Principal's Message
2022-23 SCHOOL YEAR
- May 2023
- March 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- AUGUST 2022
May 2023
Dear Homestead,
Hard to believe that we are coming down to the last few weeks of the 2022-2023 school year, but graduation is just around the corner and the weather is slowly turning warmer. I thought it might be worthwhile to discuss declining enrollment in our district as it will bring about changes to our school and our district in the coming years.
Across the state, districts are reporting declines in student enrollment. There are a couple of reasons behind this decline such as the after effects of the pandemic, higher cost of living especially housing, and decreased birth rates in families. Our demographer, who the district has been using for many years because of his accuracy, has predicted a sharp decline in all five schools over the next five years. Previously, schools like Lynbrook and Monta Vista have been the ones to deal with shrinking populations but for the 2023-2024 school year, all five schools will be home to fewer students. Homestead, while currently the largest school in our district at nearly 2,300 students, is predicted to lose about 140 students for the next year. Even more shocking is the prediction that Homestead will lose closer to 700 students and see our student population decrease to between 1,500 and 1,600 by the 2027-2028 school year. The predictions for the other four schools don’t look much better with Lynbrook hovering around 1,300 students, Monta Vista around 1,600 students, and Cupertino predicted to be a little larger but still in the 1,600’s. Fremont is expected to be our largest school that year but even they will shrink to between 1,900 and 2,000 students. While predictions are really just well educated and researched guesses, our current enrollment patterns are showing all schools in this declining pattern for next year.
Having fewer students means fewer sections of classes and fewer teachers as our schedule is designed around the premise of student choice. These sections are built upon a student to teacher ratio that is negotiated by the district and the teacher’s union (FEA). Depending on the course, there might be a smaller ratio or a larger one. For instance, PE has always accommodated more students at a 40 to 1 ratio while a class like Algebra I is staffed at a 20 to 1 ratio. On average, our classes are at 32.5 to 1 (with some slightly larger and some slightly smaller). This ratio is designed to best support students while taking into account the number of classrooms on campus, the 7 period day, and the conflict matrix (which is a complicated process of minimizing classes that conflict with each other so that students have a better chance of getting the classes they signed up for).
Looking at the schedule for next year, we can already see that we have a need for less sections and teachers. Fortunately, we are able to cover these classes without having to lay off or reduce anyone on the teaching staff due to retirements, attrition, and reallocation of staff among the sites. For example, we have 3.5 retirements in the English Department so we are able to hire back a temporary teacher on our staff as well as bring in teachers from other sites who may not have classes to teach on their current site due to the decline. We can see that some of our departments like English, math, or PE have fewer requests so these are also acting like cuts but we don’t have to lay off anyone to achieve this.
One additional solution that the district has been looking at is reducing the total number of World Languages offered at each school. Currently, all five sites offer Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish. While Homestead’s enrollment for World Languages has been strong due to our bigger enrollment the other sites are showing concerns in being able to support four languages. Looking at other schools in our area, the trend data shows that schools with 2000+ students can support four languages, while schools that are around an enrollment of 1,600 can better support just three, and schools that are below 1,300 students really can only have two language programs. As a result, the district has decided to reduce one World Language program at each site depending on the lowest enrolled program. As of today, it looks like three schools would eliminate Japanese, one school would cut French, and Homestead would end our Chinese program. This is not an easy decision to make as we know that our students and our teachers are thriving in these classes but something must be done to help address the declining enrollment and ability to faithfully support the program. Probably, the hardest issue for Homestead is that there is very little difference between our two smallest programs and these two “smallest” programs are actually larger than the ones being cut at other sites. As a result, there is still some ongoing conversation with the district in terms of waiting to see where the decline takes World Language enrollment at Homestead. There is a meeting coming up later in the month that will look at and try to resolve this issue. I can say though that we are looking at the reduction of one of our language programs.
The model for reducing a language program is something that we have already done before in this district when, due to low student choice and course selection, all five schools eliminated German from the World Language Department. No matter what language, the process is similar in that there will be no changes made for the 23-24 school year; however, starting in 24-25 we would not offer Level 1 of that language and continue to reduce one level each year. This means by the year 2028, we would have stopped offering that language as an option. By doing it this way, rather than letting a program “die naturally”, we will be allowing both students and staff to make plans on how to move forward. We are in conversation with our district leaders about how to accommodate students who may want or need that language to continue their learning or cultural connection. We could be looking at a way to enroll students for a single course at another school, allowing students to transfer completely to a school that has the language they prefer to study, or allowing students to take the language at an outside school or program.
As we continue to discuss and adapt, I will be sure to keep you in the loop. At least for now, we know that we are staying the course for the 23-24 school year as we begin to drop in the total number of students. What won’t drop or decline is our staff’s commitment to serving our students and our families with a world class education. We have seen a lot in our 60 year history including steep increases as well as decreases in student enrollment, and yet we continue to be a truly amazing place to learn and work.
March 2023
Dear Homestead,
I hope your February ended well and that you all had a restful and relaxing break! As we move into Spring and begin the month of March, I wanted to bring to your attention a special project that Homestead will be participating in over the next several weeks: The American Heart Challenge in conjunction with The American Heart Association.
Just over one year ago, on 02-02-22 to be exact, the Homestead community experienced a traumatic event when one of our teachers, Steve Lavelle, suffered a sudden cardiac arrest during tutorial. The story has a great ending though as our amazing students sprung into action to alert staff that their teacher needed help. Several staff members immediately provided support to our students, called 911, began administering CPR, and eventually saved Mr. Lavelle’s life through the use of an AED machine before emergency paramedics arrived and transported Mr. Lavelle to the hospital. This story is quite an unusual one, as the paramedics who arrived on scene and many other medical and emergency professionals later told us, because they rarely see anyone receive the immediate care and attention that we were able to provide. This story ran in several newspapers and television news reports. We were even interviewed by a local radio station to spread the good news. Our story made its way to the American Heart Association who had been working with another student of ours and the idea for a partnership soon grew.
This story was a happy one because, fortunately, our staff has a great relationship with the emergency services teams of Sunnyvale, Cupertino, and Santa Clara as well as receives training regularly on emergency services. This is not the case for many citizens in our community so the American Heart Challenge was developed as a way to spread information on life saving techniques and to help build awareness of what to do if and when a loved one, or a total stranger, has an emergency and needs your help. Our students have been busy planning events on our campus to help further this cause and to make sure that others are alive to tell their stories.
Starting March 1st, we have planned the following activities to take place either during tutorial, lunch, or after school: CPR workshops, Yoga Demonstration, pig heart dissection, suturing instruction, dance battle, card and poster making activities, and guest speakers from the medical field. Our guest speakers are . . .
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Edward Ruppel is the CEO of Shape Memory Medical. He has been involved with many facets of the medical device industry from finance to R&D, but will share how ultimately his passion for mechanical engineering led him into a career working with medical devices.
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Dr. Kenneth Mahaffey is a cardiologist and clinical trial specialist. He is the head of the Stanford Center for Clinical Research and an associate dean at the Stanford School of Medicine. He will present his interests in multicenter virtual clinical trials and share what a career in clinical research looks like.
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Mitsutaka Shimabe is the CEO of Minaris Medical America (formerly Hitachi Chemical Diagnostics). He intends to share how he has been able to use his background in business, sales, and marketing to lead an enterprising medical device company that sells products around the globe.
We will be kicking things with a video that will be shown to all students that explains everything and you can watch the same video by clicking this link as well.
I would like to thank the following students and staff members for their help and support in getting this project off the ground: Ms. Jessica Kirby and the ASB Leadership Students, The Yoga Club with advisor Kelly Ronsheimer, The Future Physicians of America Club with advisor Natalie Della Santina, The Homestead Red Cross Club with advisor Steve Lavelle, and The Mental Wellness Space with Advisor Sarah Loyd. A special shout out to Neel Sudhakaran, Class of 2024, who was the one who brought everyone together and was the organizing force to get this off the ground. Of course we are indebted to our partners at the American Heart Association as well as our guest speakers. Finally, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the following staff members for helping out that day: Byron Lee, Harry Unsinger, Eileen Jones, Nicole Zambrano, Dan Yusim, and Louise Garces as well as the other members of the admin team and other teachers who I know were there but can’t remember that may have helped in some way way. And of course, a big shout out to Steve Lavelle and his wonderful wife, Susan.
January 2023
Dear Homestead,
As we return to school for the second semester, I can’t help but notice that the calendar reads January 9th, 2023. This date is memorable for two reasons, first it is my mother’s birthday, and second it marks the 10 year anniversary of my very first day as principal at Homestead High School. Looking back over these 10 years I have learned a lot and we have accomplished many things, and I am eager to see what the next 10 years will bring.
When I first stepped on to campus, we were just breaking ground for the Field House which followed the completion of the “new” Mustang Stadium with lights and turf fields. Solar panels were also installed in the staff and student parking lots. After the Field House was opened, we went to work on a new cafeteria that included three new science classrooms and a brand new quad. Then it was time to tear down the old F Building and put in its place the Innovation Hub, a building unlike any other in the district for its design and flexibility. Our next project was the Guidance Student Services (GSS) Building which helped create a new front of school and a more accessible front office. These changes also have helped us to upgrade campus security by limiting access to campus and improving foot traffic. Around the same time we installed security cameras (and have more coming as well as vape sensors for the bathrooms!). After the GSS, we shifted into modernization projects with the upgraded A Building opening for students and staff in August of 2023 and the B Building currently undergoing the same renovations (and scheduled to be open for the 23-24 school year). We will also be modernizing the Science Building over the summer of 2023. Along the way, there was a lot of work done underground to upgrade the technology and utilities on our campus (not quite as glamorous or noticeable as those other projects but definitely necessary and helpful). In the meantime, we have been able to add nearly 20 charging stations for electric cars thanks to a community grant so that our students, staff, and neighbors can benefit from easy access.
