Ann Arbor Public Schools: 3/23/09 Issue

This Week
In the Ann Arbor Public Schools
March 23, 2009

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

This Week’s Good News

March is Youth Art Month. Thank you to all the art teachers who organized and arranged the student artwork that is on display in downtown Ann Arbor businesses in partnership with the Main Street Area Association. Thanks also to everyone who participated in the “downtown art walk” and reception at Palio’s restaurant. The student art will remain on display until the end of the month.
The following Ann Arbor Public Schools visual arts students placed in the Michigan Art Education Association State Competition:
Elementary School Top 100: Molly Rettell and Samantha Haywood (Lakewood - Peggy Leonard, teacher)
Middle School Top 100: Yupeng Wong (Slauson - Tim Eiseman, teacher) and Sarah Rozaidi (Tappan - Sue Sanch, teacher)
High School Top 100: Amy Sun (Pioneer - Claudia Burns, teacher)
Middle School Top 15: Paola Diaz Gomez (Slauson - Tim Eiseman, teacher)
MDE Exhibit Award: Rebecca Amidei (Slauson - Tim Eiseman, teacher)
Congratulations to All!

Upcoming Art Events:
*Annual Spring Art Show: April 24th - May 28th at the Main Branch of the Ann Arbor District Library (Reception on May 7th)
and May 8th - June 3rd at U. of M.'s Slusser Gallery (Reception on May 12th).
*Ann Arbor Art Teacher and Alumni Association Annual Art Exhibit: April 30th - May 30th at the Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti.
Clague Middle School 7th grader Leon Pescador won the Clague Geography Bee and has qualified for the Michigan Geographic Bee at Western Michigan University on Friday April 3, 2009 because of his effort on the National Geographic Society’s qualifying test. In each of the 50 states, along with Washington D.C. and the territories, the National Geographic Society invited the students with the top 100 scores to compete at the state level – Leon included! Quite an accomplishment, and good luck in Kalamazoo, Leon! The state winner will receive $100 and a trip to Washington D.C. where he/she will represent Michigan in the national finals in May.
Gabrielle Zacks, Slauson 8th grader, has made it to the state level GEOBEE at Western Michigan University. After winning first place at Slauson, she took a written test after school and scored among the top 100 students in the state which made her eligible to compete at the state level.
Jill McGinn, GEOBEE club advisor, shares that Slauson’s method of selecting a winner initially involves every student in every geography class. Classroom winners then compete in the all-school GEOBEE. They have tweaked that process to create preliminary rounds in order to accommodate more students than the National Geographic Bee is set up for. This allows for more "winners," one from each class and more participation. They have found that sometimes students who would not self-select themselves find that they do very well, and students who might have conflicts after school when GEOBEE club is held still have an opportunity to compete in the National Geographic Bee. This creates an excitement and "buzz" that reverberates throughout the school when the GEOBEEs are being held.
Ken Monash's fourth grade students at Dicken Elementary celebrated the culmination of their class poetry study last Thursday night in the Dicken Media Center. The unit was taught by student teacher, Andrea Moehle. She developed the great idea of celebrating by creating a "poetry cafe" at 7pm Thursday evening. The 22 students helped plan the event, invitations were issued and over 94 people attended. The attendees were treated to light refreshments and hot chocolate, and the best of all-2 or 3 poems created and read by the fourth grade authors. The room lights were dimmed, and replaced by an author spotlight and twinkling accent lights. What a great way to instill the love of poetry.
Academic achievement, leadership, industry and community service have earned two Ann Arbor Huron High School Juniors the Harold Eastman Outstanding Youth Achievement Award from the Breakfast Optimist Club of Ann Arbor. Honorees are Sasha Derks and Charles Reischl.
