text:
Town Square
What do your kids think about the new school schedule
Original post made by parent, Midtown, on Jan 5, 2013
--Teacher's didn't have time for review before finals. Some were still teaching new material right before the test
--It was nice to have time after Christmas before going back to school
--Didn't have time to study for finals
--No energy to study for finals. Exhausted by the rush
--It's good to start the new term when we get back.
--Good and bad/
More thoughts?
Comments (67)
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 5, 2013 at 7:21 pm
Teachers shouldn't have taught new material after a certain date, but did. Dead week was only two days. Some grades were updated almost straight away.
The only redeeming feature was the long gap between Thanksgiving and Finals because Thanksgiving was early, Nov 22. Next year Thanksgiving will be the week later, Nov 28, and December will feel shorter.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 5, 2013 at 8:05 pm
It seemed like the semester was on a stride until Thanksgiving, then it was like the lights went out. Grades posted on Infinite Campus became fewer and farther between, and in some case the last grades posted, previous to finals, we back in November and even October.
This may have caused a crunch between new material after Thanksgiving and finals review. It was a gray area.
I know this is too much to ask, but it would help if teachers would say there are X number of tests, quizzes and major assignments before Thanksgiving, X number between Thanksgiving and the week before final review dates.
a resident of Gunn High School
on Jan 5, 2013 at 9:22 pm
Some teachers finished the material early and showed movies. Home Alone seen many times.
Plenty of time to review.
Wish break was longer...
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 5, 2013 at 10:12 pm
My son enjoyed having the stress-free break and so did we. In past Winter Breaks, he would not study during the break, but he would feel guilty for not studying so he could not relax. This Winter Break has been fabulous because he could actually RELAX and hang-out and not worry about studying. He will return to Paly, fresh and ready for a new semester instead of returning with the burden of having to flip through old material and study for final exams.
I don't quite understand why "wishful thinking?" suggested students know how many tests/quizzes/assignments are upcoming. How would this help the students?
a resident of Professorville
on Jan 6, 2013 at 2:18 pm
LOVE the new school schedule and stress-free kid. Made for an enjoyable break!
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Jan 6, 2013 at 5:05 pm
Great stress-free Winter Break (ok, at least free of school related stress...). The only downside was ending SO close to Christmas, my daughter had to study for finals with a house full of company.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 6, 2013 at 7:21 pm
From what I hear kids hate the early August start but love the done-before-break part.
a resident of Community Center
on Jan 7, 2013 at 9:10 am
This is how college works. Kids should get accustomed to it.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 7, 2013 at 12:36 pm
Thank goodness for the new schedule. The family time without homework and study pressures was precious. Please do not go back to the old schedule. It's cruel to have assignments and exams hanging over a kid during Winter break.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 7, 2013 at 2:08 pm
One word review of the new calendar from a parent of a senior - dreadful.
While it sounds from the posts that some who don't have seniors appreciated the "no thoughts of school" over break relief, I assure you that when their child becomes a senior they will not think that that "relief" outweighed the extraordinary weeks and weeks of additional stress the new calendar caused seniors applying to private colleges.
What was the district thinking? That public high schools need only support PAUSD seniors who apply to public colleges and recruited athletes?
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Jan 7, 2013 at 2:23 pm
Hated it - many of the seniors I know used Winter Break to finish up their applications WITHOUT the stress of school work hanging over them. The college app process stinks and is stressful not matter what.
a resident of Gunn High School
on Jan 7, 2013 at 2:30 pm
Better to ask towards end of school year.
But for now, first semester notably shorter and my student not happy about the mismatch with second semester. Wondering what seniors thought with everything crashing at once ~ finals, college apps, year end performances, etc. My student ended the semester okay academically but forlorn that not much time to spend to celebrate the holidays which nipped on the heels. Christmas was rushed and then there was a long lull afterwards which was calm but bordered on the boring.
a resident of Palo Verde
on Jan 7, 2013 at 2:39 pm
Loved the lack of stress hanging over my students head. He was not worried about finals and was able to truly relax. Our older son (in college now) and his friends spent their entire winter break (a few years back) doing college applications. The college application crunch will happen over winter break regardless of when finals are held. Either way they don't have time to do them in December before the break. If there is not finals, then there are chapter tests, projects and essays. So for our family it was a welcome change! Hope we keep it!
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on Jan 7, 2013 at 2:49 pm
Its good that someone is doing something to try to stop the overstressed kids but us the stress comes from having too much to do and not enough time, plus the insanely competitive school environment in which kids and their parents will stop at nothing, cheat, copy, plagiarize, whatever to do well and get into a good college.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 7, 2013 at 3:31 pm
My son thinks it sucks... Too much of a rush to finish the semester before Christmas, too much cramming, which results in less retention of the material taught. Really backfired stress-wise.
a resident of Green Acres
on Jan 7, 2013 at 4:47 pm
My 6 & 8 year olds didn't understand why why they couldn't visit her cousins this year over the summer break.
a resident of Gunn High School
on Jan 7, 2013 at 5:02 pm
The new schedule was fantastic - it allowed for a truly stress and guilt-free break, unlike previous years. Our family is a big fan.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 7, 2013 at 5:08 pm
Why are people posting about seniors and elementary kids? What about the 9, 10, and 11th graders who incur the most stress besides seniors? Students who are becoming seniors should know to start their applications earlier. They have Advisory which endlessly tells them the routes they will be taking each year at Paly. They are simply not following the schedules. My college student wished he could have had finals before Break at Paly because he had to endure college apps AND schoolwork during Winter Break.
And to those who whine about the interference with vacation and holiday festivities, move out of our college prep school district and your child can have more free time due to lower academic requirements.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 7, 2013 at 5:39 pm
I understand that college applications add stress senior year. But the new calendar for some reason was configured in such a way that virtually every possible free day off was removed, leaving many seniors almost no time to work on their applications and do well in classes. That is what made this new calendar so dreadful.
From my quick count, last year's seniors had 3 more weeks off in the fall than this year's seniors had. Those would have been the days my son worked on college applications. Instead, he was pushed to do almost all of his college application work during the 1-1/2 weeks after finals. Forget Christmas preparation. Forget getting questions answered. Paly's guidance office was closed those two weeks, as were the admissions offices of the schools he applied to. To make matters even worse, the first 3 days of break - that were supposed to be devoted to college applications - were completely lost nursing a cold.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 7, 2013 at 5:47 pm
Would not have liked break to start any closer to Christmas, it was too close to get into Christmas spirit.
Enjoyed a couple of days after New Year's Day to get organized for school, hair cuts, shoe shopping, etc, but a weekend would have done. As usual, many/most friends were away or busy (studying/tutoring?) and were not available to hangout so the kids left in PA were bored silly for the past few weekdays hence the haircuts, shoe shopping.
I think it would be most interesting to get feedback from the questionnaires now in January, rather than waiting until the end of the 2nd semester. It would be interesting to differentiate between elementary and secondary schools as those needing childcare for 3 days last week may have comments.
My senior did not get stressed about finals because only one final would have made a difference to grade and the rest were treated with less stress. We had a very good finals schedule so plenty of time to get prepared between each final which definitely helped and the last Friday was basically a short day.
a resident of Crescent Park
on Jan 7, 2013 at 8:42 pm
For elementary.... the long fall with almost zero breaks was exhausting for the little ones... next year I will pull them out for a couple of days in October. Hate the early start. Ridiculous to have the elementary kids on this schedule.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 7, 2013 at 10:58 pm
My senior daughter (and us) thought this is great - it was so nice to be done with school before the break so that she could finish college apps (incl private colleges) while done with school work for the term. The last few weeks of term were extremely full, but being done with it for the break was worth it. I agree that the anxiety of not doing work during the break that you know should be done is a huge stressor for our kids.
The only thing that would have been preferable is to have the teachers manage the course better so that they weren't teaching new material right up to the end - but I assume they'll get better at that as they get familiar with this schedule. Don't change it back - this is MUCH better.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 8, 2013 at 7:11 am
There is a large group of Paly seniors (100?) who are strong candidates for very competitive private colleges - those taking Paly's hardest classes and scoring well on their SAT.
Those colleges have long applications that require writing lots of thought-provoking essays. Seniors who want to attend them need to apply to lots because their acceptance rates are very low and whom they accept is so unpredictable, which means that those seniors needed lots of time up to January 1 to craft applications that would stand out in a 30,000+ applicant pool.
