Foothill High School Handbook

Cell phones are valuable and important communicative devices in today’s world. However, use of cell phones 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 on campus at appropriate times but not during the instructional day due to the impact of these devices on learning.

Notes and Responsibilities

• Students are to turn off cell phones (not on vibrate) and keep them out of sight during the instructional day.
• Students may use cell phones only before school, at lunch, during passing periods, and after school.
• Teachers will review the cell phone policy and consequences for cell phone policy violation with all their students at the beginning of the year.
• Teachers will advise the discipline clerk of cell phone policy violations by either forwarding a cell phone policy violation note or writing an email with the words "Cell phone violation" and the student name, student ID number and period the violation occurred in the subject line.
• Administrators only will confiscate cell phones if necessary.
• All staff and students must be consistent with implementation of this policy and the procedures below in order to ensure the learning process is not impacted or disrupted by cell phone use.
• These rules may be applied for all electronic devices.

1st Violation: Detention

• Teacher/staff notifies the student and the discipline clerk of the cell phone policy violation.
• Discipline clerk records infringement of cell phone violation in Zangle as a first offense.
• Discipline clerk calls the student to the office and issues a detention.

2nd Violation: FACTS detention

• Teacher/staff notifies the student and the discipline clerk of the cell phone policy violation.
• Discipline clerk records infringement of the cell phone violation in Zangle as a second offense.
• Discipline clerk and/or appropriate vice principal calls the student to the office and issues a FACTS detention.
• Dialer sent home Thursday before FACTS detention.

3rd Violation: Suspension

• Teacher/staff notifies the student and the discipline clerk of the cell phone policy violation.
• Discipline clerk records infringement of cell phone violation in Zangle as a third offense.
• Discipline clerk writes a referral for student discipline and gives this to a VP.
• Vice principal issues a one-day suspension.
• Vice principal calls parent.

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.

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.

Tickets will be on sale

• Lunch and after school on Monday
• Tuesday-Friday, tickets will be on sale before school, at lunch and after school.
• Ticket windows will always close five minutes prior to the first bell in the morning, five minutes prior to the end-of-lunch bell at lunchtime and at 3:55 p.m. after school.

Ticket Price

• $5 with ASB Sticker — Students MUST show their ID card, with sticker, to receive the ASB sticker discount. Students who claim to have a sticker, but unable to show ID card, will be charged $10.
• $10 without ASB sticker, without an ID card, and non-Foothill student guests.

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 $10.

• Detention is a quiet time. It is held Wednesday mornings 8:15-8:45 a.m. and after school 3-3:30 p.m. in A-2.
• 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 a FACTS Class assigned to you.

FACTS Class

FACTS stands for Foothill After-School Character Trait Support.

FACTS is an innovative approach to discipline that uses restorative justice to get students to consider their infractions and how they might make better choices in the future.

Students who violate the discipline plan may be assigned to the FACTS program. A student’s attendance at FACTS addresses the referral that has been assigned. Any repeat offense of the same behavior results in further discipline, possibly a suspension.

FACTS is held from 3 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday afternoons. Wednesday morning sessions from 7:45 to 8:45 a.m. are offered for students who cannot make afternoon sessions. These classes are held in room A-2.

The expectations for FACTS are as follows:

1. FACTS is a class. As in all learning environments, inappropriate behavior is not permitted and talking is allowed only with teacher approval.
2. Students are required to write a one-page essay reflecting on the behavior violation. Students are also required to participate in any other character trait activities that are part of the FACTS class.
3. No eating or drinking (except water) is allowed.
4. In order to reschedule an assigned FACTS class, a parent must contact the student’s vice principal prior to FACTS with a justifiable reason for rescheduling (medical or dental appointment, family emergency, religious observation, etc.).
5. Failure to observe the rules and/or participate in the assigned activities may result in suspension.
6. Late students will not be allowed in. No exceptions. Failure to attend may result in suspension.

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.

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