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2 FEATURE
OPINION
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THE VOL. 61, NO. 9
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MISSION SAN JOSE HIGH SCHOOL
May 29, 2026
41717 PALM AVENUE, FREMONT, CA 94539
T o prepare for the contest, the MSJ Science Bowl team’s five students held weekly training sessions at the homes of Co-Captain Senior Advaith Mopuri and Co-Captain Junior Roshan Annamalai. The team spent between two and ten hours each week prior to the competition, practicing questions and attending online competitions. “Most of us [were] just preparing for [STEM Olympiads] for the majority of the year, and our studying kind of just carried over to Science Bowl,” said Junior Theenash Sengupta, who was the team’s top scorer. In addition to practicing the curriculum for the contest, which spans broad areas of science, such as chemistry, biology, physics, math, and earth and space science, these practices also provided the team to practice their game strategy and buzzing speed. Competing in such a competition was nothing new to the team members. Many of the players had been part of William Hopkins Middle School Science Bowl or competed in various national olympiads. The team “put a lot of effort into this over four or five years. All the team members were more experienced [this year], and [there were] some amazing sophomores,” Annamalai said. In addition to MSJ Science Bowl’s rigorous training, some team members believe that luck was also on their side this year. “We had [Montgomery Blair High School] in our round robin bracket, and they were the last na-
MSJ Science Bowl makes history at Nationals By Ethan Yan & Veer Ma
tionals winner and a team we’ve never beaten before. So when we beat them in Round Robin Two, it gave us confidence for the rest of the day,” Mopuri said. MSJ played a total of 13 games, a combination of round robin and double elimination rounds, and won all of them. To compete successfully against these teams, MSJ also implemented a new strategy. “We’ve been intimidated by many teams in the past, but this year, our mentality was just [to] play against the questions instead of against the other team,” Sengupta said. For the competitors, the most memorable moments weren’t just winning. “I really enjoyed meeting up with new and old friends and making memories,” Annamalai said, while Sengupta enjoyed playing Ultimate Frisbee with the other teams the day before the
into this month’s articles:
censorship in student journalism
m a i n competition. In the future, the team wants to look for and train talent from Hopkins. Following a fourth place finish this year at the national finals, the members of the middle school team are well poised to continue the team’s legacy. “A really big part of what we do is finding the people that are most interested in those talents, not only in terms o f knowledge, but also speed and communication,” Mopuri said.
Student journalism is under fire. Between 2022 to 2025 the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) reported a 42% rise in censorship-related calls from student journalists. In 2021 alone, over 60% of newspapers at four-year institutions faced censorship claims, significantly surpassing previous years. Recently, one of the most high-profile tests of student press rights in recent memory occurred at the affluent Redwood High School in Marin County, home to the acclaimed student newspaper the Redwood Bark. See more on pg. 3
PHOTO FROM TALON MARKS, LICENSED UNDER CC BY 3.0
movie review: devil wears prada 2 A long-awaited sequel, The Devil Wears Prada 2 with Streep and Hathaway returns. However, strong performances and sharp self-awareness can’t save a film that spends 90 minutes diagnosing institutional rot with a disappointing resolution. The movie is stylish, nostalgic, and ultimately as hollow as the industry it critiques. See more on pg. 10
Staff Writers
STILL FROM 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS
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Staff Writers According to Legislative Analyst Gabe Petek, the state budget deficits in CA over the past four years have totaled $125 billion. Currently, CA Governer Gavin Newsom has a roughly $350 billion plan that attempts to fix the deficit. His funding proposal for the 2026-27 school year will be $151.6 billion. However, despite a large increase from Newsom’s original plan in January, $3.9 billion would still be withheld from schools. This proposal could violate Proposition 98, which establishes a minimum funding guarantee for schools. The proposition requires a minimum of 40% of the state’s general fund — the state’s main operating account that finances daily services of the government — to be directed toward school funding. The CA Teachers Association (CTA) has also warned that the proposed cuts could lead to teacher layoffs and increased workloads for the remaining staff. “When a governor goes around a constitutionally passed law that our voters voted for, that sends shockwaves,” CTA President David Goldberg told CBS. “It really makes the instability of our education even that much more perilous.” Fremont school officials say cuts would be devastating…bc underfunded. “We’re in a constant state of budget reductions, and having money withheld at this point in time is devastating, particularly for districts
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CA’s budget deficit forces difficult decisions when it comes to education
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like Fremont that are already underfunded,” FUSD Board President Dianne Jones said to CBS. The impact of Proposition 98 could bring hits close
2026-27 CA budget distribution
DATA FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE
to MSJ. MSJ Principal Amy Perez has noted the tight budget that MSJ currently faces. “My budget to run the entire school the whole year is about $64,000 which is almost nothing, because custodial supplies consume about $25,000 to $30,000,” Perez said. “As a result, students may have fewer class electives to take, especial-
ALBUM REVIEW: FLORESCENCE Folk-pop artist Maisie Peters released her third studio album, Florescence, on May 22. The album was preceded by the lead single “Audrey Hepburn,” which debuted in early March. Read more on our website.
As the CA legislature faces a growing state deficit, Governor Gavin Newsom’s latest proposals will withhold $3.9 billion from public school funding. Because local school districts are legally required to adopt their own balanced budgets by July 1, these budget adjustments transform the policymaking in Sacramento to tangible shocks in classrooms at MSJ and across FUSD. ly classes with low enrollment, and possibly, class sizes may become larger.” From 2017, the Education Law Center reports that CA has risen from being underfunded in per-student funding to slightly above average. CA now spends more on education by total. But Perez says the issue regarding funding inequity still persists. Between Palo Alto and Fremont, Perez says, “We have almost a gap of $20,000 per pupil. We get $16,000 per student here in FUSD, and [they get] almost $20,000 more per student,” Perez said. The funding mechanism is broken, and we can’t fix that, because that’s at the state level. FUSD plus some other stakeholders … have met with Senator Ayesha Wahab and Assembly Person Alex Lee to explain this budgeting formula, they’re trying to do what they can to try to fix it at the highest level,” Perez said. The $3.9 billion cut equates to roughly $630 lost per student based on school districts’ average daily attendance, which is the model most CA school districts use to determine funding. This comes on top of additional funding losses from
VIDEO COVERAGE: FUSD FILM FESTIVAL
On May 21 at 5 p.m., FUSD hosted it’s first annual film festival screening at three locations across Fremont, spotlighting student-made films in a district-wide contest. Watch the video coverage on our YouTube channel.
The Tri-City is a cultural melting pot, and with it comes diversity in the flavors of ice cream. From Indian to Taiwanese to Afghan, local ice cream parlours are blending their culture with ice cream, ensuring a perfect flavor out there for anyone looking to cool down during the summer. See more on pg. 16
PHOTO FROM FLICKR, LICENSED UNDER CC BY 2.0
enrollment, as CA public schools have seen a 1.3% enrollment decline in the last year according to Times of San Diego. As FUSD navigates the new constraints, school principals across the FUSD continue prioritizing students’ education. For Perez, the solution begins with state officials recognizing the personal importance of public education. “Think about if your own child went to a public school that was desperately in need of some funding help,” Perez said, “would [state officials] try to do anything they could to help the school … [would they fund] all the resources and have the best staffi n g possible for their child to thrive and succeed?”
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For more coverage, visit www.thesmokesignal.org