These seniors seemed to fall into two groups:
Seniors who worked on their applications steadily throughout the semester. This group probably got in strong applications because they were not rushed, but paid for it with grades that suffered and stress levels that skyrocketed as they tried to manage it all. They are pretty nervous now wondering how much the dip in their grades - caused by the new calendar which forced them to choose between using their limited free time working on college applications or classwork - will matter to colleges.
Paly students who put applications off until break. The semester may not have been as stressful for them, but 10 days was not enough time to write stellar applications. They are pretty nervous now too, wondering how good a job they did having had to rush through their applications.
Neither group will know until April, when they see their accepts and rejects, if the new calendar worked for them or if they would have preferred the old calendar which had much more free time in it.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 8, 2013 at 9:21 am
My junior son loved having finals over and done with before break. He's also an athlete and said the calendar change had no effect on his Fall sport. College apps later this year will be stressful, but they were stressful when finals were after break for my daughter who is now in college. No way to avoid that. Love having finals before Christmas. I trust the kids will also love being done with school at the end of May.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 8, 2013 at 10:00 am
I'm seeing one common complaint from the (parents of) seniors--that there was not enough time during the semester for students to work on their applications, due to the lack of (somewhat random) days off, and cramming finals before break.
One thing that has to be considered is that the entire college application process is going to be stressful no matter want. Finals pre-break, finals post-break--with more and more students applying to 15, 20 colleges, many of which have unique applications, the entire process is going to be stressful and will still take TIME. Even with post-break finals, many students are going to need to work over winter break to complete their applications. That is going to happen regardless.
I saw one person above complain that the students get three more weeks of instruction time during the fall season due to the lack of days off, which were days that were normally spent on college applications. Maybe that's true. However, those days (in the past) were all full of homework and projects, particularly for AP classes; from what I can recall, those days were usually filled with that as WELL as applications, which didn't make a significant difference in how much free time they had. Additionally, the guidance offices were closed on those days as well. This schedule may give you three more weeks of class time (again, I'm just taking this off of that comment above--I haven't counted), but it also gives you:
-Three MORE weeks of guidance office appointments
-Three MORE weeks of AP class study prior to the AP exams (which is a large issue in AP classes), thus slowing down the pace in those classes
I agree, there were some adjustments. Summer was unusually short this year, but will catch up next year--there will still be ample time (presuming a mid-June end date being traditional, you've got two weeks of June, all of July and the first third of August, which ends up being eight weeks--and unless you are planning a nine or ten week vacation to visit family, that's plenty of time. Teachers will adjust and get into the swing of things. Local camps and day cares WILL adjust to accomidate the early school-end date because that is financially beneficial for them. But this way, the students are on schedule like most other schools in the area, and they get a two week vacation in the middle. I'd say it is worth it.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Jan 8, 2013 at 10:21 am
College apps are stressful. Period. Castilleja wisely limited the number of school the girls could apply to this year and forced them to have a few which they had a really good chance of getting into (true safety schools).
As a public school, we probably can't do that, but as parents we can. Applying to 20 schools is nuts. If you choose to do apply to that many schools, you've brought the work on yourself.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 8, 2013 at 1:42 pm
Several times during the break, our Sophomore commented on how happy he was the that he was done with his semester and did not have finals hanging over his head. It was a stress real break for him (and us) not worrying about what he "should" be doing for his classes.
It is mistaken to blame college app stress on this new schedule. We have a daughter who went through that app process under the previous calendar and it was very hard then too, even for a conscientious student who worked on her essays throughout the semester. It is just very hard. I think "Regardless" above makes good points about the trade-offs. It is matter of planning against known deadlines that are different for every student. Rearrangeing them up does not reduce the amount of work or stress.
Also, let's not blame the December 21 semester end on the new schedule. That was the date the semester ended last time Christmas was on a Tuesday under the old schedule.
a resident of Crescent Park
on Jan 8, 2013 at 3:50 pm
Nothing personal to the original poster and the claim - but there is no way that there was a 15 holiday/day-off delta between the 2012 seniors and the 2013 seniors.
I checked both the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic calendars:
Fall 2011: 6 holidays before Xmas break and when UC/CSU apps were due.
Fall 2012: 7 holidays before Xmas break and when UC/CSU apps were due.
Fall 2011: 10 Xmas holidays + previous 6 = 16 holidays before Private apps were due.
Fall 2012: 6 Xmas holidays + previous 7 = 13 holidays before Private apps were due.
This year's seniors had an extra day before UC/CSU app's were due. They had 3 less days before Private app's were due --- which is more of a function of when Xmas falls on the calendar, not due to the early start.
The one holiday downside that is the trade-off between finals before or after break:
2011-12: 17 holidays before Fall Semester finals.
2012-13: 7 holidays before Fall Semester finals.
Our kids, both former Paly students, never cracked a book during the Xmas break and did great on their January finals. That being said, they are both at semester universities and their finals take place before the holidays. They have both said that they were never stressed during the Paly holidays before January finals, but they certainly do like having finals finished before coming home on winter break
a resident of Crescent Park
on Jan 8, 2013 at 3:53 pm
Casti limited the number of schools the students could apply to? Are you sure about that?
I don't think that would be legal at all.
a resident of Palo Verde
on Jan 8, 2013 at 4:23 pm
To "THANKS BoE". It's very rude to automatically reject the opinions of families of SENIORS and middle school or elementary students. This is a UNIFIED school district. All families are affected by these decisions. Why shouldn't their voices be heard, even if they disagree with your own opinion?
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Jan 8, 2013 at 6:33 pm
My daughter graduated from Castilleja. Casti recommends applying to 9 schools, but they could not and would not enforce the number of schools a girl applies to. It is just a thoughtful guideline.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 8, 2013 at 8:45 pm
In response to "Friendly discussions" statement, we have to look at the whole picture, not at the opinions individuals who only think of their child in their current grade. Which grades are the most academically stressful for PAUSD students? Certainly not elementary school. Not really middle school since the grades aren't sent to colleges. It's the 9, 10, and 11th graders who incur the most stress (besides seniors) because those grades are sent to colleges for college admission. And why do we live in Palo Alto? For the good education so our children can attend good colleges, not for longer summer vacations.
As far as senior year stress, as people mentioned, college apps are stressful anyway you slice it. Paly's Principal Winston is looking into eliminating final exams for seniors. I think this is a good idea so seniors can have time to work on college applications and not have the stress of final exams. They will have already learned how to study for final exams in grades 9, 10, and 11. Or they could eliminate just first semester final exams for seniors so they have more time for college applications. To those who think this is coddling, let me remind you that Paly and Gunn are not easy schools academically, especially if your child takes honors or AP classes (which colleges want to see on transcripts these days).
Frankly, I think more "A" grades should be distributed. Your child could ace everything and then a few hiccups and it's kicked down to a "B" grade. It's not easy getting an "A" in AP or honors classes. Thus, the tutoring industry is cashing in. It's so difficult to get an "A" that a student could get a 5 (the highest) on an AP test, yet get a "B" or "C" in the AP class. AP teachers at Paly teach so students can get a 5 on the AP test. Sure, they could make the AP classes a bit easier and have students who want a 5 on the AP test to study more on the side, but then the teachers hear complaints from parents who say the teacher didn't prepare their children to ace the AP test.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 8, 2013 at 9:10 pm
Although this is not the topic under discussion, enough has been said about stress that I feel we should discuss stress and our kids also.
Stress is a normal fact of life for all of us. Young children feel very little stress, but as childhood progresses, the level of stress increases. We cannot eliminate stress from our children's lives and in fact we should not. Stress will appear in all parts of our children's lives, from school, sport, families, peer pressure, after school activities of all kinds, and yes, from parents too. Whether it is good grades, to getting on the best sports team, the best part in the play, and from keeping a bedroom tidy, doing chores, eating healthy, and all the things that a child goes through to turn into a well balanced adult.
It is much better therefore to teach children how to deal with stress. It is not just a matter of getting ahead on college applications months in advance, but on learning how to turn off, relax and manage the stresses in life.
Allowing teenagers in particular, time to be stressfree is not just a matter of how the school year is broken up, but an attitude of having down time each week or even each day.
