Lights in the Night
April 17, 2019
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Samuel Hagos (11), Mekhyle Ndah (11), Anant Sherwal (11) and Rajdeep Sandhu (11) laugh before taking a picture together.
About the Contributor
Chelsea Nguyen, Photo Editor
Chelsea Nguyen is a junior at UPA who has taken journalism for two years. She decided to take journalism because of its enjoyable environment and out of...
![One full month of consideration from the Santa Clara County Board of Education passed, and the night of Nov. 6th, after the meeting was delayed a full two hours after the initial start time, ended with UPA’s reauthorization for another five years. At approximately 8:30 p.m., the members of the Santa Clara County Board of Education met with Executive Director David Porter, other UPA Administrators and even teachers who attended the meeting and watched with anticipation if the school would be cleared to operate for another half-decade. With concerns raised about conflict of interest on the Board of Trustees, performance gaps, special education and vaping, UPA responded to each concern well enough to maintain the faith of Santa Clara County, further supported by the students and staff members that spoke on behalf of the school’s performance. Although UPA overcame the hurdle of another authorization, the Santa Clara Board offered key advice such as the increase of special education and further inclusion in the school’s demographic that UPA will hope to follow into 2025. The final vote for the reauthorization was 6-1 in favor of UPA, with board member Cladia Rossi (Area 7) voting against UPA on the notion that the school did not do enough to represent those that do not speak English as a first language. “When the board is asking questions, they will make concerns known,” Director of Student Services Andrew Yau said, “and that will drive us for the next five years [...] to make sure we address those.”
First Photo: Executive Director David Porter and Director of Curriculum and Instruction Matt Daughterey answer questions from the board.
Second Photo: Board Members Peter Ortiz (Area 6), Kathleen M. King (Area 2) and County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mary Ann Dewan read over the third issue of 2018-2019’s Aquila newsmagazine.
Third Photo: Board member Joseph Di Salvo (Area 4) addresses his reasons for voting ‘Yes’ in renewing UPA’s charter, flanked by board members Grace Mah (Area 1) (Right) and Anna Song (Area 5) (Left).
Fourth Photo: UPA parents and staff members watch the meeting.
Reporting and photos by Kristian Crowther, Co-Editor-in-Chief.](https://upaaquila.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
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