Rachel Zhang

Benny Pierce was nothing short of a legend during his three decades coaching football and teaching at the school — and 22 years after his retirement, he remains an honored part of program.  

Last year, tuition alone for Ivy League schools increased by an average of 3.76 percent, raising costs to as high as $63,000 a year, according to Bloomberg. To put it into perspective, paying the four-year tuition of a prestigious Ivy like Columbia University can be likened to buying a 2016 Lexus GS 450h priced at $63, 080 a year for the next four years, or if a student doesn’t quite reach a degree, driving the equivalent of four Lexus cars off a cliff.

How the community fractured over what is best for students

Residential and vehicular burglaries in Saratoga have increased in the past three years, as its affluence and the at times lax security of the neighborhoods have made the community easy prey for burglars at a time when the state is making an effort to release non-violent offenders from prisons.

Parent looks back on his four years at SHS, all filled with memorable experiences.

As a former basketball player himself, Class of 1971 alumnus Brian Moran, who now works as the plant manager overseeing construction and maintenance at the school, witnessed high-spirited basketball games.  

Stories of SHS’s past through different angles: art and ceramics teacher Leah Aguayo.

Story of SHS’s past through different angles: Spanish teacher Arnaldo Rodriguex.

Upper turf field renovations completed with new ones on the way.

Recently, Monta Vista High School announced its change to a gender neutral Homecoming court.

Junior Jacob Porter finds success and happiness in wakeboarding.

Club members learn hard lessons in long process.

With the arrival of fall, pumpkin-flavored foods have inundated the shelves of all grocery stores, even spawning their own aisle.

Photography club restarts after failing to turn in minutes.

Self-described as "The Media Company for the Social Age,” BuzzFeed has attained success from the enduring appeal of its articles, quizzes, videos and social media savvy. BuzzFeed has mastered the art of garnering more clicks.

On Aug. 25, three burglars stole jewelry and a wad of foreign currency from a house located on Thelma Avenue, but with the neighbors’ quick actions, two suspects, a 19-year-old woman from San Jose and a 22-year-old male from Oakland,  were arrested.

The administration has been scrambling to find a qualified full-time French teacher to teach all five levels of the program. French students have had three different teachers in the first three weeks of school and are currently taught by part-time substitute Scott Nelson, who does not speak fluent French and was left without any lesson plans. 

Roughly 100 out of the China’s 1.4 billion population train with China’s national swim team. Junior Jack Xie, a recent transfer, was one of these elite swimmers at the age of 13. 

These past few weeks have been tough for the Falcons. Facing loss after loss, the team that once stood with a perfect record at the start of the preseason has crumbled as the weeks have progressed. Their current league record is 1-5.  

Teachers put in countless hours each day to keep their classes moving ahead. Their efforts are often overlooked, brushed off by some students' remarks on how slow some teachers are at grading papers. Some parents even complain in the form of emails, also blinded from the work teachers put in behind the scenes.

On a typical Tuesday lunch in science teacher Kristen Thomson’s room, 1015, members of the Environmental Club can be found scattered about.

Google’s self-driving car is a hands-free automobile that allows users to sit back and relax, while it navigates through traffic for them. The car’s potential release date is between 2017 and 2020. Unfortunately, self-driving cars are no longer a distant fantasy.

Over these past few months, students have been the object of increased enforcement by deputies near campus before and after school, giving citations for offenses such as jaywalking, not wearing a helmet while biking and speeding.

The caloric intake of a food item does not always correlate with its nutritional value, and thus should not be considered an important factor in deciding the healthiness of a food item. This is a misconception evident in the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, a piece of federal legislation passed in 2010 that allows USDA to enact healthy lunch reforms in schools in hopes of combating child obesity.

In his first year as the varsity softball coach, Chris Smith has proved to be both a tough disciplinarian and an encouraging mentor.

Hana Chen, who has taught history and psychology here for the past two years, was stunned to hear the news of a fatal car accident that occurred in East San Jose on Jan. 27.

The badminton team prepares for the upcoming season.

Even as he excelled in the classroom, Class of 2006 valedictorian alumnus Henry Barmeier participated in many extracurriculars. Between running in the 2004 cross country state championship and participating in a drama production, Barmeier was also the editor-in-chief of The Falcon.

After seeing pictures on Instagram of people hanging like possums from slings, two reporters decided to try out aerial yoga, a series of exercises incorporating regular yoga and aerial acrobatics. 

Behind the scenes of the copy room are Janet Verson, who has worked at the school for 15 years, and her colleague Nada Macesic, who has worked at the school for seven years.

Recently, Oregon's Death with Dignity Act has been highly publicized by the story of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

Math teachers are working more closely to align their testing policies.

Sophomore Aryana Goodarzi relays her experiences with being Persian.

Although sophomore Alex Kwon moved to America from Korea at age 5, he still maintains his ties with Korean culture.

Student reflects on the drawbacks of social media by recounting her own experiences.

The Internet is not just a teeming pool of information for us to feed off of; it chips away at our mind’s capacities for contemplation and attention. Consequently, we zip along the surface of the its information.

From its overly specialized and futile stores to its unsuccessful marketing plans, Saratoga’s downtown is weighed down by its ineffective and often overly posh entertainment and food options.

Reporter describes the confusion in class because her name is shared with others.

Four male undergraduates from North Carolina State University have created a nail polish line that aims to allow women to report men's ulterior motives. Their nail polish line, called Undercover Colors, changes color when it comes in contact with one of the three most common date-rape drugs: Xanax, Rohypnol, GHB, in addition to other unnamed ones.

Sophomore Gabriel Burgos works on a design for a biomedical device that could identify patients’ heartbeats with more accuracy by accounting for the patient’s weight.

Freshman Kyle Abe, who trains as a Level 9 gymnast, performed at the Men’s Gymnastics Junior Olympic Nationals in Long Beach last year.