The first major march was after school, May 28. Students walked from the WHS campus to congressman Pete Stark’s office to bring his attention to allow Eugene to talk to the county representative regarding his current situation. Stark was told to contact Senator Dianne Feinstein and to convince her to pass a bill that would allow Kotelnikov and his mother stay in the U.S. for an extended amount of time. News spread throughout the student population and students have sent e-mails to the senator pleading for Kotelnikov’s right to stay with his sisters and mother in America.

“This is the most hopeful I’ve felt during this situation,” Kotelnikov said during the first rally. “I feel like this is beyond me. I feel this is a mark in history. This is something I will never forget. This is something my mom will never forget.”

Kotelnikov was surprised at the number of people showed up at the rallies as well as the number of people who were fighting for an immigration reform that benefit the children who are brought to America with no say. People spoke of the Development Relief and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, that is a bill that gives illegal immigrants the chance to stay in America for educational purposes.

Passage of the DREAM Act would allow Kotelnikov the chance to continue his education in America alongside his family.

Since then, there have been multiple rallies on the street as well as a candlelight vigil, June 2. Protesters chanted “I.C.E., be nice”, “save Eugene don’t be mean” and “support, don’t deport.” I.C.E. stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Police eventually informed protesters that the use of blow horns was prohibited. Instead of using blow horn, protesters used whistles at the following rally, May 31, to get the attention of passerby.

A benefit concert is being hosted to raise money for the family’s legal fees at Centerville Presbyterian Church, June 16. Donations are being collected at WHS and at Kotelnikov’s church.

Environmental Club hosted a booth to inform students about composting. Compost can be used as fertilizer for plants, and it contains decomposed meats, bones, plants and organic food waste. TOMS shoes, a company specializing in recycled shoes, set up a booth to promote awareness about recycled shoes.

In addition to environmental clubs, other clubs like Anime Club also participated. Anime Club promoted paper conservation by drawing on recycled paper.

The leadership class contributed to the green movement by using GreenWorks brand name cleaning products to clean their tables in the Student Center.

“[GreenWorks] doesn’t contain all those chemicals like other products [do],” senior Kimberly Chatterjee said.

ASB also set up a hemp bracelet crafting table, where students made bracelets out of hemp, a type of cannabis plant.

“Hemp is environmental and decomposes well. It’s great.” junior Rosalyn Chu said.

Often times hemp is useless and thrown away, but ASB found a fun method to use it.

“[Organizing the ecology fair was] more of collective effort now,” senior Connor Goldstein said. “More clubs [came] together.”

Ookhin didn’t expect the scholarship because the organization chooses only one person from WHS.

Along with her transcript, general information and teacher recommendations Ookhin had to write an essay to apply for the scholarship. In the essay she wrote about obstacles regarding her move to America from Burma in the eighth grade. She wrote about how she needed to adapt to a new environment, as well as her experiences in Speech and Debate and Key Club.

The scholarship grants Ookhin $4,000 for college funds. Each year she receives $1,000 for maintaining a 3.0 GPA throughout her four years of college.

“It [the assembly] was totally useless. Nobody could hear,” elections committee member junior Tessa Thym said.

The week before spring break, Thym and juniors Sophia Harrison and Erin Enguero wrote up questions and made a video schedule. When the candidates came in, they were told the procedures and got to read the questions for a couple of minutes. They got the chance to introduce themselves and say a short speech. After that either Thym or ASB president senior Seth Neumann asked the questions, which they edited out and put on the bottom of the screen.

According to Thym, there were no big technical problems. One thing they want to change is they want one DVD with a menu for the different grades. Since this year, they did most things last minute, next year they want to do more planning in class.

The juniors had to watch 19 interviews this year, so in classes that had all three grade levels, the juniors had to go to the cafeteria with the juniors who had P.E. The sound quality was pretty good, but there were more distractions. They hope less run next year, so everybody can stay in class. This would help students to be more focused, and keep them from talking so much and listen to the speeches.

According to Thym, the videos made the elections less of a popularity contest and made students able to see if people were suited for the position. They were able to see how they thought on the spot.

“It took the campaign up a notch,” Thym said.

