This Week
In the Ann Arbor Public Schools
January 26, 2009

To: The Staff of the Ann Arbor Public Schools
From: Todd Roberts, Superintendent

This Week’s Good News

  • Ten Bach School 5th graders and four 4th graders placed FIRST in Michigan, in the Knowledge Master Open held on Jan. 21, 2009. The K.M.O. is a team academic contest that tests students' ability to answer questions about all the school subjects.  The Bach School K.M.O. Team scored 673 out of a possible 1000 points.  The average score in Michigan was 566 and the mean nationwide was 538. Nationally, Bach placed 18th out of 233 teams competing. This placed Bach in the 8th percent of teams in the country. The top score in the country went to Hough Street School in Illinois with a score of 781.
    The members of the Bach team were: 4th Graders: Olivia Dulany, Anna Schmidt, Lizzie Schmidt, and Hannah Rubenstein. 5th Grade: Celia Arson, Sam Groh, Tyler Schmader, Dharma, Montagno, Camlan Smith, Fabienne Auer, Elle Konrad, Jong Hyun Lee, Aspen Pesheck, and Lorenzo Binetti. Mrs. Ezekiel is the coach. Congratulations on a fine, cooperative effort.
  • A team of 15 Forsythe sixth graders came in 8th place in Michigan, out of 19 teams, in the Knowledge Master Open held on Wed., Jan. 21st.  The KMO is a nationwide competition that challenges students’ ability to work as a team to quickly, accurately answer questions in all the academic and elective subjects, at all levels of difficulty. On the national level, the Viking Auks placed in the top 20%, 58th place out of 320 teams.  They scored 707 out of a perfect 1,000 points, well above the national average score of 622 and the state average of 612.
    First place in Michigan went to cross-town rival, Tappan, who scored an impressive 806 points.  The Forsythe team congratulates Coach Corbett and the Trojans, and promises to give them more of a struggle next time the sixth grade team competes.
    The members of the Forsythe team were: Andrew Ames, Matthew Epperson, David Morrow, Morgan Borjigin-Wang, Nicholas Hoffman, Lawrence Mullen, Sophia Camp, Betty Hu, Stephen Nurushev, Nathan Ceely, Annie Janusz-Boisvert, Kavin Pawittranon, Jason Dean,Derick McIntyre and Kevin Zhang. Mr. Daniel Ezekiel is the coach.
  • On Wednesday January 21st, NASA came to second grade at Bach! Mr. Humphrey's class was invited to submit a question to the astronauts currently living aboard the International Space Station. During a world wide down link from the space station, the astronauts answered questions from students from schools in California, Washington state and our own Bach Elementary.
    The question that Mr. Humphrey's class asked was, “What do astronauts eat in space and how is the food stored?” The class spent about 20 minutes watching the astronauts do somersaults, drink orange juice bubbles and float around the space station as they answered the various questions.
  • This past weekend at the Michigan Music Conference in Grand Rapids, the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association celebrated its 75th anniversary. As part of that celebration four small ensembles were given aspecial invitation to perform as part of this celebration. These special ensembles represent the very best young musicians the State of Michigan has to offer.
    Congratulations are in order for Pioneer's  "Kobiashi Piano Trio", Leah Latterner (Piano), Jacob Joyce (Violin), and Ryan King (Clarinet), for being selected and performing during the 75th anniversary celebration.
    In addition to this fine student performance, several of our music staff (retired and current) contributed on various levels.  Dan Long and Larry Dittmar (Retired AAPS Orchestra Directors) presented a session, Gabe Villasurda (Retired AAPS Orchestra Director) conducted the All State Middle School Orchestra, Richard Ingram (Huron Department Chair/Choral Director) conducted the TTBB High School Honors Choir, and Lindsay Ciechanski (Skyline/Scarlett Choral Director) presented a session. Ann Arbor Public Schools music students and staff represented the Ann Arbor Public Schools in an incredibly excellent fashion.
