survey sent to the class of 2025 by “The Crimson,” Harvard University’s student newspaper, about 45.1% of respondents reported that their parents make a combined annual income of over $125,000, a figure much greater than the median U.S. income of $67,521, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. As journalist Paul Tough puts it, “elite college campuses are almost entirely populated by the students who benefit the least from the education they receive there: the ones who were already wealthy when they arrived on campus.”

Students might assume, nevertheless, that “elite” schools offer the only opportunity for low-income students to succeed financially later on in life. However, these pillars of prestige and reputation aren’t the only options for students seeking upwards mobility. Schools such as the California State University system and the City University of New York (CUNY) system have proven time and time again to be excellent for students seeking upwards mobility, mostly because they accept more low-income students in the first place. According to a 2017 study led by economist Raj Chetty, CUNY moves six times as many low-income students to the middle class than all of the Ivy League schools (as well as some non-Ivy elites such as Stanford University) combined.

This begs the question: what exactly does measure the worth of a college, if selectivity doesn’t? Of course, there’s no one factor that can measure the value of a university—every student is different, and each needs to look for something different in a college (another flaw of the rankings system). What students can consider, then, is their own path. Instead of defining worth on some obscure standard, they can define it on their own. What matters most to them? Which colleges are best financially? Which are larger? Closer to home? These are just a few examples of the plethora of factors to consider other than prestige, selectivity and rankings.

That being said, it’s important to acknowledge that students’ obsession with selectivity and prestige has created a self-fulfilling prophecy. After all, if we as a community value brand names, then so will our employers, our parents and our friends. The only way to end this cycle is to collectively shift our mindset—which is no easy feat. To start reaching this goal, it’s necessary for students to try to “put their blinders on” and focus on themselves, their passions and their goals, rather than what those around them determine to be the arbiters of success. This doesn’t mean tuning out others’ experiences and advice, or looking down on what factors others use to determine their needs—it simply entails a deeper self-evaluation of one’s goals and values. In this way, students can find the college that best prepares them for whatever path in life they want to pursue. Focusing on narrow and, ultimately, subjective measures such as prestige, selectivity or reputation won’t get students anywhere; it’s best for them to focus on criteria that give true insight into what a college can offer.

One of the major changes to the spring semester has been a shift to a credit/no-credit grading system. PAUSD was one of the first school districts in the country to transition—other districts have since followed. According to Superintendent Don Austin, the decision was made due to a lack of ability for teachers to transition quickly into online learning without sacrificing grading efficiency and accuracy. “Everyone around the country is dealing with this crisis,” he said. “There’s no way to have virtual classes be equivalent to in-person learning opportunities.”

For students, one concern about the system was the lack of transparency in transition. “I think it was a good solution, but there were definitely better ways to approach it,” junior Tiffany Chen said. “They could have first asked for student and parent input.”

Some parents were also skeptical of the decision. During the April 21 board meeting, parent Sudeshna Raha voiced concerns over equity for students who have worked hard to excel in their classes, yet due to the credit/no-credit system, are unable to receive recognition. “I feel what has been done with credit/no credit is inequitable to students taking honors and Advanced Placement classes,” she said. “They are putting in the work and they have been putting in the work, but they don’t have anything to show for it in their weighted GPA.”

Still, many see the importance of credit/no credit grading in the time of a crisis. “It’s a less stressful alternative for quarantine, because not everyone can put their full effort into school right now,” junior Lila Sanchez said. Colleges have currently said that they are accepting credit/no credit grading systems during the pandemic and will adjust accordingly.

Austin is also working on budget changes in anticipation for next year. Recently, the parcel tax, which is a property tax to fund California K-12 schools, was taken off of the voting ballot due to the financial impacts of the pandemic. According to a Palo Alto Online article on May 11, PAUSD has lost around three million dollars due to this pandemic. During the May 12 school board meeting, Chief Business Officer Carolyn Chow presented proposed planned budget cuts. While not directly mentioned, the proposal garnering the most public reaction was a reduction of release periods for all Instructional Supervisors and the stipends they received.