According to Enguero, the videos saved time. Live speeches call for applause, which can slow down the process. There also wasn’t the time of waiting for the next candidate to speak. Since most students were in class, they got to vote while the candidates were fresh in their heads.
“Even though there was lots of preplanning, the day of [elections] went a lot smoother,” Enguero said.

The candidates had mixed emotions about the videos.

“I would say overall the videos were better but sometimes the speeches can show your personality more,” ASB president-elect junior Justin Woo said.

While Woo prefers the videos, ASB secretary-elect sophomore Emma Johnston would rather speak in front of her peers to inform them about herself and her credentials.

“But I know that it’s much more effective to do the interviews,” Johnston said.

English teacher Deborah Pavlecic was hesitant at first about the videos, fearing that there could be many technological problems. However, her freshmen class watched intently and took the voting seriously.

“I was very happy,” Pavlecic said.

Students were as equally impressed.

“The new system allows the student body to actually vote on the qualities of the candidates instead of just their name or how many posters are put up,” junior John Lund said.

However, Lund would like to see the unneeded questions taken out, such as the candidate “special talents,” and have more of a debate about school issues.

The policy sets guidelines for the amount of homework students should receive from their classes. It states that “homework given in Honor/GATE classes should conform with the time estimate for other non-Honors/GATE classes” (BP 6154). Basically, teachers should assign the same amount of homework, but the assignments for the Honors/GATE classes should be more challenging in comparison to that of college-prep classes. However, AP classes are an exception to this rule since they are considered college-level courses.

Nonetheless, the “homework assignments should be appropriate to the developmental levels of students and relevant to classroom instructions,” Wu said.

Teachers are given specific guidelines on the amount of time (in minutes) that should be spent on homework for each grade level. Study time for exams and related readings are to be assigned in the allotted minutes for nightly homework. However, the amount of time that should be spent on outside readings-reading not required for school-is also provided for in the policy, but it is included in a separate section of the homework policy.

The guidelines also states that “homework should not be assigned on Fridays, during breaks and vacations as a regular practice… [reserving] weekends and vacations for family time” (BP 6154).
However, some teachers disagree with this particular section of the policy.

“I don’t give more homework on a Friday than I do on a Monday,” statistics teacher Patricia Horvath said.

The policy will be enforced by working with site administrators. The plan will be monitored, and feedback from parents, staff and students will be considered in June.

“By having this policy, teachers will collaborate with each other more in giving homework assignments so that students [will not get] a tremendous amount of work from every teacher at the same time,” Wu said.

To view the entire homework policy, visit the FUSD website at http://www.fremont.k12.ca.us/fusd/site/default.asp.

The fair was held at the Teen Center in Central Park. The fair offered free admission and was coordinated by Fremont environmental specialist Chanel Kincaid.

“I was thrilled with the fair’s outcome. More schools participated this year compared to last year,” Kincaid said. “There was also music which entertained the guests.”

WHS New Leaf Club had a booth with games, such as spin-the-wheel, hangman and a water game with toy cars. They gave out brownies and Capri Sun coin pouches as prizes. The club also sold plants and lemonade. They will use profits to buy plants for the planting. Sophomore New Leaf vice president Bharathi Gandi asked senior Christopher Valdez to play the guitar to attract guests to the booth. Many WHS students came to represent the New Leaf Club and earn community service hours.

“The booth looked like a success. We earned a lot of money from selling plants, lemonades and brownies,” New Leaf president junior Julien Malard said.

Other Fremont high schools participated in the fair. Kennedy High School’s Green Ventures Academy sold healthy, organic food. They will donate the money earned to Tri Cities Food Bank. Irvington gave out plants and brought the hybrid bus the school won from America’s Greenest School contest.

American made paper and sold the paper cutouts for $1. They will adopt trees with the money earned. Fremont’s Got Talent vocalists Levi William, Ciara Lunger and Derek Chan also performed some original songs to entertain guests.

“The Earth Day fair was nice. I thought Levi William was very talented,” Gandi said.

