Foothill High School Handbook

Cell phones and other electronic devices are valuable and important in today’s world. However, use of cell phones and other unauthorized electronic devices, such as earbuds or smartwatches, during the instructional day seriously impedes and distracts from the learning process. As a school, we believe that students should be allowed to use cell phones and other devices on campus at appropriate times, but not during the instructional day, due to the impact of these devices on learning.

Possession of electronic devices (i.e. cell phones, AirPods, etc) by a student at school is a privilege which may be forfeited by any student who does not follow the Foothill High School Electronic Device Policy, below. Students bring all electronic devices to school at their own risk.

• Students are to turn off cell phones or put on ‘do not disturb’ mode and place the device(s) in the classroom’s cell phone caddy upon entering the room (note: possessing a second cell phone while placing one in the cell phone caddy is a violation of the policy).

• Phones will stay in the phone caddy for the duration of instructional minutes, even if a student leaves the classroom for the bathroom or another purpose.

• Students may ONLY have screens out in a classroom upon teacher's request (a screen could be a laptop, tablet, phone, or smartwatch).  When using any device in class, the device must be used for instructional purposes - not chatting, games, watching unauthorized videos, or social media use.

• No headphones/earbuds of any kind in or covering students’ ears for the duration of the class period (from bell to bell).

• Students may only use cell phones, smartwatches, or headphones/earbuds before school, at lunch, during passing periods, and after school.

• Electronic devices must be turned over in entirety if requested by any staff member.

• Foothill High School prohibits any photos or videos of classroom lessons, assignments, tests, or homework without explicit teacher permission.

• The use by any person of any electronic listening or recording device in any classroom without the prior consent of the instructor is prohibited. (CA Ed Code 78907)

• Use of digital device to record teachers, administrators, or other staff members without permission at any time is prohibited (PUSD Discipline Plan)

• Use of cell phones or other devices with photographic or video capabilities is prohibited in the locker rooms and bathrooms at all times.*

The district/school shall not be responsible for the loss of or damage to a cellular phone or other electronic device brought on campus.  This policy is in accordance with PUSD Board Policy 5131.8.

1st Violation: Warning, parent contact and referral.

2nd Violation: Detention, parent contact and referral.

3rd Violation: Detention, conference with an administrator, 7 days loss of school privileges (LOSP), parent contact and referral.

4th Violation: Detention, conference with an administrator, 7 days LOSP, parent contact, referral, and required check-in of device in the office for 5 school days

*Consequence for use of any device with photographic or video capabilities in a bathroom or locker room: detention, parent contact, administrative conference, 7 days loss of school privileges, and referral on record.

Please note that each classroom is equipped with a phone in case of emergency. In case of a family emergency, a parent or guardian may call the front office and staff will contact the classroom, as necessary. Please also note that Access period minutes are instructional minutes, and the electronic device policy applies to Access period in addition to all other class periods.

Foothill has a closed campus. Students may not leave campus without checking out at the front office.

Students who need to leave school during the day must have a parent or guardian call the attendance office at (925) 461-6600 and then press "1" before the time the student needs to leave campus. A pass will be written and ready for the student to pick up in the office before leaving campus.  Students should come to the Attendance Window during passing periods to collect their pass in order to be approved to leave campus.

If a student becomes ill during the day, they must check out through the health office (also in the front office).  Students should not call their parent/guardian to have them call the attendance office, the student should just go to the health office.

Classrooms cannot be interrupted to notify a student of an appointment.

If a student is expecting an early dismissal, they must come to the attendance office throughout the day to confirm if the appointment has been arranged. Validation is requested for medical or dental appointments.

Leaving campus without prior parental permission or without checking out through the front office will result in detention.

Also, due to our campus being closed, we do not allow any food delivery services during school hours (7:10 a.m. until 4:21 p.m.).  These services include services such as Door Dash, Uber Eats, etc.  

Tickets will be on sale

• During Lunch on advertised days
• Tickets are sold out in front of the Main Office

Ticket Price

• Prices are determined for each dance type and advertised as such. There is an ASB sticker price and a Non-ASB sticker price.

Guests

• A completed Dance Guest Pass must be turned in at the time of purchasing a ticket for a non-Foothill student.

Outstanding School Debits

• Tickets will not be sold to anyone with an outstanding school debt. Make sure your debits are cleared before you purchase your ticket.

School ID Cards will be required to enter the dance.

• Lost ID cards cannot be produced after school on the day of the dance. If you've lost your ID card, make sure to order a new one, through the main office, before the day of the dance. ID replacement cards cost $8. Please see Ms Jeno in the Counseling Office for a replacement card.

