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March 30, 2010
Nicole Pham
Those dissatisfied with the school system can leave early by taking the California High School Proficiency Examination (CHSPE), but few Washington students know about it.
Most students drop out, complete independent study or attend an alternative school, such as Robertson. Some students learn about the CHSPE through word of mouth, but the school has not communicated this option to all juniors and seniors.
According to state law, high school principals are required to distribute an announcement explaining the CHSPE to each student in grades 11 and 12. The superintendent is responsible for informing the principals.
Students who pass CHSPE earn the legal equivalent of a high school diploma by obtaining a Certificate of Proficiency, even without the required units for graduation. Those interested must be between 16 and 18 years old. The exam includes math and English language arts sections. Taking and passing CHSPE, however, does not necessarily require a student to leave high school.
“I believe students should be made aware of this option by school staff,” superintendent Milt Werner said, in an e-mail.
Principal Linda Fernandez relies on career technician Michelene Wittmer and school counselors Carol Brahmst, Britny Stewart and Carrie Merfeld to relay information about CHSPE to students.
In her eight years as a counselor, Stewart knows of two students who took the test.
“For most people, it’s not the alternative they want to take,” Stewart said. “They don’t want a full exit.”
English teacher Teri Hu prepared “How Would You Like to Finish High School Early?,” a presentation about CHSPE, at a Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) meeting Dec. 7.
“It is not up to counselors, teachers or administrators to determine if a student would possibly want to take CHSPE,” Hu said.
“At most, maybe a dozen or so kids will take it, but that will be a dozen kids who would otherwise be miserable in high school.”
The test is administered three times a year: March, June and November. Though the March 21 test date passed, those interested can apply for the June 19 test by May 21.
The fee is $92 for regular registration, $120 for late registration and $145 for special registration. Results are mailed July 23.
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October 16, 2009
Chase Glenister
Fremont police department officials called a meeting with the FUSD and all secondary principals in the district, including Principal Linda Fernandez. The FPD wants to have the schools be stricter about the hat policy, to make it easier to distinguish between students and gang members.
“It is effective on all campuses in the district, not just ours. In addition, they chose hats because they wanted to be fair about it. Not everyone wears tank-tops or low-cut Dickies. Everyone wears hats,” Vice Principal Lance Miller said.
As a result of the new hat policy, people can buy a Husky Hat for $20 at the student center. All money will go to the student store account.
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October 16, 2009
Bach Phan
The long standing tradition of the Hello Dance will not be part of the school year this year.
The Hello Dance was going to feature new things. It was going to include a state of the art speaker system, which is supposed to be better than what most DJs have. The school also bought DJ software and 200 songs from iTunes. This was all an attempt to have our school be able to DJ ourselves and not have to hire professional DJs. The administrators were excited to bring about this new change, but things got in the way.
According to activity coordinator Helen Paris and principal Linda Fernandez, the money raised for the dance was not going to be able to offset the expenses of running a dance. The money that is needed to run a dance can be hefty. The district requires one custodian for every 150 people, five paid teachers, one administrator, Officer Foote and eight to ten parents to supervise. The overall cost to set up the Hello Dance would have been about $2000. The school tries to at least break even and have money for classes to invest in Senior Ball and Senior Week.
“We have to be frugal with our budget this year,” Fernandez said.
Paris and ASB expect every class to have at least $15,000 by their senior year going towards Senior Ball. There has to be at least 40 people to clean up and set up the dance.
“I’m not going to have a massive amount of manpower and have nobody show up,” Paris said.
Overall the ticket sale, which was believed to about 60 people buying tickets, is at about 50. This would not have been worth the expenses or the effort to put up the Hello Dance.
There are several reasons as to why the ticket sales for the Hello Dance were so low. The Hello Dance was moved to a later date because Paris planned to have the Up Yours Lunch prior to the dance. We did not get the API score increase that we were looking for. The Hello Dance was also scheduled at the same time as the Shoreline concert headlining Brad Paisley.
Next year Paris plans to move the dance two weeks earlier to make the desire to go more prevalent. They also plan on having the students buy the tickets sooner than they did this year.
