1. South will face immediate and dramatic
reductions in staff, programs and funding unless
one of the several proposed Proposition 2 1/2
overrides pass for the 2009 fiscal year. At stake are
small class sizes, teacher positions and department
funds.
Mayor David Cohen has withdrawn sup-
port for the initial $23.9 million override. At the
March 3 aldermen meeting, he expressed willing-
ness to look at a $14.9 million override.
The new plan was
developed by Alderman
Susan Albright and Ted
Hess-Mahan.
Last week, two
otheraldermenproposed
their own $10 million
override. It is now up to
the Board of Aldermen
to finalize a proposal
before the anticipated
May vote.
If Newton voters
reject an override of
any size, the city will
Newton South High School ! Newton, MA ! Volume 24 ! Issue 7 ! March 7, 2008
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roar
page 28
Little Man’s Got Game
Junior point guard Chi Chi Foster
takes on tall opponents, expectations
Recycling program left in the dump
Despite Environmental Club’s efforts, recycling ends up in trash
Despite receptacles for both paper and plastic
in nearly every classroom, South
has struggled this year to find an
effective strategy to coordinate the school-wide
recycling program.
In fact, plastic recycling is no longer done
within the school. For much of the year teachers
have needed to bring bottles and cans collected in
their classrooms back to their own homes to recycle
themselves.
Paper recycling, while having a regularly-
scheduled pickup from a school dumpster, has been
erratic as well; problems have risen from contami-
nated loads, collection logistics
and space shortages.
Science teacher Sally Rosen, co-adviser of the
Environmental Club, has been a driving force to
change South’s current recycling operations. Her
Crisis gets system
thinking about cuts
ANGELA XU
Sr. News Editor
RECYCLING, page 18
KATIE SANDERS
Editor-in-Chief
JUMP TO, page XX
photos by JORDAN SCHNEE
Senior Lauren Wynn poses in front of Wheeler House. Wynn is the only black student in her AP chemistry course.
>>See Editorials, page 13
>> For more perspectives and a look at the numbers behind the racial achievement gap, see page 5
BUDGET, page 7
BUDGET
Filter down, access granted
The Newton Public Schools’ Web filter is
currently undergoing maintenance and will be
down intermittently, meaning students will have
access to blocked sites such as Facebook at times.
The filter has been down during the school
day several times in the last week as part of a plan
to increase the Internet speed in the schools, ac-
cording to Bob Rainville, manager of information
systems for the district. The current
filter, he said, is slowing down the
Internet speed throughout the
system, and the
district is cur-
rently searching
for a new filter
to replace the old
one.
GAP, page 5
The guidance department head
wanted to see Leigh Soares in her office,
and the ’06 graduate and then South
senior had not a clue why.
In the unfamiliar office, a cheery
counselor greeted her with a sheet of
paper, a graph that broke down the stu-
dent body by race and achievement.
“She pointed to something on
the graph and said, ‘This is you,’” said
Soares, who is black. “I was so con-
fused. I just thought it was so bizarre
that she called me in and had whipped
out this thing and was telling me how
proud the school was. I was thinking,
‘Well, I hope they’re not just thinking of
me as though I’m boosting their statis-
Wynn in her AP chemistry course.
TOM HASKIN
Sr. Centerfold Editor
>>See Centerfold, page 16
photo by JEMMA BENSON
systems for the district. The current
filter, he said, is slowing down the
Internet speed throughout the
system, and the
district is cur-
for a new filter
to replace the old
one.
photo by JORDAN SCHNEE
Siblings In Sales
Black
Recent data shows black students
comparatively underachieving.
Listen to students who break the trend and
to adminstrators’ feelings about it.
tics or something.’”
But Soares, now a sophomore at
Duke University, was doing just that.
She represents an anomaly—a minority
within South’s black student population.
She had followed South’s honors track
in every course except science, taken
four Advanced Placement courses her
senior year and graduated at the top of
her class.
