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See inside: EDITORIAL pg 4 | RUSSO BIRDING pg 10 | ‘NEXT IN FASHION’ REVIEW pg 13 | ASHE TWINS pg 14 e
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Homestead High School 21370 Homestead Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014 · Volume 60 · Issue 6 · April 7, 2023
A closer look at racial imbalances in FUHSD By Joss Broward, Macy Li and Emma Yu
S
eventy years after the Brown v. Board of Education ruling prohibited state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools, certain districts across the nation remain segregated by race and socioeconomic status, according to USC’s 2022 Segregation Index. For the past 10 months, senior Kumar Chandra has been working with Nabeel Gillani, an assistant professor at Northeastern University, to study school segregation. Chandra said they used public data to examine district zones on a national level, with the goal of using computational models to assist districts with redrawing boundaries and reducing segregation. Currently, this research project is an ongoing collaboration between MIT, Harvard University and Northeastern University. At MVHS and LHS, approximately 79% of enrolled students during the 2021-22 school year were Asian and 8% were white, while only 3% were Hispanic, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. In contrast, 40% of students in FHS were Hispanic, whereas 33% were Asian and 18% were white. Chandra and Gillani’s preliminary study revealed the FUHSD ranks 25th nationwide for intradistrict segregation between Hispanic and non-Hispanic students out of 222 districts with over 10,000 students each, Chandra said. “The more north you go, the poorer it is and the more brown it is,” Chandra said. “The more south and the more west you go, the richer it is and the more white it is. It’s a different problem to fix in terms of residential segregation, but what we can change are the boundaries.” In the FUHSD, school attendance boundaries have remained the same since 1981, following the closure of Sunnyvale High School,
superintendent Graham Clark said. Prior to the closure, Sunnyvale High School was one of six schools in the FUHSD, located on Britton Avenue. While declining enrollment was the primary reason for its closure, Clark said schoolwide segregation was another cause. Although redrawing boundaries is a quick and effective way to mitigate intradistrict segregation, Gillani said, this solution is not always politically or socially viable. Certain families purchase homes in a specific attendance area with the intention of enrolling their children at its corresponding school. “There’s a tension between drawing more integrative boundaries and imposing large travel burdens on families,” Gillani said. “[When] you start to change the boundaries, that upsets a lot of parents, particularly parents who have more means to decide where to live and send their kids to school.” Since controversy can arise from boundary shifts, the district allows certain families to voluntarily send their kids to schools outside their attendance areas instead. However, these policies are in place primarily to combat declining enrollment, rather than segregation, Clark said. Still, programs that facilitate the exchange of students across school boundaries can arouse concern in the community. For example, in 2015, the Board of Trustees proposed a slight shift in LHS’ boundaries, allowing students in a small section of the CHS area to attend LHS. From 2016 to 2018, these CHS students could choose whether to switch schools, but the shift would become permanent at the beginning of the 2018-19 school year. However, this effort was widely protested by Lynbrook residents, who garnered over 3,700 petition
Junior to be FUHSD board representative By Brian Ling After several weeks of inter- more important than [that] is letviews and written applications, ting students know how they can junior Elisa Floyd was nominated contribute their voices,” Floyd said. The selection process began at to become the next student board representative and will assume the school level to decide which the position’s responsibilities be- student from a pool of applicants ginning in May. would advance to the next level, The junior said she initially Floyd said. learned of the position opening See Board rep, Page 2 up from the school’s weekly bulletin and morning announcements, and decided to apply after being involved with the Fremont Union High School District Climate Action Team which she helped to develop last year. “[A goal I have is] utilizing social media, which is something that students check a lot more than the website [and is] an easy way to get information out there, but I think what’s Elisa Floyd will serve as student rep-
resentative. (Photo by Brian Ling)
signatures in support of open enrollment instead, according to the petitioning group’s website, Better Lynbrook. The community opposed this proposal for a variety of reasons, such as sentiments that LHS was overcrowded, a desire to maintain small class sizes and the misconception that elementary or middle school students could “lose their spot,” Rachel Zlotziver, the coordinator of communications at the district office, said. These concerns spurred over 1,500 parents and community members to attend board meetings regarding the district’s proposal. After widespread protests from LHS families, the district ultimately decided to create an area of choice, rather than a permanent shift, which is still in effect. Despite the FUHSD’s unsuccessful attempt to alter school boundaries, individuals like Chandra and Gillani continue to actively work toward mitigating segregation in districts throughout the country. In addition, Zlotziver said the FUHSD recognizes the differences in racial demographics that exist across the five schools.
“FUHSD does have a desire to balance enrollment between our high schools in order to keep them comprehensive,” Zlotziver said in an email. “Diversity is certainly one factor that we would consider in this process.” While closing the achievement gap is an important reason for redistricting, more important is the effect it will have on students’ perceptions of others, Gillani said. According to USC’s Segregation Index, school segregation is one of the key barriers toward social mobility and equal opportunity.
“How can we expect to have a better tomorrow if our kids are not engaging with people who are different from them?” Gillani said. “If our networks are isolated from the earliest stages, it’s going to be very difficult to have a healthy society.”
Fremont
Homestead Cupertino Monta Vista Lynbrook The Hispanic population makes up 40% of FHS, but only 3% of LHS. (Map by Joss Broward)
Infographic by Saira Ahmed and Emma Yu. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics, 2021-2022
Spring fling canceled due to low ticket sales By Lia Klebanov and Brevin Reed Initially planned for March 10, this year’s Spring Fling celebration has been canceled due to low tickets sales. In order for school-sanctioned dances to be financially viable and permitted, assistant principal Susan Rocha said 150 students, at minimum, must show interest through sales. Freshman Alyssa Kolin was one of the 11 students who purchased a ticket and said she was looking forward to attending the event with her friends after they were all unable to go to the Winter Formal held in January. Kolin said she was surprised to hear of the cancellation a week before the scheduled dance, which she felt was too sudden considering the timing. “It kind of let us down because we were all looking forward to it as our first high school dance,” Kolin said. “It was just the fact that the dance was
so soon and they posted it on Instagram on Sunday and it was supposed to be the next Friday. Everyone was mentally and physically preparing themselves [by buying attire] to go and then it was gone.” Sophomore class cabinet member Sophie Park said the dance was pushed forward to early March due to other school events such as BOTC and multicultural week occurring near the original intended Spring Fling date. Outside of school, activities like the March SAT may have discouraged students from attending, Park said. “There was a rule where we had to have sold a certain amount of tickets early enough to pay for everything,” the sophomore said. “There was miscommunication around that and so we weren’t aware of some logistical details.”
See Spring fling, Page 2
PAGE DESIGN BY SAIRA AHMED AND NATHAN GU