So if you were keeping track that is one new football stadium, two turf fields, a field house, three new buildings with 13 new classrooms, a cafeteria with upgraded food service and kitchen, two modernized buildings with 32 renovated classrooms, two parking lots full of solar panels, miles of underground utilities, and 20 electric charging stations. Another interesting set of numbers is the ratio of students to computers. In 2013, our ratio was 1 computer for every 8 students but with generous help from both the district and PTSA, we had reduced that ratio to 1 computer for every 1.5 students before we went to a Bring Your Own Device system. None of this would have been possible without the support of our community and the three bond measures passed during those same 10 years. And the work is not done as our most recent bond measure will bring about more work to update or replace the current C and L Buildings as well as to modernize the performing arts building.
In those 10 years, we have also had over 6,000 graduates who have left their mark upon our campus and are doing their best to keep up the Homestead tradition of changing the world. They have endured atmospheric rivers and school closures due to the Pandemic -- truly the most unusual thing I have ever dealt with in my 10 years here or in my 25 years of education. These students and their classmates have been responsible for hundreds of athletic championships; countless awards and scores of Superior or Unanimous Superior in Marching Band, Color Guard and Percussion competitions; consecutive state FBLA titles along with almost consecutive national titles; numerous National Merit Scholarships; and ever increasing recognition in Robotics, Mock Trial, Speech and Debate, and Model UN.
Even more impressive are the daily accomplishments that I have witnessed during my decade here. I have said it often, and will say it again (and probably not for the last time) but this has been the hardest working and most dedicated group of educators that I have ever worked with. From the support staff in the front office to the instructional aides in the classrooms, from our veteran teachers to our newest recruits, from our custodial team to our cafeteria workers -- They are all extremely skilled at what they do, they care about students, and they love Homestead. Not to mention our amazing coaches and advisors who provide outstanding athletic and extracurricular programs. Put them together with our extremely talented, creative, thoughtful, and dedicated students and we have an amazing congregation of individuals who come together every day and make Homestead a great place to learn and to work.
Of course Homestead could not be what it is today without mentioning our supportive and caring Parent community. Research has clearly shown again and again, that students who attend a school where there is a supportive and involved parent community perform well. And we have an abundance of areas where parents are present, active, and engaged in the well being of all students such as our PTSA, Foundation, Booster programs, School Site Council, English Learner Advisory Committees, Citizens Advisory Committee, WASC focus groups, and all the parent volunteers and coaches.
As I celebrate my 10th year and we continue to honor the 60th anniversary of Homestead, I would like to wish you and your family a happy new year. Here is hoping you have a wonderful second semester as we continue to grow and learn together.
Respectfully,
Greg Giglio, HHS Principal
December 2022
Dear Homestead,
As the first semester has come to a close, I wanted to wish the entire Homestead community a peaceful, restful, and relaxing holiday break. As we do head out, we do so with a heavy heart with the passing of Shreyas Kelkar. His death has been at the forefront of our thoughts and actions these past two weeks as we grapple with this tragedy and with the loss we are feeling.
It is times like this when we can truly feel the community spirit as students, staff, parents, and community members banded together to support each other and help those in need find a way to keep moving forward. Some of us may even find it a bit hard to enjoy the upcoming celebrations and festivities, but one thing that has become evident is the need to not only express how we are feeling but to also find ways to make ourselves happy or to feel comforted. The holidays bring many traditions and activities that are meant to help us reflect on the entire year, celebrate what we have accomplished, or give us the opportunity to make things better than before. I invite you to take part in whatever celebrations or traditions you have as you have earned your place at the table.
With school closing for two weeks, I invite you all to take time with your family and your friends to tell them how you appreciate them or what you appreciate about them. This is also a time to acknowledge your feelings and emotions and to allow yourself the opportunity to work through whatever you are feeling. I ask that you be mindful of each other and take extra steps to check on friends or family members who may need someone to be there by their side this holiday season. You may not be able to solve their problems but the act of being there and listening is the important factor in helping us heal. I also hope you take the time to do the things that will recharge your batteries and refill your empty tanks. We have all done a lot of good work these past five months, and we need to give ourselves credit where credit is due.
I would very much like to thank the Homestead staff for their support and outpouring of care and concern for not only these past two weeks but for the whole semester. I am also grateful for the parents who have stepped up to offer support, encouragement, and resources to us and to Shreyas’ family. I would especially like to thank the Homestead Mental Health Team of Sarah Loyd, Dawn Predium, Shabbie Afshar, Emily Bersaglia, Ellen Lain, Giuliana Chion, Marisa Amezquita, Raquel DeJesus, Wilma Wu, Derek Chan, and Eric Medeiros for their work and guidance. They have been supported by members of the district mental health team like Nancy Sullivan, Hayley Giniger, and Leila Lurie. I would also like to acknowledge the support and work of others around the district who have supported us such as Graham Clark, Tom Avvakumovits, Christine Mallery, Denae Nurnberg, Brian Dong, and Rachel Zlotziver. I would also like to give a huge shout out to Trudy Gross for her dedication and compassion in the organization and application of the care response actions. I am also indebted to the staff members of The Bill Wilson Center and the Center for Living with Dying who have been on our campus and in our community helping comfort all of us. Finally, I am thankful and grateful to our entire student body as they have been amazing in their support and swift in their help.
I look forward to seeing you all again in the new year but until then please have a wonderful holiday break.
Respectfully,
Greg Giglio
November 2022
November 2022 Principal’s Message -- Gratitude
In a 2021 article from Harvard Health Publishing, the university found that “gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” So since we are heading into November and are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving, I thought I would take some time to show some gratitude and help improve my own mental health at the same time.
People and things that I am grateful for at Homestead High School are . . .
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Being back to “as close to” normal as we can be
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Our teachers who work so hard, provide a high quality education for our students, and who care so deeply about the health and success of our students
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Our counselors who guide and mentor our students towards their post secondary goals
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Our office staff for providing the support and structure we need to effectively run our school
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Our paraprofessionals or instructional aids who work closely with students and staff to provide that extra support on a daily basis
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Our cafeteria staff who have been going like gangbusters since the pandemic and still serve upwards of 1,000 students at brunch and lunch each day
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Our custodial staff for keeping our campus in tip top condition and providing support for our numerous on campus activities
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Our school mental health team comprised of School Based Therapists and School Psychologists who help students, staff, and parents maintain that work/school/life balance
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Our Fall Athletic teams and coaches (Football, Field Hockey, Girls Volleyball, Water Polo, Tennis, and Cross Country) who have displayed sportsmanship both on and off the field, and who have been excellent representatives of our school
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All of our athletic teams and coaches as they begin the winter season and prepare for the spring one!
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Our outstanding advisors and volunteers who support our over 90 student clubs on campus
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Our student leaders -- whether in ASB, Clubs or Athletic Team Captains -- who proudly represent our school by being role models and exemplars of excellence
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Our district office administration who provide innumerable resources and opportunities for us to improve and grow as educators
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To our school board members for being our compass and for supporting us at every step
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To the community members who have supported our bond measures so that our campuses are more up to date and energy efficient than ever before
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To our alumni who over the past 60 years have helped us build Homestead into the amazing place that it is and who have then helped make the world a better place after they have graduated
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And finally for each and every one of our students as they are the reasons we do what we do!
I have changed the Parent/Student survey for November, so please take a look at the new one and send in your questions, concerns, ideas, suggestions, shout outs, and recognitions so that I can review or address them in the weekly video message.
I hope that you and your family get time to rest, relax, and show each other some gratitude as we start the holiday season. And here is looking forward to all that is still to come this year.
With Gratitude,
Greg Giglio
Homestead Principal
October 2022
Dear Homestead,
As the saying goes, “the only constant is change” so we continue to adapt and move with the times. As I have mentioned in several other places, we are losing two valued members of our administrative team as they transition to new positions at the district office. Brian Dong is leaving after 10 years on our campus to take over as Alternative Education Assistant Principal where he will be working with the Educational Options program and overseeing academic recovery programs such as Eighth Block and Summer School. Toby Mockler, our Facility Manager, has been with us for five years and is taking on the new position of District Office Facility Manager to oversee the new district office, educational options, and adult ed campuses. We wish both of them all the best as they continue to serve students in the Fremont Union High School District.
I am happy to announce that Paula Mockler will be returning to Homestead after a nine year absence as the Interventions Assistant Principal. Paula started with us as a classified instructional aide in the Special Education Department while she was earning her teaching credential. She was hired at Cupertino in their Special Education department to teach science until taking over at Fremont High School as the Department Chair for their Special Education program. She was then hired as a Dean of Students at Fremont, setting the stage for her return to Homestead. Her new duties will include interventions, COVID Designee, CAASPP and SAT testing as well as others. She will be supported by Lisa Fisher.
Susan Rocha, who started at our campus this year as the interventions AP, will be assuming the duties of the Athletics/Activities Assistant Principal. Susan will be supported by Liz Angel.
