This Week In the Ann Arbor Public Schools

November 7, 2011

  • This Week’s Good NewsA2 Tech High School’s new graduation coach and STRIVE coordinator Ross Dunbar was awarded a $500 grant from the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation.  His project is titled "Young Entrepreneurs Club" and may include support from Rotarians.  From the Great Ideas Grant application Ross submitted, "This project will launch a Young Entrepreneurs Club at A2 Tech High School to provide an opportunity for students to gain knowledge of entrepreneurship.  The club will give students a real life experience of running a small business, the A2Tech Store, and learn entrepreneurial skills including budgeting, managing inventory, marketing, surveying customer needs, and promoting products via a website."
  • Skyline High School Theatre’s program was chosen as a featured school on the 2011 Stratford Shakespeare Festivals Michigan Educational Outreach Initiative. On October 31 and November 1, Skyline High School Theatre hosted artists from the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. During the two-day residency Stratford artists, Aaron Willis and Julia Tepperman worked with 85 Skyline students on the upcoming Skyline productions, Into the Woods and As You Like It.
  • On Thursday night, dozens of students and parents of the Northside Elementary School community returned to the school (912 Barton Drive) after-hours for International Dinner, a longstanding Northside tradition.
    The dinner is hosted by Northside’s parent-teacher organization and has been going on as far back as anyone can remember.
    As Northside Principal Monica Harrold noted, food seems to bring people together. It brought together dozens of young families on Thursday, with a few too-young-for-school and older-than-elementary siblings sprinkled in.
    That’s part of the reason for it. Another part is to foster an appreciation of diversity by showing the students, and their parents, how much they have to learn from each other. Exchanging recipes can be a good place to start. Parents prepared traditional cultural dishes — Korean bi bim bop, Jewish challah bread, finger sandwiches from the Czech Republic — and a few students even wore traditional garb.
    VIDEO:     The Ann Arbor Journal visited Northside for the International Dinner and took a short video that you may view at www.heritage.com/articles/2011/10/28/ann_arbor_journal/news/doc
  • On Saturday November 5, The NAACP held its annual Freedom Fund Dinner at which it honors students in grades 10-12 who achieved a 3.2 or higher  G.P.A. during the last school year.  It was an honor for me to distribute a certificate recognizing each of the students.  They are listed below by school, with their name and grade.  Congratulations to all of our scholars.
    A2 Tech High School
    Tucker, Jazmyne, 11

    Roberto Clemente
    Caddell, Macenzie, 10
    Carethers, Thurmond, 11
    Stevens-Wallace, Tyrus, 11
    Tubbs, Shayla, 11
    Wren, David, 11
    Buggs, Jr., Marcus, 12
    Sims, Mica, 12

    Community High School
    Awkward-Rich, Leah, 11
    Johnson-Levy, Rianna, 11
    Dafa, Senait, 12
    Kincaid, Olivia, 12

    Early College Alliance
    Barringer, Jasmyn, 11
    Chime, Melissa, 11
    Stevens, Mahal, 11
    Worsham, Malaika, 11

