This Week
In the Ann Arbor Public Schools
March 30, 2009
To: The Staff of the Ann Arbor Public Schools
From: Todd Roberts, Superintendent
This Week’s Good News
- Beginning with this year, April will be our annual Volunteer Appreciation Month in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. Although April 19 thru 25 is the official celebration of volunteers nationally, we believe our volunteers deserve to be thanked the entire month. Please take the time to share with our volunteers how much we appreciate the time and expertise they share with us.
This effort is being spearheaded by Norma McCuiston in the Partners for Excellence Office. Appreciaton Posters for each building to display during the month will arrive this week along with additional information from the Partners for Excellence office. - I would like to recognize and thank all of the band teachers, and Fine Arts Coordinator, Robin Bailey, for a wonderful weekend of “Bands in Review.” As usual, the performances were outstanding.
- Community junior Kayla Stoler, has won first place in the Lawrence Technological University High School Writing Contest – for "Consistency and Reliability."
- A team of 18 Forsythe sixth graders came in 3rd place in Michigan, out of 20 teams, in the Knowledge Master Open held on Wed., March 25th. 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 9%, 31st place out of 368 teams. They scored 717 out of a perfect 1,000 points, well above the national average score of 592 and the state average of 583. A team from Tappan came in 4th, with 697.
The members of the team were: Andrew Ames, Matthew Epperson, Lawrence Mullen, Veronika Beyer, Leah Hess, Stephen Nurushev, Morgan Borjigin-Wang, Betty Hu, Kavin Pawittranon, Sophia Camp, Annie Janusz-Boisvert, Sorbie Richner, Nathan Ceely, Jason Dean, Sehej Sawhney, Jason Dean, David Morrow and Kevin Zhang. - Mrs. Ezekiel coached a Bach School team to a first place finish in the separate 5th-grade division.
- Three Slauson students were recently selected to advance to the TOY challenge 2009 Nationals at the United States Patent & Trademark Office in Alexandria, VA. on May 16, 2009. The team, The Wild Cheese Dogs, is Irene Wei, Sarah Adams and Tommy Oldani. The 6th grade students participated in the fun-fueled toy and game design competition that gives kids the chance to step out of their classrooms and develop their engineering and design skills by creating their dream toy. They were one of 100 preliminary round finalist teams invited to the nationals. The purpose of this competition is to get more girls involved in science and engineering and at least 50% of each team must be girls. The team is coached by Sue Oldani. Everyone at Slauson congratulates The Wild Cheese Dogs on moving up to the finals.
- Forsythe student Mariaida Pando-Girard participated in the University of Michigan’s German Language competition, against high school students, and placed third in conversation level one.
- The Week of March 19th - 22nd , the Huron Business Professionals of America (BPA) Chapter traveled to Grand Rapids to compete in the 37th Annual State Leadership Conference. . Of the 54 students that attended, 28 students won a total of 39 awards . There were3 First Place wins and 7 second place wins with 13 students qualifying for the National Leadership Conference to be held in May in Dallas, Texas. Sean Ji won a $750 scholarship for his 2nd place win in Entrepreneurship.
Business Professionals of America members are provided an opportunity for the development of leadership skills, personal and professional growth, and career-related competencies. Involvement in Business Professionals of America will enhance social awareness, civic responsibility, and understanding of the business community. The state leadership conference (SLC) is the highlight of the Michigan Association year, and helps more than 2,000 members accomplish these objectives. A list to recognize those students who won at States are listed at the BPA Huron website: http://a2huron.org/huron.business/state_winners_2009
The total awards are: 3 -First Place Wins, 7 -Second Place Wins, 8 -Fourth Place Wins, 1 -Fifth Place Win, 2 -Sixth Place Wins, 10 -Seventh Place Wins, 1 -Gold Medal, 2 -Silver Medals, 4 -Bronze Medals, 1 -Statesman Award - Torch Award Winner. - Friday and Saturday, March 27 & 28, 17 members of the Pioneer Choirs sang at the Michigan School Vocal Music Association State Solo & Ensemble festival at Walled Lake Central High School. Those singers and their results follow:
Anna Benson, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing advanced level
Laura Chodoroff, 1 for solo, 1 for solo sight singing primary level
Evan Clark, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
Robert Eisentrout, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
Elizabeth Goldstein, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level, 1 for solo, 1 for solo sight singing intermediate level
Charl otte Grenier, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
Alyson Halpert, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
Jenny Herzog, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
Katherine Keller, 2 for solo, 1 for solo sight singing primary level
JinYoung Lee, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
Rachel Mann, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
Emilio Mateo, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
Hannah Nathans, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
Ashley Park, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing, 1 for solo, 1 for solo sight singing advanced level
Max Rasmussen, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
Alexander Rigney, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
Schuyler Robinson, 1 for large ensemble, 1 for sight singing intermediate level
In addition to those ratings Ashley Park was selected the outstanding soloist in one of three sections over the two days and will sing at the Michigan Youth Arts Festival Saturday May 9th. - On Saturday March 28th, Chelsea High School hosted the MSBOA state solo and ensemble festival. Skyline had 3 students performing solos and all 3 students received a "I" superior rating. This is the highest rating that you can get. We are very proud of the following students and would like to congratulate Priya Menon on her piano solo, Emily Espinosa on her violin solo, and Shruthi Narayanan on her violin solo.