Just to give you an overview of the entire team, here is a chart to guide you:
Name: |
Title: |
Supported by: |
Greg Giglio |
Principal |
Tricia Crane, Executive Assistant |
Terri Hannigan |
Guidance Assistant Principal |
Cori Esquivel, AP Secretary |
Susan Rocha |
Athletics/Activities Assistant Principal |
Liz Angel, AP Secretary |
Paula Mockler |
Interventions Assistant Principal |
Lisa Fisher, AP Secretary |
Anthony Nguyen |
Dean of Students |
|
Maria Trejo |
Dean of Students |
|
TBD |
Facility Manager |
For more specific details about duties and responsibilities please refer to the revised admin duties chart or alphabetical resource list
We have interviewed candidates for the Facilities Manager position and have narrowed down a potential candidate but are waiting for the process to finalize before we announce the new manager so stay tuned.
No matter who is on our administrative team, our goals remain the same. We are looking to provide a rigorous educational experience for ALL students so that each and every one can realize their post-secondary goals and dreams in a safe and nurturing environment that is guided by staff, students and family input. Our administrative team will accomplish these goals by building strong and positive connections with our students, families, staff, and community partners. We also seek to provide appropriate and supportive resources for our students who are struggling or at-risk by promoting an equitable and anti-racist environment. These are lofty goals but with our amazing students, dedicated staff, and devoted parents we know that Homestead is a great place to learn and work.
Meanwhile, we are also excited to be heading into Homecoming week on October 3rd through 7th. We have a week full of spirited events so please encourage your students to get involved and come out to enjoy our daily activities in the quad such as Jersey Day/Sports on Monday, Celebrity Dress Up Day on Tuesday, Plushie Day on Wednesday, Class Theme on Thursday (Freshmen = Toy Story; Sophomores= Smurfs, Juniors = Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Seniors = Despicable Me) and Green and White Day on Friday. Be sure to come out for the Homestead Parade on Friday immediately after school, which is followed by the Homecoming Festival for students prior to the Homecoming football game vs. Mountain View at 7pm.
We will introduce our new admin team in an upcoming weekly video message, and in the meantime if you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, ideas, or recognition please be sure to send in a submission to our Parent/Student Survey.
Respectfully,
Greg Giglio
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Espanol:
Querido Homestead,
Quería anunciar varios cambios en nuestro equipo administrativo:
• Brian Dong se trasladará a la Oficina del Distrito
• Susan Rocha asumirá muchas de las funciones anteriores de Brian
• Paula Mockler ha sido contratada como nuestra nueva Subdirector de Intervenciones Académicas
• Toby Mockler, nuestro Gerente de Instalaciones Escolares, también se trasladará a la Oficina del Distrito
• Actualmente estamos en el proceso de entrevistar y contratar a un nuevo Gerente de Instalaciones Escolares
Aquí está una imagen de nuestro nuevo equipo:
Nombre: |
Títiulo: |
Con el apoyo de: |
Greg Giglio |
Director |
Tricia Crane, Asistente Ejecutiva |
Terri Hannigan |
Subdirector de Orientación Académica |
Cori Esquivel Secretaria del Subdirector |
Susan Rocha |
Subdirector de Deportes/Actividades |
Liz Angel Secretaria del Subdirector |
Paula Mockler |
Subdirector de Intervenciones Académicas |
Lisa Fisher Secretaria del Subdirector |
Anthony Nguyen |
Decano de Estudiantes |
|
Maria Trejo |
Decano de Estudiantes |
|
Por determinar |
Gerente de las Instalaciones Escolares |
Para detalles más específicos sobre los deberes y responsabilidades por favor refiérase a la tabla de deberes administrativos o a la lista de recursos en orden alfabético
Presentaremos a nuestro nuevo equipo de administración en un mensaje de video semanal, y mientras tanto, si tiene alguna pregunta, preocupación, sugerencia, idea o reconocimiento, por favor, asegúrese de llenar el formulario de la encuesta en: Encuesta de Padres/Estudiantes.
Respetuosamente,
Greg Giglio
_____________________________________________________________________________________
親愛的 Homestead,
我想宣佈幾項我們的行政團隊改變:
· 布萊恩·董/ Brian Dong 將轉到學區辦公室
· 蘇珊·羅查/Susan Rocho 將擔承布萊恩大部份職責
· 寶拉. 莫克勒/Paula Mockler 已被聘為我們新任助理校長
· 托比·莫克勒/ Toby Mockler,我們的總務經理,也將轉到學區辦公室, 我們目前正在面試招聘一名新的總務經理
以下是我們的新團隊展望:
姓名: |
職稱: |
助理/秘書: |
Greg Giglio 葛雷克. 紀理歐 |
Principal 校長 |
Tricia Crane/ Executive Assistant 翠珊. 可雷亞/行政助理 |
Terri Hannigan 泰莉. 漢尼根 |
Guidance Assistant Principal 教務助理校長 |
Cori Esquivel/ AP Secretary 可麗. 雅斯科維佛/秘書 |
Susan Rocha 蘇珊·羅查 |
Athletics/Activities Assistant Principal 體育/活動助理校長 |
Liz Angel/ AP Secretary 麗紫. 安卓/秘書 |
Paula Mockler 寶拉. 莫克勒 |
Interventions Assistant Principal 調解仲裁干預事務助理校長 |
Lisa Fisher/ AP Secretary 莉莎. 費雪/秘書 |
Anthony Nguyen 安東尼. 阮 |
Dean of Students 訓導處主任 |
|
Maria Trejo 瑪麗亞. 崔亞何 |
Dean of Students 訓導處主任 |
|
TBD 尚未定案 |
Facility Manager 總務經理 |
有關更多具體的職責細節,請參閱行政管理職責修訂圖表 revised admin duties chart 或按字母順序排列的資源清單 alphabetical resource list
我們會在即將到來的每周視頻消息中介紹我們新的管理團隊,同時,如果您有任何問題,顧慮,建議,想法或認許,請踴躍提交家長/學生調查問卷 Parent/Student Survey。
葛雷克. 紀理歐/ Greg Giglio 謹上,
亲爱的 Homestead,
我想宣布几项我们的行政团队改变:
· 布莱恩·董/ Brian Dong 将转到学区办公室
· 苏珊·罗查/Susan Rocho 将担承布莱恩大部份职责 宝拉.
· 莫克勒/Paula Mockler 已被聘为我们新任助理校长
· 托比·莫克勒/ Toby Mockler,我们的总务经理,也将转到学区办公室, 我们目前正在面试招聘一名新的总务经理
以下是我们的新团队展望:
姓名: |
职称: |
助理/秘书: |
Greg Giglio 葛雷克. 纪理欧 |
Principal 校长 |
Tricia Crane/ Executive Assistant 翠珊. 可雷亚/行政助理 |
Terri Hannigan 泰莉. 汉尼根 |
Guidance Assistant Principal 教务助理校长 |
Cori Esquivel/ AP Secretary 可丽. 雅斯科维佛/秘书 |
Susan Rocha 蘇珊·羅查 |
Athletics/Activities Assistant Principal 体育/活动助理校长 |
Liz Angel/ AP Secretary 丽紫. 安卓/秘书 |
Paula Mockler 宝拉. 莫克勒 |
Interventions Assistant Principal 调解仲裁干预事务助理校长 |
Lisa Fisher/ AP Secretary 莉莎. 費雪/秘书 |
Anthony Nguyen 安东尼. 阮 |
Dean of Students 训导处主任 |
|
Maria Trejo 玛丽亚. 崔亚何 |
Dean of Students 训导处主任 |
|
TBD 尚未定案 |
Facility Manager 总务经理 |
有关更多具体的职责细节,请参阅行政管理职责修订图表 revised admin duties chart 或按字母顺序排列的资源清单 alphabetical resource list
我们会在即将到来的每周视频消息中介绍我们新的管理团队,同时,如果您有任何问题,顾虑,建议,想法或认许,请踊跃提交家长/学生调查问卷 Parent/Student Survey 。
葛雷克. 纪理欧/ Greg Giglio 谨上,
September 2022
Dear Homestead,
It’s never too early to start talking about keeping students and staff safe at schools. Afterall, a major factor in student learning is helping them feel safe from the moment they step on campus until they return to your doorstep at the end of the day. This is a monumental task, but one that we take very seriously.
This year, the HHS Deans and I along with other admin team members from the various high schools in our district, took part in an all day virtual training with the Sandy Hook Promise team. This group was organized after the horrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary and has been working with law enforcement and schools to provide training, tools, and programs to support a healthy and safe environment. This was followed by an exercise that the district participated in with the city of Cupertino to practice and refine our Incident Command System in the event of an emergency. We also discussed the Incident Command System at our district retreat and will review our practices throughout the year.
At our August Staff Development days before school, the entire staff went through a review of our emergency procedures which was facilitated by our two school resource officers, Deputy Patel and Deputy Bui. We have also moved up our fire drill and run/hide/defend drills to September 2nd and September 7th respectively. During these first two weeks of school, teachers and staff will be reviewing emergency protocols with each class period so that everyone is prepared and aware of our procedures. Speaking of Resource Officers, we are glad to partner with both Sunnyvale and Santa Clara Sheriffs who provide us resource officers to help support the needs of our students and staff. They do not have offices on our campus but are on call and drop by from time to time. These officers are specially trained to work with students and truly enjoy getting to know them and helping to build positive relationships with them and their families.