Sasha Derks previously attended Thurston Elementary School in Ann Arbor. At Huron, Sasha carries a grade point average of 3.4. She was invited to attend the National Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C. In the 10th grade Sasha participated in "Interact," a program designed to help students understand different cultures by interacting with diverse groups of students. Sasha tutors middle school students and during the summer volunteers at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. While attending school Sasha works approximately 14 hours per week at Olga's Kitchen. She enjoys her job there and also likes spending time with friends and family. In the field of sports, Sasha was part of a rowing crew team in the 9th and 10th grades. She enjoys attending soccer, volleyball and football games. Sasha has been accepted in a Health Sciences Program, which begins in her Senior year, offering hands-on experience in the field. After graduation she plans to pursue a career in Nursing with a dual interest in Technology/Computers. She wants to continue to provide for the community in volunteer hours and make every day important.
Charles Reischl previously attended Northside Elementary School in Ann Arbor. At Huron Charles carries a grade point average of 3.77. He was inducted into the Junior National Honor Society in May of 2008, was the winner of the 2009 Ann Arbor Public Schools Interlochen six-week camp scholarship, and was accepted into the All-State Orchestra in 2008 and 2009.
Charles has served on the Neutral Zone Board of Directors since fall of 2008. He organized several benefit shows at the Neutral Zone in the last two years, including two for his friend, Nick Breakey, who was diagnosed with leukemia last February. These shows raised a total of just under $4,000 for the Breakey family. Charles also promoted an event to benefit Darfur Refugee Camps, which raised $715.
During his Freshman year, Charles organized an all-male volunteer group, called the "Home-Boyz,” that does counter-gender stereotype work such as sewing and cooking. This group sewed diaper bags for women in Nicaragua, baked pies for Safehouse, and prepared Thanksgiving dinner for 70 people. Charles belongs to B-Side Promotions Group (which promotes week-end shows performed in the Neutral Zone), has an Internship with Youth-Owned Records through the Neutral Zone, and plays in the University of Michigan Youth Symphony. He is a member of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation and the First Presbyterian Church Chamber Orchestra. His instruments are the string and electric bass. He is currently taking lessons with University of Michigan Bass Professor Diana Gannett. Charles enjoys playing Ultimate Frisbee, and he impersonates the Huron High School Mascot, dressing up as the Huron River Rat at sporting events. After graduation, Charles plans to attend college with a double major in bass performance and business or history. Eventually, he would like to obtain a position playing bass and support himself by working for an independent record label.
On March 21, the Regional Science Olympiad was held at Washtenaw Community College. Slauson's Kevin Jiang and his team received two 1st place awards for Amphibians and Reptiles, and Bio-process events and Slauson placed 4th overall. The Slauson Science Team: Anton Yang, Eric Chen, Michael Lee, Raul Solorzano, Saloni Jaikamal, Sanika Kulkarni, Siddharth Madapoosi, Brinda Yarlagga, Kevin Jiang, Kevin Tian, Danny Luan, Daniel Li, Emily Briggs, Swagat Tripathy, and Neha Srivastava.
Huron placed 3rd overall at the Regional Science Olympiad. A special thanks goes to the captains, William Liu and Andy Zhou, for their hard work and dedication. Special Acknowledgements:
1st Place Electric Vehicle - Andy Zou and Alan Duamnu
2nd Place Cell Bio -Sergei Avedisov and Sam Nam
2nd Place Chem Lab -Robin He and Annie Song
2nd Place Ecology -William Liu and Grace Sun
2nd Place Fossils -Heemyung Hwang and Eugene Zen
2nd Place Physics Lab -Sergei Avedisov and William Liu
3rd Place Dynamic Planet -Anna Yu and Pratik Holla
3rd Place Egg-O-Naut -Andy Zou and Jack Liang
3rd Place Health Sciences -William Liu and Annie Song
4th Place Elevated Bridge - Jack Liang and Alan Duanmu
4th Place Experimental Design -Heemyung Hwang, Derek Wu, and Anna Yu
4th Place Remote Sensing -Robin He and Heemyung Hwang
4th Place Trajectory -Andy Zou and Eugene Zen
Community High's two Mock Trial teams competed in the Eastern Regional of the Michigan High School Mock Trial Tournament. The tournament was held at the Oakland County Courthouse in Pontiac. Community's teams placed first and fourth out of 41 teams. Community's Team A, finishing first, consists of the following students: Chris Cain, Dylan Cinti, Dan Dormer, Mira Fishman, Jacob Garber, Jack Kausch, Jacob LaChance, Jack O'Connell, Paul Princen and Drew Stapleton. Community's Team B finished fourth. Team members are: Shadi Ahmadmehrabi, Murphy Austin, Zack Bayoff, Quinn Burrell, Joey Houghton, Max Lewis, Leah Penner, Eli Sugerman, Elise Wander and Garrett Wood. Attorney coaches are Griffith Dick and Robert West. The drama coach is Billie Ochberg. Both teams advance to the state finals in Lansing on March 28th.
