By Karla Tapia & Osvaldo Herrera
For the second consecutive year, Mr. Truong planned a snowboarding trip to Reno, Nevada, where he (along with other staff) took a selected few of students to enjoy Reno and have fun in the snow. We (the students) spent three days and two nights in Reno and were able to stay at the Circus Circus Casino/Hotel. Before enjoying all of the fun and games, we needed to make sure we had fulfilled all of the requirements asked of by Mr. Truong. Since Mr. Troung could not take the entire school, he had to put requirements in order to narrow down the list of students. In order to go, we needed the following:
* Have no less than a 2.0 GPA
* No F’s
* No behavioral issues
* No detentions
* Attend all trip meetings
More on page 128
admin @ March 23, 2009
By Joseph Fernandes and Ranfis Villatoro
This is a transcript of a students’ podcast:
This is Ranfis Villatoro, and Joseph Fernandes, with the story on the showcase at LPS SJ which occurred on Friday, January 10th. The showcase was an opportunity for the students of LPS to show off some of their incredible talents and skills, and an invitation for fellow students, their families, and other families, to view the work of students. A total of sixteen performances took place, kicking off with a piece by Amanda Carter, better know to us as Skittles, followed by Ivy Torres, Rachel Baeza, Armond Witherspoon, Sean Powell along with Kelcey Simbulan, Alfredo Martinez, the Martial Arts Club, and Jeo “Thumpa” Bautista along with Chris “Saucey” Smith, before an intermission. The intermission was followed by eight further performances, in order, Luis Gutierrez, Liz Burwell, Chris Luna, the Graffiti Art Exhibition, who’s artists were Johnny Gonzalez, Leo Benitez, and Edgar Lopez,followed by another performance by Jeo Bautista, Ashley Ornelas, Melanaite Tohi along with her family, and the closing performance being Amandalina along with Ixchel.
admin @ March 23, 2009
Many of you have questions like “What is WASC and why is WASC so important?” Two years ago, LPS San Jose went through several processes in order to get the three year WASC accreditation that we later received. From the beginning of the 2008 school year until around the end of January, beginning of February 2009, teachers and staff will be working on a 200 page booklet which will be sent to WASC in order to keep our school accredited.
For those of you who don’t know what WASC is, WASC is the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. They are one of six organizations which provide accreditation for public and private schools, colleges, and universities in the United States. WASC is further divided into 3 commissions, which deal with different levels of education. WASC- ACS (Accrediting Commission for Schools) is the commission which deals with all elementary, middle and high schools. If a school isn’t approved by WASC, it’s not really a school. More on page 126
admin @ March 4, 2009
Leadership Public Schools in East San Jose (or LPS) has seen and felt changes ever since the school opened back in 2004. Since the school has opened in 2004 it has had its increase in students. LPS has also moved from place to place, initially located next to Mount Pleasant High School. After a year at that site, LPS moved next to Piedmont High School. LPS was there for two years and then it relocated again to its present day location which is next to Overfelt High school. The chart to the right shows how our school has increased in population. According to Mr. Smith, our Dean of Academics, our school’s population will increase next year to about 400 (the year 2009-2010).
This increase in student population has both positive and negative aspects. Here at our location next to Overfelt, there are only 24 classrooms available and not all of the rooms are used to teach an academic subject. Right now, there are about 20 to 25 students per class. In some classes there are even less, but that all depends on the subject that is being taught. If there is another increase in student body, then the class rooms will be packed, and it would be really hard for a teacher to be able to pay attention to every student in the classroom.
More on page 125
admin @ March 4, 2009