Education

On Oct. 2, Saratoga High School music director Jason Shiuan announced the cancellation of the school’s annual concerto competition. The decision was the latest in a series of adjustments affecting the school’s music department—and Saratoga Music Boosters (SMB), the parent-run nonprofit founded in 1972...

On Monday, the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District announced a new schedule and format for its Board of Trustees meetings, beginning this year. Regularly scheduled meetings will now take place on Thursdays, about every three weeks. And the Closed Session portion will be moved from...

It was the day after retired Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department Sgt. Tam McCarthy helped lay a long-time cop, John Pernick, to rest. So on Oct. 27, as he gave an address at a much more celebratory gathering—the inaugural Los Gatos Community Police Academy graduation—he...

Los Gatos High School (LGHS) and Saratoga High School (SHS) honored their 2024 National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists this fall after the names of more than 16,000 Semifinalists were publicly announced as part of the 69th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.  The Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High...

Transitional kindergarten teacher Kajsa Byrne had the children in her Lexington Elementary class gathered around a circular table, engrossed in a literacy assignment. They scarcely noticed some of the region’s most powerful educational figures enter the room. Michael Stock, a science, technology, engineering, art and math...

As a Bay Area high school student, the pressure to get ready to apply for college bothered me since my freshmen year. I picked extracurriculars with admissions officers in my mind, tailored my course load to my prospective major and spent hours ruminating over...

Braden Taylor, now 38, made an early performing arts splash. In a Daves Avenue Elementary School performance of “Alice in Wonderland,” he was part of the ensemble scenery. Then, he played a reporter when the school put on “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” the following...

The Los Gatos (LGHS) and Saratoga High School (SHS) Music Departments earned top marks once again in music competitions this season. In addition to winning multiple competitions, student musicians have been selected to represent their school in regional, state and national competitions and performances, including...

Last month, students from Saratoga High School’s speech and debate club joined over 7,000 high schoolers from across the nation at the annual National Speech and Debate Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa. Saratoga sent its largest contingent in more than 15 years to the week-long...

A few months back, neighbors Maggie Contro, an 8-year-old third-grader at Daves Avenue Elementary, and Arlo Britz, a 7-year-old boy a grade below, were sweeping her home’s porch, when they realized they were doing something worth scaling. Contro had been wanting to start some kind...