We Challenge YOU to Make a Difference!
We are thrilled to announce the Challenge Day is returning to Albany High School! Challenge Day is a transformational day of fun, leadership and power that can change the way people view each other forever. All members of the Sophomore class will have the opportunity to participate in the Challenge Day program this year.
The goal of Challenge Day is to help stop the teasing, violence and alienation that are so deeply a part of the school experience for millions of young people every day. Through a variety of games, trust-building activities and presentations, students will be given a unique opportunity to see themselves and the people around them with a new set of eyes.
Since 1987, the nationwide Challenge Day programs have helped to transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of teenagers just like you. Challenge Day has not only received numerous awards, but has also been featured in the best-selling book, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul and the Emmy Award-winning documentary, Teen Files: Surviving High School. To learn more, please visit the Challenge Day website at https://www.challengeday.org/.
Challenge Day is a full day experience and will take place on Monday, February 3rd, Tuesday, February 4th, and Wednesday, February 5th. Approximately 100 students will participate each day. Students will receive more information and details and an opt-out permission slip in their English class on Monday, January 27th.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
AAB Spotlight On Success – Week of 1/11
WRESTLING
Boys wrestling won both of their league duals against DeAnza and St. Patricks St. Vincent. Their current league record for the team is 3-1!
Varsity girls wrestling competed at one of the toughest tournaments in California, Napa Valley Girls Classic. The team overall did great. The tournament had 140 schools, and over 700 athletes and Team Albany took 8th place with just 6 AHS athletes competing...Go Cougars!
Girls Individual Results:
1st Place - Francesca LoPresti,
2nd Place: Joanna Qiu
8th Place - Tamsin Urbas
BASKETBALL
Our JV Boys basketball team continued their string of exciting victories with a heart-stopping win over Hercules Friday night!
JV Girls Basketball Team had an inspiring win on Tuesday at De Anza. They started the game with only 5 players due to injury. The team played well and had a slight lead going into the 4th quarter. With about 4 minutes remaining, one of the girls fouled out. Down to only four players, the girls adapted and rose to the occasion to pull out a 42-34 victory, their first victory of the season...Go Cougars!
The Girls Varsity and JV combined played together and pulled out a great win against Vallejo last week!
SOCCER
Our AHS soccer teams went "4 for 4" Tuesday, winning both JV/Varsity matches, for both Boys and Girls... Go Cougars!
AHS ATHLETE - SPOTLIGHT ON SUCCESS
"JV boys soccer would like to recognize Magnus Tangherlini for his outstanding defensive efforts this year. Magnus has been an outstanding reliable defender who has constantly worked hard to improve while simultaneously humble in his mannerisms. Magnus has been to all the practices and is always good at communicating to the coach and is a great teammate. Opponents have come to fear the cougar defensive line as the cougars have only been scored on 4 times this year with a 7-1 record. Good job Magnus!" - Coach David Janinis
California Requires Later Start Times as Albany Considers Changes to District Calendar
By Wendy Chen and Isabel Hall
California will be the first state in the country to require later school start times after Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation requiring middle schools to start no earlier than 8:00 a.m. and high schools to start no earlier than 8:30 a.m beginning in the 2022-23 school year.
According to experts, starting school too early has profound negative effects on students’ health and wellness. If schools push back their start times, experts suggest that students will improve their sleep quality, which may help them learn more efficiently and earn better grades. However, there is also a possibility that students will stay up later when the start time is pushed back.
Some AHS students expressed concern about the change.
“If start times are later, then school is going to go later, which means people are going to spend more time on homework later in the night, which means they’re just waking up later and going to sleep later.” sophomore Lindsey Horisaid. “It doesn’t do anything really--unless they figure out a good way to organize the periods so that school ends at the same time.”
A 2018 Albany High wellness survey shows that 37 percent of students slept less than seven hours a night. This is a concern for students’ mental health. Data from the AHS school board showed that 294 students logged 2869 visits to the mental health facility at AHS in the 2017-18 school year, and out of 302 student visitors last year, 27 had suicidal ideation issues. This could be due to the lack of sleep, according to research showing that teens who sleep longer are healthier and less prone to depression.
The American Association of Pediatrics has supported later start times for years, stating that schools should begin at 8:30 a.m. or later, and teens should get at least 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep on a regular basis. California had not done much to address this until the bill was passed.
President of Albany’s Board of Education, Kim Trutane, strongly supports the statewide change.
“I think it was actually very brave of the governor to make the decision to go ahead and sign this bill on the basis of the science,” Trutane said, “because it’s valuing students’ health over all of the difficult logistics that are going to be necessary to make the change.”