While it is great to be prepared to react in an emergency, the experts agree that the best way to be prepared is to build proper prevention strategies among staff and students. As part of the Sandy Hook Promise presentation, we will be refining our threat assessment tools and procedures so that we can use early detection signs to provide support and resources when students, staff, or parents are in need. This is also where our Student Safety Report and Wellness Check forms on our website can be extremely useful. Look for the diamond shaped rainbow Mustang symbol to click on and start filling out these reports when you have an issue or see something concerning. These reports go directly to the Deans who will begin assessing or investigating.
Our Wellness Check forms can also be found on our website under the Student Portal (scroll down the list of buttons and inks on the right side of the page). These forms are for students or parents to ask for support or check-ins from our School Based Therapist.
Another part of our training comes from the state who mandates certain trainings every year such as suicide prevention or child abuse protection. Every staff member on campus, including coaches and volunteers are mandated reporters who go through this training and are made aware of their responsibilities in reporting suspected abuse and neglect, as well as how to respond to potential suicidal thoughts and ideations from students. Even from the start of employment, each employee and volunteer must go through a background check that includes fingerprinting through the Department of Justice. If anything comes up in the check, the individual is not hired and is permanently banned from employment in the district. After being employed, any issue that comes up will be reported to the district so that the appropriate actions can be taken.
Our campus does not allow unannounced visitors or permit non-students to walk around campus during the school day. To keep everyone safe, visitors must check in to the front office and receive a visitor’s pass. Along those lines, you may be asked to show an id such as a driver’s license when picking up your student as a means of precaution. Staff have access to a form where they can input the names, dates, times, and places for a visitor which helps the front desk keep track of who is here and how many passes are out. Any adult or unfamiliar youth not wearing a visitor’s pass will be stopped and directed to either leave campus or to check in properly. If you are coming to campus without an appointment, please check in at the office and do not wander around campus. With our current gates and fencing, we block access from the North side (the front facing Homestead Ave) by closing and locking those gates after morning drop off, so the only way to access the campus is from the student lot or through the office. Please do not prop open gates as they are equipped with crash bars to allow for easy exit in the event of an emergency but remain locked to the outside. Security cameras are in operation throughout the campus with signs posted at every entrance. The cameras are not constantly monitored but are used to go back to review incidents or accusations. Video is kept for 30 days unless we save for a specific reason.
Building positive relationships with and among students is another key aspect of prevention. Starting with our Homestead Orientation Program (HOP) we look for ways to get to know your students and provide support and guidance as needed. One way we do this is through our advisory program where we have monthly whole campus educational experiences that help our students get to know each other, challenge their biases, and develop skills and habits that will help them now and throughout their lives. We have also increased opportunities for social emotional learning in classrooms and during the tutorial period where we offer students space to practice helpful strategies such as mindfulness, breathing techniques, or coping strategies. I am also very excited to be offering mental wellness resources for our staff throughout the year where they can participate in one on one coaching sessions or group restorative circles with a local mental health provider. Our staff constantly looks for ways to personalize the learning experience, and encourage your students to get involved and to participate in the many amazing resources and activities we have on campus at Homestead. Finally, every adult on campus is here to be a resource for students, so no matter what your question or issue is, we know that you can turn to any adult to ask for help. If they can’t help you directly, they will help you find the person who can.
During the first week of school we held two “closed” tutorials where students stayed in their current period and watched a series of videos about the staff, resources, and expectations of our campus. If you have the time and are interested in learning a little bit more about Homestead, please watch the following videos:
- GSS Guidance & Student Services (8 minutes) https://youtu.be/9oEEjyl3auc
- Cafeteria Procedures (3 minutes) https://youtu.be/pZPFAht8Gb4
- Construction Safety (3 minutes) https://youtu.be/umYMqMC1Mrg
- Zero Waste Committee "Stay Green @Homestead" (4:05 minutes) https://youtu.be/_yBX3i9l0jY
- Mustang Community Commitments & Attendance (11:29 minutes) https://youtu.be/C6qsFhSKLOk
- Tutorial Expectations (5:08 minutes) https://youtu.be/T2I1FqnoOEg
If you have questions, concerns, or needs regarding student safety I would invite you to contact me or the deans with your questions. You can email me at greg_giglio@fuhsd.org and the deans at maria_trejo@fuhsd.org or anthony_nguyen@fuhsd.org. I would also encourage you to participate in sending me general questions, suggestions, ideas, etc. through the weekly parent/student survey. I use your submissions to fill my weekly video messages that go out with the weekly blast.
Thank you for doing your part in helping keep our students and staff safe.
Greg Giglio
~
Querido Homestead,
Nunca es demasiado pronto para empezar a hablar de la seguridad de los alumnos y del personal de los centros escolares. Después de todo, un factor importante en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes es ayudarles a sentirse seguros desde el momento en que pisan la escuela hasta que regresan a su casa al final del día. Se trata de una tarea monumental, pero que nos tomamos muy en serio.
Aquí hay un breve resumen de la formación y los protocolos que utilizamos para mantener a todos seguros:
Asistimos a una presentación de la organización Sandy Hook Promise sobre la evaluación de amenazas
Participamos en una formación con la ciudad de Cupertino sobre la preparación para emergencias
Capacitación de todo el personal el 18 de agosto en nuestros procedimientos de emergencia
Programamos un simulacro de incendio para el 2 de septiembre y un simulacro de correr y esconderse para el 7 de septiembre para toda la escuela
Trabajamos estrechamente con oficiales especialmente entrenados de Sunnyvale y Cupertino
Proporcionamos recursos como nuestro Informe de Seguridad Estudiantil y Formularios de Registro de Bienestar donde los estudiantes y los padres pueden proporcionarnos información con respecto a las preocupaciones
Todo el personal participa en la formación obligatoria sobre la prevención del abuso sexual y la prevención del suicidio durante las primeras 6 semanas de la escuela
Todos los empleados son examinados por Recursos Humanos antes de ser contratados
Todos los visitantes están obligados a registrarse en la oficina y a llevar una tarjeta de visitante cuando están en el campus
Las puertas están cerradas desde el exterior para evitar visitantes no deseados, pero permiten a los estudiantes y al personal salir rápidamente en caso de emergencia.
El personal busca construir relaciones positivas con y entre los estudiantes a través de la orientación, los programas de asesoramiento y tutoría, y a través de las prácticas en el aula
Si tiene preguntas, preocupaciones o necesidades relacionadas con la seguridad de los estudiantes, le invito a que se ponga en contacto conmigo o con los decanos para plantear sus preguntas. Pueden enviarme un correo electrónico a greg_giglio@fuhsd.org y a los decanos maria_trejo@fuhsd.org o anthony_nguyen@fuhsd.org. También les invito a que participen enviándome preguntas generales, sugerencias, ideas, etc. a través de la encuesta semanal de padres y alumnos. Yo uso sus propuestas para completar mis mensajes de vídeo semanales que se envían con la difusión semanal.
Gracias por hacer su parte para ayudar a mantener a nuestros estudiantes y personal seguro.
Greg Giglio
~
親愛的 Homestead,
談論在學校如何保護學生和教職員工的安全是個永遠不會太早的話題。 畢竟幫助學生從踏入校園那一刻起有安全感,直到在一天結束回到家門口是學生學習的一個主要因素。 這是一項艱巨的任務,但我們非常重視這項任務。
以下是我們將使用來確保每個人安全的培訓和草案的簡潔摘要:
· 出席參加桑迪胡克承諾組織/ Sandy Hook Promise Organization 有關威脅評估的演講
· 參加了與庫比蒂諾市/City of Cupertino 舉行的應急準備培訓
· 8月18日對全體員工進行了應急程序培訓
· 定於9月2日進行消防演習,9月7日 全校舉行“奔跑隱藏防禦”/ Run Hide Defend 演習
· 與來自桑尼維爾/Sunnyvale 和庫比蒂諾/Cupertino 經過專門培訓的警員密切合作
· 提供我們的學生安全報告和心理健康檢查表等資源,學生和家長可以向我們提供相關疑問和顧慮的資料
· 全體員工在開學6周內參加預防性虐和預防自殺的強制性培訓
· 所有員工在被雇用之前都經過人力資源部門的篩選
· 所有訪客在校內均須先到辦公室辦理登記手續並佩戴訪客證
· 大門從外面鎖上,以防止不速之客,但允許學生和教職員工在緊急情況下迅速離開
· 員工希望通過新生訓練,諮詢和輔導計劃,以及自習課和課上實習與學生, 並且學生彼此之間,建立積極的關係
如果您對學生安全有疑慮或需求,我邀請您聯繫我或主任,並提出您的問題。我的電子郵件 greg_giglio@fuhsd.org 或 主任 maria_trejo@fuhsd.org 以及 anthony_nguyen@fuhsd.org。 我還鼓勵您透過每周的家長/學生調查參與/ the weekly parent/student survey 向我發送一般問題,建議,想法等。 我會使用您的提交資訊作為我每周視頻消息,這些訊息會與每周爆破/Blast 一起送出。
感謝您為保護我們的學生和教職員工的安全盡自己的一份力量。
Greg Giglio
AUGUST 2022
Dear Homestead,
Welcome to the 2022-2023 school year, the 60th anniversary of our first year of operation! Homestead High School opened up to Juniors only in the 1962-1963 school year, and this class went on to become the first graduating class of 1964. We have had an amazing 60 year run as our students and staff have helped to change the world in a variety of ways. We look forward to welcoming our newest students from the class of 2026 to continue our tradition of excellence. Whether it is in the classroom, on the athletic fields, in the performing arts, or through our outstanding extracurricular clubs like Future Business Leaders of America, Robotics, Speech and Debate, or any other of our over 70 student run clubs; Homestead is a great place to learn and work.