We should ask ourselves these questions. Do we give our teens time to be stressfree. Do we spend dinner time discussing school issues, etc. or of just chatting? Do we have a time each week to just have fun without competitive nature? And away from home, do our teens have time to just hang out, or must they always be involved in activities which are meaningful or look good on college applications?
Stress free breaks will never happen because our teens are being stressed by things other than school. We can do a better job for them by allowing them to have stress free breaks in their busy lives every day, every week, and every season - regardless of what school is doing.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 8, 2013 at 10:46 pm
iSez is a registered user.
@Parent: You obviously have elementary school children and won't understand until you have children in high school. Academics at our high schools are not a cake-walk. There is homework every weekend. And to be on the best "whatever" nowadays, children have to work for it, which requires tutoring or private lessons. Even if parents chat with their high school children (which we do), their is still looming schoolwork that is a stressor. This is not the 1970s or 1980s when children had tons of free time after school to just hang out and bike all over town.
The reason this new schedule is fabulous is that students can finally breathe a sigh of relief and relax during Winter Break without stress. I don't understand how you can state that we will "never" have stress-free breaks.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 9, 2013 at 8:15 am
There were 14 "free" days lost this fall under the new calendar. 12 days off in August (school would have started August 28 instead of 16). 1 during the semester. 1 in December right before Christmas.
All additional time seniors could have worked on college applications while leaving plenty of time to do school work.
Instead, seniors facing January 1 deadlines either had to wait to apply during the first 10 days of winter break or choose between applications or schoolwork during the semester.
The additional stress caused by the loss of those 14 days should not be dismissed just because college applications are stressful, "period." If seniors were given those days off back - a 3 week vacation worth - this fall semester would have been much less stressful for them.
a resident of Palo Verde
on Jan 9, 2013 at 10:10 am
@my count
That is an interesting thought. Do you really think the seniors would have been working diligently on applications during those "lost" or "free" days in August? I highly doubt it, especially since people who don't like the calendar talk about the "lost" vacation time in August and the need to use August for family vacations.
a resident of Old Palo Alto
on Jan 9, 2013 at 10:50 am
FWIW, my middle school student has at least one unit test THIS week. While driving a carpool the other day, several middle schoolers were lamenting how they have been loaded with more homework, projects and tests than ever before in the first two days back from break. (So, there might have been "no homework" over break, but they are still loaded the first week back regardless.)
In addition, I can't count how many people I know who have been hammered by illness over the holidays. Maybe a bad flu season, or whatever, but not the good, clean start to a new semester where everyone is rested.
As for the month of December, there was no pre-holiday fun in our house. I put up decorations alone and the anticipation of Advent was reduced to the weekend after finals, when we were too exhausted to go to church. NOT fun.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 9, 2013 at 12:11 pm
palo Verde Mom,
Yes. Responsible seniors who want a good chance at gaining admission into competitive private colleges would use those two "free" weeks in August to work on applications. That is because the other options - balancing stress, classwork and applications or putting it off until winter break and praying you don't get sick - are less than ideal.
High school juniors do not typically spend their summers vacationing with their families BTW. They have jobs, summer-long internships, etc. The issue of August for family vacations is mostly a concern of elementary school families.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Jan 9, 2013 at 12:25 pm
Parent from Old Palo Alto - Middle school does not "end" at the semester since almost all the classes are a year long, nor do they usually give finals. This should be addressed with the Principals and perhaps Dr. Miliken to bring a true Winter Break in line with the high schools. This was a problem when the semesters ended in January also, the high school kids had a weekend free from work, but the middle school kids had just another regular weekend's worth of homework.
My count - high school juniors (and other high school and college kids) DO vacation with their families. Some may also have jobs or internships, but they go on vacation too. I have high school and college age kids, most of their friends vacation in August because it is easier to stop your job or internship, go on vacation then head back to school, then it is to take time off in the middle.
The prompts for the Common App don't usually change, there is no reason that kids can't get started on that part during the summer, then work on the individual essays during the school year.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 9, 2013 at 12:32 pm
@Parent: It depends on the teachers. My children have not gotten much homework this week. However, last year, my child had a challenging team of teachers who gave quizzes each week which meant my child had 3 guaranteed quizzes EVERY WEEK during the year, plus homework every day, and tests thrown in there too. Middle school grades don't go to college apps, so my child did the best possible.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 9, 2013 at 1:14 pm
palo alto mom,
The Common Application is 1 essay and 1 paragraph out of the 20-30 seniors applying to competitive colleges will write. And there is too that the Common Application company just reported that its prompts will be different next year and the "write whatever you want" one will not be offered.
Bottom line: Parents like you who like the calendar will rationalize away these seniors' concerns to justify why your family's need to not think about school over Christmas break is more important than the stressors this calendar creates for others.
But no rationalization will change that, under this calendar, seniors have 14 fewer days in the fall to work on college applications than seniors had under the old calendar.
a resident of College Terrace
on Jan 9, 2013 at 2:23 pm
"But no rationalization will change that, under this calendar, seniors have 14 fewer days in the fall to work on college applications than seniors had under the old calendar. "
Not really. There are 14 fewer days "without regular classes", which is certainly not the same thing. There's no rule that kids can only work on college applications when they don't have class. The only way it would actually be "14 fewer days" is if the applications were due 14 days earlier than before.
a resident of another community
on Jan 9, 2013 at 2:45 pm
@my count -- We ARE still on the Gregorian calendar system, right? Which means that the seniors have just as much time--they have 14 days without school in June instead of 14 days without school in August. @False equivalency has it right.
Additionally, many (although not all) English teachers assist their students in writing their college essays first semester senior year--which means that they DO have 14 more days of teacher assistance on the essays, something that is undoubtedly more beneficial to a student than 14 days of self-, peer-, or parent-review.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 9, 2013 at 3:28 pm
College applications do not come out until August or later, so days off in June are not of much use in getting a jump start on college applications. They are of zero use for students who want to write about what they learned over the summer.
Have you been a high school student lately? A 7 hour school day followed by at least 4 hours of homework for seniors (and sleep) is a full day that doesn't leave much time or clarity for college applications I'm afraid. A school day is not the same as the free days off last year's seniors had.
In my child's English class, no days were devoted to college essay writing. There was homework assigned this break that was due the first day of second semester too.
So still can't see how this calendar served seniors.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 9, 2013 at 4:11 pm
my count, the UC essay topics are already online. Stanford's is online. I don't see where it says that the Common App essays are changing, but they have traditionally been the same yearly. Even if there are minor changes, usually the same essay suffices with some minor tweeks. They can still start on their essays in June.
I'm guessing your child in is AP English, if there was homework assigned over break? Because that is the only English class for seniors that is year-round--unless it is a freshman or sophomore class (which, naturally, would not devote time to college essay writing). If you're going to make that argument, then AP English also has summer homework that is due the first day of class--students know that going into it, it isn't a surprise.
Additionally, what was this homework? Chances are, it was something new--not something cumulative, nor something that could appear on a cumulative, semester review exam in three weeks. That reduction helps seniors. Was it only one class that had homework? That reduction helps seniors. (And please note that if it is just AP English, it comes with the territory.) Were those extra two weeks used to start classwork, with the AP test stationary? That helps seniors, too.
And additionally, no senior has a seven hour school day. There are six hours of class a day, and the majority of seniors have at least one prep, dropping that further. A senior with two preps sometimes only has three hours of class a day.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Jan 9, 2013 at 4:13 pm
My Count -
where do you get a start date of 8/28? - the prior years start dates were 8/23 and 8/24 - so that is only 7 days.
a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood
on Jan 9, 2013 at 4:56 pm
Get the Facts Right,
The calendar we would have had if the pre-break finals calendar was not adopted is here which, despite your facts, shows an August 28 start date:
Web Link
Maybe your senior only goes to school 3 hours a day, but mine is busy at Paly all 7 periods and that doesn't count time spent in after school activities and on homework. I hardly think it is reasonable for anyone concerned about student stress to expect seniors to work on college essays when they are passing between classes and eating lunch or after putting in an 11 hour work day.
UC essay topics typically don't change but the discussion in this thread is about competitive private college essays - perhaps you lost track of that. Colleges, including Stanford, didn't post their essay topics for the senior Class of 2013 until right before school started and some not until September.