This decision was met with some backlash from the community, especially Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) instructional leads who are faced with dropping from one release period and a stipend to no release periods and a stipend. According to Instructional Lead for VAPA at Palo Alto High School Brittney Kerby, VAPA instructional leads are necessary for the mental health of students. “The proposed reduction of the VAPA [Instructional Lead] to only a stipend position will diminish our vibrant arts program and impact the student experience,” she said. “Time and responsibility that is required to support our specialized programs and advocate for our passionate students cannot be accomplished under a stipend reduction.”

According to Student Activities Director Lisa Hall, there may be many potential changes awaiting students in the coming fall, and the administration is considering smaller class sizes. “Given what we know right now, I suspect that student life at Gunn is going to be pretty different,” Hall said. “Right now they are looking at models that reduce class sizes so we can manage groups that may be in close contact.”

Furthermore, one of the major PAUSD initiatives going into the next school year is the alignment of the bell schedules. Gunn Principal Kathleen Laurence is heading the committee in charge of determining the education changes for next year and creating a modified bell schedule; at the May 12 board meeting, district officials presented a potential schedule with A/B schedules. This aligned bell schedule will allow teachers who work at both Gunn and Palo Alto High school to move seamlessly between classes and allow staff to work more collaboratively in the district—the A/B schedules will also try to ensure that transmission of COVID-19 is reduced. The schedule is still in draft phase and will be finalized.

Finally, changes to standardized testing will affect upperclassmen and underclassmen alike. In March, the College Board, a nonprofit organization in charge of such testing, announced that AP tests would be moving online, be reduced to 45 minutes in length and consist of solely free-response questions; additionally, only units that students were expected to learn by March will be tested.

According to AP Computer Science teacher Joshua Paley, students must consider how these changes will affect them in the long run. “The question you should be asking is whether, from a student’s perspective, AP tests this year are worth it,” he said. “Given that it’s a $150 investment for something like $4000 in college credit, it’s important to consider whether colleges will consider it—whether you’re getting a return on your investment.” Chen expressed concerns over how much shorter AP tests are. “It’s kind of stressful that AP scores will depend solely on how you respond to one or two [Free Response Questions],” she said. “It’s definitely not representative of a student’s knowledge about the subject.”

Ultimately, Austin understands the crisis that everyone is going through and believes that PAUSD will adjust as time goes on. “I’m looking forward to getting back to some normal as soon as possible,” he said.

Last year, Governor Jerry Brown and the California State Assembly passed a set of sweeping reforms to the state education system that went into effect Jan. 1 this year. The new laws address topics ranging from sexual harassment on campuses to diverse social studies curriculums to increasing student voice on school boards.

Among these changes is Assembly Bill (AB) 728, requiring the California Instructional Quality Commission, an organization which works to recommend curriculum framework to the state Board of Education, to develop a model curriculum for high school students in Native American Studies. This bill further requires districts without an already-existing Native American Studies curriculum to take this model into consideration and use it as a basis for the curriculum they must plan to implement. In addition, AB 491 establishes a grant program to promote education on the exclusion, forced removal and internment of citizens and permanent residents of Japanese ancestry during World War II as part of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Act. Palo Atlo Unified School District (PAUSD) currently has processes in place to ensure that the material taught to students is compliant with legal requirements involving teachers and staff across the district.

Although such topics are just now becoming mandatory by law, social studies teachers at Gunn have been incorporating them within their own class curricula for many years, as they feel that these topics are crucial in providing students with a more comprehensive and accurate picture of history. Native American studies, for example, has been offered at Gunn for several years as part of the ethnic studies course, although not enough students have been interested to start a class. “Teaching an inclusive history is important,” social studies Instructional Supervisor Lynne Navarro said. “It would be impossible to teach U.S. history and look at World War II without looking at Japanese exclusion [because] it doesn’t make any sense.”

Navarro believes that although Gunn has already taken the initiative to teach a more diverse curriculum, the state is taking steps in the right direction. “I think if you don’t think about the whole picture, then you get what I had back in high school which, was the history of old rich white men,” Navarro said. “That’s not an inclusive history, so we need to look beyond that.”