Huron 's Mock Trial team finished in the top 10 of the 41 teams competing at the Eastern District competition of the Michigan Mock Trial Tournament. The team's only senior, Ben Thomson, received the Honorable Mention plaque for the team.
Huron had a number of winners in the Poetry Slam held on March 19 All of the students below will advance to the city-wide finals on Thursday, April 2 at the Neutral Zone.
1st - Mia Ruf
2nd - Haley Patail
3rd - Josh Moore (yes, Barb's son!)
4th - Brittany Callahan and Allison Punch tied
6th - Sierra Hansen
7th - Katie Strode, Taylor Robinson, Ronnie Conn and Kiyana Brown
The following students also performed beautifully: Elizabeth Bradley, Naomi Katz, Kelsey Boes, Dana Stein, Lauren Williams, Rebecca Chen, Ashley Garzaniti, William DeYonker, Bailey Yi, Julia Kramer, Brendan Collins, Patrick Richardson, and Natasha Zastre!
Thanks so EVERYONE who helped the students prepare, encouraged them, and came out to support them, especially the judges from Wordworks and Pioneer Creative Writing Teacher Jeff Kass!
Beginning next week, art work from Pattengill students will be on display at Fifth Third bank on Plymouth Rd. The Pattengill and Fifth Third partnership was created through AAPS Partnership for Excellence program.
A record 35 German students from Pioneer High School won first, second and third prizes in the annual statewide German language competitions at the University of Michigan. It was the 25th German Day at the UM and the topic this year was "Twenty Years after the Fall Of The Berlin Wall". Our students excelled in every category, but particularly impressive were the motivation and creativity that our German students showed in designing and creating websites and movies for this event, writing original movie scripts and texts in German for the websites. The following students won prizes and will also be listed on the UM German Department's Website of this year's prize winners.
:First place for website design:
Joseph Lipson- German II, Elizabeth Qian- German V
Third place for website design: Chen Shida- German II, Kevin Tang- German III
First place for video: Adam Solsburg and Dong-Jin Choi - German II First
First place for Poetry: Tasha Le- German IV
Second place for poetry:
Emily Topham- German IV and Beth Johnson- German III
Third place for poetry: Roberta Neuhausler- German II
First place in reading:
Pegah E.- German I, Darcy Cook- German II, Linda Relson - German III
Second place in reading: Clare Riesterer- German IV
Third place in reading: Elizabeth Qian- German IV
Second place in speaking: Hope Wilson- German II, Noah Kaczor- German IV
Third place in speaking: Dan Hiemstra- German III
First place in spelling bee: Darcy Cook- German II, Tim Young- German V
Second place in Spelling bee: Sherry Wan- German II
First place in musical performance:
Adam Solsburg, Jennifer Wei, Christopher Askew- Mervin- German II
Second place in skits:
Dana Wilson, Lydia Hiller, Miriam Michaels and Emily Stearns - German V
Third place in a commercial skit:
Conor Howe, Richie Peterson- German II, Garrett Kessler, Kerry Freeman- German III, Annette Lundberg, Allison Ferguson, Catherine Nease- German IV
Wednesday and Thursday, March 18 and 19, 171 members of the Pioneer Choirs sang at the Michigan School Vocal Music Association District 12 Choral Festival at the Ford Performing Arts Center in Dearborn. A Cappella received a superior, 1, rating at the advanced level. Bel Canto received an excellent, 2, rating at the intermediate level. Cantando and Cantare received excellent, 2, ratings at the primary level. All four choirs qualify for the state choir festival, April 23 and 24.