Changes to the common application were announced months ago which advised students that staring Fall 2013 they "will choose one of four or five essay topics that are likely to change each year": Web Link
The point about homework over break is that this new calendar was supposed to make sure that high school students had a work free break - NO winter break homework, AP or otherwise. That didn't happen. At our house, there was as much homework over break under the old calendar as there was in the new one.
So again how is this calendar any better? For seniors it is worse.
a resident of Palo Verde
on Jan 9, 2013 at 7:32 pm
@ my count
on this weblink Web Link there is a statement dated Dec 4, 2012 about the common app and the questions for 2013- 14. It actually states that the "new" common app essay topics will be available on March 1 2013. In the past they have been available on Aug 1.
Also, if you believe that a high school teacher really did give an assignment over the break I would contact the teacher to double check and then I would contact the IS or principal.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 9, 2013 at 8:03 pm
My personal opinion as a Paly junior:
I hated the new schedule (don't let the past tense get you -- I still heavily dislike the pre-break finals). I am taking an academic curriculum, 3 AP's and almost every other class honors of some form, and dead week this year for me was hell on earth. I suppose it's partly due to taking a much harder schedule, but I had never previously been so stressed. I never opened a book over winter break, so the "stress free break" argument holds no weight with me. I got less time to study, more projects due the week of finals or the day before, and more material being taught up to the last minute. And I get to go through this my senior year during college apps too... oh goody!
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 9, 2013 at 8:53 pm
iSez is a registered user.
My Count: Most Paly seniors take 5-6 classes, not 7 classes. You want to change the whole schedule for the few seniors who take 7 classes? Unfortunately, this was the first year of the schedule and teachers will be able to learn from experience. Someone's going to get screwed when a change takes place.
We loved the stress-free break. Shoulda happened a long time ago.
a resident of Adobe-Meadow
on Jan 9, 2013 at 9:52 pm
I am always amazed at the number of holier than thou, self righteous parents in Palo Alto.
a resident of Esther Clark Park
on Jan 9, 2013 at 10:15 pm
@My count and C - I believe you. You don't like this calendar (prefer finals after winter break) and your experience is that it has made your or your senior's very busy academic life more difficult. I believe you. I also believe the others that say they are experiencing great relief from this restructuring of the school year. All true. So, something or someone's gotta give… and that will be the calendar committee or Board's decision at some point.
In the meantime, the circumstances are what they are and we have no choice but to "deal" with what our children face in the right-here and the right-now… which could be simply enjoying the effect of the true break between semesters or, if you're worried about increased stress for your senior, by deciding what and where you can adjust.
There have always been Board decisions that have created conditions in which some families benefit and other families, due to timing or who-knows-what, may never. Two of my children missed class size reduction by a year, while children just one class below benefited throughout their PAUSD experience. Mine were impacted by the constant construction of new buildings but never sat in a new classroom. Never had a true winter break either. Tough timing for us, but the right decisions for everyone else.
I hope that PAUSD gives this calendar the benefit of a 2 year trial, as its positive potential will more likely be seen and experienced in year two (and beyond).
PS to "C" – come this spring with the 3 AP tests headed your way, you may find this new calendar was your best friend after all. I hope you do well.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 10, 2013 at 7:13 am
The pro-calendar posts read as if the calendar is only here to benefit them. When challenged, they reply that:
1. The district's calendar should serve grades 9, 10 and 11. Elementary and middle school students should have no voice because they have no finals. The same goes for seniors. They should have no voice because, with college applications, they are stressed out anyway.
2. Seniors wanting to take a rigorous and interesting class load should take fewer classes and apply to fewer colleges and BTW by doing so lower their chances of getting in to the colleges they want to attend.
Seniors typically are required to take 4-5 classes, but their argument goes that to free up time for college applications students should stop there and take 2-3 preps, so drop electives that interest them (foreign language, photography, art, journalism, yearbook, theater, band, shop).
Never mind that seniors under the old calendar could do both. Now it is OK that opportunities be limited because what is most important is that the pro-calendar people's children are happier.
3. The calendar need not provide a no homework guarantee to students taking APs. They should expect homework over break and, if students don't like it, don't take APs. Never mind that 1,000s of our high school students take APs and never mind that the new calendar was put in place so no high school student would have homework over break.
iSez says "someone's going to get screwed." He's pro-calendar and in his and other pro-calendar parents' view it is fine if that "someone" is most of the students in our district. They should just embrace the new calendar and, if they are not in grades 9, 10 or 11, kept their complaints to themselves because this calendar is not about them.
Hopefully few agree with this self-serving view, but it begs the question - how did 9-11th graders fare? The Paly junior posting above "hated" the new schedule because it made dead week "hell on earth" with less time to study, more projects due right before or during finals, and more material being taught up to the last minute. Lots of Paly juniors and seniors had the same complaint.
Paly teachers were trained how to adjust content so that this would not happen, so my guess is that many teachers found it impossible to get students through the material they needed to cover and so had to cram it in at the end.
It is very possible that the new calendar netted out more stress for grades 9, 10, 11 (and certainly for 12) than less.
a resident of Midtown
on Jan 10, 2013 at 8:15 am
My child, a senior at Gunn, appreciated the two week break created by the calendar change. It allowed two weeks to finish up on college apps. My child is currently taking two APs and had just finished a season of a varsity sport. With two early decision aps completed we have one acceptance and are waiting to hear from two "reach colleges." In total, my child is applying to six colleges.
I am sorry to hear that some students and families were not able to fully enjoy the two week break due to assignments and college applications. Our family's experience was completely different. As parents, we also took a two week vacation from work. This is almost unheard of these days. It was the break we all needed.
Good luck to all of you writing applications and waiting to hear back. Good things await you all.
a resident of Barron Park
on Jan 10, 2013 at 8:34 am
When I taught USAP (actually called it that, not APUSH) at Gunn, back in the days when there where only 3 sections of AP in Social Studies (the early 1990's), any student who got a 5 on the test and a B from my measurements was upgraded to an A in the fall of their senior year as US is a junior year course.
Nearly all of the comments posted here do not acknowledge one of the primary intentions of having finals before the winter break, namely, to benefit lower performing students by eliminating a hiatus between instruction and testing.
Finally, I would suggest that any student submitting applications to more than 10 schools has not thought out the matter sufficiently and has some process issues that go beyond procrastination or time management.
There are research backed, pedagogic rationals for changing to the current calendar in regard to secondary school cognitive achievement for all students, not just those bound for the elite universities. This is why this reform has caught on. Palo Alto comes late-to-the-game these days in many educational reforms. LightHouse days are over.
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 10, 2013 at 10:32 am
"There are research backed, pedagogic rationals for changing to the current calendar ... to benefit lower performing students by eliminating a hiatus between instruction and testing."
Challenge Success told the Weekly that there is no hard research that supports the notion that pre-break finals reduce student stress.
Web Link
Mentioned on Town Square awhile ago was UCLA research that said if teachers' goals are for students to remember what they learn, then make sure they learn it, forget it, and come back to it again.
Popped right up in a Google search:
"Ironically, 'forgetting can be a powerful tool for learning,' ... said Storm, one of the researchers on the project. 'If you don't forget, you don't engage in the type of powerful learning mechanisms that you would if you learn something over again,' Storm said."
Apparently, hiatuses followed by review work. Rushing and cramming don't.
Web Link
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 10, 2013 at 5:08 pm
Our whole family enjoyed the break because our Paly junior was so relaxed and thoroughly relieved to have his first semester of AP and Honors classes behind him. We are looking forward to being out at the end of May to get an early start on college visits.
Keep the new calendar!
a resident of Stanford
on Jan 10, 2013 at 5:24 pm
Big Picture,
I am a little confused by your examples. While Challenge Success did say there is no hard research in the field that support pre-break finals could reduce student stress, they ARE advocating pre-break finals because of the "overwhelmingly positive" anecdotal evidence from schools that have done so. So how does the Challenge Success article supports your doubt about pre-break finals?
As for the UCLA article, the "learning after forgetting" process is quite different from "hiatus and review." The mechanism mentioned in the article is deeper learning of content to achieve longer term memory. The article did not say pre-break finals are bad. As clearly said by the research quoted in the article, it is about a "deeper level" of processing, "relearning in new ways." The article actually ended with this - "You don't need to forget," he said. "But you have to really process the information you're learning."