Union City Transit, Alameda County Water District, Tri City Ecology Center and other corporations set up eco-friendly booths. The corporations gave out brochures to inform guests about being environmental friendly. Some corporations gave out free tote bags, pencils and other goodies to attract guests.
There was a native tree giveaway, bicycle safety check up and a lamp exchange. People could exchange their old 300-watt halogen floor lamp and their PG&E bill for a new energy-saving version for free. The Union Sanitary District hosted a pharmaceutical disposal and mercury thermometer exchanges.

There were also activities for children such as a puppet show and arts and crafts. Guests were also invited to vote for Earth Day fair posters designed by Kennedy and Washington High School students. Finalists included students from Washington, juniors Steven Lee and Cheng Tan.

The fair was a way for the city, high schools, non-profits organization and the county to provide event-goers with educational outreach about local programs or how to get involved in various environmental topics. It emphasized the importance of giving back to the planet.

“The planet provides water, air and so much more for us. We should be thoughtful in return on how we are impacting those resources that we so readily rely on,” Kincaid said.

The crowd started coming in at 9:30 a.m. to check out the variety of items up for grabs.

Among the many things for sale were clothes, paintings, vintage Christmas accessories, wooden furniture, couches, shoes, toys and even scuba gear.

Volunteers arrived at Washington around 6 a.m. to set up tables at the garage sale located in the parking lot in front of the auto class. The volunteers were mainly parents, but a handful of WHS students also lent a helping hand.

“We took a whole bunch of donations from the Glenmoor community and put them up for sale here at Washington,” event organizer Tony Groenewold said. “We really got a lot of donations, and everything else that isn’t sold will be donated to Mission Ministries.”

All the proceeds made from the garage sale are intended to be used for Grad Nite.

“We made a little over $1400 and our goal was $1000, so we’re happy,” parent volunteer Cathy Sullivan said.

The whole fundraising campaign for Grad Nite is nearly finished, despite a few concerts that are going to be held at the Shoreline Amphitheater, and the parents still plan to collect funds for lawn signs and a silent tea.

Why many people, including those of the senior class,were completely oblivious of the garage sale is still puzzling to the parents who set it up.

“We did announce the garage sale in the school announcements for three weeks prior,” Sullivan said. “So, we did try to get the word out, without spending funds we didn’t have.”

Either way, the garage sale drew in a crowd that was mainly outside of Washington. The volunteers made more than they needed, and the class of 2010 can look forward to investing in one extravagant Grad Nite.

“Even as a very young kid, I was interested in math and solving problems,”  Luo said.

In second grade, he asked his parents to enroll in Kumon Math program, a program which helps students excel in their interest. He worked on the Kumon worksheets everyday. He participated in the North American Kumon Math Competition in fourth grade and received first place. He also participated in many other Kumon challenges and won prizes.

Kevin continued his interest in math in junior high by taking an extra Algebra I course online which allowed him to skip a math class later in his school years. He also received a national award from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth for his high score in the SAT-I Math section as a seventh grader.

In high school, he participates in the AMC 10 and AMC 12 examinations every year, and qualifies for the AIME.

“We appreciate WHS Math club and Ms. Browne for giving Kevin and other students the opportunity to represent Washington High School and to participate in math competition events of the Bay Area,” Kevin’s mother Hong Zhou said.

Kevin also has a passion for helping other students in math. He has been participating in the math tutoring after school since 2008. This summer, he plans to take a class called “Logic, Cryptography, and Number Theory” in the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS).

“We are happy to see his growth and are very proud of his achievements”  Zhou said.

“We were washing the floors with the pressure washer and it the smoke set off the alarm,” ROP Auto Teacher Doug Nahale said.

Despite the sudden interruption during brunch, vice principals and experience kept student organized.

“My class was prepared, they knew that they needed to go to their [third period] class,” Spanish teacher Dolores Vera-Valdez said.

Once the alarm was confirmed as false, students were released to their classes. They then proceeded with the planned STAR testing run-through.

“It was very sudden, it cut into very unnecessary academic time,” Senior Scott Wolbert said.

“The purpose was to get the freshman more involved in school and create a sense of community at Washington,” Link Crew leader senior Michael Jones said.

Link Crew plans to publicize the event better if they decide to host it again next year.

“If we do it again [next year], we will get the word out much sooner and to more people so that [the event] can be more successful,” Jones said.