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NEWS
City opens new rideshare service for residents. A2
SPOTLIGHT
Marijuana use increases in popularity. A4-5
LIFESTYLE
Club hosts Career Speakers event. B1
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
The Campanile
Vol. CV, No. 7
Palo Alto High School, 50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, CA 94301
PALO ALTO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT PALO ALTO HIGH SCHOOL 50 EMBARCADERO RD. PALO ALTO, CA 94301
NON-PROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE
PAI D PALO ALTO PERMIT #44
Aiming 4(.0) equity A
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s a result of administrative discussions following a lawsuit won by parents regarding PAUSD math placement, Superintendent Don Austin said PAUSD will not factor third-party off-campus courses into official grade point average calculations starting next school year. “Given the math lawsuit, we had a look at all of our policies,” Austin said. “When we were in there, everyone looked at each other and said, ‘Well, if we’re fixing these other things, why don’t we fix this one?’ That’s how we got here.” Principal Brent Kline said discussions have been happening for a while within the district, and he agrees with the change. “I've only been in two other districts besides this one,” Kline said. “This is the first in my experience that I have seen outside courses placed on a high school transcript.” Austin said PAUSD administration unanimously agreed on the change, which will impact both Gunn and Paly. “It’s rare to find a topic where we have agreement from everyone involved,” Austin said. “Some families might not like it because it was a way (for) people to artificially boost grades, but now we have both schools’ administrations, instructional leads, counselors and registrars all on the same page.” Besides helping grade equity, Austin said curriculum differences between PAUSD and off-campus courses is driving this change. “Students have the ability to artificially raise their GPA by taking courses that are not as rigorous as the Paly courses,” Austin said. “A student who sits in an Algebra 2 class at Paly is taking a harder class than a kid who’s taking Algebra 2 through an online program.” Kline said off-campus courses could misrepresent students’ high school achievements. “It's important to maintain (a) transcript (that) reflects you as a student and
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Off-campus Courses
your experience here at Palo Alto High Junior Max Yeh agrees. School,” Kline said. “When you start incor“It’s a good decision because there are porating other courses, outside courses that many people who are unable to take these can be done in a shorter amount of time, online courses, and it puts them at a disadthat skews the data and doesn't accurately vantage for college applications,” Yeh said. picture your (high school) experience.” But senior Megha Madhabhushi said the Some exceptions to the new policy decision limits students’ ability to show their include dual enrollment classes approved by knowledge. PAUSD and taught by a PAUSD teacher, “It’s really unreasonable for them to take credit recovery courses when a student did away something that has been offered thus not earn an A, B or C in the original course far,” Madhabhushi said. “It really is a disadand language courses Paly does not offer. vantage for kids who can’t fit APs into their “The change schedule or cannot is effective !"#$%&'()*$+(,)-)* manage the Paly AP (following +./-0*&-%0*1-))*2+,3* combination on camgraduation this .+,*%*4564-,*789 pus. Taking courses year),” Austin off-campus allows for said. “If you a lot of flexibility and already have the makes it an easier opcredit and the tion for students.” GPA on your In addition to transcript, it allowing students stays. We’re not to explore different going to change classes, Madhabhushi the rules on you said she thinks having retroactively.” off-campus courses !!!!!!!$-!%'().!'()*+,+ count toward students’ Austin said !!!!!!!!!!!"#$%&!'()*+,+ students can still GPA matters. demonstrate additional mastery of off“The whole point of taking a course offcampus classes. campus is that you still want it to be counted “You can still take a UC Scout class, toward your GPA because that does help for example,” Austin said. “Up to four of you in the long run for colleges,” Madhabthose can be on your transcript, and you hushi said. “The content is still learned, and will be able to see the (class) title. However, the rigor shouldn’t make a difference as the they will no longer calculate into your kids are still learning, and that is what’s most GPA. Anything above and beyond those important.” four classes, you can still submit your own Ultimately, Austin said he thinks the transcript to whatever university you’re district is taking the right action to make applying to. They just won't appear on your PAUSD’s classes more fair. (PAUSD) transcript, and you won't earn “We’re not necessarily endorsing (offcredit for them.” campus classes), but we’re definitely not Senior Calvin Wong said he thinks the in the business of blocking them,” Austin new policy is the right one. said. "There is only change of real substance: “I know a lot of people at our school leveling the field for GPA calculation.” are using (off-campus class) to inflate their GPA,” Wong said. “It’s pretty easy to cheat, and the courses are much easier, so it’s giving Julian Hong them an unfair advantage.” Staff Writer