So how is reviewing after a hiatus helping students to be better prepared for finals if there is no deeper processing of information? Is there enough time for teachers to work with students after the break to have a deeper processing of information before a post-break final? And, according to the article, if there is no need to forget, then how does a hiatus before finals help actually? This is not the finding or the conclusion of this study. Maybe to really help students, we need to help them find a way to study that could help them understand (not just memorizing) the materials so they will remember.
I am not saying that you are incorrect, but after a careful reading of the 2 pieces of "proof" you presented, they do not seem to support what you are trying to prove. Is there any other study that you know of that supports post-break finals work better for students?
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 11, 2013 at 8:24 am
A Paly student posted his anecdotal evaluation: "hated" it. Paly is very rigorous and many classes cover more material at a faster pace than the same class offered at other schools. Some schools have shorter first semesters -- far less material to master for the final. Some schools don't give finals – easier period. So anecdotes from PAUSD-land may vary considerably from those Challenge Success has gathered elsewhere.
The "deep learning" mentioned in the UCLA article reads to me as actually learning the material compared to superficially learning and then quickly forgetting it. Google UCLA, cramming, learning and forgetting and here's what you get elsewhere:
"The schedules by which we space repetitions can make a huge difference in how well we learn and retain information we study…. longer intervals create more potent learning events than shorter intervals."
"Although massing practice (for example, cramming for exams) supports short-term performance, spacing practice (for example, distributing presentations, study attempts, or training trials) supports long-term retention. The benefits of spacing on long-term retention, called the spacing effect, have been demonstrated for all manner of materials and tasks, types of learners (human and animal), and time scales; it is one of the most general and robust effects from across the entire history of experimental research on learning and memory."
a resident of Gunn High School
on Jan 11, 2013 at 9:03 am
@Fredrich.You've hit the nail on the head. We had the chance with the last election to have a board member who shares and acts on the data, research, and values you mention but unfortunately the district staff and hangers-on such as Mandy Munger and that gang worked very hard to make sure that viewpoint was not represented. Instead the "more pressure" and "more competition" crowd won pretty narrowly after using dirty tricks, whispering, and negative campaigning. Now it is up to parents to hold the board that was elected accountable for holding the line against higher pressure, reverting to the "elite admissions" calendar which puts thousands of children under stress for the benefit of a privileged few who apply to [too many] elite colleges but who enhance the district reputation, to implement a stress-reducing advisory program at Gunn, etc. These goals will be harder to achieve with the board that was elected and the current incumbents who are very much inclined to pander to the "higher pressure=higher property values" mentality but if parents organize and unite it is possible to hold the line against a return to maximum high pressure policies. Good luck.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Jan 11, 2013 at 9:30 am
Mandy's last name is not Munger, it is Lowell.
PAUSD is a hard district, ask any of the college counselors or tutors who work with kids from other Districts too. In addition, PAUSD teachers tend to grade harder than others, they just don't seem to get the idea that high school is about grades and building a resume for college (not that it should be about that, but that is what many PAUSD high school students believe).
a resident of Adobe-Meadow
on Jan 11, 2013 at 12:23 pm
I completely agree with happy parent or happy student
My children (one in high school) really enjoyed the break, and we as a family had a LOT more time to relax together. We are also looking forward to the earlier start to summer.
Keep the new calendar!
a resident of Gunn High School
on Jan 11, 2013 at 4:10 pm
@paloaltomom-Too late for that. Yes I am sure that Mandy Munger would love to return to the time when literally no one knew that she was the wife of Charlie Munger, right wing billionaire and ally of the Koch brothers. But those days when even mayors and local political figures who have known her for years but had no idea that she was a Munger are gone, now that she chose to inject herself into our local election using her husband's money and her position to advocate first for Prop 32 (her family's vanity proposition) and then to use her family's fortune to engage in direct email negative campaigning for the benefit of candidates in a local race but without having to disclose campaign financing or comply with other rules. Yes, it was nice to pretend to a separate identity, but that's not how it is in reality and not how it should be in the interests of transparency.
a resident of Gunn High School
on Jan 11, 2013 at 4:13 pm
I mean prop 38. They also spent millions on the anti-union prop 38, making Mandy Munger an odd bedfellow for the Gunn teachers to fall in with but I guess the enemy of my enemy...
a resident of Palo Alto High School
on Jan 12, 2013 at 12:05 am
Wow, someone here is a bit jealous. People can do what they want with their money. This is exactly why Mandy didn't want people to know her situation - people get resentful that they don't have a fortune too. Get a life. I personally appreciate the way Mandy is so down-to-Earth and approachable although she does tend to be partial to conversations with those who are supporting her issue-of-the-moment. But she is never snobby.
a resident of Midtown
on Jan 12, 2013 at 9:18 am
My kids are still in elementary school. As a family, we like to go camping in California in September. I work at a *local* community college whose quarter system starts fall quarter at the end of September. Connecting to nature is good for reducing stress and reminds our family that the important things in life have nothing to do with grades or college acceptance letters. Shall I petition the PAUSD to start school at the end of September (as the local community college where I work does) because it works better for my family and my work schedule?
I really dislike the fact that school ends May 31st. I will have to find childcare for the entire month of June, as the community college where I work ends its Spring quarter June 26. Lots of people talk about buying local around here; the Palo Alto farmer's market is teaming with people willing to buy locally produced eggs for 9 dollars a dozen! Let's coordinate the PAUSD schedule with the community colleges of the county!
This district prioritizes the *needs* of high income families. Some of our high school kids work 20-30 hours a week all year long. Whether the finals come before or after winter break means nothing to these kids. They are already adept at juggling time commitments, or if not adept, they are learning how to do it.
My point is this: High School is NOT college. High school students shouldn't have to 'get used' to the pace of college while they are in high school. Elementary students shouldn't have to get used to the pace of high school (or middle school) when they are in elementary school. Back off prioritizing the college application process when making policy decisions that affect the entire district. And start school after Labor Day, please.
a resident of Duveneck/St. Francis
on Jan 12, 2013 at 11:45 am
momandeducator - As a District we spend way too much time "preparing" our kids for the next level of schooling instead of letting them learn, but I don't think that will change. Unfortunately, he needs of the high school kids do set the tone for the rest of the District. The early start is not about the college app process, its about giving the high school kids a break in homework AND about having more time before AP tests to teach them.
BTW - Mountain View and Los Altos elementary and middle school districts (which feed into Mountain View - Los Altos High schools) have different start dates than the high schools, high school starts on 8/13, Mountain View on 8/20, Los Altos on 8/22.
On another note, after attending a 4 year school for a year, my son is attending one of our "local" community colleges. He has been really impressed by the quality and enthusiasm of the teaching staff and finds the teaching much better than his previous school. Thanks!
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Cherries and Berries
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One more week to vote!
Don't forget to cast your ballot online. Voting ends May 29th. Stay tuned for the results in the July 21st issue of the Palo Alto Weekly.


text:
Injured hiker describes accident, injuries, recovery
BRISTOL, Tenn. - About a dozen hikers were taken to local hospitals after a car hit them from behind during a parade.
On Sunday we sat down with Priscilla Spitzer, one of those hikers hurt in the cash, just before she was released from the hospital.
Spitzer says she was in town celebrating her ten-year anniversary of hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. She says never in a million years did she think her trip would include a stay at the hospital.
Spitzer had a hospital room full of hugs and well wishes Saturday afternoon after she was in a frightening accident. "I think I heard someone say 'Watch out!' and that was it," she said.
The Florida native says she has a broken rib, a large cut on her leg and bruises all over. Spitzer was marching with fellow hikers in the parade through downtown Damascus when a man driving a 1997 Cadillac hit hikers from behind. "I remember laying on the ground asking my husband what happened. Then I kept telling myself to move my feet, move my legs, move my arms," she said.
Spitzer was flown by helicopter to Bristol Regional Medical Center and says during that ride she had one concern. "I can't tell you how many times I laid there while they were taking me to the hospital thinking I'm never going to hike again," she told us.
Luckily, doctors say Spitzer will recover and she says she'll be hiking again soon.
For now her thoughts and prayers are with fellow hikers as well as the driver, who police say had an unspecified medical emergency. "I feel very bad for [the driver]. Yeah, I got hurt, but I'm going to be alright," added Spitzer.