- Pioneer Theatre Guild was privileged to be invited to participate in the University of Michigan Musical Theatre Department's 25th anniversary by Department Chair, Professor Brent Wagner. On Saturday, March 21, Professor Wagner arranged for 3 prominent UM Musical Theatre alumnae to come to Pioneer and speak to 70 students for 2 hours. Celia Keenan-Bolger (Tony award nominated actress for THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE on Broadway, Eponine in the recent LES MISERABLES revival on Broadway), Nick Blaemire (former Theatre Guild director, and the youngest person ever to perform in a Broadway show, CRYBABY, and have a Broadway show, GLORY DAYS, that he wrote, ---both last year), and Matthew Rego, producer of the Broadway musicals URINETOWN, WICKED and THE WEDDING SINGER, among others, discussed acting techniques, character development, and the evolution and production of URINETOWN, Theatre Guild's upcoming spring musical.
Then, funded by a grant from the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation, the students attended the Musical Theatre Department's 25th Anniversary Concert at Hill Auditorium that evening, where they were thrilled to see over 50 Musical Theatre alums (all Broadway veterans) and current students (many of whom have or are working on Pioneer shows) perform at what was an unforgettable and wonderful event. Perhaps the highlight of the evening was hearing Theatre Guild alum and current UM Musical Theatre Junior Gavi Savit (PHS '06) step in for an ailing fellow student with only minutes to prepare to sing the featured solo in the Act 1 Finale, which he did impressively.
Pioneer Theatre Guild and the UM Musical Theatre Department have had an ongoing relationship for 7 years which has enabled the UM students to direct, choreograph and music direct PTG's musicals, providing both the UM Musical Theatre and Theatre Guild students with exceptional opportunities that are mutually beneficial and a wonderful example of "town and gown" cooperation. - Tracey Van Dusen of Pioneer High School has been selected as one of C-SPAN's 2009 Teacher Fellowship recipients. As such, she will work in their education department at C-SPAN for four weeks this summer.
- Skyline High School has won four major honors for design and construction. To date, the project has earned:
1. Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Michigan’s 2009 Build Michigan Award,
2. The Washtenaw Contractors Association’s 2009 Pyramid Award,
3. LEED Silver Certification from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC),
4. Featured in the 2009 edition of Learning by Design published by the National Schools Board Association in cooperation with Virginia-based Stratton Publishing.
It is great to see the work of an outstanding project team recognized and we are delighted that everyone is being duly recognized for their efforts in the overall success of this project. Thanks again to our community who made Skyline possible.
Winning AGC’s Build Michigan Award was based on meeting the challenges of a difficult job, excellence in project management, the use of innovative construction techniques, sensitivity to the environment and surroundings, responsiveness to client needs and contributions to the community.
WCA’s Pyramid Award was based on the Best Project Team (owner, architect and construction manager) for a project over $25 million. Team members were recognized for their high level of cooperation which resulted in exceptional synergy throughout the successful delivery of this very challenging project.
The project earned USBC’s LEED Silver distinction based on its energy efficiencies, focus on sound environmental practices, including development of a sustainable site and the use of appropriate building materials, all resulting in healthy indoor and outdoor learning and work environments. One of the more unique aspects of the project was its geothermal feature which uses over 90 miles of tubing buried below the frost line to heat the building in the winter and cool it in the summer. In addition, 45-acres of the 110-acre site were preserved as natural woodlands and wetlands.
TMP Architecture of Bloomfield Hills served as the architect for the Skyline project with Ann Arbor-based Mitchell & Mouat Architects as associate architects. Granger Construction of Lansing was the Construction Manager.
Todd Roberts, Ed.D.
Superintendent