I would also like to welcome these new staff members to our Homestead family:
- Luis Barbeito -- World Language, Spanish
- Melanie Biddle -- ACT Teacher, Resource Department
- Alana Caires -- English
- Guilana Chion -- School Psychologist
- Chris Grossman -- Math
- Kaede Hamilton, Resource Department
- Damaris Llamas -- Attendance Clerk (starting 9/2)
- Eric Medeiros -- Guidance Counselor for students Ve-Z, split with FHS
- Trevor Patton -- Paraeducator
- Susan Rocha -- Assistant Principal
- Javier Valdez -- Paraeducator
- Rosalie Walton -- Guided Studies Intervention Program Assistant
- Ying Zhao -- Cafeteria
Guidance counselor added! I am very excited to report that we have added a 5th counselor to our Guidance team. We have added a part time counselor to both Homestead and Fremont High Schools, so we will be sharing Eric Medeiros with our Firebird friends. Eric will serve students with the last names of Ve-Z and move between our two campuses with a regular schedule. You can find Eric in the afternoons on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays and all day on Wednesdays (on Fridays he will be all day at Fremont).
COVID protocols for 22-23: As we continue to live with COVID 19, we continue to look for ways to keep you, your students, and our staff as safe as possible. While the virus is here to stay, we are moving back to “normal” as best as possible. Masks are not required but are encouraged when indoors. We would also encourage you to be as up to date on your vaccinations. All events will revert to in person as allowable. Each site can and will provide at-home rapid antigen testing, and we would encourage everyone to test before returning to school this year. We continue to ask you to keep your student home if they are not feeling well or are experiencing symptoms. We are still committed to providing maximum fresh filtered air into the classrooms and continue to prioritize the servicing and maintenance of our HVAC systems. All units are operational and are fitted with merv-13 air filters. Brian Dong continues to be our COVID designee so if you have any questions or concerns, you can contact him for help (brian_dong@fuhsd.org).
Construction Update: The A Building is on schedule to be completed, and staff will begin moving in starting August 8th. The building looks great, and we look forward to welcoming staff and students to this thoroughly modernized building. The A, as well as B, C, and L, buildings are some of the original structures from when we opened 60 years ago. To give us another 60 years, the A Building was completely renovated (all the way down to the cinder block walls) with new seismic upgrades, windows, HVAC units, plumbing, electrical, and technology. The B Building is now being given the same treatment and is offline until the Summer of 2023. Please be aware of the fencing around the B building and leading out to both the Staff and Student lots. With the recent passage of Measure G (thank you everyone!) we will also be looking to upgrade the C and L Buildings as well as modernizing the Science Building. When the construction trucks move out after the B Building is complete, we will also be laying in a new library quad area too.
Here are a few other pieces of information that will be helpful for a successful start of the school year:
Important Opening of School Dates:
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Homestead Orientation Program or ‘HOP’ Wednesday, August 9th. Freshmen and all new students to Homestead High School are encouraged to participate
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Parent Orientation Day or ‘POP’ will be held virtually on Wednesday, August 9thth from 6:00 to 7:30 pm so that we can take you through expectations for the year and answer your questions as you meet the Homestead staff and administration
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Round-Up will be held on Monday, August 15th and Tuesday, August 16th
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First day of School is August 22nd
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Back to School Night – Will be held in-person on Wednesday, September 7th
Here is also a quick at a glance view of important dates for the entire 22-23 school year:
- August 22 First Day of School
- September 6 Labor Day - no classes
- October 17 Teacher Work Day - no classes
- November 11 Veterans Day - no classes
- November 24 & 25 Thanksgiving Break no classes
- Dec. 23 Teacher Work Day - no classes
- Dec. 23 - Jan. 6 Mid-Year Break - no classes
- January 9 School Resumes - 2nd Semester
- January 16 Martin Luther King Day - no classes
- February 20 - 24 Presidents’ Week - no classes
- March 13 Teacher Work Day - no classes
- April 17 - 21 Spring Break - no classes
- May 29 Memorial Day - no classes
- June 8 Last day of school year/Graduation
Bell Schedule: We have a new bell schedule that complies with the recently enacted California law that high school classes shall start no earlier than 8:30am. It looks very similar to our previous schedules with a few minor changes: our “skinny day” where all classes meet is returning to Monday with Tuesdays/Thursdays as block days for periods 1, 2, 3, and 7; and Wednesdays/Fridays as block days for periods 4, 5, and 6. Each day starts at 8:30 (no more staggered late starts) but there are different ending times based on those skinny and block days. There are still three tutorials now located on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. CLICK HERE for the printable bell schedules.
Here is the new schedule:
Weekly Video Messages/Parent Survey: One good thing that I will continue from the pandemic is the weekly video messages supplied with content from the Parent/Student Survey. Use the survey to send in questions, comments, concerns, and suggestions as well as send in shout outs and recognitions for staff and students. You may send in as many submissions as you wish, and I will answer your questions and respond to comments and suggestions in the video messages as well as bring in “guest stars” to help me keep you up to date and informed about our school.
Our staff has been hard at work this summer improving lesson plans, coordinating curriculum, and creating relevant and rigorous content to keep your students engaged and learning at the highest levels. We look forward to a landmark 60th anniversary year with you and your students!
Greg Giglio
Homestead Principal
2021-22 School Year
May 2022
As we head into the last few weeks of the school year, the season of celebration really does begin. Starting with our site board meeting in April, we were able to recognize many of our deserving students and staff. Right after, we will begin celebrating the members of the Class of 2022 with ceremonies such as Senior Awards, Senior Celebration, and Graduation. While we are sad to see our future leaders and creators leave us, we know that they will continue the great Homestead tradition of changing the world. On behalf of our staff I would like to thank you, the parents, for partnering with us to support, guide, and nurture your students into the amazing adults that they are today. I would also like to wish the Class of 2022 all the love and luck that they deserve as they start the next leg of their journey.
It is also that time of the year when we must say goodbye to our fellow staff members who are also “graduating” in their own ways. Here is the Homestead Staff Class of 2022:
Retirements:
- Greg Burroughs, Math Teacher
- Marjie Fischer, Senior Clerical in the Resource Department (retired in November)
- Geoff Wright, Assistant Principal
Leaving Homestead for other pursuits:
- Andy Berman, Para-educator in the Resource Department
- Stephen Caringella, Spanish
- Melissa Morrison, English
- Cody Owens, Social Studies
- Theo Pappas, ACT Teacher/Resource Department
Thank you to all of those named above for their service, professionalism, and support over the school year. We will miss you all as well and wish you the best too!
While we are talking about those leaving us, I would also like to thank Polly Bove, our Superintendent who is retiring after nearly 50 years in education and 16 of those years at the helm of our district. Polly started in our district as an Assistant Principal at Homestead so we include her in our staff graduating class. Polly has been an amazing leader and mentor, and she has done great work during her time here.
We hope to see many of you along the way as we celebrate our Seniors and our staff. This has been a long, hard year so wishing everyone a safe and relaxing summer.
Respectfully,
Greg Giglio
March 2022
Dear Homestead,
Welcome to Spring! As we enter March, we have a lot to look forward to such as the beginning of Spring Sports, the changing of the weather, springing forward on the clock, and believe it or not graduation is just around the corner. We are even starting to look towards the next school year as we begin to welcome our incoming students for the class of 2026, choose courses for next year, and finalize a new bell schedule to comply with the recently passed state law stating high school classes must start no earlier than 8:30. At the moment, we are gathering feedback and input from a variety of stakeholders with an expected finalized and approved schedule by mid March.
Even with so much to look forward to, there is a lot on our plates that is hard to ignore. The headlines in the media are filled with breaking news about Russia and Ukraine, state laws being considered to punish parents of kids who are transitioning, and more examples of Antisemetic acts in Texas. While some of this news is happening across the world or beyond our state borders, we certainly can feel the impact here on our campus. Homestead is a very diverse community as we sit in the heart of Silicon Valley, which draws families from all over the world who are attracted to the technology industry, great communities, and fantastic schools. So while it might be easy to not look at the TV or online news sources, we don’t have to look far to see that we have students, staff, and families who are hurting because of what is happening between Russia and Ukraine. We also know that we have a large number of kids who are transitioning, questioning, or non-binary who are frightened about the possibility of a law being passed that delegitmizes or criminalizes their ability to be who they are. Again, whenever anything happens in this world, no matter where the location it occurs we can be assured that someone here at Homestead is affected. This highlights the importance of continuing our work to help our students understand how their actions and behaviors can either be supportive or destructive in making our community safer.
That is why something like the hostage standoff that happened at a Jewish synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, back in January is not just a regional event but one that greatly impacted the Jewish community in our area and at our school. It is impactful because it reminds people of previous attacks such as the ones in Pittsburgh in 2018 or in Poway, near San Diego in 2019. What was also particularly troubling about the most recent attack in Texas is that it has been followed by various communities from Texas to California waking up to find antisemtic flyers on their driveways. Residents in Palo Alto and Los Altos also reported receiving these same notices, which prompted the Santa Clara Police Chiefs Association to send out a statement condemning the violence and to stand in solidarity with members of the Jewish community. Even more unfortunately, a swastika was found drawn on the ground of the horseshoe over this February break. We reported this hate incident to our school resource officer and turned over photos and security video to document the incident.