She says while she may not come back and visit next year during Trail Days, she will definitely be back in the future.
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subset: commoncrawl


text: Hi everybody, I have a problem with sendmail not sending emails while I am using php mail() function. My setup is a local LAMP server on Ubuntu, I am using it(or better-setting it up at the moment) as my test web server. What I have noticed is when I login to the server via STH and run: [email protected][email protected] < testmessage my email is dispatched and i can recaive it in googlemail. syslog looks like this: Feb 16 00:50:22 sthserver sendmail[22458]: My unqualified host name (sthserver) unknown; sleeping for retry Feb 16 00:51:22 sthserver sendmail[22458]: unable to qualify my own domain name (sthserver) -- using short name Feb 16 00:51:22 sthserver sendmail[22458]: p1G0pMYt022458: from=czeslawoo, size=23, class=0, nrcpts=1, msgid=<[email protected][email protected] Feb 16 00:51:22 sthserver sm-mta[22461]: p1G0pM4J022461: from=<[email protected][email protected] Feb 16 00:51:22 sthserver sendmail[22458]: p1G0pMYt022458: [email protected] Feb 16 00:51:23 sthserver sm-mta[22463]: STARTTLS=client, relay=gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com., version=TLSv1/SSLv3, verify=FAIL, cipher=RC4-SHA, bits=128/128 Feb 16 00:51:23 sthserver sm-mta[22463]: p1G0pM4J022461: to=<[email protected][email protected] but when I am running my php scrip I have something like this: Feb 16 00:59:59 sthserver sendmail[22475]: unable to qualify my own domain name (sthserver) -- using short name Feb 16 00:59:59 sthserver sendmail[22475]: p1G0xxxI022475: from=www-data, size=134, class=0, nrcpts=0, msgid=<[email protected][email protected] Feb 16 01:00:01 sthserver sm-msp-queue[22496]: My unqualified host name (sthserver) unknown; sleeping for retry What Ive noticed is : nrcpts = 0 - it cant be good:/ user used in a second case is www-data, and that = apache as far as i know. Is this just a user related problem?? www-data user does not have rights to use sendmail?? How to make this work?? I dont realy understand sendmail and sorry if this is a trivial problem but I spent so much time on setting this server to work lately ... that i need to now how to fix this problem first and then I look at it and learn how ... sendmail version is 8.14.3 let me know if you will need any more info tyvm for help ps: php script receive data from simple html feedback form and looks like this: -------------------------------------------------------------- error_reporting(E_ALL); ini_set('display_errors', '1'); $email_from = $_POST["email"] ; $message_from = $_POST["message"] ; $sendto = "[email protected] $title = "Feedback Form"; $val = mail( $sendto, $title, $message_from, "FROM: $email_from"); if($val) echo "Email sent"; else echo "Email error" ; -------------------------------------------------------------------


text:
Just wanted to add my voice to the chorus. Love the show. No I have to find enouhg cash to buy something you build!
Oh and one More for Blasting the bike from under Paul Sr
Just wanted to add my voice to the chorus. Love the show. No I have to find enouhg cash to buy something you build!
Oh and one More for Blasting the bike from under Paul Sr
i refuse to pay for tv, but i was at mom and dads the other night the show came on. we watched 3 episodes, my mom about fell in the floor, she was laughing so hard. we all enjoyed it. good job Will!
"It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." --Samuel Adams
All the college kids, well cept for a few Obama fans, be watchin the show.
Young student X ray apprentice sees my Gunco shirt, is how the conversation gets going.
"Have you seen that new show "Sons of Guns"
"Yes Sir young man. That guy is my Cousin."
"Wow cool. Can you get us some T shirts, were all watching it."
So you owe the University of Florida 12,487 shirts. Hey I promised.
15 miles from my house is the boat that started the "Official" start of the VietNam War. PTF-3. Gulf of Tonkin incident.
The boat is being restored under Govt. contracts and donations.
After completion. It will be turned over too the Boy Scouts, Sea Scouts program.
They are going too have de-milled mortars and weapons on it. Still has the bullet holes from the North Vietnamese not being happy when they landed U.S Navy S.E.A.L.s and South Viet Special Op.s troops on their beach.
Johnson didnt tell us that part of the "Un provoked" attack in the Gulf.
Myself and some Nam Bros just donated and AK too them.
If it can be of any use in one of your shows let me know.
Bob the director of the program is a good friend of mine.
It is still under reparations. Sits next too a U.S Navy museum that was where WWII pilots trained here in Deland Fla.
Also the U.S. Navy S.E.A.L. museum is down here in Ft. Pierce Fla.
Patches Watson, wrote the book "Walking Point Nam", real nice guy, is the director down there.
Let me know and I will contact these people for yah. The show is great.
Get those kids their shirts. You promised.
DeLand Naval Air Station Museum
"Man needs but two things to survive alone in the woods. A blow up female doll and his trusty old AK-47" - Thomas Jefferson 1781
Will, great job getting this picked up by Discovery. I watched a few of the short "Sons of Guns" videos on Discovery.com and found them very interesting to watch. I will set my DVR to record it Wednesdays so I can keep them and watch when I have time.
Buy your US made AK-47 compliance parts here.
Best price on US made AK parts! also $5 flat rate shipping .
Not to many tv show I look forward to watching but this is one! Keep up the good work!
Great Show Will, keep it up.
This should bring new intrest to the Firearm Community.


text:
Town Square
Audrey Rust never planned on a career saving open spaces
Original post made by Jay Thorwaldson, editor emeritus, on Mar 4, 2011
But when one experiences the spaces along Skyline Ridge, the lower foothills, the baylands and the coastside one discovers how full they are, teeming with wildlife, trees, plants of all sizes and descriptions.
And now they teem with people: walkers, hikers, runners, cyclists, equestrians exploring hundreds of miles of trails that didn't exist just a few decades back.
But for soon-to-retire Audrey Rust, president and CEO of the Peninsula Open Space Trust (better known as POST), preserving open space lands in Santa Clara, San Mateo and Santa Cruz counties has a national, even international significance. She sees it as a philosophical statement, an example in how humans can live better in the world, reducing urban sprawl and enhancing life in adjacent communities. POST and government agencies with which it has partnered are cited internationally as leaders in preserving land in a way that keeps regions vibrant and livable.
She sees a strong connection between the Silicon Valley economy and surrounding open lands, from towering Mt. Umunhum south of Los Gatos to the Skyline Ridge stretching north into San Mateo County. The views and trails, like quality schools and availability of entrepreneurial financing, help attract high-level firms and their workforce, she believes.
Rust, a self-described "nature freak" and watercolorist who has hiked many of the hundreds of miles of trails now open to the public, has focused on open space preservation for two dozen years. In 1987 she was named director of POST, a nonprofit organization. That was 10 years after POST was formed under the leadership of its first board president, Ward Paine of Portola Valley, a venture capitalist who still serves on the board. Rust succeeded the late Robert Augsberger, a former Stanford vice president, as POST's president.
Rust will be succeeded by Executive Vice President Walter T. Moore, who has been with POST for 16 years.
POST is distinct from the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD), a special governmental district with which it is often confused.
Rust, a Menlo Park resident and native of Connecticut, announced in late January that on July 1 she will retire as POST president but that she will still be around in an advisory capacity. It will give her more time to hike and paint in nature, and travel, as compared to sitting in her office taking phone calls and doing business, she said.
It will be a tailing off of a career that started as an English teacher in New England, veered into university fundraising at Yale, Vassar and Stanford universities, then as a Sierra Club fundraiser and membership steward from 1981 to 1987 -- a job about which she had mixed feelings.
"I used to call it the Sierra Meeting Club," she said, citing "endless meetings" and frustrating contentious debates within the board while fighting "endless battles, constant threats to the same things you won last year" in efforts to protect the environment.
At POST, the focus is as clear as the view on a windy spring day from atop Windy Hill, looking down on the Midpeninsula to the east or toward the Pacific Ocean on the west -- or any of dozens of lookout points once off limits, set off by barbed-wire fences.
As with the view from the ridgetop, the focus is on two directions: the local region and the world beyond.
POST's method is to negotiate donations or discounted sale of properties, raising funds privately to acquire the lands, then convey them to public entities, including the MROSD, where the idea to create an agency such as POST originated after Santa Clara County voters approved formation of the district in late 1972. Southern San Mateo County was annexed by petition in 1977.