  • Pioneer Band students received 124 first division and 27 second division ratings in SOLO competition, as well as 130 first division and 14 second division ratings in ENSEMBLE competition on January 17th at Livonia Franklin High School. Students throughout the state performed in this state qualifying event.
    The following Pioneer High School Band students participated in the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association (MSBOA)  District Solo and Ensemble Festival on January 17. Students prepared a solo and/or an ensemble and performed for an MSBOA Certified Adjudicator.  Their performance was evaluated and a rating between "I" (Excellent) and "V" was assigned. The symbol (2) after a students name indicates that they had two events receiving that rating in the same category.
    Pioneer High School Band students receiving a "I" (Excellent) rating for their performance of a SOLO were:  Maddie Allen, Emily Arsen, Alex Baum, Joella Bennett, Caitlin Berrigan, Rachel Bielajew, Jonathan Bower, James Campbell, Katie Centurione, Julia Chen (2), Andrew Jae Hyun Choe, D’Arcy Cook, Katie Copp, Elizabeth Cvercko, Helen DeMarsh, Nick DeMarsh, Sam Deschamps, Jonathan Evans, KerryAnn Fingerle, Jim Fitzpatrick, Kevin Flannagan, Christopher Fleming, Patrick Fleming, Prasanth Ganesan, Corey Garff, Sachi Gianchandani, Adam Graves, Nya Greenstone, Chris Haddlesey, Lindsay Hall, Christopher Hass, Charlie Hatch, Saunders Hayes, Andrew Hess, Leila Hofer, Skye Hookham (2), Lauren Houser, Skye Huerta, Scott Hulbert (2), Max Hully, Vijay Ilankamban, Alexander Jaeckel, Andy Johnson, Jeff Johnson, Jae Jung (2), Kayoon Jung, Mia Kaartinen, Konstantin Kecman, Ryan King, Tanay Kulkarni, Amin Lanseur, Dylan Larkins (2), Leah Latterner (2), Tasha Le, Meekyoung Lee, Younkyoung Lee, Yuming Liu, Sara Long, Veronica Long, Julia Markey, Natalie Martin, Aidan Mase-Kemnitz, Karen Matsuo, Megumi Matsushita, Anna Mayne, Jack McKarns, Katherine McKarns, Isabel McKay, Miriam Michaels, Cailey Miller, Margaret Morgan, Sowdeepya Nadimpalli (2), Emily Northrup, Veronika Olszewski, Julia Pakela, EunSoo Park, George Perrett, Duncan Polot, Linda Relson, Molly Rogow, Niko Rombes, Sarah Rontal, Vijay Sachdev, David Shao, David Shapiro, Arthur Shih, JiSue Shin, Jeff Shipan, Daniel Siler, Rachel Simon, Andrew Smith, Joshua Stein, Michael Sullivant, Jacob Swanson, Rachel Teeter, Victoria Tillman, Emily Topham, Thea Torek, Tim VanRiper (3), Manisha Verma, Xiao Wang, Devin Webster, James White, Malaika Whitney, Aaron Wilson, Dana Wilson, Hope Wilson, Matthew Winick, Jack Wissman, Thea Yagerlener, Eric Yamakado, Jay Yamakado, Angela Yang, Ryan Yunck, Kevin Zhang
    Pioneer High School Band students receiving a "II" (Good) rating for their performance of a SOLO were:  Alexa Arvidson, Leo Bayless-Hall, Jeff Bertram, Jennifer Brucksch, Joel Burgener, Alexandria Cadavieco, Rosie Curtis, Elizabeth Etter, Monica Fink, John Fonte, Kristal Frazzini, Nina Freter, Lianna Iacob, Caroline Laman, Olivia Lee, Rebecca Lemke, Levy Li, Sam Lichtman-Mikol, Kyle Mattimore, Hannah Maxbauer, Luke Mykolenko, Julia Pakela, Neil Parikh, Rahul Puttagunta, Michael Saunders, David Shao, Annie Zhang