Trutane is aware of the later shift for afterschool activities and is confident that by the time fall of 2022 comes around, the district as well as neighboring school districts will be prepared.
Newsom’s primary reason for this change is to increase the amount of sleep teenagers get on weekday nights, but there are multiple arguments still opposing this schedule change, having to do with the community's adjustments to a different afterschool time frame.
Many school boards disagree with the change because extracurricular activities will have to be shifted back and schools that use a bus system as a primary source of transportation may have to adjust their schedules. Also, parents who usually drop their children off at school may have difficulty getting to work on time. Oakland Unified School District opposes the bill, explaining that it is the individual school board’s job to decide what start times work best for them.
Besides changing start times, Trutane also mentioned that the Albany district is considering other changes to improve the working schedule of students. Depending on the recommendations of a district task force and community input, finals week may be moved before the winter break.
“This year we have an academic calendar task force that was told to develop three innovative calendars for the district,” Trutane said, “This is the first time that we’ve had a task force that has student reps and teachers and administrators and parents all on it to try to figure out what’s best for students.”
Wellness Activities Aim to Support Students Before Finals Week
By Jetsun Jungney and Melia Oliver
This year there will be no “dead week” at Albany High. Instead, the week before finals will be called “wellness week,” with three days of planned events January 15-17. With this change, organizers hope to decrease stress culture and improve the overall health of students.
According to a New York Universitystudy, 49 percent of students at high-performing high schools reported feeling a great deal of stress on a daily basis. In addition, 26 percent of students reported symptoms of clinical depression. This level of stress goes on throughout the year.
Each day of wellness week will have a different theme: physical health, mental health, and community health. According to MacGregor High School counselor Diane Peterson, one of the planners behind wellness week, organizers hope to create an atmosphere of education, healing, and collaboration during the week before finals.
“We might have some dress up days, some games, just fun [to show that] we're in this together instead of we’re in this against each other,” Ms. Peterson said.
Leadership advisor Hannah Edber said, “We want students to feel like while school may be a source of stress, it can also be a source of comradery, solidarity, [and] comfort.” She also said that organizers “would love feedback or ideas that people have” to improve the week’s events in the future.
Peterson said that planners have several goals for wellness week.
“[We want] to acknowledge that school is really stressful for kids here, to give kids some tools to deal with stress, but also to remind people that you're not alone in your stress [...] and there are ways we can support each other.”
Seniors Visit District Court for Real World Learning
By Emily Bohr and Sasha Goldman
In response to civic engagement outreach programs, social science teacher Chris Knight’s US Government class attended multiple Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sessions on October 22.
“I want my students to sense that democracy is wide open--it’s theirs. This courthouse is a public facility, and it is our right as citizens to come and watch this happen,” Mr. Knight said. “I wanted them to know that it is a tremendous gift to have this right and to have your voice be heard.”
The field trip is one way that Mr. Knight brings students directly to real life examples of his curriculum. His students have also attended school board meetings with budget proposals for the district.
“In classrooms, you get certain skills--how to analyze information, how to research things, how to present information--but you do not get the skill of walking into a room of elected people and speaking your mind. That is a different skill, and I want my students to have that skill so they will be civically engaged.”
Knight’s students agree about the importance of real world learning.
“If you're just going to read about it, you can envision it in a lot of different ways,” senior Miles Williams said, “but if you can see it in real life, you can see the different sides interacting and hear the questions the judge is asking.”
Mr. Knight’s students also spoke with law clerks and asked questions of a panel of court judges.
“There was this great discussion going on between these federal judges and the students of Albany High School,” Mr. Knight said. “One [student] asked ‘do you think lifetime tenure for judges is still a good idea?’”
Many of Mr. Knight’s students asked critical questions during the panel.
“The question part was my favorite,” Williams said. “I asked what criticisms of the justice system do you have, and they talked about how sometimes when they have a judge above them, they have to listen to that judge and they don't like how the status works. I could tell they had different views, but in general they were respectful. Getting to ask questions and getting to see how they thought about the positions they were in and how they interact made it easier to talk to judges and get used to that environment.”
Girls’ Golf Team Wins TCAL Championship After Undefeated Season
By Mavi Hodoglugil and Oliver Rosenthal
The Albany High girls’ golf team finished their season with an undefeated 6 - 0 record and went on to win first place in the Tri-County Athletic League championships for the first time in the team’s history.
The Tri-County Athletic League, or TCAL, holds annual championships for high schools in the area. The finals this year took place on October 14th.