But in addition to MROSD, POST has worked with counties, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and a number of other entities.
Rust proudly cites the acquisition and protection of about 64,000 acres of open space, a goodly chunk of which is part of MROSD's nearly 60,000 acres it has acquired. One cannot add the totals together -- they substantially overlap.
Rust credits the vision of Paine and others with POST's success.
Paine "set the tone for the whole thing: We're going to be nimble, take risks; we're going to bet the ranch" to acquire important properties, she said of POST's mandate.
Rust's personal reputation of tough determination has helped her achieve what skeptics doubted could be done. POST has tackled huge challenges.
Rust's first big challenge was to raise $2 million in six months to protect the 1,200-acre Cowell Ranch, south of Half Moon Bay, then threatened with development.
Yet that amount seems measly compared to later achievements.
Overall, POST has raised more than $300 million, increased its staff five-fold and helped add thousands of acres to open space lands.
In the late 1990s, POST raised $33.5 million that went to protecting more than 12,500 acres of land, including the 1,623-acre Bair Island off Redwood City, once threatened with a major development by Mobil Land Company and later by a Japanese firm.
Then came the big effort, a $200 million campaign called "Saving the Endangered Coast." It was launched in 2001 with two $50 million gifts from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. It was completed in December 2005.
It was the largest land-protection effort ever by any local land trust in the United States, Rust notes. Lands protected include the 3,681-acre Driscoll Ranch in La Honda and the 4,262-acre Rancho Corral de Tierra near Montara. Overall, the effort preserved more than 20,000 acres along the San Mateo County coast.
POST recently has been expanding the concept of continuing agricultural and timber-harvesting in select areas.
But its biggest challenge may lie ahead. That is awakening a new generation of wealthy individuals to the importance of philanthropic giving, both locally and worldwide.
David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Corporation, hoped to ignite wealthy business persons and others to give more, but ultimately believed that he had failed to do so, Rust said. The challenge POST and similar organizations now face is to stimulate the younger generation of the high-tech rich to see the link between their global electronic vision and the local environment in which their success is nurtured.
"This economic engine here is so completely integrated to the natural systems surrounding it," Rust says. Many firms "would not be here if we didn't have that beauty and accessibility around us," which their employees treasure and use.
"We have to keep that core alive."
a resident of Midtown
on Mar 4, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Walter_E_Wallis is a registered user.
But where will the people live?
a resident of Palo Alto Orchards
on Mar 8, 2011 at 6:50 am
Walter -
We have cut down so many trees, destroyed so many natural streams, ruined the water quality of the bay all in the so called "advance" of humans. We barely know what it means to live in harmony with nature.
And eventually we may perish because as Chief Seattle said long ago "you can't eat $"
MROSD and POST are national treasures. Go for a hike Walter - and donate to MROSD and POST - it is the best $ you will ever spend.
a resident of Crescent Park
on Mar 8, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Jay and Audrey, what does POST do to get the land of aging property owners? Are there any implied threats about downzoning so that their land cannot be sold? How often does POST make "sales calls" on such property owners, trying to persuade them to sell to POST? What if the property owners tell POST to bug off, do the children of the property owners get leaned on? An honest report about POST's tactics would be interesting journalism. I won't hold my breath waiting for it, at least not in the Weekly.
a resident of Crescent Park
on Mar 8, 2011 at 2:31 pm
One more thing -- saying we're running out of trees is a myth. In the early part of the 20th century, people cut down twice as many trees as they planted; now the United States grows 36% more trees than it harvests. Some researchers believe tree numbers are larger today than when Columbus arrived in 1492!
a resident of Palo Verde
on Mar 8, 2011 at 5:28 pm
What's to keep the next generation of housing-hungry voters from "undedicating" any or all of our open space? It's only a matter of time before conservationists are hopelessly outnumbered by those who believe that wilderness or ranchland is anachronistic when the land could be put to so many "better" uses. Everyone is elite in their own way.


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It has to be hard going from being a championship contender to being cuffed most of the time, in less than a year - especially if you're a teenager.
In 2012 young New Zealand open-wheel racer Michael Scott finished second in the Formula Ford championship, fourth in the Formula First series and fifth in the Victorian Formula Ford series in Australia.
So the 18-year-old decided to contest the Toyota Racing Series in 2013, which has been an eye-opener for the Te Puke lad.
"I just can't believe how quick the international drivers can go in these cars, and the mid-corner speeds they get up to," said Scott.
"It's big change from Formula Ford and Formula First cars.
"There's a lot more grip with both the aero package and tyres, and it's hard trusting that you can go that fast around the circuit."
There has been some improvement in his lap times and he's slowly making progress up the field, finishing 15th in race one on Saturday, after an off-track excursion and 14th in Sunday's first race.
Instead of hanging his head in frustration, Scott is looking at the TRS championship as a learning curve in his on-going development as a racecar driver.
"You've got to be patient. Each time we go out there we learn a whole lot more.
"The level of competition is incredible.
"The whole plan with TRS is for it to be a two-year programme.
"We're considering this as development year and next year we can try to challenge for the championship," said Scott.
He does on occasion get a bit miffed that he's not at the front of pack, but knows you don't learn anything from crashing.
"Watching the internationals and listening to their take on everything is also really useful," he said.
Being open to all the advice that is swirling around the pits in his own garage and others, and being able to absorb as much as possible, paid off for the young Kiwi as he posted his best result in the feature race on Sunday afternoon. In the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy race Scott ran at the back of field, staying out of trouble.
With consistent lap times and a bit of good fortune, he crossed the finish line in 10th.
"I'm really happy to get my best result so far, and over the next two rounds I hope to build on how we finished at Taupo," said Scott.
Defending TRS champion Nick Cassidy proved that points mean prizes as the teams unload the trucks at Hampton Downs for round four of the series.
Despite not winning a race yet, Cassidy heads the championship point's table from Lucas Auer and Felix Serralles. The Aucklander has been consistent with five podium finishes and has not been outside the top 10 in the other four races.
However, the Taupo weekend belonged to Brit Alex Lynn, with two wire-to-wire wins and a sterling drive in race two from 16th to eighth, after spinning on the opening lap.
The feature Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy race was action-packed from the start, when Lucas Auer tangled with the rapidly improving Steijn Schothorst heading into turn one.
Cassidy and Lynn made it through unscathed, while Auer dropped to the rear of the field after pitting for a flat rear tyre.
With three wins from four races, Lynn has set himself up as a very real threat to Cassidy. He's now fourth in the championship behind Serralles.
TRS points after round three
1 Nick Cassidy New Zealand 517
2 Lucas Auer Austria 511
3 Felix Serralles Puerto Rico 477
4 Alex Lynn UK 471
5 Stejin Schothorst Holland 451
6 Bruno Bonifacio Brazil 448


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ARSC HPC Users' Newsletter Number 423 2013-07-17
The Arctic Region Supercomputing Center Users' Newsletter provides a platform for discourse relevant to users of high performance computing systems. Topics include: programming, commands, tools, applications, and more.
Please send items, ideas, announcements, etc. to email@example.com.
To subscribe or manage your subscription, visit:
ARSC's 20th Year
By: Greg Newby, ARSC Director
The Arctic Region Supercomputing Center was initiated in 1992, and first opened its electronic doors in 1993. This year, we are marking 20 years of providing supercomputing cycles and support for a broad range of scientists, engineers, students, and others.
Feedback on git article from Issue #422
Issue #422 featured Kate Hedstr\xf6m's article, "Getting into and out of trouble with git." We received this additional input from Jed Brown:
From the article:
9. git add Apps/Arctic
10. git merge <sha1 from fixes>
Oops! A git status shows that many things changed - all those private
updates came along for the ride (and introduced a few conflicts). I
wanted a cherry-pick, not a merge. No big deal:
11. git reset --hard
12. git cherry-pick <sha1 from fixes>
13. git fsck
14. git show <sha1 from a dangling blob>
15. git show <sha1 from a dangling blob> > Apps/Arctic/filename
Jed wrote:
FWIW, if you had committed the merge, then the full state would be in the reflog, in which case you could recover without this manual process. Alternatively, using 'git reset' (or 'git merge --abort') would have left the tree intact. Or if you caught it earlier, 'git stash' is handy.