• Detention is a quiet time. It is held during lunch on Tuesday and Thursday and after school, as needed
• Students are to report to detention with materials for study.
• There will be no eating or drinking (water only) during detention.
• Failure to follow these rules or not serve this detention could result in addition consequences.

Foothill High School and Pleasanton Unified School District Pupil Dress Code

Dress Code Philosophy

Pleasanton Unified School District’s student dress code supports equitable educational access and is written in a manner that does not reinforce stereotypes. To ensure effective and equitable enforcement of this dress code, school staff shall enforce the dress code consistently and in a manner that does not reinforce or increase marginalization or oppression of any group based on race, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, cultural observance, household income or body type/size.

The district and school dress code shall be strictly enforced on the Foothill High School campus and at any school-sponsored activity.

Our Values: 

• All students should be able to dress comfortably for school and engage in the educational environment without fear of or actual unnecessary discipline or body shaming.
• All students and staff should understand that they are responsible for managing their own personal "distractions" without regulating individual students' clothing/self-expression.
• Student dress code enforcement should not result in unnecessary barriers to school attendance.

Our student dress code is designed to accomplish several goals:

• Maintain a safe learning environment.
• Allow students to wear clothing of their choice that is comfortable.
• Allow students to wear clothing that expresses their self-identified gender.
• Allow students to wear religious attire without fear of discipline or discrimination.
• Prevent students from wearing clothing or accessories with offensive images or language, including profanity, hate speech, and pornography.
• Prevent students from wearing clothing or accessories that denote, suggest, display or reference alcohol, drugs or related paraphernalia or other illegal conduct or activities.
• Prevent students from wearing clothing or accessories that will interfere with the operation of the school, disrupt the educational process, invade the rights of others, or create a reasonably foreseeable risk of such interference or invasion of rights.
• Prevent students from wearing clothing or accessories that reasonably can be construed as being or including content that is racist, lewd, vulgar or obscene, or that reasonably can be construed as containing fighting words, speech that incites others to imminent lawless action, defamatory speech, or threats to others.
• Students in Pleasanton Unified School District are “showing up for work”; therefore, they should make every attempt to be in “professional student” clothing for their work day. The dress code is meant to inspire pride and confidence for success as students grow toward entry into the 21st-century  professional work environment.

Pleasanton Unified School District expects that all students will dress in a way that is appropriate for the school day or for any school-sponsored event. Student dress choices should respect the district’s intent to sustain a community that is inclusive of a diverse range of identities.

Note: For full text of these Board approved policies, please download the documents below.

AR 5132 Dress And Grooming (1)

BP 5132 Dress and Grooming 8.27.2019

For your information, here are some reminders concerning the steps to follow should a more serious concern arise.

• Every effort should be made to resolve concerns at the earliest possible stage. If the concern regards a staff member, parents are asked to contact the staff member as soon as possible in order to meet and attempt to resolve the concern with the staff member personally.
• If the concern remains unresolved after discussing it directly with the staff member, parents may contact a school site administrator for further assistance in resolving the concern. In many cases, the school administrator will facilitate and participate in a meeting with the parent(s) and the staff member in order to discuss and attempt to resolve the concern.
• If these steps do not resolve the concern to your satisfaction, the district has a formal complaint process that can be initiated. Complaint forms are available in the school office and also in the district’s human resources department.

Spiders and hornets and ants — oh, my! The nice folks in charge of keeping bugs in line at Pleasanton schools want you to know what measures are being taken to keep these pesky pests from taking over.

Please take a look at the files below for the school district's explanation of its insect abatement program and what pesticides are used to keep an army of ants from hauling off our kids at lunchtime.

District Annual Pesticide Notification

PUSD Annual Notices to Parents/Guardians

PUSD Student & Family Handbook

One of the major objectives of formal education is that of teaching citizenship and responsibility for one's actions. We believe this to be of primary importance in today's society. It has been the custom for students at Foothill High School to recognize the appropriate conduct for a given situation and to conduct themselves accordingly. It is expected that this custom will continue and that students will exhibit the courtesy that has brought many compliments to our school.

At Foothill High School:

• Everyone has the right to learn (and no one has the right to interfere).
• We believe that everyone's dignity, welfare, and material possessions should be respected.
• Everyone is expected to attend all scheduled classes.
• Individual teachers may have additional expectations for appropriate behaviors.

The links on this page will take you to a pdf document — Acrobat Reader or its equivalent will be needed to view them. Click on the pdf icon at the left to download Acrobat Reader if needed.

Files that include the word EDIT may be filled out using your computer. Hit "print" to print a form once it's been filled out. You will not be able to save the completed forms as a file.

Files that include the word "Writable" may be filled out using your computer. Hit "print" to print a form once it's been filled out. For some forms you may not be able to save the completed forms as a file.