SAT AND ACTS CANCELED,
PALI SENIORS IMPACTED
TidelineTidelineCONTRACT DISPUTE RESOLVED
JACOB POSNER, STAFF WRITERA
fter months of con-
tentious negotia-
tions, Pali teachers
and administration came to a
tentative agreement on a new
labor contract on Sept. 22.
For more than a year, the
parties clashed over grad-
ing policies and other mat-
ters. Subsequently, teachers
again were without a contract
when the fall semester began.
Teachers and administra-
tion reached a Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU)
over the summer. That docu-
ment gave teachers freedom
to use their own grading pol-
icies and to have full control
over their class curriculum.
But at a Board of Trust-
ees meeting in mid-Au-
gust, administration intro-
duced a new eLearning
proposal that contradicted
conditions listed in the MOU.
“When you have the larg-
est group of employees at a
school working without a
contract, that is not a positive
thing for overall morale at the
school,” said English teach-
er Stephen Klima, United
Teachers Los Angeles (UT-
LA)-PCHS Chapter co-chair.
The teachers enacted a
“Work-To-Rule” policy, mean-
ing they would only do the
parts of their job specifical-
ly required by the contract.
This meant many teach-
ers held off on being club
advisors and writing let-
ters of recommendation.
“We decided that if the ad-
ministration is not going toshow us respect, then we will
just do what is required of us
and not go above and beyond
like we usually do,” Klima said.
“This whole contract situ-
ation gave me a scare because
both my teachers pulled out
of writing my letters, whichBIANCA CHERRY, STAFF WRITERD
ue to COVID-19
concerns, the
ACT and SAT
were postponed indefinitely in
most places across the Unit-
ed States on March 20. In
response, PCHS announced
on Aug. 6 that they are “not
hosting the SATs or ACTs
on campus until students are
back on campus regularly.”
Standardized tests have
been a crucial part of college ad-
missions decisions since the ear-
ly 1960s. Unlike other aspects
of college applications such as
GPAs, which are susceptible
to inflation, these tests function
as a universal standard. Now,
as most universities have be-
come test-optional for the Fall
2021 admissions cycle, schoolswill have to use other metrics
to make admissions decisions.
The University of Califor-
nia (UC) system announced a
new test-blind policy — mean-
ing test scores will not be con-
sidered for the admissionsprocess — a plus for Pali se-
niors who were unable to take
the SAT or ACT. However,
at other test-optional schools,
the SAT is still a valuable
component of the application.
Senior Selene Lam was sup-posed to take the SAT in March
and August, but both tests
were canceled. Disappointed,
Lam opted not to take the test.
“I felt like my effort
went to waste,” she said.
“I spent my entire winter
break cramming for this test
only for it to be canceled.”
Conversely, senior Nikita
Bershadsky decided that skip-
ping the SAT he studied months
for was not a viable choice. He
traveled all the way to San An-
tonio, Texas to take the test.
“I knew that by taking the
test it would give me an advan-
tage, as I have put a lot of time
and resources into getting a
high score on it,” he said. “Basi-
cally I gotta do what I gotta do
to get into the university I want.”
Courtesy of Nikita Bershadsky[are] crucial to my applica-
tion,” senior Miles Stein said.
Administration and the
UTLA finally reached an
agreement. Teachers over-
whelmingly voted in favor of
the contract and it was sent
to the board on Sept. 22.Graphic by Atticus Parker