Compiling Large Dynamically Allocated Arrays in PGI Fortran
By: Ed Kornkven, HPC Specialist
Fortran programmers know that they can avoid some of the headaches of large arrays by dynamically allocating them instead of declaring them statically. Dynamically allocated arrays are created by the ALLOCATE() routine and their storage is created on the program's heap at run time. As an example, here is a simple Fortran program that creates some arrays using ALLOCATE(). This example is adapted from the PGI Compiler User's Guide, release 13.
program mat_allo integer i, j integer size, m, n parameter (size=1291) parameter (m=size,n=size) double precision, allocatable::a(:,:),b(:,:),c(:,:,:) allocate(a(m,n), b(m,n), c(m,n,m)) do i = 100, m, 1 do j = 100, n, 1 a(i,j) = 10000.0D0 * dble(i) + dble(j) b(i,j) = 20000.0D0 * dble(i) + dble(j) enddo enddo call mat_add_3d(a,b,c,m,n) print *, "M =",m,",N =",n print *, "c(M,N,M) = ", c(m,n,m) end subroutine mat_add_3d(a,b,c,m,n) integer m, n, i, j, k double precision a(m,n),b(m,n),c(m,n,m) !$omp do do i = 1, m do j = 1, n do k = 1, m c(i,j,k) = a(i,j) + b(i,j) enddo enddo enddo return end
There is a pitfall with this program when compiled by the PGI compiler (and perhaps others). The problem is that the array C has more than 2G elements (1291*1291*1291) = 2,151,685,171 > 2,147,483,648. Note: the problem is not with the size of the array, it is with the number of elements. In order to index into an array, the compiler is going to compute offsets and the offset for C is going to exceed 2G, the largest integer that can be represented in 31 bits (reserving one bit in the signed 32-bit integer). The upshot is, the compiler needs to create 64-bit offsets. This is requested in PGI Fortran with the "-Mlarge_arrays" compiler flag. If we are going to have 64-bit (8-byte) offsets, we may want to have our index variables also be 8-bytes long, though in this example it isn't necessary. Default integers of 8 bytes is requested with the "-i8" flag. Our compilation command then, could be something like:
pgfortran -o mat_allo mat_allo.f90 -i8 -Mlarge_arrays
A spot check on Copper, a Cray XE, reveals that this is not an issue when compiling with Cray's crayftn, Gnu's gfortran or Intel's ifort. Those compilers are apparently automatically dealing with array indices exceeding 2G. When compiled with the PGI compiler however, the program generates a "Memory fault" which can be traced using a debugger to the assignment to c(i,j,k). A pretty obscure bug, but easily avoided by using the -Mlarge_arrays option.
Quick-Tip Q & A
Last time, we asked:
Q: I need to copy some large files between computers. What is the fastest way to do that?
A: Martin L\xfcthi suggests rsync
rsync is the standard tool for that. It copies only files that have changed, and copies large files chunk-wise, meaning that only changed chunks are copied and thus speeding up the process.
Convenient command line options are
-z: use compression
-v: verbose mode (visual feedback)
-r: recursive mode (copy whole directories)
rsync -rvz firstname.lastname@example.com:/scratch/user/file /home/user/results
A: Dan Stahlke also advocates rsync, and provided some additional usage information:
I am a fan of rsync over ssh. The advantage of rsync is that you can resume an aborted transfer, although if it was in the middle of sending a large file it still needs to start over with that file. The command is:
rsync -av -e 'ssh -c arcfour' source_directory hostname:target_directory
This will transfer for example "source_directory/xyz.dat" to "target_directory/source_directory/xyz.dat". If you put a slash at the end of the source path, "source_directory/" then it would transfer "source_directory/xyz.dat" to "target_directory/xyz.dat". You don't need to transfer entire directories, you can do individual files.
The "-a" option tells it to recurse into subdirectories and preserve all attributes. "-v" is of course for verbosity. The "-e 'ssh -c arcfour'" is optional; it tells ssh to use the arcfour cipher (RC4) which is weaker than the default, but still pretty secure, and requires much less CPU usage. If you pass the "--delete" option, then files that exist at the target but not the source are deleted. Use that with extreme caution! When using "--delete" you should always also pass the "--dry-run" option which causes rsync to do nothing but to tell you what it would have done.
Rsync is a powerful command that can be used for many things, and it is worth looking at the man page and searching online for blog posts. I use it to make incremental backups of my home computer (kind of like Time Machine on Mac OS), to push changes to my web server, and to copy music and documents to my phone.
By the way, if you are on a modern system and using bash as your shell, then you should have tab completion for the remote machine. So, if you are typing the above command, and for the last part you type "hostname:/home/me/" and hit tab twice you should get a list of subdirectories on the remote machine (although there may be some delay).
Another option to always keep in mind, if you have a truly huge amount of data and want the absolute fastest transfer possible, is to just take the hard drive out of the one machine and put it in the other. If your network connection is 100 Mbit or less this will be much faster. With a 1 Gbit connection, just use the network.
A: Jed Brown offers some perspective:
The fastest way is not to copy them.
The definition of "large files" is eternally in flux, but if you are even considering moving it, then it's not big at all. For example, a few terabytes is a lot to move between geographically-distant sites, but the larger supercomputers can hold more than 1 PB in memory at any given time, can rewrite the contents of memory in about a second, can write the contents of memory to local disk in about an hour, and would take weeks to transfer to a different data center. On high-end machines (this applies to anyone doing science because if you have a good justification, you can get an allocation on those machines), "big data" starts when it no longer fits in memory---more than a petabyte. If you have petabytes of data, transferring it between computers is too expensive for most projects, so you will need to process it in-situ.
One exception is if there are so many people trying to analyze the data that the analysis must be distributed to other machines. Data from the Large Hadron Collider is one such example, with thousands of physicists around the world analyzing about 25 PB/year of data, but that project has a budget in the billions.
[There are many options for moving intermediate-sized files (as we've seen above, "large" files almost never move), depending on the environment, scale, and structure of the data, but I suspect others will suggest some of those tools.]
Here is a new question for next month's newsletter.
Q: Do you have a useful custom Unix/Linux shell prompt? If so, please share the code you use to produce your prompt, and make sure you mention which shell you utilize (i.e., an entry for .bashrc, .cshrc, etc.)
[[ Answers, Questions, and Tips Graciously Accepted ]]
About ARSC
The Arctic Region Supercomputing Center (ARSC) provides research and high performance computing, large-scale storage, and related services to the students, faculty and staff of the University of Alaska.
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No one seems to be talking about the violent video games or other electronic violence that is going on in many people's heads especially the young. Add vampire, zombie, werewolf, cartoons on Saturday morning and just your normal run of the mill violence in movies and on TV - our world is permeated with violence and killing. I am not arguing against gun control, but I think we are missing a huge underlying problem.
You think the gun industry is huge and employs many, consider the above industries.
No one is talking about the export of weapons globally by the USofA. Major money, major employment, major campaign money.
The NRA might be a welcome target for some.
John Weber


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Looking at getting my first bee net. I've been screening my hives( 125) in everytime I move them which could be a few times a year. I have a 9ft flatbed with a 5ft head board. Most times when I move my hives I only go one level, which is 25 hives on the deck of my truck, because I'm pulling a 21ft trailer which maybe 40 hives.
My questions are how do you deal with extra netting at the deck, how do you have the corners made?
Thanks for you comments!


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Kavita Ramdas:
Radical women, embracing tradition
Investing in women can unlock infinite potential around the globe. But how can women walk the line between Western-style empowerment and traditional culture? Kavita Ramdas of the Global Fund for Women talks about three encounters with powerful women who fight to make the world better — while preserving the traditions that sustain them.
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An elegant, lowered version of our universal roof rack foot for cars with pre-installed fixation points or flush railings.
Thule is dedicated to providing exceptional products that are quality tested and guaranteed against defects in materials and workmanship.
Replace all lock cylinders on your Thule products and use the same key for all.
Sturdy strap for safe transport.
A smart accessory that helps you keep the straps organised and ready for use.
The unique, premium load bar with bi-directional sliding functionality, for easiest possible loading.
Traditional square load bars in 2 or 3 mm galvanized steel with black, plastic coating.
The load bar with a unique tri-slot design for fitting of multiple accessories.
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