Soares achieved so highly, in fact,
that people occasionally mistook her for
another race. She remembers hanging
out with a friend her senior year and, in
conversation, alluding to being African
American. Her friend looked at her and
said, “Wait, you’re black? Oh my gosh. I
totally didn’t think you were.”
“I don’t know if it was because they
didn’t think of my personality fitting a
black person’s or something,” Soares said.
“I don’t even know what they thought.”
Soares, among a handful of other
black students taking high-level cours-
es, goes against a longstanding trend
that South’s data team recently docu-
mented. Statistics confirm that black
students are underachieving across the
board; they are taking more curriculum
II classes and fewer honors classes than any
gap
Local teens open doors to Newton
Centre clothing store, Half-Way Crooks
page 9
By the Numbers
$23.9 million: total
amount of Mayor Cohen’s
original override proposal
$14.9 million: Alder-
men Albright and Hess-
Mahan’s proposal
$12 million: Finace
Committee Chairman
Coletti’s proposal
$10 million: Aldermen
Brandel and Sangiolo’s
proposal

2. 5March 7, 2008 news
Black students speak out on curriculum gapBlack students speak out on curriculum gapBlack students speak out on curriculum gap
March 7, 2008
Black students speak out on curriculum gapBlack students speak out on curriculum gapBlack students speak out on curriculum gapBlack students speak out on curriculum gapBlack students speak out on curriculum gapBlack students speak out on curriculum gapBlack students speak out on curriculum gap
GAP, from page 1
Black students speak out on curriculum gap
other demographic. Whether student
confidence, societal expectations or
teachers’ encouragement is at fault
remains uncertain, but what is certain
is that the six-member team’s 2006-07
study shows an unmistakable gap.
None of last year’s black sopho-
mores and juniors took an honors
science course, compared to 12.5
percent of white students, 21.1 percent
of Asian students and 10.8 percent of
Hispanic students. On the flipside,
54.4 percent of black sophomores and
juniors were enrolled in curriculum II
science, compared to 15.3 percent of
white students. This disparity stretches
across all courses. Black students are
the highest percent of students in cur-
riculum II classes for any subject and
the lowest percentage in honors.
Against The Odds
Being a black student in a high-
level course is hard work, according to
’07 South graduate and Virginia State
University freshman Shanice Maxwell.
Maxwell, a METCO student, never
took a curriculum II class—to the
surprise of many, she said.
In fact, everything Maxwell
did surprised people. People were
surprised to see her in honors classes,
answering questions and acting like
any other student in the class. Maxwell
took three honors courses (two APs)
her senior year. Especially when she
stepped foot into a classroom in which
she was the only black student (the
norm), she didn’t just come to class to
learn. She came to teach.
“I made it a point that I was
going to try and do my best to not
fit into the stereotypes that I felt my
teachers and peers already had for me
as a black student,” she said. “I thought
I had to work twice as hard because I
didn’t want them to think that we’re all
the same. Because we’re not.”
Senior Gerald Arneaud, a black
METCO student who takes mostly
curriculum I courses, thinks about his
race every single day. “It’s things like
teachers treating me like I’m an idiot.
I’ll get a lot more attention and I’ll
wonder, ‘Is this because I’m black?’”
he said. “People seem surprised if I’m
getting an A. I’m never sure whether
that’s because of my race. That’s what
makes being a minority suck.”
Wheeler guidance counselor
Homer Turner came to South last year.
He is one of a handful of black faculty
members, and he noticed early on that
many black students have assumptions
about how they are perceived. Several
times a week, students come into his
office and say, “I feel like because I’m
black, this happened,” Turner said.
Turner wants the community to dispel
its assumptions and the students to
overcome these perceptions.
“We have to get off this idea
that there’s only a certain type of kid
that belongs in curriculum II,” he said.
“A certain type of kids who looks a
certain way.”
All Eyes on You
Black students already feel
different—they are in the minority at
a mostly white school. But when they
walk into an honors class, minority
takes on a whole new meaning.
For the black students who
take honors classes, many say it seems
everyone is looking their way, waiting
for them to fail.