    Huron High School
    Alvarez, Christina, 10
    Barton, Michael, 10
    Chen, Dylan, 10
    Dobbin, Sydney, 10
    Draper, Jordan, 10;
    Ezeokobe, Jennifer, 10
    Gago, Luis, 10
    Gordon, Aviva, 10
    Hudson, Taylor, 10
    Johnson, Alicia, 10
    Johnson, Jessica, 10
    Kidd, Cydnee, 10
    Mohamed, Sara, 10
    Randall, Maya, 10
    Rozelle, Caylin, 10
    Trulik, Kelsey, 10
    Weatherspoon, Jonathan, 10
    Welch, David, 10
    Cade, Dennis, 11
    Carter, Jamyra, 11
    Dejnozka, Julie, 11
    Donaldson, Hope, 11
    Emerson, Tiere, 11
    Fasina, Ibrahim, 11
    Garner, Alexis, 11
    Gibson, Jessica, 11
    Golidy, Sara, 11
    Hall, Malik, 11
    Hutchings, Rachel, 11
    Jackson, Alexandrea, 11
    Johnson III, Ernest, 11
    Kaku, Arata, 11
    Keep, Graham, 11
    Marable, Alexis, 11
    Marshall, Danielle, 11
    Martin, Olivia, 11
    Mercer, Chelsea, 11
    Mohamed, Hannah, 11
    Munganga, Deborah-Luti, 11
    Nagpal, Natalie, 11
    Nikolaidis, Caroline, 11
    Nikolaidis, Cyrus, 11
    Redondo DeLaPaz Chan, Amaya, 11,
    Tyus, Shayla, 11
    Williams, Bianca, 11
    Wilson, Bianca, 11
    Bow, Samuel, 12
    Calhoun, Tavion, 12
    Carson, Calvin, 12
    Carter, M'Rittani, 12
    Chen, Sarah, 12
    Crockett, Blaire, 12
    Daniels, Charles, 12
    Edwards, Crystal, 12
    Frazier, Camille, 12
    French, JeJuan, 12
    Hagan, Joseph, 12
    Lee, Kamaria, 12
    Lewis, Michael, 12
    Long, Maya, 12
    Maduko, Nenna, 12
    McGhee-Tefera, Yared, 12
    Mohamed, Bushra, 12
    Nagpal, Arjun, 12
    Ofili, Cynthia, 12
    Pomo, Maria, 12
    Stevenson, Gabriel, 12
    Webster, Micalah, 12
    Whitlock, Lindsey, 12

    Pioneer High School
    Allen, Taylor, 10
    Codrington, Joseph, 10
    Jihad, Aaliyah, 10
    Uche, Chinonye, 10
    Alinoti, Josephine, 11
    Cobb Gulley III, Billy, 11
    Jackson, Shana, 11
    Jordan-McKnight, Terrell, 11
    Meads, Monique, 11
    Mercer, Ti'Anna, 11
    Moore, Jassadi, 11
    Smith, Antonia, 11
    Titus, Joseph, 11
    Webb, Aaron, 11
    Cooper, Jazmine, 12
    Corley, DeLaynna, 12
    Draganescu, Jeno, 12
    Fonville, Sinclaire, 12
    Gregory, Ivy, 12
    Marable, Ashli, 12
    Pendleton, Justin, 12
    Vereen, Ana, 12

    Skyline High School
    Benson, Khalil, 10
    Carethers, Kathryn
    Dance, Edward, 10
    Dawson, Maria, 10
    Hayward, Ketura, 10
    Hepburn, Katherine, 10
    Hester II, Marc, 10
    Merritt, Olivia, 10
    Mial, Paige, 10
    Rochell, Michael, 10
    Thomas, Savannah, 10
    Tucker, Trevon, 10
    Yalley, Sheila, 10
    Yalley, Shirley, 10
    Abatan, Oreoluwapo, 11
    Abdullah Al Basir, Abdullah, 11
    Anderson, Emily, 11
    Blocker, Shalena, 11
    Boyd, Christian, 11
    Carson, Mariam, 11
    Dixon, Densu, 11
    Hardy, Dominique, 11
    Lee, Austin, 11
    Mills, Kiyah, 11
    Newing II, Frederick, 11
    Sandifer, Hussain, 11
    Shepherd, Christopher, 11
    Webster, Sina, 11
    Wilks, James, 11
    Broadway, Janee', 12
    Hicks, Whitney, 12
    Hill, Anthony, 12
    Lee, Kelsy, 12
    Lindsay, Jasper, 12
    Muriu, Jonathan, 12
    Murphy, Kalee, 12
    Rael-Whitsitt, Chaune', 12
    Smith III, Jefferson, 12
    Turner, Ashlie, 12
    Wint, Paige, 12

Patricia P. Green, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Ann Arbor Public Schools