I hope that whoever drew that on our campus was not a Homestead student and merely someone passing by while the campus was closed, but it does bring home the point that we have a lot of work to do to build acceptance and community right here. This is why we are holding advisories and why we are looking to celebrate the diversity of our campus while providing guidance on how to reduce bias and prejudice. The timing could not be more appropriate but the staff at Homestead and Fremont have been working on an advisory for March that highlights the harmful nature of Antisemitism. It is also true that there have been other churches, mosques or religious institutions attacked during this time so this is not just an issue that the Jewish community alone faces. We also don’t have the time and ability to highlight every community that has been attacked or persecuted but our hope is that by highlighting any form of injustice our students can begin to apply what they have learned to other situations. While the players or issues involved may be different, there is often a familiar path from biased attitudes to acts of bias, discrmination, bias motivated violence, and finally genocide (as noted in the Anti-Defamation League’s Pyramid of Hate, copyright 2018). So by looking at this progression of bias, it is easy to see why our Jewish community is so uneasy with these incidents. No matter what group, whether it is our LGBTQ+, Black, Latinx, Asian, Muslim, Christian, or you fill in the blank, people are on edge after reading through the multitude of tragic headlines that dominate our news cycle.
To bring this back home to Homestead and to our community, we need to be aware that on the outside things may look fine or “normal” but most likely we are all suffering from some sort of trauma or fear. And even with the hopeful blooms of spring that are starting to pop up all around, we need to be kind to each other and to be supportive in any way we can. This does not mean we should ignore warning signs or report issues because we don’t want to tread on someone’s feelings but that we should work together as a team to try to smooth out the rough spots where we can.
An important step in building community is to start with kindness and assume best intentions. Too many times, we start off conversations or interactions with anger and entitlement and this results in some sort of conflict or confrontation that does little to resolve the actual issue. If we start with kindness or assume best intentions, however, then we can often more directly address a problem or concern. So rather than picking sides or choosing your battle, let’s agree to go into whatever is facing us as allies.
Here is wishing you and your family a wonderful start of spring, and to let you know that we are here when times get tough.
Respectfully,
Greg Giglio
February 2022
Dear Homestead,
My monthly message is a little late so I apologize for the delay but I hope that you can be a little forgiving after the week we had to start this month. As you may be aware, we had a medical emergency with a staff member on Tuesday 2/2 and the shock of dealing with this has taken a toll on many of us. This story does have a happy ending as our teacher has returned home after spending a few days in the hospital and undergoing medical treatment. This story is a happy one because the stars aligned in so many ways and because we have been preparing to deal with this type of emergency as well as others our whole career.
On that day during tutorial, one of our teachers became unresponsive, which initially confused some of our students as I am sure you could understand. One student did think of getting another adult to help so ran to the room across the hall where Eileen Jones was teaching. She told him to get more help as she went to the classroom, assessed the situation, and called 911. Our student found a second teacher, Nicole Zambrano, who started to head to the classroom and because she had just seen me supervising the quad, told the student to go get me as I was just around the corner. After the student alerted me, I made a radio call for more help and ran to the classroom with the student. After I arrived, so did Louise Garces, our student conduct liaison, and Dan Yusim, our health clerk and athletic trainer. We cleared the room and tended to the teacher with assistance from the 911 operator. These were very scary minutes as we waited for emergency services because we needed to take action as our colleague was definitely in distress and worsening. We ended up having to do a few rounds of CPR before applying two shocks from the Automated External Defibrillator (AED). We saw a significant improvement in the teacher on the second shock, and thankfully the EMTs showed up to take over. Meanwhile, the admin team was spread out through the building and campus to help redirect students and guide the EMT’s to the right place.
Fortunately, every two years the administration and various support staff are trained in CPR, first aid, AED and Epi-Pen use. I can now personally attest to how important and useful this training is, and I am so thankful to those instructors in Adult Ed who have been training us over the years. Our site does have 8 AED machines spread out throughout the campus to be used in cases of emergency. In this particular incident, we knew the closest AED was located in the office, so we were able to call on the radio to have it brought to us so that we did not have to waste precious time looking for it. If you yourself have not been trained or it has been many years since you last attended a training, I would highly encourage you to do so as you never know when you may have to use these skills (but hopefully you never do).
With a school the size of ours, we do have to be prepared for just about anything which is why we create a school safety plan to cover any sort of situation. These plans are reviewed by the district office who provide support, materials, and training. We do have specific drills that we are required to hold over the course of the year such as fire, earthquake, and intruder drills but whenever we have an emergency or crisis, we also hold an “after action review” so that we can improve our responses and be even more prepared the next time. I sent a reminder email to our teachers with a campus map that included the locations of all of our AED machines and have provided information for those who wish to refresh their training. If you would like to look into training, please contact our Adult Education program for more information.
It is not lost on me that this happened during February, the month for Valentines Day. So it is with heartfelt gratitude that I would like to thank everyone who took part in supporting the Homestead Community during this emergency and to those of you who sent your wishes, prayers, and kindness our way. Thank you and wishing you a whole lotta love this Valentine’s Day.
Greg Giglio
January 2022
Dear Homestead,
Happy New Year and Welcome to the Second Semester. I hope that you had a restful and relaxing time despite the rising fear surrounding Omicron. We have definitely hit the ground running to respond to the increase in positive cases, so I thought it would be worthwhile to review our safety protocols and to let you know about some of the work done over the break to continue to keep campus safe. While the variant may have changed, our focus and commitment to these safety measures have not.
Several emails have come to ask about when or if we could return to remote or even hybrid learning. As we have stated before, we take our direction from the county in regard to major moves like in person or remote learning. This is not a decision that I can make as a site principal nor a decision that our district does without the express input of the county experts. At this time, the guidance is to continue to do what we have been doing in order for schools to remain open. So here is what we have and will continue to do:
HVAC Systems: A major component of our safety measures is to ensure that we have the maximum amount of fresh, filtered air pumped into each classroom, office, and general space on campus. We spent a good portion of time when school was closed upgrading, maintaining, and replacing parts to our Heating Venting and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system. We installed the highest level filters (Merv-13) that would fit with our system and can filter out bacteria and other particulate matter. We regularly replace the filters and prioritize help tickets we receive from the staff to assist with the HVAC system. Over this past break, we had a contractor on campus to service, repair and replace motors, belts, and filters as needed.
Masks: We continue to enforce our mask mandate, which states that students and staff must appropriately wear face masks both inside and outside (except when eating or drinking). We do not allow students to eat in classrooms, but some teachers do allow students to quickly lower their masks to take a drink of water while some may ask students to step into the hallway to do so. Last semester, we did loosen the restrictions on eating indoors during lunch and brunch because of the cold and wet weather; however, we have tightened this starting on the first day we returned to school. Now, students may only eat indoors in our cafeteria where we can open up the doors and roll-up door. Students may not eat in hallways, classrooms, or other general spaces. We will need to temporarily lift this restriction if and when it rains. Our staff will continue to ask students to raise or properly wear their masks when we see a student who may not be following the protocol, and have given out consequences to those who continue to violate these rules. I can say though that this is a small number of students and is usually quickly adjusted. We also provide masks to students and staff if they forget, lose, or damage their masks. Teachers can request extra PPE for their classrooms and we have begun supplying staff with KN-95 masks if they choose to wear them. We also are following mask guidelines for indoor sports in regard to athletes, coaches, and fans.
Hand Washing: We continue to advocate hand washing and sanitation as this is another important component to keeping each other safe. Every classroom and every entrance to a building has a hand sanitizer bottle that we constantly refill. We also prioritize replacing soap in the bathrooms and would encourage students to immediately tell their teacher or another staff member if they come across a dispenser without soap.
Testing: Our district continues to provide on site testing at each of the sites across the district. Testing is available at Homestead on Tuesdays in the foyer to the Field House from 7:30am to 4pm. Students and staff can test at other sites with the results sent to our COVID designee Brian Dong so that he can process positive test results. Here is the current schedule for testing across our district:
Testing Schedule
Testing from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mondays: LHS, Original/Former main office
Tuesdays: HHS, Field House Lobby
Wednesdays: MVHS, Auditorium Lobby
Wednesdays: FHS, Fair Oaks room (main office)
Thursdays: CHS, Gym Foyer
Testing from 7:30 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Fridays: FHS, Fair Oaks room (main office)
Our district also handed out the state supplied at-home testing kits the first week back for second semester. Our indoor athletes are also testing regularly as are our band students.
Finally, there have been a lot of stories and rumors floating out there about students coming to campus who are positive but not showing symptoms. Whenever any of these stories have come up, we have followed up with the families and been given evidence that shows that this is untrue. I do think our students and families are doing a lot of work to keep themselves and each other safe, but we will do our due diligence to follow up on and deal with stories, rumors, or concerns until they are resolved safely and efficiently. If you have any questions or concerns, you can always go to our COVID resources page or contact our COVID Designee, Brian Dong at brian_dong@fuhsd.org. You are always welcome to send me your comments, questions, concerns, suggestions, etc by email or through the weekly parent/student survey where I will answer your questions privately or on my weekly video messages.
Thank you, happy new year and be safe!
Greg Giglio
December 2021
Dear Homestead,
Welcome to December and the end of the first semester! As the holidays roll in, many of us tend to want to look backwards to reflect on the past 12 months, but at the same time many of us want to keep moving forward and away from where we have been. I am going to do a little bit of both as we celebrate our accomplishments and look down the road to see what 2022 brings us.
