As the bell rang at MetWest High School on Monday morning, teachers and staff stood in Dolores Huerta Hall, holding pom-poms and noisemakers, cheering on students as they arrived for the start of a new school year.

In Mimi Stoll’s first grade class at La Escuelita, students were listening intently as their teacher reviewed classroom norms and she introduced the class suggestion box. Across campus in Lily Sien’s preschool classroom, parents watched as their timid 3- and 4-year-olds got nametags, washed their hands, and explored their new classroom.

Sien, in her 26th year teaching preschool, says her favorite thing about teaching that age is the growth they show over the course of the year.

“At the beginning, they cry, but at the end of the school year they’re so proud,” she told The Oakl

See Full Page