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The Peninsula Robotics team, also known as Team 6036, placed first out of 48 teams at the Idaho FIRST Robotics Regional Competition on April 1, qualifying for the world championship. Since its founding in 2016 in a two-car garage in Palo Alto, Team 6036, which consists mainly of Paly and Gunn students, has quickly risen the ranks to become 9th out of 3300 teams in the world according to the team’s website. This season, Team 6036 has won the Arizona East and Idaho regional tournaments and placed second at the Hueneme Port Regional. The FIRST Championship, which will take place in Houston from April 19 to 22, is an international robotics competition for youth. Teams typically qualify either through pre-qualification based on their performance at the 2022 FIRST Championships or through merit-based qualifiers such as winning a regional competition. Software captain and junior Ashray Gupta said the team had a record-setting year due to a lot of recruits. “Last year was a reinvention of the team,” Gupta said. “A bunch of seniors had just graduated, so most of us joined as sophomores, and last year we got our first regional win in the team's history.” Unlike most robotics teams, Team 6036 has an open-door policy, which means anyone can join at the start of the season regardless of experience. “Gunn, Paly and a lot of school teams have a closed-door policy because so
Christie Hong
many people want to apply,” Gupta said. “But our policy has always been opendoor. Our team's founders were actually rejected from the teams over here.” Gupta also said many teammates went the extra mile to put in hours toward the success of the robot. “Our lab’s open almost every hour,” Gupta said. “Some people can pull around 40 hours a week. Last year, my longest week was 55 to 60 hours.” Business captain and Paly junior Sidd Sen said the team's lack of school affiliation, uncommon for robotics teams competing at FIRST, made the team's lack of funding an obstacle. “But it hasn't been much of an impairment to our team because of the benevolence of our community,” Sen said. “Without that 40% (funding) from the community, we would definitely be struggling. But because of our opendoor and no-cut nature, we are strongly grounded in our community roots.” Moving forward, Sen said he hopes Peninsula Robotics will continue to be a source of inspiration and positive impact in the Palo Alto community. “We want to inspire more STEM students because we have all been impacted positively by the team,” Sen said. “We want to spread (inspiration) to as many people as we can, and continue to be a pillar of our local community.”
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Lucy Li & Shamsheer Singh Staff Writers
Lifestyle, Sci/Tech Editor Claiming the title of the world’s largest high school hackathon, Los Altos Hacks hosted its seventh hackathon, Los Altos Hacks VII, at the Juniper Aspiration Dome on April 8 and 9. Four hundred twentyfive students participated in the event, which the organizers said is designed to encourage diverse participation in STEM through coding challenges. Lead and Sponsorship Director Ritam Saha said 25 student organizers from Los Altos High School received support through connections, resources and feedback from teacher volunteers and local hacking teams like the Major Hacking Club. “Through our hackathon, we hoped to allow students from underrepresented communities to be exposed to STEM so we reached out to a few girls-only high schools in our area, (along with) schools for (students with) specific needs, like dyslexia and autism,” Saha said. Saha also said Los Altos High School is fortunate to have higher-level STEM courses available, but she knows many communities do not share the same access to those resources. “We designed our hacker experience so that every attendee is able to build their interest in the STEM fields through opportunities like developing new technical expertise at our workshops, speaking to professionals
RAJ VIRGINKAR/USED WITH PERMISSION
Hackathon students work together to fulfill a design prompt. “We designed our hacker experience so every attendee is able to build their interest in the STEM fields,” Sponsorship Director Ritam Saha said.
in the industry at our sponsor tables and showcasing projects to leaders in the tech industry,” Saha said. Tech Director Austin Liu said although most hackathons focus on a specific theme or objective, Los Altos Hacks wanted to showcase creativity and the potential of ideas, making the hackathon more open-ended. “Our projects from attendees reflected current developments in the tech space, engaging deeply with AI and other growing technologies,” Liu said. Junior Rachel Ho said she attended the event with no prior hackathon experience. “The CS curriculum at Paly is pretty rigid, so I wanted to take that background knowledge and form something creative,” Ho said. “I’ve always been interested in computer science, but the hackathon introduced me to different areas with new tools and softwares like GitHub or AI.” Operations Director Flora Wang said Los Altos Hacks
recruited over 50 mentors and reached out to sponsors, from Google to software development company Niantic to hold the event for free, provide travel vouchers and supply money prizes. “Over the course of the event, we saw many positive interactions between participants and mentors,” Wang said. “They served as a great source to bounce ideas off of and get technical questions answered.” Ho also said apart from discovering skills, teamwork was a valuable component of participating in the hackathon since the projects were completed in groups of two to four people. “Having someone to talk to during the event made it so much easier to keep going during the challenges of coding,” Ho said. “My experience has definitely made me interested in joining more in the future where there’s more people I know on the high school and university level.”