Having played and beaten all of the teams in their league during the regular season, the girls were hopeful going into the TCAL championships.
“When we went, we were hoping that it would still be the same and that we would be dominating the score,” senior Erin Montagh said.
This prediction proved to be true, and the team excitedly took home the championship banner that will soon be hanging in the gym.
The team had plenty of opportunities for celebration this season. Junior Minju O’Rourke, who started playing last year, explained the team’s post-win tradition of getting drinks together.
“Boba definitely motivates people to win - it’s a big one,” she said, laughing.
Power Outages Affect East Bay Communities
By Ethan Sims and George Song
Between October and November, hundreds of thousands of homes in Northern California were affected by power outages initiated by PG&E.
Many people had their daily lives thrown off course due to PG&E’s decision to turn off the power. These power outages had many economic repercussions, with an estimate of 2.5 billion dollars in commercial and industrial losses, according to calculations made by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Nexant.
Small businesses around Albany experienced losses as well. Amber Dinov, a special education resource teacher, expressed concerns about neighborhood businesses.
“There was less access to grocery stores, salons, restaurants,” Ms. Dinov said. “A Halloween parade was cancelled that would have led to an increase in revenue [and] sales.”
PG&E decided to shut off the power to reduce the risk that its equipment would start more wildfires. PG&E equipment has taken blame in the past for starting destructive wildfires that have ravaged the state. The company was financially penalized and publicly criticized for involvement in the Camp Fire of November 2018, the deadliest fire in state history.
Teachers and students around the community have been impacted by these power outages as well. Over 80 percent of 169 survey respondents knew someone who was affected or were directly affected themselves.
“I had to go to Burger King to do homework until 11pm,” sophomore Eileen Cai said.
Social studies teacher Karen DeHart complained that the recent outages were unnecessary and poorly planned.
“They should have warned people, [and] they should have monitored the weather more carefully. There was no reason in terms of weather to shut off the power,” Ms. DeHart said.
To prevent outages in the future, some critics suggest transitioning to underground transmission lines, although this option would cost more than 200 billion dollars according to Forbes. Another alternative is to create a system similar to San Diego Gas & Electric, which developed a network of battery-powered microgrids after the 2007 Witch Creek Fire. According to Forbes, the microgrids are more cost efficient and have less environmental impact.
“[PG&E] should have and must enhance their infrastructure. They’re a utility, [and] they should be monitored better by the state,” Ms. Dehart said. “It should be in good working order. The power lines: they’re old and can’t handle the weather.”
End of year message from SchoolCARE
Dear Albany Community:
It feels good to consider some good news as the year comes to a close. Thanks to you and this small-but-mighty town, SchoolCARE has stood together for 19 years, helping Albany schools excel and making sure that our kids get the education they deserve.
This school year, SchoolCARE donations help save or enhance crucial school positions like library techs, elementary enrichment staff, intervention professionals, counselors, and elective teachers. And as we look toward the future, we are continuing to think big.
Can you help us keep the momentum going with a year-end gift to SchoolCARE?
Your donation transforms our children into chess players and dancers, social workers and mathematicians. It inspires kids to be gardeners and readers, scientists and writers. When you give to SchoolCARE, you’re giving locally but it doesn’t just stay here in Albany—our kids will go on to change the world.
Please consider a year-end donation to SchoolCARE. Together we can keep the good news coming.
In gratitude,
Yael Bloom
President, SchoolCARE Board of Directors
We suggest $500 per student and every amount helps! Here’s how to donate:
ONLINE: www.albanyschoolcare.org
MAIL: Send a check to SchoolCARE, 1569 Solano Avenue, #537, Albany, CA 94707
INFORMATION: albanyschoolcare@yahoo.com or 510-898-6767
P.S. The cover band Mrs Robinson and the DadBeats are playing their annual benefit show on Saturday, January 18, 2020, 8:30p.m. One Show Only! Fun 70's, 80's & 90's cover tunes and more at the Cornerstone in Berkeley The past two years this show has sold out..so buy tickets today! Tickets at www.dadbeats.org
Proceeds will benefit Albany SchoolCARE and Albany Music Fund. We hope to see you there!
On behalf of the SchoolCARE Board of Directors: Yael Bloom, President; Candace Renger, Treasurer; Erin Albert, Secretary; Jenny Blattner, Karen Buttwinick, Helene Class, Michael Chin, Tenny Frost, Courtnee Hamity, Natasha Khokhar, Michele Ling, Caroline Papas, Joanie Rothstein, Anne Marie Sanders, Marin Van Young, Amy Yamashiro; we thank you