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STUDENT VOICE OF MILPITAS HIGH SCHOOL
Student homelessness issue intensifies By Loan-Anh Pham Ryanna Lui
Homelessness in Milpitas is a growing issue and a cause for concern, MHS School Linked Services Coordinator Nicole Steward said. There are currently 224 students throughout the whole district that are known to qualify for the McKinney-Vento Act, and from that number, 71 are from MHS, Steward added. The McKinney-Vento Act acknowledges that homelessness comes in many forms, including couch surfing, doubling up in small living spaces, and living in cars, RVs, or shelters, Steward said. Services the school directly offers includes free lunches and transportation, and the school can also refer families for medical services or counseling services, Steward commented. “Kids don’t have to be literally homeless to qualify. The point of McKinney-Vento is really to find any families that are struggling with housing and to try to get that support they need, so that they stay housed,” Steward said. “About 75 percent or 80 percent of our families are doubled up. If they are doubled up, a family is sharing housing with another family due to financial reasons. So there’s a one bedroom apartment, but there’s eight people in there.” Homelessness is caused by a variety of reasons, including high cost of rent, untreated mental ill-
ness, drug addiction, alcoholism, or a poor family environment, LifeMoves Annual Fund Manager Shelby Dobrenz said. LifeMoves is an organization that serve individuals and families across Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, providing shelter to 750 clients every night, Dobrenz added. Those who are homeless have the option of reaching out to shelters and other organizations for help, LifeMoves Vice President of Programs and Services Brian Greenberg said. Those who are waitlisted are left to find housing at relatives’ houses while others will live in their cars, Greenberg added.
“I had one family, their rent went from $1800 to $4200 dollars-that’s ridiculous.”
MHS School Linked Services Coordinator Nicole Steward
“Without organizations like us, there would be many more families living in their cars, many more families doubled up with two or three families in very small apartments,” Greenberg said. “There would be fewer exits from poverty and homelessness.” Housing crises occur year round, but are especially prominent around Thanksgiving and
Christmas, Steward said. In 2018, 13 and 11 families respectively were evicted during those holidays, Steward continued. Evictions are increasing in Milpitas due to a lack of rent control, because the city allows landlords to evict renters without reason, regardless if they are paying rent on time and are good tenants, Steward added. “I had one family, their rent went from $1800 to $4200 dollars--that’s ridiculous,” Stewart commented. “What’s happening is BART and Google are coming. A lot of the landlords are assuming that a tech person is going to pay that.” The school tries its best to provide stability for students who are currently enrolled, although it could use more assistance, Steward said. With all the burdens that stem from being homeless, Steward tries to communicate to students that school is as safe of a place as possible, she said. “I do have few families that I’ve referred to Bay Area legal aid to fight their evictions, but some families get exhausted and just leave the area,” Steward commented. “We don’t want families to have to do that, we want kids to stay here, be able to finish school here.” There is not a defining characteristic in terms of academic performance among all the homeless students, Steward said. However, SEE “HOMELESS” ON PAGE 16
MHS considers new tardy policy
By Ashley Chen Vivian Tsang
Alternatives for tardy policy consequences are being discussed by the administration, Principal Francis Rojas said. The goal is to decrease the amount of chronic tardies, he said. The current consequences are making more paperwork instead of solving the problem, Rojas said. The administration is trying to seek out ideas that will actually help those students who are chronically tardy, he continued. “We also know that for many of our students they do the detentions, but then for some they just skip them and, next thing you know, the detention turns into a longer one, and it’s just not working and doesn’t improve attendance,” Rojas said. “So we’re looking at not changing the actual policy of how we count the tardies, but more about how what are ways that we can actually work with students to improve [on attendance].” It is unlikely that there will be any changes to the tardy policy this semester, Assistant Principal Jonathan Mach said. We need to meet with students to understand why they are not getting to class on time, he said. “Instead of being punitive, we need to have more of a discussion,” Mach said. “We need to help them get to class, and get their grades up because that’s where it really needs