This first semester started with a lot of hope and joy as we were able to return to in person learning after having gone through Emergency Distance Learning, Remote Learning, and Hybrid Learning. We were thrilled to be taking part in athletics and extracurricular activities but also just seeing friends and colleagues up close and personal again. This first semester, however, has not been without challenges and stress. I might even say this semester was more challenging and stressful than previous semesters as we tried to readjust our brains to being around people and getting back to work after such a long time. Looking at the grade analysis data for the first two grading periods, I am relieved to say that we are back to the normal, pre-pandemic levels of the types of grades student are earning after seeing an increase in the number of students who were earning D’s and F’s last year in remote learning. This “return to normal” is also an indication of the great work that both our staff and students are putting into school after the concerns of being off campus and away from each other.
Adding to the stress of our return is the ever present shadow of COVID. While I am proud of the safety protocols and behaviors of our students and staff, we continue to see positive cases trickle in. Fortunately we are not seeing breakout cases where whole classrooms or groups are becoming sick and our numbers continue to be small (just .005% of our Homestead staff and student population). And while many may be growing tired of mask mandates, vaccination attempts, and testing I know that everyone is doing their best to keep each other safe and in class by coming together (or should I say staying apart) for the greater good. Of course, now we are getting news of the Omicron Variant, so hopefully we are not back on that roller coaster.
Then in September we had the unfortunate but safely resolved issue of a student in possession of a gun on campus. This incident took a great toll on our emotions as we seemed to be fighting enemies both real and microscopic. I would again like to thank the swift reaction of our Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department and Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety members who once again dropped everything to make sure our students and staff were safe. I am glad to say that we have taken several steps forward in putting this behind us but in also keeping each other safe. Just this past week, we have seen new gates being installed that allow us to prevent others from entering while allowing the safe and quick exit of our students if needed. We have also fine tuned our emergency response procedures with fire, earthquake, and intruder drills and are looking at programs and resources such as the Sandy Hook Promise to make our campus safer.
We also started the year in fear of the Devious Licks trend on Tik Tok and while other schools around the area fell victim to these destructive pranks, Homestead was fortunate to not really see these videos pop up at our school. And we have all breathed a sigh of relief when the suggested monthly trends also never appeared, which I think speaks volumes to the respectful nature of our students who would much prefer to get back to the things they do so well -- namely everything they do! Our sports teams gave us something to cheer about as they took the field in the familiar green and white uniforms, and restarted their winning ways. All of our Fall sports teams made it to the playoffs, and a special congratulations to the Mustang football team for making it all the way to the finals for the first time in over a decade! It has also been a pleasure to see the Marching Band out doing their thing and practicing their percussion right outside my window (I definitely and sincerely missed that!). We have been able to attend rallies, outdoors but still the same loud and spirited fun as the indoor rallies. We have had Homecoming and crowned this year’s royalty, enjoying the old traditions and creating some new ones along the way. I can definitely say that the Homecoming Carnival is here to stay! I have also been glad to see the various groups back on campus doing their thing as I head home for the night -- cheer team practicing in the cafeteria, Robotics taking over the I-Hub, kids working late nights for journalism or yearbook, and all the other over 70 clubs and extracurricular activities we have been active and involved in their passions.
As we move towards finals, I am eager to see what the second semester brings. The completion of the A Building remodel is on schedule for May, which will signal the start of the same modernization process for the B Building in June. Next semester will also see the return of out-of-state and overnight trips that are so important to the health and education of our students. Before long, our sites get set on the 22-23 school year as we begin the course selection process. Although we can’t get too far ahead because there are so many other exciting things in store for us -- Winter sports, Spring sports, Battle of the Classes, and eventually graduation. This year could be the return of the single graduation ceremony which we haven’t had since 2019!
I just want to end with how appreciative I am of our students, our staff, our families, and our community for the dedication, care, support, and joy they bring to our campus every day. This group has been through a lot but continues to make Homestead a great place to learn and work. I wish you and your family a joyful holiday season and look forward to continuing this joyous celebration in 2022!
Respectfully,
Greg Giglio
November 2021
Dear Homestead,
Fall is upon us, and Daylight Savings is around the corner (or perhaps has come by the time you read this). The weather isn’t the only thing changing, so let me give you a summary of some of the things that are happening in and around campus.
There has been a lot of discussion about the concerns surrounding the “Skinny Wednesdays” on our current bell schedule. For those who have never heard this term before, we call it this because all 7 periods meet for just 45 minutes and not the 90 minutes of our block days. Before the pandemic, Mondays were our skinny day but with the change to remote learning our district moved the skinny day to Wednesday where students and staff would have a bit of break for an asynchronous day of catching up on work, weekly advisories, meetings, and office hours. As we returned to in person learning, we kept Wednesday as the skinny day in the event we would have to return to Remote Learning. Please note that we are not planning on nor do we want to return to remote learning, but with the unpredictability of COVID 19, we wanted to make sure we had a schedule that would work just in case. When we returned to in person learning, the requirements that we have five days a week of daily live instruction as well as the reinstatement of instructional minutes also returned. This is why we could not keep Wednesday as asynchronous but instead needed to return to having all periods meet on a skinny day.
The two main concerns that we are hearing from students and families are the workload on Tuesday night and the amount of assessments on Wednesday during the skinny day. There is also concern that because all 7 periods meet on one day, this creates a hectic pace. To be honest, that same concern existed before the pandemic on the skinny Mondays but many felt that having the weekend before that skinny day helped to blunt the stress. We, the district, have begun having conversations on how to help manage or alleviate these concerns at multiple levels from the Superintendent’s cabinet, to the weekly Principal’s meetings, to site level teams. One question we have been asked is if we can move the skinny Wednesday back to Monday this year. This is not as easy as it seems as it would throw off a lot of careful planning for the district, the school, the staff, for students and families. It would be easier to change days at the beginning of next school year, so that idea is not totally off the table yet. Instead, we are choosing to focus on strategies that might reduce the workload, spread out the assessments, and even encourage or promote some self-care and mental wellness along the way. Some teachers and teams have made small adjustments while others are grappling with issues that might also rise up with the implementation of these ideas such as pacing, scheduling, and preparedness for AP tests in May. As with any issue, there can be many layers that must be carefully considered before just changing things as we don’t want to make the situation worse; however, I do feel that our staff is taking a good long look at the issues and trying to implement supports and ideas that will help alleviate the stress. Stay tuned for more details on that one.
Another area that we are reviewing and looking for ways to improve is our current Tutorial system. Before you panic, we are not looking at getting rid of tutorials but we are looking for ways to help students maximize their time and get more support from staff in order to be successful. When we went through our WASC accreditation process three years ago, the idea to improve tutorials was noted by our staff as important and became part of our action plan. The pandemic did prevent us from starting this work but we have begun taking initial steps this year. We have discussed the current policy in our monthly Department Lead meetings, and I have just sent a survey to staff to get their input. I am also working on a survey that will go out to students and parents by the end of first semester to get your feedback as well. One important topic that has come up is how we might incorporate self-care or mental wellness into tutorial. While tutorial is primarily an academic period where students can catch up on missing work, make up tests or quizzes, work directly with teachers or other students, or get started on homework; we are also seeing that students do need some well structured breaks where they can recharge their batteries and increase their wellness. We are looking at possible ways to help teach students these important skills and strategies but that students are wisely using their 35 minutes of tutorial that they get three times a week.
A subject that also connects to tutorials is our monthly Advisories. These were started during remote learning as a weekly tool to help students and staff get to know each other outside the confines of the academic subject or class as well as to deliver campus wide lessons on topics that were important to our students and staff. As mentioned above, moving from remote to in person learning meant that we could not continue weekly advisory lessons but instead would need to move to monthly lessons. So far this year, we have had two advisories with the first one being an introduction and review of advisories that included ice breakers as part of that personalization goal mentioned above while the second advisory was about Awareness of Sexual Harassment. We are currently planning more advisories on topics such as mental health, antiracism, community celebrations, and other topics as they come up or are needed. Our students were surveyed twice at the end of last year; the first survey was a Homestead only survey and the second was an invitation to participate in a district wide survey. Both surveys showed that students felt the advisories were effective, important, and worth continuing. We also received ideas on future topics and for ways to improve Advisory.
The final change that I would like to highlight is a tough one as it concerns the retirement of Marjie Fischer, our senior clerical in the Resource Department. Marjie’s last day will be November 5th and she will be greatly missed by students and staff alike as she has been a fixture in the department for over 20 years. Her knowledge and expertise in special education has benefited many generations of students and have helped our staff be better at their jobs. We will miss her razor sharp wit as well as her delicious desserts and candies that she brought to campus. On behalf of Homestead High School, I would like to wish Marjie a relaxing and rewarding retirement as she has definitely earned it.
Happy November everyone,
Greg Giglio
October 2021
Dear Homestead,
Welcome to October!
These past two months have been very full and productive, but also stressful for all the obvious reasons plus a few unthinkable ones. First off, I would like to thank everyone for their questions, concerns, and ideas as we process the recent incident involving a gun on campus. We are beyond fortunate that our partners from law enforcement (namely, the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety and Santa Clara Sheriff Department) were able to react quickly and help us address the concern to keep our campus safe. I am also thankful for our staff, both those members of our administration who calmly and quickly addressed the issue as well as those staff members who have supported our students and staff in the days after.