  Given the frequent talks of diversity, both in California as well as in national media, there has been a recent push for more education on the history and importance of race in the U.S. According to Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) Board President Ken Dauber, much of this comes as a response to the rhetoric of the Trump administration. “I think that the election of President Trump and the racism and discrimination that have followed on that are probably why the legislature thinks it’s important to teach diversity,” Dauber said.

Aside from changes in curriculum requirements, significant changes to the sex education curriculum and the availability of feminine hygiene products have been made as well. Californian schools are now required to expand their sex education curricula to include a wider variety of topics including relationship violence, partner violence and human trafficking by AB 643, which was passed in tandem with AB 10 last year. This new bill will address a push by parents in Palo Alto to prepare and better educate students on how to handle and identify realistic situations involving sex and drugs, following the sexual assault scandals over the past two years. “We heard from a lot of parents that they want a curriculum that teaches students about how to handle real life situations including peer pressure, including sexual harassment, sex and drugs and in the context of sexual relationships,” Dauber said.

Comprehensive sex education is provided at Gunn as part of the Living Skills class, which is required by PAUSD for graduation. Gunn’s Living Skills class uses the Health Connected Program, a non-profit organization that provides sex education programs also used to teach fifth and seventh-graders at PAUSD, which already includes information about early warning signs of relationship abuse. According to District Nurse Rosemarie Craig, information about human trafficking has recently been added on top of the sex trafficking curriculum and is set to be taught next year. “[The district] has just provided the update to add human trafficking and we already sent that out to our Living Skills teachers. It’s part of our Living Skills curriculum that hasn’t been presented yet for this year,” she said. Craig says that relationship abuse is already in the Gunn Living Skills curriculum, and information on human trafficking has been received by Living Skills teachers to be taught this semester.

California AB 10 will require schools with at least 40 percent or more of their students qualifying as low income to provide free feminine hygiene products in half of their bathrooms. Although Gunn’s low income population is below this percentage, Craig believes that requirements simply begin at lower-income schools because of their relative lack of resources and funding, but that such obligations should extend to Gunn as well. “I do know both of our high schools are looking at implementing this anyway, even though we don’t meet the 40 percent level. This is a way to say our kids deserve this just as much,” Craig said.

Currently, Gunn’s health office offers free feminine hygiene products but does not distribute them to bathrooms around campus, as it is unclear who would be responsible for filling, maintaining and checking the restroom dispensers. According to Craig, however, the Gunn health office has been working with the Wellness Center to introduce a system that provides accessible tampons and pads in girls’ bathrooms. “We have talked to the wellness centers already to look at figuring it out system-wise how to get [this plan] going,” Craig said. Their collective proposal to put feminine hygiene products is currently pending approval from the school board.

Senate Bill 468 and AB 261 recognize the rights of student board members and require them to receive preferential voting rights (the right to formally express an opinion before the board votes) on all education boards, as well as open meeting materials and invitation to staff briefings provided to every other non-student board member. Preferential voting for school board representatives was adopted this school year, and Gunn’s student board representative, senior Advait Arun, along with Palo Alto High School’s Richard Islas, are already provided with the same meeting materials and treatment as other board members. The two representatives are also required to vote first during meetings. “We’re already ahead of the curve. [Student board members are already] full participants in meetings; they have every right to comment, they comment pretty extensively and I think they often contribute to the discussion,” Dauber said.

President Donald Trump shames news media, often blaming news agencies for propagating “fake news.” While his claims have been broad and reached beyond the truth, they have brought a real issue to the attention of many Americans: a lack of media literacy and an overly-trusting view of certain news agencies in the United States. A study conducted at the Stanford Graduate School of Education found that 30 percent of 7,804 high school and middle school students thought a fake news site was more trustworthy than a verified news site, and only a quarter of the students recognized and explained the significance of a verification check mark. During this turbulent time for news agencies, who are under scrutiny with the rise of actual fake news, and students’ malleable opinions at young ages, adults must educate students on media literacy at a young age to ensure that future generations are able to craft their own educated decisions and perspectives based on trustworthy sources.