to start from.” Several suggestions that the administration has pitched include enforcing a one minute bell and asking teachers to stand by their doors before class, Rojas said. The administration also wants to get a group of students together to come up with ideas as well, he added. “Other things we’ve explored are for chronic truants, [such as] meeting with parents to talk about how to help your child be on time because we know that being on time is a skill that you need in your adult life,” Rojas said. “We want to make sure we build those habits here at the high school level.” Marking first period tardies is a necessity, Science Teacher Rita Burmanroy said. Students understand that class starts at 8:00, so it’s pushing the limit to come more than five minutes late, Burmanroy said. “Tardies can be rough,” Burmanroy said. “Sometimes I have really time-sensitive assignments that I do in the beginning of the period. If someone misses that, they miss something that is probably critical with what they’re going to learn.” She receives five to six tardies during first period and an average of two tardies each period throughout the day, Burmaroy explained. She does not take off points for tardies, Burmanroy said. “It’s something I was considering last year with the amount of first period tardies I was having, ” Burmanroy said. “However, I didn’t
feel the need to implement it, because [the same students] ended up not performing better on tests or higher point assignments later on.” The tardy policy is enforced in her classes, Math Teacher Annie Nguyen said. Attendance is part of her students’ participation grade, so every time they are late, they lose two points off of participation, but they can make it up by doing extra problems on the board, warmups, and homework problems, she continued. “I think for the kids who are always late, it’s an external situation,” Nguyen said. “It’s not the student on campus not wanting to go to class and dragging their foot. So if they’re late and it’s habitual, I don’t think the consequences will change [their behavior].” A suggestion she has to address chronic tardies is to have a later start time than the elementary and middle school, Nguyen said. Many of the kids that she has talked to about being late say that their parents need to drop off their siblings first, she said. “There are so many obstacles so maybe we can alleviate some of them if everybody starts to understand that it’s not just about tardies,” Mach said. “Every kid needs something different so until we can figure out something and the resources that we need to put our money into, I don’t know when we will have a tardy policy that is 100 percent effective for everybody.”
PAUL CHON | THE UNION
Math Teacher Unyuong Yi lends a hand to Junior Jonah Lachica with an assignment as part of the new intra-year credit recovery program.
Credit recovery introduced; New program aids students
By Neval Mulaomerovic
Intra-year credit recovery is a new way for students to earn credit in a course in which they received a D or F grade during first semester, MUSD Director of Secondary Education Gregory Barnes said. Courses, including Integrated Math I through III, English I through III, US History, and World History, are taken during second semester, he said. Credit recovery is two hours of class time before or after school, with an hour and a half of online learning or homework per week, Barnes said. Compared with the 90 hours of seat time in an on-campus course per semester and 75 hours during summer school, credit recovery includes roughly 30 hours of seat time, he said. Regular summer school will still be available as an option to students, he said. “We have gone out of our way to not exclude anybody,” Barnes said. “You don’t want a student who got a zero percent to feel they’re not good enough for this program. ” Renovating summer school has been a longtime concern Principal Francis Rojas said. Teachers found students who failed a class would attend summer school, and fail the during the next school year without
signs of improvement, he said. “It’s just this cycle,” Rojas said. “If [you] wait six more months until summer, you’re going to fail second semester. So if you can get it again quickly, there’s more of a likelihood that you will be able to move on forward with the class.” Credit recovery allows students to earn A through G credits for University of California (UC) requirements, Rojas said. Though a college will see the remedial course on the transcript, the previous course that was failed will still appear on record, he said. “Districts throughout the state of California are provided what we call intervention funds,” Rojas said. “Those funds can be used at the discretion of districts with the approval of the superintendent around different ways. All of these options are for remediation and a college will see that on the transcript. We don’t delete things off transcripts because you take summer school.” Since the classes are between five and 20 students, credit recovery allows teachers to work in depth with students to fit their personal needs, English Teacher Annie Shine said. With the help of volunteer tutors, teachers are able to give individuSEE “REMEDIAL” ON PAGE 16
Eye on Campus:
Prepping Winter Formal
MELISSA NUNES | THE UNION
The Associated Student Body enhances the large gym with decorations in preparation for the annual Winter Formal dance, held on Feb. 9.