We have already shared the details that we are able to share and have held debrief meetings with our team, staff, and law enforcement partners to review our actions and communication. While this incident was resolved peacefully and quickly, we are always looking for ways to keep our campus safe and to restore the confidence that you have in our campus when you send your children to our site. We understand the importance of your trust and take this responsibility very seriously. One visible piece of action has been to move up our training and drill in the event of an active shooter on campus or potential intruders or threats on or near campus called Run/Hide/Defend, which is the title for what used to be known as Code Red or Lockdown procedures. We do partner with the Santa Clara Sheriff’s Department and Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety in these trainings and drills, so we try to schedule them as quickly as we can. We were able to move up by a few weeks both the staff training and the whole campus drill, so we will be reviewing this activity soon with our students.
We do not publicize the steps in the drill as advised by law enforcement but we will cover fully the details and steps necessary to keep each other safe. An easy summary, however, of what we do in this drill can be found in the title: Run/Hide/Defend. The run portion of the safety plan is if you have the opportunity to safely and quickly leave campus, then that should be the first option. As law enforcement has studied previous active shooter scenarios, it was found that running rather than hiding could be the difference in keeping large numbers of students and staff safe. If running is not possible, then the next option would be to hide or lockdown. Again, I will not disclose what this entails but our students and staff will be reviewing and practicing this on the day of the drill. As a last resort if an intruder has entered the room or space, law enforcement professionals have determined that staff and students should do whatever they can to defend themselves. We will not be practicing this, but we will discuss what this means and what can be used as defensive measures.
As I discussed in the parent webinar we had following the incident, we do have many strategies and practices in place for the safety of our students and staff. The first, and most important in my opinion, is the visible and active supervision of our campus by our six administrators and student conduct liaison. We are out and about in specific locations during morning traffic, brunch, lunch, and after school to monitor our students and look for potential issues or problems. We also employ a check in and badge system for visitors. This is why we ask that you make an appointment before coming to campus as well as check in to the front office so that we can log who is on site. We use the badges to identify who should and should not be on campus. We will approach you and ask you to identify yourself if you are on campus without a badge. We also have a security camera system with posted signs around campus that you are entering areas that are under video survelliance. An important tool for our safety procedures is the Student Safety Report (SSR) form. In the SSR, students and parents can send us information so that we can follow up on and reduce or eliminate safety concerns. Finally, our most important resource is you because if you see or hear something, you can report it to us and we will follow up on the information until we are assured that the situation is safely resolved.
Along this line, I would like to bring to your attention a very concerning trend on Tik Tok that has been brought to our attention and certainly seems to be a topic of discussion among our students. At the start of school, we began hearing about a trend on the social media platform called “Devious Licks” which called for students to cause damage or steal items from school bathrooms, film the destruction or theft, then post it on the app. Fortunately, Homestead did not have any real issues with this but a couple of the schools in our district did have some serious problems with damage and had to restrict bathroom usage to prevent future damage. The students in most cases were caught and have faced consequences but this has taken up a lot of time and resources that could be better used elsewhere on campuses. To our greater concern, there now exists lists of challenges or trends for each month:
September: Vandalize school bathrooms
October: Smack a staff member
November: Kiss your friend’s girlfriend at school
December: Deck the halls and show your balls
January: Jab a breast
February: Mess up school signs
March: Make a mess in the courtyard or cafeteria
April: “Grab some eggz” (another stealing challenge)
May: Ditch day
June: Flip off in the front office
July: Spray a neighbor’s fence
As you can see, these are pretty concerning and could result in serious discipline for students that could bring about school or legal consequences. Depending on the severity of the student’s actions, these activities could even lead towards arrest or expulsion. Some of these acts encourage vandalism or theft, and a couple could be labeled as sexual harassment or assault. I would encourage you to talk with your own students about the importance of maintaining decorum and following school rules rather than striving for viral stardom. The price of that fame is really not worth the effort.
On a less severe but equally important note, our cafeteria will only accept the scanning of ID cards to purchase lunch and will discontinue the ability for students to manually entering their student ID numbers starting October 11th. Because of the high volume of students getting lunch through the cafeteria with the free lunch program in place this year, we need to find ways to speed up the time students are spending in line. The process of stopping the line to punch in numbers is taking too long and too many students are simply choosing not to bring their ID’s. Not to mention, the cleanliness of that many students using the keypad is concerning. Makeup pictures where students can also get their ID’s is happening on October 6th so all students should have had ample opportunity to get an actual ID card. One trick that has been helpful is for students to take pictures on their phone of their ID card as the scanner can properly register the student in that manner. The picture must include the scan bar on the back of the ID to properly register in our system. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated to help speed up and keep students and staff safe.
To end on a positive note, we are looking forward to in person Homecoming the week of October 11th. The ASB Leadership students have been working really hard to design a week full of fun and school spirit, so please encourage your students to join in the fun. Friday is the big day with a rally during the morning, parade after school followed by the first ever Homecoming Festival (which replaces our traditional dance), and finally the Homecoming football game vs. Mountain View. Hope to see you all there and Go Mustangs!
Greg Giglio
AUGUST 2021
Dear Homestead,
Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year, hopefully you are as excited as you are rested. I am happy to report that we will be fully in-person this school year with some safety protocols and guidelines remaining in place at this time. For instance, we are still required to wear masks while inside classrooms or offices, but the county health department has rescinded the mask mandate while students are outdoors, eliminated social distancing rules, and done away with the daily symptom tracker for both students and staff. As we have stated before, the district has been working with outside vendors as well as our own facilities teams to upgrade and improve our heating venting and air conditioning (HVAC) units so that they can safely provide fresh air that is properly circulated in and out of the room through Merv-13 filters, which are the highest grade filters that can screen out bacteria.
This year’s bell schedule is very similar to last year’s with the exception of Wednesday, which is now our “skinny” day where all 7 periods meet for 45 minutes. Other than that, not much has changed:
There is a special schedule for the first week of school that differs slightly from above. This special schedule for the first week moves the “skinny day” to Monday so that students and staff can attend all classes on that first day, and also includes three closed tutorials on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to go over important school announcements and information to help acclimate your students for their return to the campus. I am posting it here for your reference but it can also be found on our website under “bell schedules”.
We will be continuing with Advisories this year but they will not be held every week due to the return of five day a week instruction. There will be 10 advisories in the 21-22 school year, and we will be posting the days and topics in the coming days.
The modernization project for the A Building is well underway and on schedule to be completed by the end of May 2022. The Staff Parking Lot is still off limits for student drop off and pick up because of the heavy equipment and construction trucks needing to use that lot to access the site. Please continue to drop off or pick up students in the Horseshoe, the Student Lot, or an alternate off campus location to help ease the traffic congestion. Alternate forms of transportation are greatly encouraged as we have plenty of bike racks as well as a skateboard rack. If you are biking, skating or scooting to school please follow all safety rules and be sure to wear a helmet. You should also bring your own lock and only lock bikes to actual bike racks. Bicyclists should also only use the Mary Street bike path or the Access Road (next to the I-Hub) when entering and leaving school. Do not go through the Student or Staff lot, and avoid going in front of the Horseshoe. Other construction projects that should be wrapping up by the start of school are the installation of elective vehicle charging stations in the Student Lot and along the Access Road as well as the safety improvements along the Homestead corridor.
We will be undergoing our midterm review for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) in March. Every school goes through the WASC process, which we did in 2019 where we received a six year accreditation with a midterm check-in. This check-in allows us to review our progress as well as to determine what work still needs to be done before our full term review in 2025.
I am also glad to say that due to a federal grant, we will be able to continue feeding all students for free from our cafeteria. Campus will once again be open for students to get food at local restaurants or shops during lunch, but our cafeteria will be a good option for all students. Students will need to enter in their student ID number so that we can give an accounting of who is accessing lunch and they will be limited to one meal per break (one at brunch and one at lunch).
This year, we are welcoming the class of 2025 with nearly 560 students. We will be hosting an in-person Homestead Orientation Program (HOP) on August 5th in the morning and the Parent Orientation Program (POP) later that same evening that will be both in person and remote for convenience. Round Up will be held on August 9th and 10th, and our staff returns on August 11th, 12th, and 13th to prepare for the first day of school on August 16th. You can find all this and more back to school information here:
https://hhs.fuhsd.org/about-us/general-information/summer-mailer
While it is always hard to say goodbye to our graduating class of 2021 and to the various staff members who have moved on to new chapters in their lives, I am happy to welcome our new students and staff members. Below is a list of new staff members to our Homestead family:
- Annabelle Alderette -- Registrar
- Hector Almendarez -- English Teacher
- Rosie Nguyen -- English Teacher
- Matangi Rajamani -- Math Teacher
- Michelle Yuhara -- Math Teacher
- Jessica Bai -- Chinese Teacher
- Alissa Paterson -- Resource Social Studies Teacher
- Jon Vranesh -- Resource Math Teacher
- Mina Satya -- Resource Para-educator
- Theo Pappas -- Academic Community Transition (ACT) program Teacher
- Alfred Diaz -- ACT Para-educator
- Yvette Vielmas Zambrano -- ACT Para-educator
- Steven Caringella -- World Language/Spanish Teacher
- Sharaye Bellamy -- College and Career Center Advisor
I will also be continuing the weekly video messages as that turned out to be a very useful tool for both me and you during the pandemic so we are happy to continue this practice as we move forward. Here is a link to the new survey and you can begin sending me questions, ideas, or recognitions for staff or students.
While it is never fun to see summer end, I can speak for our staff when I say that we are extremely excited to be back in person with all of you again on August 16th.
Respectfully,
Greg Giglio