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HUYNH SHARES PIANO JOURNEY (5)
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December 2024 VOLUME XXXIX ISSUE II
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STUDENT VOICE OF MILPITAS HIGH SCHOOL
New Performace Arts Center expected to ASB reflects on Winter Ball open January 2026, benefits community cancellation, ticket refunds By Harold Hong
The MHS Music and Performing Arts Center (PAC) is scheduled to open in January 2026, according to the MHS website. The company leading the PAC project is TBK Construction Management Corporation. The PAC, which is just under 40,000 square ft., is at roughly 40% completion and may possibly reach 50% by the end of this year, company founder and CEO Travis Kirk said. At the peak, there are around 80-100 people working daily on the site of the PAC, TBK Construction Management Corporation’s Project Manager Kyle Kirk, the lead on the PAC, said. The part of the PAC currently under construction is the choral, band, and orchestra rooms, all cumulatively called the classrooms section, Travis Kirk said. The classrooms section and theater with over 557
seats will all have high ceilings and lots of acoustics, he added. “It’s (PAC) a one-story building with the exception that it’s 54 feet high because it’s a theater, and that gives you better acoustics,” Travis Kirk said. “There is a set of stairs and an elevator, but it goes to a control room – a control room that is in the back of the theater, looks on the stage, and can control your sound and lights. Then above that is what’s called a follow spot room, and that’s a guy with a spotlight.” Rain is a major cause of delays in the project, which is able to be mitigated by lime treating the soil, Travis Kirk said. Lime is laid on top of soil to help it firm up and shed water, he added. The pandemic was also a big cause of delays, he said. “The pandemic impacted the overall budget of the district,” Travis Kirk said. “The original
project was the Performing Arts Center, a second gym, and a fitness center. And so when the pandemic hit, the cost of everything went up maybe 30%, so the district had to make a decision on what to build. Because they didn’t have enough money to build all three, they decided that the theater and Performing Arts Center was probably the most impactful to the community as a whole.” The first focus meetings for the PAC started around Feb. 14, 2019, Assistant Principal Jennifer Hutchinson said. Meetings on architecture and design took place between February 2020 to December of that year, she said. “We had meetings with community members, what they wanted to see in it (PAC),” Hutchinson said. “The whole school staff, what they wanted to SEE PAGE 20
Harold Hong | THE UNION
By Akshaj Kashyap
The Winter Ball, originally scheduled for Dec. 7, 2024, was canceled due to a lack of ticket sales, Associate Student Body (ASB) President Atharv Vyas said. All students who bought a ticket will receive a full refund, he said. Before the winter ball was canceled, ASB had sold roughly 115-120 tickets, Vyas said. ASB ultimately determined there to be four main reasons why enough tickets hadn’t been sold, Vyas added. “It could have been the timing of the event, the ticket prices, poor publicity on our part, and the fourth was not publicizing in a way where we called it ‘winter ball,’” Vyas said. “Just because we had to get approved by admin, we called it ‘Jack Emery Benefit Ball,’ and people thought it would be more of a middle school benefit dance rather than something similar to Hoco (Homecoming).” ASB secretary Billy Banh also believed that ASB could have done a better job at publicizing the dance to better reflect its true nature without overworking the publicists, Banh said. “I think what happened was an oversaturation (of work) on our publicists because it was very difficult for them to get out all the information for everything and then also have all the events (like Pie Wars, Duct Tape Wars, etc.),” Banh said. “There were a ton of events, but it was only a
few people working on that. (...) They were working on all the events and there were so many, that it became difficult for them to keep track of what needed to go and what had to come out. So I think it’s on us for not planning properly and giving them a proper schedule.” Originally, the ticket prices were placed at $20 (ASB cardholder) and $30 (regular), before the price went up to $25 (ASB cardholder) and $35 (regular), Banh said. A $10 discount was then given for the special, Banh added. ASB needed to sell roughly 800 tickets at the original prices and 450 tickets for the regular prices, Banh said. “We wanted to make it (Winter Ball) $20 because we believed every dance should increase in price and formalities because the dance is supposed to be a lot more inclusive and higher quality,” Banh said. “Then we would also give a portion of the proceeds to hit the Jack Emery goal so we hit two birds with one stone by pricing the dance a bit more, but I think people were shut down by the doubling (of price) from homecoming, especially because it (Winter Ball) was seen as another homecoming.” The refund process, for those who bought a Winter Ball ticket, should be fairly straightforward and can be handled at the student bank with Jim Hollenback, ASB treasurer Armaan Raj said. SEE PAGE 20
Eye On Campus
The Performance Arts Center, currently under construction, is expected to open its doors in January 2026.
Teachers attend new boundaries training By Prisha Jain
Employees across the district are being required to attend a new in-person training on preventing child sexual abuse through boundaries for staff, Director of Human Relations Kristin Stonehouse said. The training is being offered in batches to all district employees between Oct. 31 and Jan. 29, Stonehouse said. This training comes with an anonymous staff-only form which allows them to report behaviors from other staff members that they deem inappropriate to HR, Stonehouse added. “What we know about child sexual abuse is, it’s predictable and preventable,” Stonehouse said. “Behaviors that are commonly seen can be addressed, (and) can be reported.” During his time working in the district, biology teacher Kenn Lewis has not attended a training similar to this one, he said. The training’s suggestion that there
should be no one-on-one interactions between staff and students do not seem feasible, he added. “Some of the things they were describing were kind of like middle school, but in high school, it’s different,” Lewis said. “There are times where kids need to come in and do something, especially in science class. You got labs, you can’t do the lab at home, can’t do the test at home either.” He already implements policies that establish clear boundaries with students, and will continue to do so, Lewis said. Students come to his class during zero period to make up tests and labs, and he will accommodate his policies to match the district’s guidelines, Lewis added. “When kids come in the morning, I’ll go over and open that door (connecting door in the L building) so that’s open,” Lewis said. “l’ll go out and talk to my colleagues so they can see (that) I’m in and out. I’m not just in here alone with the student non-stop.” The boundary training en-
couraged teachers to regularly evaluate whether they had seen any suspicious behavior, Spanish teacher Teresita Romero said. The training also provided a phone number that teachers can call to self-report if they thought that they felt any attraction to a student, Romero added. “It would be scary for a teacher because you’re raising your hand saying, I’m a predator,” Romero said. “You might be attracted to somebody. You have to be the adult and get the help to turn that off, right?” The suggestions made by the district regarding faculty reporting other faculty members were slightly uncomfortable, English Teacher Tonichi Lorenzana said. The parameters for what would be considered questionable are not clear cut due to Milpitas being such a tight-knit community, he added. “Are there cases where, you know, that kind of closeness SEE PAGE 20
Courtesy of Mazaria Aldrich
Symphony Orchestra performs during the Winter Dreams Concert on Dec. 11. The performance features percussion, wind, and string instruments. The Winter Dreams Concert also features Choir and String Symphony.