What would you title your autobiography?

“Recalibrate your expectations.” – Tristan Bodle

“The best of Best.” – Eric Best

“The luckiest man alive.” – Paul Grifo

“Good enough.” – Aaron Wilkerson

“Untitled: the autobiography of Jeffery Martz.” – Jeff Martz

“The best dad he could be.” – Rod Milstead

“The solution starts with me.” – Sue Fox

“The accidental teacher.” – Barton Clark

“Should have done it differently.” – Pat Hazelrigg

“Has the most fun.” – Jolie Jacobs

“Can’t stop, won’t stop.” – Sheila Souder

“Clowning around.” – Mary Kitchens

“The older I get, the more creative I get.” – Doc Wing

“Short but sweet.” – Steve Bluestone

“Adapting to change.” – Martha Cederstrom

“Diving into clear water.” – Beth Cederstrom

“Caffeine first please.” – Hannah Lingrell

Internet Access Allowed, Speeds Restricting

By Eamon Kummert

Since the beginning of this year, our school has been wracked with internet problems. In Advisory, students are treated to endless buffering while watching Pirate TV, preventing them from knowing about the week’s activities. During lunch, the network is lethargic at best because students are using the school’s wifi to get updated about their classmate’s lives.

Teachers encounter the same problem when they’re showing an instructional video in class, sometimes forcing their pupils to look at half-inch-wide pixels. In late November, IT staff (information technology) had to block YouTube in attempt to save bandwidth for the rest of the network. What’s happening to our school’s internet?

The internet has always occupied an important but barely-talked about position at our school. Essential for the bulk of most students’ research, the internet has been a vital tool for years.

Recently, however, online applications such as Google Drive and Prezi have been introduced into classrooms to make schoolwork easier to access wherever a student is—Cooper Clark made Mobius’s Integrated Science classes put a heavy emphasis on Google Docs and Prezi starting in 2011. As opposed to Microsoft Word or Excel, however, Google’s and other companies’ applications are constantly connecting to the internet.

High-bandwidth sites like YouTube and previously blocked sites—Instagram, specifically— have been putting the school’s internet connection under more stress than it can handle. It is still possible to pull up a teacher’s website in a couple of seconds, but every delay prevents students from effectively researching at school. Assignments that require students to listen to an audio clip or watch a video—an increasingly popular device for flipped teaching—are pushed off into after school hours.

Rose Chavira, the district’s Director of IT Operations, addressed this issue in an email to all staff on the 24^th of September: “TamDistrict’s… internet access was upgraded over the summer break.  However, due to configuration issues, the full bandwidth has not yet been accessible.” AT&T, the district’s internet service provider, has been slow to fix the district’s internet problems, citing problems with their network and the schools’.

On October 16^th, Ms. Chavira sent another email to all staff: “[AT&T] do not have an ETA on when [their issue] will be resolved.” The district has started to evaluate other internet providers because of AT&T’s slow response to the problem, a process that could take many months.

However, the AT&T’s failure to upgrade our school’s service is only part of the internet speed problem. The freshman/sophomore academies’ iPads have added strain to a network that awaits higher promised speeds. The mobile iPad and laptop carts can be reserved but are generally sluggish because of unrealistic demands on our school’s current wifi network. For many students, there are two options: use the slow wifi on their new computers or use slow computers on a more reliable but barely faster internet connection.

There are ways for teachers to avoid the difficulties of slow internet access. Showing videos on one screen instead of thirty will lessen the load, as will placing documents or programs on the N-drive, our location for sharing files with teachers. A more strict observance of the internet usage policies by everyone would also provide more bandwidth for legitimate school activities.

However, these are all temporary fixes to a larger problem. Over the past few years, internet providers have been on a free upgrade spree in the San Francisco area, improving internet speeds in households by 50% on average according to speedtest.net. It’s a matter of fact that Facebook, Instagram, and other sites are becoming parts of many people’s lives, in school or out of it. For internet speeds, there’s only one way to go—up.

Theft of Master Key Leads to Re-Keying of Entire School

By Amelia Rosenberg and Nick Seminerio

Update – November 21, 2013

New estimates of cost and number of locks that have been replaced are now available.

The cost to re-key the entire school is $17,000, according to Tamalpais Union High School District Head of Maintenance Tony Catrino.

Greg Farley of Transbay Security Service, the company installing the new locks, said that over 500 new locks have been installed so far.

The work is scheduled to be completed shortly, according to Assistant Principal Chad Stuart.

——

The theft of our school’s master key in late September has prompted the decision to re-key the whole campus in late November to early December, according to Assistant Principal Chad Stuart . Not every staff member has a master key, that can open any door on school grounds.

On Thursday, Sept. 26th, a teacher reported that their keys had been lost, according to Stuart.

Leadership teacher Kendall Galli refused to comment when asked if her keys were the ones stolen.

The next day, Friday, Sept. 27th, Spanish teacher Hannah Lingrell’s wallet and phone were stolen out of her locked classroom.

On Saturday, Sept. 28th, Lead Custodian Robert Amaral happened to find the key ring, which was missing the master key, in a trashcan. “Whoever took it knew what they were doing,” Amaral said.

Administrators then made the assumption that the lost keys and theft were connected, according to Stuart. Stuart is guessing the suspect is a student, but can’t release any more details on the case because it is an open investigation.

“It’s a sad situation; my feeling is [that] Drake, between staff and students, is one of the most connected schools I’ve been at, and this is one of the biggest breaks of trust that one student chose to make,” Stuart said.

Although the theft of the key hasn’t impacted students, staff have felt the effects, especially those who are involved. After her wallet and phone were stolen out of her locked classroom, Lingrell felt that her privacy was violated.

“It’s horrible when you are used to a place being safe and then it’s suddenly not safe. It makes me feel differently when I come to work now. I feel like I have to be overly cautious and lock everything up tight and be really wary of my surroundings. Most of the students I teach are really great though and sweet, and I just have to remember that when I’m feeling upset about what happened,” Lingrell said.

Amaral gave a low estimate that at least 100 doors will have to be re-keyed. “[The] money could have been spent on [equipment] for the kids,” Amaral said.

With the master key and suspect still on the loose, and new leads unlikely, administrators notified staff that the entire school would be re-keyed. The work is scheduled to be completed by winter break, according to Stuart.

This is an ongoing story, and we will update it with more information as we receive it.

What is your biggest student pet peeve?

“When they don’t come to school.” – Ben Varvil

“When they don’t put their name on their work. They deserve an F- for that.” – Jasper Thelin

“When they gather around the door before the bell rings.” – Charlie Ehmann

“When students don’t take care of the classroom and materials around them.” – Cooper Clark

“When they don’t take advantage of learning or they don’t try.” – Tristan Bodle

“When they go to the bathroom at the wrong time. Unless you have a bladder condition or are extremely old, you should be able to hold it.” – Fred Beale

“Phones. Why can’t students just turn their phones off?” – Francie Salle

“When students make weird bubble noises with their mouths when they are bored.” – David Smith