The members of each choir are listed below:
A Cappella
Marissa Alaniz, Michael Barbour, Olivia Bassett-Kennedy, Anna Benson, Stephanie Bielek, Mary Carolyn Buckingham, Gabriel Casher, Darren Chiang, Evan Clark, Nishita Conjeevaram, Clare Eisentrout, Robert Eisentrout, Michael Ferrara, Spencer Finegold, Rebecca Fisher, Stephanie Garris, Claire Gaynor, Elizabeth Goldstein, Nicolas Gonzalez, Charlotte Grenier, Alyson Halpert, Jenny Herzog, Lydia Hiller, Alex Kulick, Chewon Lee, Jea Hyung Lee, JinYoung Lee, Kiel Lerch, Vicki Li, Elizabeth Lloyd, Rachel Mann, Alex Massingill, Emilio Mateo, Melissa McClure, Ryan McCoy, Daniel Merritt, Stephen Merritt, Michael Metcalfe, Jessa Miller, Morgan Minger-Szyniszewski, Daniel Mozurkewich, Hannah Nathans, Andrew Neevel, Cara Pardon, Ashley Park, Lydia Pavach, Hannah Pearlman, Max Rasmussen, Paul Reece, Alexander Rigney, Schuyler Robinson, Rory Scott, Olivia Songer, Cassie Stanzler, Emily Stearns, Cristina Tamer, Timothy VanRiper, Wen-Ching Wei, Andrew White, Kyler Wilkins, and Emma Zinn.
Bel Canto
Mara Abramson, Emma Bedard, Elizabeth Bush, Alina Charniauskaya, Darcy Cook, Julia DeVarti, Libing Dong, Sarah Gallagher, Genevieve Goldberg, April Hadwick, Emma Hamstra, Chelsea Hanson, Morgan Hertz, Miriam Holzman, Katherine Keller, Allison Kennedy, Emily Kloska, Rebekah Lauer, Christine Lim, Suh Eun Lim, Haley McNabb, Iliana Mendoza-Nava, Vaishnavi Premkumar, Liane Racelis, Marielle Saunders, Stephanie See, Mara Sevig, Shira Steiner, Emily Steward, Taryn Thomas, Karen Toomasian, Sherry Wan, Sara Yi, and Zijun Zhao.
Cantando
Kristy Abraham, Elena Arnett, Judith Aselmeyer, Emily Ause, Lindsey Averill, Justine Bartlett, Maya Bassett-Kennedy, Jade Bishop, Ramshah Bukhari, Laura Chodoroff, DeLaynna Corley, Ramya Dronamraju, Sinclaire Fonville, Emily Gach, Sophia Garris, Tian Hai, Sha’Rae Hendricks, Allison Hettmer, Katherine Hoevet, Jera Hogan, Meghan Jarrett, Elise Jayakar, Bethany Johnson, Bailey Jones, Brittany Kaplan, Kelsey King, Jordan Koenig, Maria Kromis, Clare Lauer, Yang Li, Morgan Lucot, Sonya Major, Julia Massey, Swita Metiranan, Elizabeth Morgan, Cimone Neal, Greta Niethammer, Deborah Park, Tori Parks, Abigail Paternoster, Carlina Paull-Baird, Julia Rampton, Victoria Reackhof, Katie Smith, Asia Vanhorn-Lee, Ayona Vanhorn-Lee, Elizabeth Walker, Chaeli Wantuck, Allison Wier, and Amanda Wylie.
