News – The PCS Roar

PCS Teachers Unionize

Eric Spencer, Rina Rossi, Isabel Folger, Aneesh Medhekar, and Terry Cole

March 12, 2019

Although California public schools are generally unionized workplaces, some charter schools have unions while others do not. On August 15, 2018, a super-majority of teachers at Pacific Collegiate School voted and filed a formal petition to unionize with the California Teachers Association. Board President Tom Morell addressed the unionization of PCS teachers in a recent Thursday letter e-mailed to parents of Pacific Collegiate School students. Morell stated: “On August 15, 2018, the PCS Board and Administration received a notice that a majority of the PCS teaching staff had filed a petition to form a union, in aff...

Kelly Residence Vandalized

Madeline Briscoe

March 12, 2019

On January 1st, 2018, AP World History and AP U.S. History teacher James Kelly woke up and discovered his yard, fence, gate and car had been vandalized. Toilet paper was strewn across the yard and garden, and a screen door removed from a neighbor’s house was thrown onto the lawn. Compost was jammed in all of the possible crevices on the car and the gate to his house was destroyed. The vandals also spray painted male genitalia on the surrounding sidewalks, car and fencing. Toys from neighborhood kids were thrown all over the yard. Quickly after the incident, Kelly involved the local police, due to the cost of the ...

41% of PCS Student Body Walked Out on J20

January 27, 2017

On J20, the day of the presidential inauguration, 227 PCS students--41 percent of the PCS student body--participated in the J20 school walkouts and political protests which occurred across the country in concert with the swearing in of Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United State. The walkout began around 10:30 a.m. in coordination with students from UCSC, Harbor High School, ...

Protest Information

January 19, 2017

Hey peoples! If you’re looking at this then you’re interested in going with us to the January 20t h protests downtown. Good for you! Here are just a couple reminders, lists, and things to do to make sure everyone is safe and knows what is going on. Get parent/guardian permission - It’s important that your guardian know where you are and what you are doing. If you are going to be l...

Inauguration Protests Planned Throughout Bay Area

January 19, 2017

The inauguration of Donald J. Trump as president of the United States will be met with excitement for many Americans and disbelief for others. Several individuals and groups opposed to many of Mr. Trump’s policies, statements, and actions against women and minorities are planning protests in response to them. Among the most highly publicized is the Women’s March on Washington, which is estimat...

Principal Fletcher Response to Upcoming Protest

January 19, 2017

We are reprinting Mr. Fletcher's letters to PCS, along with a Q and A done by one of our reporters. Dear PCS, Our family gathered the other night, as I am sure many of you did, to watch President Obama's farewell speech to the nation. Beyond the reminder of how inspirational Barack Obama is as a speaker, his speech was also a clear reminder to me about why what we do at PCS is so import...

PCS Reacts to Trump’s Victory

December 9, 2016

The evening of Tuesday, November 8, 2016 held bad news for some and good news for others. Americans across the country who voted for Donald Trump as President of the United States were satisfied, if not jubilant. However, for the 75% of Santa Cruz voters who supported Hillary Clinton for the position, Trump’s victory was devastating. For sophomore Roxana Ortiz, the election results were “shockin...

The Loma Prieta Fire

October 21, 2016

On September 26, 2016, a wildfire spread across 4,474 acres of forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains and shot 100 foot flames into the sky. The recent Loma Prieta fire started from a house fire in the area and destroyed 12 homes as it spread into the nearby forest. More than 200 firefighters from departments across Santa Cruz and San Jose attempted to fight the fire in 100-degree weather thro...

Election 2016: The Stakes For Education

October 21, 2016

Throughout the 2016 presidential race, issues regarding private email servers and unreleased tax returns have been getting a great deal of attention. However, one issue undoubtedly on the minds of many within the PCS community is the cost of higher education. As parents prepare to send their students off to college, tuition and the cost of living are points of increasing concern. I...

Four New Elements

Aidan Warzecha-Watson

January 26, 2016

Recently four new elements have been officially verified to exist, completing the seventh row of the periodic table. The elements--113, 115, 117, and 118--were discovered by bombarding other heavy metals with ions. The element 113 was credited to Kosuke Morita’s Riken group in east Asia and is currently using the placeholder name of ununtrium. The discoveries of element 115, known currently as ununpentium, and 117, currently known as ununseptium, have been credited to the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the U.S., along with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Russia....

Manufacturing Jobs: Humans vs Robots

Teresa Rossi

January 22, 2016

In the past century, an increasing number of people are losing manufacturing jobs because robots are gradually replacing humans in factories. Since 2000, the United States has lost five million manufacturing jobs. According to James Sherk, a labor economics researcher at the Heritage Foundation, this is because “robots are a lot more affordable than human employees”. Several Republican candidates, such as Donald Trump, have claimed to help reintroduce lost factory jobs. However, it seems that several logistical issues inhibiting his plan have been oversimplified or ignored. In June 2015, during Trump’s ...

Construction Contract Dispute Disrupts Campus Life

January 19, 2016

PCS students, parents, and staff have been greeted all week by protesters picketing on the sidewalk outside the new campus. If attention is the protesters’ aim, they have certainly received it. News of the controversy has spread quickly through the halls among students and teachers alike. Who are the protesters? Who is the contractor they are referencing? Is PCS really to blame? If not, why are ther...

Spirit Week Recap

Jasmine Gates, Nora Aron, Chloe Lovejoy, Columnist

December 11, 2015

Twins, tropical hats, and a watermelon eating contest—PCS celebrated its spirit week in the new building and it was a big success. On Monday, many people dressed as media characters but 10th grade won with 42 points. At lunch there was a pumpkin pie-eating contest, won by the eighth graders. Tuesday was a day of doubles and a three-legged race—12th grade won. At lunch, there were two groups of racers and they ran/hopped their way across the deck. After Monday and Tuesday, 12th grade led with 80 points. On “What are Those” Wednesday, kids showed up in their silliest shoe combinations. At lunch people came to the bac...

The Great Migration into Europe

November 17, 2015

THE GREAT MIGRATION INTO EUROPE Why are people going to Europe? As mentioned in a report published by MercyCorps.org, Syrian men, women, and children are fleeing Syria in astonishing numbers — an estimated four million refugees — to try and escape the civil war-torn Syria. During the Arab Spring, Syrians first resisted peacefully, then joined together to create the Free Syrian Army to fight agai...