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June 2025 VOLUME XLI ISSUE V
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STUDENT VOICE OF MILPITAS HIGH SCHOOL
Innovation campus starts Phase Three, plans for next school year By Namana Balakrishna
Almost a whole school year has passed since Innovation Campus opened to students. Construction is currently happening for phase three, for almost a year now, according to the presentation from Aaron Jozlen from QKA from the April 22, 2025 Board meeting. The Workforce Development Center will be built as part of phase three, Chief Business Executive Officer Dorothy Reconose said. It will also be opened to the community to use for whatever they need, Reconose said. At the same time, the district will also use The Workforce Development Center for their programs and other events, she added. “The board will use it (Workforce Development Center) for board meetings,” Reconose said. “It’s kind of like a multi-purpose room. And our hope is that we open our doors to the community and that we collaborate more, and we can have some partnership with other private organizations that would come and support our
program, and then we will use that space for that program.” Another child development center will be added to the Innovation Campus as part of phase three, Reconose said. The children who attend the program and qualify for extra financial support from the state will help the school district earn more funds, she added. “If their income is qualified to be subsidized by the state, then they won’t have to pay anything, because we will claim that to the state,” Reconose said. “The state will give us the funds, but if they make beyond then the parents will pay us, and we don’t report them to the state because they’re not qualified as part of their students. So that’s one way for us to bring funds, to use it to run the program.” Calaveras Montessori School of Silicon Valley, which is currently at the front of the Innovation Campus, will be moving out to make room for phase three, Reconose said. Montessori will
be moving out in late June, and demolition will start in August, she added. “They’re doing all the initial work that needs to be done, and then they’re gonna demolish that old theater and Montessori down to the ground so they can start the work,” Reconose said. “That’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking at phase three, which will be completed in about a year and a half.” Currently, 74 ninth and 10th graders are enrolled in the innovation campus, Principal and Chief Innovator of Milpitas High School and New Campus Programs Greg Wohlman said. Next year, the campus is open for incoming ninth, 10th, and 11th graders to apply, he added. “Originally, we tried to open a nine through 12, and we were expecting a huge influx of students,” Wohlman said. “We only had one senior and a couple juniors interested that time. The rest of the SEE PAGE 20
Courtesy of Grace Lum
The 10 seniors with the highest GPAs pose together holding clothes representing where they will go to university at Senior Award Night.
Seniors shine at annual award night By Alice Nguyen
At Senior Awards Night on May 21, 488 seniors received awards, including a total of around $43,000 in scholarships, Principal and Chief Innovator of Milpitas High School and New Campus Programs Greg Wohlman said. Seven seniors received the California Scholarship Federation award, seven received the National Honor Society award, and nine seniors were National Merit Finalists, according to the program distributed during Senior Awards Night. Additionally, the Maroon Cord, given out to students who have accumulated over 150 community service hours, was awarded to 148 seniors and 416 seniors received the Golden State Seal. The Magna Cum Laude and the Summa Cum Laude honors were awarded to 165 and 177 seniors, respectively. Ashton Chen was named as the valedictorian of the class of 2025. Chen also received the Golden
State Seal, the State Seal of Biliteracy, the President’s Education Award, the National Honor Society Award, the Maroon Cord, and the Magna and Summa Cum Laude, Chen said. “I’m incredibly fortunate that throughout my time at MHS, along with the amount of work that I put in, I was very, very lucky in my educators,” Chen said. “I was able to have a schedule and a support system because of the classes that I took that allowed me to really push myself to my limits as well as bring up my full potential.” Chen is going to the University of Southern California to major in business administration with an emphasis in pre-law, he said. He was also invited to their Progressive Degree Program, which allows him to graduate in four years with his MBA and his masters, although he still has to apply, Chen said. “I hope to see myself being eiSEE PAGE 20
LCAP survey results determine district plans By Harold Hong
Courtesy of Aaron Jozlen
The map of the Innovation Campus shows the campus’s future layout after the completion of Phase 3.
District leaders discuss changes to California school funding system By Marie De Vré
Business directors from districts across California, including Chief Business Officer Dorothy Reconose, were brought together to discuss potential changes to state funding for public schools on April 9, Reconose said. California bases the amount of funding for each school on the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), which is part of Proposition 98, a proposition dedicated to monitoring the funding and its use for public schools, according to the California Department of Education (CDE)’s website. LCFF funding includes base grants and concentration grants that are based on student demographics, according to the website. The level of funding is determined based on the district’s average daily attendance (ADA) rate, which the district must re-
port to the CDE three times a year, Director of Business Services Trang Vo said. The money for the funding comes from both local property taxes and the California government, making the district a state-funded district, Vo added. “Part of Prop 98 is filled partially; it’s filled partially by local property taxes, and then the state backfills in the dollar amount,” Vo said. “For example, through the LCFF, we have a funding formula. So it’s a $1 amount per student at each grade level, and so then that’s what you’re allocated for the district. And if the local property tax money that we receive is not enough, the state then has to backfill that amount.” The LCFF calculator takes the highest average daily attendance rate from the data the district has collected over the past three years, Reconose said. The district
is only funded based on the percentage of students who attend school and not the total number of students enrolled, which causes them to lose funding due to absenteeism, she said. “Attendance is important because we want the student to learn,” Reconose said. “We want them to be present at the school so they are learning something. But the bonus of that is it helps the district for additional funding because the students are present and learning in the classroom. When the student is not in the classroom, they miss what they’re learning that day, and we lose money.” The CDE also monitors enrollment to catch any funding errors, Reconose said. Recently the CDE heard that some districts were bringing up the idea of becomSEE PAGE 20
The LCAP (Local Control and Accountability Plan) is a district plan to set goals, plan actions, and allocate resources towards improving student outcomes as a community, LCAP lead and Executive Director of Learning and Innovation Priti Johari said at the MUSD board meeting on May 13, 2025. The committee extracts its data from 38 LCAP metrics, three district committees (Community Design Team, Differentiated Assistance, and LCAP), and four surveys (Climate and Culture, Educator, Family Engagement, and Thought Exchange), Milpitas High School teacher Brett Webber said at the board meeting. The committee plans some of its actions based on the survey results and responses, he said. People are generally positive about the academic programming and curriculum in the MUSD schools, Johari said at the board meeting. The committee is also looking into professional development and more support staff for specialized students, she added. The LCAP metrics list the
district as having highly qualified teachers and a 99% teacher retention rate, Coordinator II, English Learners and Math/Literacy Intervention Programs Dr. Shannon Soza said at the board meeting. The committee is also strengthening its tier one and tier two systems of support, she added. “We know that there are a wide range of needs in the classroom, and one of the ways we’re trying to support that is through high-impact tutoring and professional development for our teachers,” Soza said. “With high-impact tutoring, we have offered over 4500 hours of tutoring to our students, and for April Academy, we have offered an additional 30 hours of instruction. So we’re really trying to create these unified systems of support for our students.” Community members say what needs improvement and what works in the surveys, Parent and Community Design team member Elaine Silveria said. A topic that stood out in recent years was mental health awareness, she added. SEE PAGE 20