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FUHSD halts Ethnic Studies course plans
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Iran war is not a punchline
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Sheltered classes guide EL students to academic success
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Manga vs. comics: it isn’t black and white
Alum reflects on professional baseball career
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Volume 63, Issue 6
Homestead High School 21370 Homestead Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014
April 2, 2026
HHS admin implements Tardy Reduction Campaign New enforcement system aims to foster attendance consistency Amanda Boles and Maya Dutt Administration announced its Tardy Reduction Campaign, running from March 9-April 9, in a schoolwide email on March 6. The campaign states that classes with the best attendance will earn rewards, while tardy students will be held accountable through randomly assigned morning detentions. Interim dean Derek Chan, who is overseeing the campaign, said the new system was created to mitigate tardiness. After two two-week periods, Chan said he reviews attendance data, rewarding classes with the best and most improved attendance. “The detention piece is more [about] accountability,” Chan said. “[But] it’s twofold. We’re trying to celebrate people who are on time, so all the classes working toward minimizing their tardies are also being looked at.” Following an increase in tardies and growing teacher concerns over the past year, principal Denae Nurnberg said administration felt it was important to address the ongoing issue. “In the quad, five minutes into the period, there are kids who are like, ‘I’ll get there when I get there,’ and it’s wild,” Nurnberg said. “It’s a really unhealthy dynamic, and then the burden lands on the teacher
and the other students to catch that student up. All those things happen right in the middle of them trying to get their day started, so it’s definitely a culture we need to shift.” Under the current attendance system, Nurnberg said teachers must write referrals to give detentions, placing more work on them and leaving implementation to their discretion. “There’s not an automated process, but that’s something teachers have asked a lot for,” Nurnberg said. “That might be something we look at implementing at the beginning of the school year next year, to support this notion of students being on time.” To hold students accountable with the Tardy Reduction Campaign, one class is randomly selected per period in each department to be surveyed for attendance, Chan said. The randomization enables a representative yet feasible survey for the high number of weekly tardies, Chan said, with any tardy students in selected classes receiving a detention. With tardiness frequently being an issue in his first-period class, Spanish teacher Paco Arevalo said he believes the new system provides a beneficial but not all-encompassing solution. Specifically, Arevalo said he appreciates its random selection that parallels real-life situations. “For example, if you are a driver and you are speeding, but you usually don’t speed,
it may happen that [police] pull you over,” Arevalo said. “But it’s more likely that if you respect the speed limit, you won’t be pulled over, even if you do it once or Photo by Parth Dhaulakhandi twice.” Junior Tristan Le, who Under the Tardy Reduction Campaign, detention attended detention on slips are given to tardy students from randomly March 25, said he felt its selected classes, Derek Chan said. 30-minute duration did not serve as a major punishment. “Personally, it doesn’t impact anyone too much because not a lot of people are here,” Le said. “[Detention] is a First two weeks of new tardy system: short time, but it does dissuade From March 9- April 9, tardies are handed out being tardy a bit.” with more severe consequences. Instead of the During the first week of the usual three tardies for one detention, one random campaign, administration reclass per department is randomly checked corded 1,470 tardies, and 1,009 every period, and any tardies result in immediate tardies in the second, four-day detention. school week, Chan said. The plan is temporary as adSecond two weeks of tardy system: ministration aims to analyze the Classes with the least tardies are to be incencampaign to adjust next school tivized with a pizza or donut party, with the year’s success, Nurnberg said. metric shifting from least tardies to most “It’s not a long-term plan, but if we improvement since the first week. find it effective, our goal is to reduce Analyzing data post-campaign: tardies,” Nurnberg said. “We’re going to Administrators hope to use the look at the data at the end and see where campaign to identify useful ways we go from there.” to combat tardiness. New and revamped solutions will be sought after this tardy policy and its effectiveness are properly examined.
Steps of the campaign
Information sourced from principal Denae Nurnberg and interim dean Derek Chan Illustration by Ivy Guo
Music classes perform at the Pacific Basin festival Band, orchestra attend biennial large trip Ethan Tan and Catherine Yang Collaborating with the CHS orchestra, the symphony orchestra and symphonic wind groups participated in the international Pacific Basin Festival from March 22-26 in Honolulu, Hawaii, assistant band director Mark Lee said. With the HHS music program traveling to attend large performance showcases every other year, the festival al-
lowed student musicians to connect with peers, other schools and new conductors, Lee added. Featuring music styles curated from various different composers, percussionist, senior Nathan Krimsley said he felt excited to perform the energetic selection. “A lot of these pieces got pretty loud, and it is fun to play very loud things,” Krimsley said. “Mr. Scharf chose a repertoire that had a lot of groove to it.”
See Band in Hawaii, page 2
Infographic by Amanda Boles and Parth Dhaulakhandi
Spring Fling dance makes comeback as casual event ASB hosts affordable underclassman event Parth Dhaulakhandi and Alicia Liste The underclassman exclusive Spring Fling dance, one of this year’s most affordable and casual dances, will take place April 24 in the cafeteria and quad, freshman class cabinet member Victor Alavez said. “It builds community between us underclassmen. Freshmen don’t know much
about sophomores and this helps build that connection,” Alavez said. “This is our first year having it, so it’s anticipated [and] special to us. It’s something you can only have for the first two years.” Although exact details of the dance remain a surprise, Alavez said it will feature food, drinks and fun games. The laidback nature of Spring Fling also allows students to enjoy themselves without the worries of elaborate dances, such as Winter Formal, Alavez added.
See Spring fling, page 2
PAGE DESIGN BY KANMANI RAGURAMAN AND ADVAY RANADE