What comes to mind when many Americans think of news is the image of the floating heads of political pundits blaring their opinions on a certain topic, whether it be on CNN, Fox or MSNBC. For students who are looking for more deeply-researched news articles, investigative journalism is available on sites such as ProPublica, Center for Public Integrity and Real Clear Investigations. In modern history, investigative journalism has revealed corruption on local, state and national levels such as the Boston Globe’s reports on sexual abuse by priests and the Washington Post’s reveal of Nixon’s Watergate scandal. Adults should use these examples to educate youth about impactful and reliable journalism.

Both investigative reporting and the act of fact-checking by news agencies have become more popular with the mainstream audience over the past year, keeping political figures accountable and the general population educated on the truth. During the election, events from stump speeches to national debates were meticulously fact-checked by a growing number of news agencies. In these cases, news media does inform the consumer and keep politicians and other public figures accountable.

While President Trump may argue that certain news agencies have inherent biases, it is important for adults to teach students that, while it is important to be critical of the sources of information, one should not group every news agency that publishes truthful stories that may not cater to their specific view into the category of “fake news.” To ensure an educated generation, adults must take it upon themselves to expose students to news that keeps them informed and allows them to make educated opinions, as well as teaching students how to find reliable sources of news media. This should start at home with parents: simple exposure to news, such as having a newspaper or printed articles available to children, will ensure that they are growing up with an understanding of print media. Discussing these articles together and talking about whether the source is credible or not will help the child understand what they are consuming and how to be critical when looking at news articles.

While some media literacy is taught in schools, it should be more intensive. Proper citations for research should always be required, and current events should be shared regularly. English classes, and perhaps Living Skills, can teach students how to choose reliable sources and how to be a mindful consumer of news media.

While President Trump’s statements regarding the news have been jarring, they have set in motion a new generation of media literate consumers. It is important that adults educate the next generation on how to make critical decisions about their news media so that they can craft their own opinions and understandings without falling prey to unreliable and biased sources.

Following a major budget miscalculation, the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) must make $3.3 million in cuts.

PAUSD Superintendent Dr. Max McGee believes that the budget cuts are going to impact some of the district’s infrastructure. “We’re trying to keep the cuts from having any effect whatsoever on teaching and learning, on equity and access, or wellness and safety,” he said. “But at some point you need an infrastructure to support those programs, so we’re getting down to the bone.” McGee says that class sizes will not be further reduced due to the budget cuts interfering with the District’s plan to further reduce class sizes by halting the hiring of new staff. “Some of the items we talked about last year included adding more more teachers to further reduce class sizes,” McGee said. “Instead, we’re going to add a few more teachers, but not as many as the budget originally called for.”

Following an initial proposal that provided $3.5 million in cuts, the School Board requested an additional $2 million in possible reductions. While the final plan will call for around $3.3 million in cuts, Board member Terry Godfrey and other members of the school board are interested in a larger pool of items that can potentially be cut. “The additional $2 million was just to give us more options when determining how to best minimize the impact on the classroom and school,” Godfrey said. “Obviously the goal is to avoid these cuts significantly affecting students.”  

To meet the budget cut requirements, the district is looking at eliminating some positions and consolidating others. “The work doesn’t go away—the work is still here—but that means someone else has to do it if we eliminate a position or if we consolidate two positions into one,” McGee said. He believes that one can only stretch people so thinly before they become more ineffective. “Certainly I think there are some efficiencies that we can achieve by reducing some staff, but if you ask too many people to do too much, either they do a poor job or they just leave because it’s too much,” McGee said. As he wrote in a document to the Board, reducing staff to a point will result in burnout and quick exits. “There is a whole district office that supports our goals, schools and funding,” McGee said. “We can manage to a point, but if there are too many cuts, the infrastructure crumbles.”

In order to minimize impact, the Board is focusing on reductions that can be made outside the classroom. “We are reviewing roles in the district in addition to programs and activities PAUSD offers,” Godfrey said. Funds currently allocated for field trip buses and campus landscape maintenance are included in these potential out-of-classroom reductions. “We will review additional district activities such as staff development and search for alternative sources to fund them in some cases,” Godfrey said. “There are reserves and money unused from prior years that has been previously allocated to these more important activities.”

