While Princeton High School sophomores and juniors
took the PSAT this month, they had a significantly better
testing experience compared to last year. As an investment
to improve the school’s testing infrastructure, PHS
replaced over 350 access points and added an additional
50 access points in new locations. However, improvements
to internet networks expanded beyond both PHS and
testing-related infrastructure. The improvements were
a district-wide endeavor, with the PPS technology team
upgrading both wireless and physical infrastructure
in all schools. The team replaced all access points and
old cabling, bringing them to the newest standard.

“We replaced everything to be WiFi six ready, just
[the] latest, greatest technology ... It’s for our general
network for the entire district, which, again, will
help testing,” said Danny Turner, district engineer.

 Not only did the upgrade resolve short-term issues with
testing, it was also an investment towards the ditrict future.
As technology use becomes inceasingly prevalent within
the district, networks need to be upgraded to support
students that are constantly on their school devices.

“Now we have the newest standard for cabling.
The old cabling was 20 years old. The new cabling is
what’s being installed nowadays for everything. So
even in X number of years that we do go to change
this again, we won’t need to change all that cabling,”
said Todd MacDonald, PPS’s chief technology officer.

The changes were prompted by issues during testing last
year, where several students were unable to test in certain
classrooms and others experienced frequent crashes of
the testing infrastructure. Though the technology office
acknowledged most problems were not on the school’s
end, the improvements will ensure confidence in the
network and in determining the source of any issue.

“The issue, from what I’ve heard, was actually
more on the testing company’s end than our
end,” said MacDonald. “We’re confident that ...
there’ll be no issues in our network for this year.”

Overall, this investment positively impacted the
students’ testing experience as students were able to
focus on the actual test rather than ways to resolve
the frequent technical issues. Improvements aim to
guarantee a positive test experience for now while
also ensuring long-term readiness for the future.

“I think part of it is trying to meet the needs
that we have now, but also trying to make sure we
have this in place that’s going to be able to support
future needs as well. And this investment from the
referendum is going to give us many years of network
that we can handle the growth now,” said MacDonald.

Testing infrastructure update

This summer, 23 PHS students visited
cultural sites in Peru as part of the annual
PHS Spanish language department trip.
Organised by Sra. Idania Rodriguez and
Sra. Martha Hayden, these trips to Peru
are part of a long-standing tradition in the
Spanish Department.

The trip consisted of two groups: one
tour group and a homestay group. The tour
group left Peru after nine days, while the
homestay group stayed behind for another
12 days. Students in the homestay group
attended a private school in Lima alongside
their “exchange siblings,” who were paired
with them based on shared interests and
self-evaluations.

“It was really fun because they really
treated you like their own,” said Mila
Trkov ’27, a student part of the homestay
program. “Anything that you [wished] to
do, they would try and make it happen
regardless of if it was inconvenient for
them.”

Beyond being provided an opportunity
to practice their Spanish every day,
participants in the homestay program
were also able to experience complete
immersion into Peruvian culture — eating
breakfast, watching the news with their
host families, and going on guided tours
of famous sites — an experience near
impossible to come by in the United States.
“I think [students] learned more
than they even [expected]. Our tour
guides [were] people who live and love
their culture, and they love to share. So
educationally, the history of it and seeing
it, eating the food, it’s something that’s
not really measurable. [They learned] life
lessons a lot, I think, more than anything,”
Rodriguez said.

Apart from Peru being Hayden’s native
country, Peru was selected due to its
diversity and variety of cultural sites for
students to visit. In Lima, students toured
La Plaza de Armas, a quintessential feature
of Latin American city centers.

“In every Latin American country,
you’re going to find plazas. It’s like [a]
park ... And around the plaza, there are
churches. There are historical places that
people can visit, museums and things like
that,” Rodriguez said.

In Cusco, students spent days in the
Sacred Valley of the Incas, where they
hiked the iconic Machu Picchu and
toured the town of Ollantaytambo, a
historical fortress of the Incas. They rode
motorcycles 16,000 feet up Vinicunca, the
Rainbow Mountain.

“You go there and you feel like you are
in a different world. It was a very spiritual
experience. And we all just started singing
and dancing,” Rodriguez said.

This year, for the first time in the
history of the trip, the students also visited
the San José de Monterrico school in
Lima, where they were welcomed with
activities and celebrations. PHS students
experienced life as a private school student
in Peru, visiting classes and playing games
alongside their Peruvian peers.

“When we left, they were all crying
because they got so attached to the people
that they stayed with,” said Hayden. “[It]
was funny because the kids were chasing
our bus as we were going to the airport.”
Reflecting on her decades of organizing
these trips, Hayden emphasized the
personal investment she puts into making
the experience more memorable for her
students.

“To me, it’s a labor of love,” said Hayden.
“It always has been, and that’s why I put
so much love and passion into my trips
every year.”

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