Cantare
Kenneth Augustine, Nicholas Bertoia, Eric Bissett, Jedediah Davis, Langston Davis, Joseph Flanagan, Gabriel Isa, Julian Jocque, Matthew Jong, Yongmin Jung, Jai Yeong Koh, Michael Kundrat, Jong Min Lee, O’Dell Marshall, Andrew Matte, William Matte, Jackson Pilutti, Aaron Rosano, Michael Shack, John Spalding, Clark Stearns, Dylan Swanson, Joshua Weiland, Joseph Weindorf, Timothy Williams, and Callaghan Wise.
On Saturday, March 14, the Slauson 8th Grade Concert Choir, directed by Cherry Westerman, travelled to Monroe to participate in the District 12 Michigan School Vocal Music Association Choral Festival. The choir performed two selections at the SATB Advanced level for the adjudicators and audience, received instruction in a short clinic, then sight-read four part SATB music at the Intermediate level. The Concert Choir heard compliments from both judges and audience members on how they looked and behaved, as well as how they sang. They received a "Superior" rating for their performance.
On Saturday, March 14th, the Tappan Middle School Cadet (7th) and Concert (8th) Choirs attended the Michigan School Vocal Music Association (MSVMA) District 12 Choral Festival in Monroe, Michigan. Each choir performed two songs before a panel of judges and were given ratings which include a six point grading system from each judge. In addition, the choirs both had to successfully complete a sight-reading session where they were also judged. Mrs. Kidd would like to announce that the Cadet Choir received an Excellent Rating in both performance and sight-reading, earning them blue medals. Her Concert Choir received a Superior Rating in both performance and sight-reading, earning them gold medals. The Concert Choir also sight-read at the high school level. Congratulations to the Tappan Choirs!
Community High was proud to have 4-time Grammy Winning Bassist Victor Wooten (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones) come to our school on March 16 and give the Jazz Program (and PHS Jazz Students) a workshop on Monday. Mr. Wooten and his drummer JD Blair amazed the students with their performance, then proceeded to critique (and play with) the students -- something they will never forget. Mr. Wooten is considered by many to be the most virtuosic electric bassist in the world.
Community High’s Advanced Jazz Combos had a great day at the Western Michigan Invitational Jazz festival on Saturday. Advanced 1 won for Best Combo (Ella Campbell, Charlie Hack, and Jordan Otto) and had the honor of opening the evening concert. Ella Campbell (who is split enrolled and my private sax student) won the Outstanding Soloist award for the whole competition as well. The adjudicators chose eight groups as outstanding combos and four were from Community (Advanced 1-4). The students, parents, and Director Jack Wagner, were all very excited. The following students were also named as outstanding individual performers:
Max Brown, Kyle Morrison, Alex Patten, Milan Griffes, Josh Fendrick, Sarah Juster, Ben Pernick, Charles Fukuchi, Max Bowen, Nick Jensen, Jud Branam, Ella Campbell, Charlie Hack and Jordan Otto.
On March 14th a wonderful blend of students from Community, Huron, Pioneer, and other area schools came together to help raise funds for Community High School’s Ensemble Theatre (CET) program. The students worked together with the parents of the Community Ensemble Theatre Booster Club, and CET Artistic Director, Phil Walker, to raise funds for CET programs over the next year. The benefit show, held at the Craft Theater at Community, included student jazz and rock bands, a capella ensembles (including Harmony, which has students from both Community and Pioneer), musical numbers, dramatic scenes, dance routines and the teen tap company from Swing City Dance Studios, which includes students from many area high schools. Community students had also performed for the Huron Players benefit, so the schools are building a nice tradition of helping each other to make all the arts departments stronger. The parents put together a silent auction, and the students and parents baked many pies for concessions, celebrating National Pie Day. Community staff members were also tremendously supportive – not only attending the benefit, but also donating original artworks, objects from travels and CHS memorabilia. Additionally, over 40 local businesses contributed items and certificates. To make bidding accessible for students as well as parents, emphasis was placed on low-cost and practical items. Over $2000 was raised for the Community Ensemble Theatre, and students, parents and staff were all grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support. In these tight times for Michigan, it was lovely to see members from all areas of the AAPS community come together to support the arts.

Todd Roberts, Ed.D.
Superintendent