Gunn Principal Dr. Denise Herrmann was notified of a number of initial cuts and believes the classroom impact will be minor. “I’ve been told we will receive the same number of teaching FTE (Full-Time Equivalency), so that’s not being touched,” Herrmann said. “However, I will be receiving half an FTE less for my TOSA (Teacher On Special Assignment) leadership positions in areas such as literacy work, wellness or intervention.” Herrmann is also aware of a number of potential cuts on the top of the districts list. “There will possibly be a reduction in clerical in addition to cutbacks in our volunteer coordinator hours,” she said. Herrmann foresees the potential cut that would garner most student notice to be a reduction in the school’s discretionary fund. The amount in discretionary funds allocated to each school is determined by number of students. “We currently receive $105 per student, but one of the potential budget plans calls for a reduction to $85,” Herrmann said. “These funds are used to run the school, so students may notice less materials for some labs or various other classes.”

McGee doesn’t believe that the community will see a change; however, there will be indirect impacts. Some of the indirect impacts will result in not being able to give as much time and attention to supporting teachers.  “For example, we’re putting teachers on special assignment back in the classroom, so I think the teacher’s professional learning is compromised which indirectly impacts their teaching in the classroom,” McGee said. He is also worried about not having the money to give the third year of contractional raises. “I don’t know what we’re going to do for compensation increase—that impacts everybody in terms of morale,” he said. McGee stated that the principals and school site administrators will most likely have to do more work while not getting as much support from the district office for some programs and services.

Both Godfrey and Herrmann have received responses to the proposed cuts from a number of community members. “Folks who feel strongly about a particular cause will see something they value on the list and get nervous,” Godfrey said. “And while we have yet to make any final decisions, they will write or call us to request the removal or partial removal of that item from the list.” In addition, community members and groups and such as the Parent Teacher Student Association have been working to generate alternative funding for some of the cut programs. “Parents are already brainstorming ways in which the community can fill in the gaps,” Herrmann said. “The parents understand that there is a budget shortage and are now looking for ways to minimize the impact for the next three or so years.”

McGee plans for the first cut to be in the district office. “We are either eliminating or consolidating six full-time positions—that’s over a million dollars—out of the district office,” McGee said. “We are also not funding six positions which we haven’t filled yet—we have six positions that would further reduce class size beyond what it is this year, three at the middle school and three at the high school—there’s $750,000 right there.” Besides eliminating and not filling positions, the district also plans to save some money on procurement and review the necessity of classified staff at each school. “I’ve asked the principals to eliminate one classified position from every elementary school and two from each secondary school. That saves almost $900,000, so that puts us well over the $2 million mark,” McGee said. He emphasizes that ideally, those latter reductions would be through attrition, where the district just wouldn’t fill positions that go vacant.

To avoid further problems in the future, the District plans to get a better estimate from the assessor’s office of what will be exempt property and what will not be exempt property. McGee stated that the result of the shortfall was due to property at Stanford that was on the tax rolls but was not designated as exempt property until June of last year. According to McGee, proceeding his time as Superintendent, PAUSD hasn’t traditionally talked with either Stanford or the assessor’s office as much as they should have been. The district is now working a lot more closely with Stanford to see what they are putting on the tax rolls, and plans to work more closely with the assessor’s office. “The assessor’s office is eager to work more closely with us,” he said. “This gap between projected and actual revenues did not look good for anybody, and we’re working more closely with them this year to try to get a handle ahead of time on what properties are exempt.” McGee stated that the assessor’s office is good about reporting property on the tax rolls, however they don’t calculate the exempt property until late in the fiscal year, after the budget has gone to press, which can prompt problems.

On Apr. 11, McGee will hold a townhall meeting to draw the district’s final position on the budget cuts.  “Based on what I hear at the April 11  town hall meeting, [budget cut areas] may change, but we’d like the Board to see the full program of adjustments on April 18 and then vote the first meeting in May,” McGee said. “I hope that you can encourage the students, staff and community to come to the town hall meeting at the district office on April 11. It’s always important for us to hear from the public, especially the students.”