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Homestead High School 21370 Homestead Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014 · Volume 60 · Issue 1 · October 7th, 2022
Graham Clark plans for district future New superintendent’s targets include nutrition, low enrollment
By Nicole Pimenta Innecco, Hope Saena and Faith Watters Starting his position as FUHSD superintendent on July 1, former HHS principal Graham Clark has begun implementing his plans for the school year and district’s future. Clark’s plans span numerous aspects of the district, including construction, nutrition and the implementation of a new course. Since the passing of measure G, which allocates $275 million for FUHSD construction, the district has been allowed to conduct more work in construction across the five schools, such as classroom modernization. At HHS, the B, L, C and science buildings will be revamped to improve safety. “What’s taking so long for the construction to finish is the seismic strengthening. These buildings need to be the safest place to be if there’s ever an earthquake,” Clark said in a Zoom interview. “Schools have a higher construction standard, as they are supposed to be local area shelters in case there is an emergency or fire.” Another project the district is committed to building is a robotic center for the robotics teams from all schools, whose location is not yet determined, Clark said. “We would like to build a studio where the five schools can come to-
gether and practice against each other,” Clark said. “Their equipment can be left there and since the setup time with robotics is time consuming, I think this will relieve them of that.” Additionally, to combat declining enrollment across FUHSD, Clark said the district plans to restart the Citizens Advisory Committee, whose goal is to ensure registration stays consistent across the five schools, he said. “We are trying to make sure we can stabilize and monitor the enrollment,” Clark said. “We need to keep the schools the same size so that everyone can offer the same courses. If not, we would start to lose some electives due to interest level.” Another change being implemented is the FUHSD Nutrition Services Student Board, a student committee looking to improve student satisfaction with meals.
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Clark said with the district’s new change of feeding all students for free, the Nutrition Services Department is ensuring the program is providing meals students desire. “If you’re serving food that no one wants, they’ll just throw it away,” Clark said. “We want to eliminate waste and keep students content.” In addition to integrating more student voices in decisions like nutrition, Clark said there will be a new ethnic studies course hopefully offered next year in the social studies department. Although some classes already touch ethnic issues, this course will dive deeper into the topic, Clark said. The course will ensure that underrepresented groups have their stories told.
See Graham Clark, page 2
Photo by Nicole Pimenta Innecco
Behind the scenes of Homecoming
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ASB students and volunteers work on decorations the theme of childhood movies: “Despicable Me,” “Toy Story,” “Smurfs” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks.”
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Securly implemented districtwide By Erin Loh To better suit FUHSD’s management of the one-to-one device program and to allow the district to qualify for federal E-rate funds, FUHSD implemented Securly, a web filter, across all five campuses for the 202223 school year, chief technology officer Scott Harrington said in an email. All students and staff must have the Securly certificate downloaded on their personal devices to access the FUHSD network. Designed specifically for schools, Securly is cloud-based and enforces safe internet use through blocking inappropriate web pages and granting administrator visibility to students’ online activity, according to Securly. Other districts in the Bay Area, such as the Palo Alto Unified School District, have also implemented Securly in recent years, Harrington said. Harrington, who led the effort to bring Securly to FUHSD, said Securly’s services are ideal for the district because they filter internet content on school-owned computers, even off campus. However, Harrington said that Securly’s web search filters do not apply when personal devices are used off campus. Filtering internet results off campus became necessary after the establishment of the one-to-one device program last school year, when many students began borrowing school Chromebooks for at-home use. In addition to Securly’s ability to screen content at all times on school Chromebooks, Harrington said Securly’s affordable price and focus on K-12 schools were added benefits of the filtering system. Securly also grants FUHSD eligibility to e-rates, a federal program that gives schools and libraries discounts for bandwidth services. Harrington said Securly blocks websites deemed inappropriate, as well as social media and gaming websites students should not be on during class time. “Filtered categories include pornography, drugs, gambling, adult content, network misuse, hate, games and search engines that do not have safe search,” Harrington said. “We are not doing any keyword filtering.”
See Securly, page 3
In this issue... Opinion
Lifestyles
Arts & Culture
Sports
More Hoco
Girls Who Code: Examining the true role of safe spaces in STEM Page 4
Hispanic Heritage Month: Celebrating cultures at HHS Pages 8-9
Books are back: Chronicling the rise of BookTok Page 13
Barnyard: New student section takes the stands
Want more news? Visit our website for up-to-date coverage of Homecoming
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PAGE DESIGN BY JOSS BROWARD AND EMMA YU BANNER ILLUSTRATION BY KATIE O’DELL