    Pioneer High School Band students receiving a "I" (Excellent) rating for their performance of an ENSEMBLE were:  Anand Bahl (2), Riley Bean, Caitlin Berrigan, Jonathan Bower (2), Stephen Brieloff, Joel Burgener, Elizabeth Bush, Ella Campbell, James Campbell, Katie Centurione, Andrew Jae Hyun Choe, D’Arcy Cook, Katie Copp, Rosie Curtis, Elizabeth Cvercko (2), Helen DeMarsh (2), Nick DeMarsh, Meera Desai (2), Ilana Diamond, Patton Doyle, Elizabeth Etter, Jonathan Evans, KerryAnn Fingerle, Tory Fingerle, Monica Fink, Kevin Flannagan, Charlie Geronimus, Sachi Gianchandani, Adam Graves, Lindsay Hall, Ali Hassani (2), Saunders Hayes, Andrew Hess, Nicholas Hilliard (2), Leila Hofer, Rebecca Holmes, Lauren Houser, Max Hully, Esther Hur, Vijay Ilankamban (2), Andy Johnson, Jeff Johnson (2), Spencer Johnson (2), Jae Jung, Chad Kelsey, Ryan King (2), Gaurav Kulkarni, Caroline Laman, Amin Lanseur (2), Dylan Larkins, Leah Latterner, Meekyoung Lee (2), Julia Markey, Aidan Mase-Kemnitz, Karen Matsuo, Megumi Matsushita (2), Anna Mayne, Kate McKarns, Isabel McKay (2), Miriam Michaels (2), Cailey Miller (2), Mackenzie Miller, Alex Mitropoulos-Rundus, Sang Moon, Margaret Morgan, Jordan Morningstar, Warren Morningstar, Daniel Myers III, Jennifer Nao, Alyssa Natoci, Kayla Oh, Veronica Olszewski, Evan Park, Ryan Pendleton (2), Stefan Petermichl, Duncan Polot, Rahul Puttagunta, Tim Rittinger, Natalie Roll (2), Niko Rombes (2), Kaylee Schonsheck, David Shapiro, Jeff Shipan, Andrew Smith, Michael Sullivant, Jacob Swanson (2), Ed Szczygiel, Kathryn Szczygiel, Rachel Teeter, Emily Topham, Manisha Verma, Peter Wang, Xiao Wang (2), Devin Webster (2), James White, Danica Whitfield (2), Aaron Wilson (2), Dana Wilson, Hope Wilson, Jennifer Woolley, Thea Yagerlener, Jay Yamakado (2), Angela Yang, Ryan Yunck
    Pioneer High School Band students receiving a "II" (Good) rating for their performance of an ENSEMBLE were:  Allie Cadavieco, Takeo Cauley, Caroline Chen, Jonathan Evans, Alec Glanville, Nathan Karr, Seung Wun Lee, Daniel Myers III, Amanda Osinski, Nathan Polich, Sarah Rontal, Annie Zhang, Megan Zheng, Eric Zimmer.
  • Burns Park held a successful Disability Awareness Workshop for the fourth grade students last week. The event was organized by parent volunteer Helen Starman who did an excellent job in coordinating all the events and students.
  • Dexter Community Schools Director of Transportation Robert Poor sent thanks to the Ann Arbor Public Schools Transportation Department:
    I would like to take this opportunity to express our district's appreciation for the Ann Arbor Transportation Department lending us two buses for the rest of this week.  Two of our new buses are in for warranty work and we just were notified our State Police inspections start tomorrow. Please let Brad Mellor know how much it means to have access to buses when we need them most. I would like to also express, on behalf of our district, a big thank you to Crew Chief John Nikolich for his role in providing the buses and always helping us out when asked. You are fortunate to have Brad and John manning your transportation operation. This is true collaboration between districts.

Todd Roberts, Ed.D.
Superintendent