Senior Raylani Johnson, a
black student who takes AP journal-
ism, honors Race Class and Gender
and honors Speech and Debate, feels
teachers expect him and other black
students to need more help. And while
he admits he certainly does need help
from time to time, he doesn’t appreci-
ate the generalizations.
“They think, ‘He’s black. He’s
gonna skip class. He’s gonna smoke.
He’s gonna be in curriculum II classes.
He’s gonna sleep in class,’” Johnson
said.
Johnson, a Newton resident,
often goes to the METCO office and
chats with other black students. Now,
as juniors pick their courses, he is
making an extra effort to encourage
black students to challenge themselves
and take higher-level courses.
Going into AP journalism the
first day, Johnson presumed that he
would be the only student of color—
and he was. He deals with that fact but
doesn’t accept people’s complacency.
“This shouldn’t be happening,”
he said. “I know black people aren’t
stupid, and I know that kids can do it.”
Johnson also feels his peers
aren’t always looking at him as just
another classmate—they’re looking at
a black classmate for whom they have
certain expectations he has to fight.
“I feel like there’s more pressure
on me to act the way you’re supposed
to act,” he said. “Anytime I ask bad
question or don’t know the answer, it
feels like people assume it’s because
I’m black.”
Maxwell can relate and felt like
she had to suppress her true self to fit
in at times.
“When I’m in Boston,” she said,
there’s a Shanice ... And then when I’m
in Newton, when I’m in class, there’s
this whole other persona that I have
to put on. And it’s like I’m an entirely
different person.”
For senior Lauren Wynn, a
black METCO student who takes two
APs, she need only walk into her AP
chemistry class to remember the cur-
riculum gap exists. She is not only the
single black student in the class, but
also the only black senior in honors
science. Wynn enjoys the rigors of
her chemistry course, but on occasion
she’ll glance around the classroom and
ask herself, “Can I actually do this?”
“I just try to beat my own stan-
dards and beat the system and break
the stereotypes. That’s the only thing
I’m trying to do,” Wynn said.
Maxwell now attends a 98
percent black university and no longer
feels like she’s constantly battling
people’s perceptions. Rather, she feels
a sense of encouragement she and
many of her black peers never felt at
South. She can be her own person.
“When I’m the only black
in the class ... whatever I do—that’s
a reflection of everyone else of my
race. That’s how it feels when you’re
in the classroom and you’re the only
one. You mess up and they’re going
to think you’re all the same,” she said.
“[At VSU] I don’t feel out of place. I
feel like I fit in. At South it’s a matter
of trying to find a place of comfort.
And it’s not really there.”
The Root of the Problem
METCO counselor Katani
Sumner, a former METCO student
herself, interacts with black students
from both the METCO program and
Newton every day. She also finds
herself constantly fighting perceptions
that all black students are a certain
way—but she spends just as much
time convincing her students that they
do not have to be a certain way.
The attitude among many black
students, she said, is, “they don’t think
I’m smart, so I’m not going to act
smart.”
“Kids says to themselves,
‘[teachers] already think I’m not smart
because I’m a black student. Then if I
have to go for a lot of help, that rein-
forces that,’ when in fact teachers are
thinking, ‘well, they aren’t coming for
Black Students
4%
52%
44%
Honors
Curriculum I
Curriculum II
All Other Students
24%
61%
15%
Honors
Curriculum I
Curriculum II
graphics by BRIAN HO from 2006-07 data team study on sophomores and juniors
Distribution Across Curricula Levels
Black Students All Other Students
All Other Students
24%
61%
15%
Honors
Curriculum I
Curriculum II
help. That means they’re not smart.’”
Sumner also recognizes that
other things contribute to the gap.
When she worked as the elementary
school METCO counselor in Weston,
she quickly noticed that all the black
students except her daughter were in
the lowest-level reading group. The
problem, she said, comes from a lack
of confidence and skills, as well as
expectations that are instilled early on.
“By the time I see [black
students] in high school, so many
of them have derailed, and some of
the gaps are just so blatant,” she said.
“We’re not recognizing that this is the
symptom of an underlying problem
that starts much earlier.”
Some people feel that at South,
black students aren’t reached out to as
much as their non-black peers.
Junior Vanessa Gaines, a black
METCO student who takes honors
English, saw black students diverge
when it came time for high school.
“Somewhere things get lost in
translation. Somewhere within our
switch from middle school to high
school, it just goes downhill,” Gaines
said. “I don’t think that black students
are necessarily pushed enough.”
Maxwell said she took the ini-
tiative to ask her teachers about taking
honors classes, whereas some of her
white counterparts were targeted for
honors spots.
“When it comes to minorities,
I feel like we just kind of got pushed
along,” Maxwell said.
Wynn has also noticed that
many black students “don’t push
themselves enough” and “get pulled
down by friends and teachers.”
“[Black students] segregate
themselves because they feel like
they’re being excluded as students,
and they just decide that the system
doesn’t care about them and they’re
not going to try,” Wynn said. “And
maybe they’re right—the system prob-
ably doesn’t care about them, but you
just try to fight it.”
Sumner, a member of the data
team, is always looking for ways to en-
courage academic achievement. Last
year, she began posting a “METCO
Honor Roll” outside of her office. She
also supports integrated curriculum
courses that put students of all levels
in the same classroom.
Principal Brian Salzer wants to
focus on closing the racial achieve-
ment gap too and believes these
classes are a valuable way to begin. But
he also recognizes that these classes
are much harder for teachers to pull
off and wants to continue discussing
the data and figuring out ways support
black students.
“We’ve got to make sure that
we don’t have a system that supports
institutional racism,” Salzer said. “I
don’t know [how]. It’s an ongoing
goal.” Many students and teachers
have a problem with a lack of diversity
among the faculty, something Salzer
said he is committed to improving.
He went to an educators of
color recruitment fair last year and
hired three teachers there, although
none were black. He can name five
black faculty members and realizes
that students need to see more posi-
tive role models of all ethnicities.As a
guidance counselor and minority in
the faculty, Turner understands this.
He has gradually seen more black stu-
dents outside of kids he counsels come
to seek advice or just to chat.
“I think sometimes [black
students] go through a process where
they don’t feel they have anyone they
can go to—they don’t have faces on
the faculty they feel like they can turn
to. Faces that look like theirs,” Turner
said. “I think that goes a long way.”
In college, Maxwell has found
many black professors with whom
she has connected. She looks back
and wishes she had black teachers at
South.
“You’re led to believe that
everything you learn or need to know
is going to be taught to you by a white
person,” she said. “I felt like I was
missing something.”
What Now?
This particular racial achieve-
ment gap transcends Brandeis Road;
North Principal Jen Price says bridg-
ing North’s gap is her No. 1 initiative,
while high schools and universities
nationwide are also looking into ways
to address similar disparities. But now
that South has identified the problem
through statistics, the community is
left wondering: Why is this happening,
and what now?
Mathematics department
head Steve Rattendi founded the data
team last year to investigate various
achievement gaps, and race has been
the team’s main focus so far. Last year,
the team presented the current data
to the faculty in hopes of spurring
discussion.
Salzer plans to continue con-
versations about this problem. He will
work with the data team, and the next
course of action is to compile statistics
on racial disparities in SAT and MCAS
scores, Rattendi said.
He sees the data as an impor-
tant steppingstone in recognizing the
problem. The next step? Finding a
solution.
“When you look at this and see
you the bars for African American
students and they’re so different ...
that’s extremely important. That stands
out on its own and says something’s
wrong here. The answer is a different
story,” Rattendi said. “You can look at
it and say, ‘Oh, I’m destined to be in
this particular category—this is what’s
going to happen to me.’ Whereas really
what you want to use it as is more of a
motivating factor. This has to change.
How do we change it?”
Black students speak out on curriculum gapBlack students speak out on curriculum gapBlack students speak out on curriculum gapBlack students speak out on curriculum gap
graphic by KATIE SANDERS & JORDAN SCHNEE
44%
4%
52%
61%
15%
24%