This Week In the Ann Arbor Public Schools

June 14, 2010

This Week’s Good News!

  • It is hard to believe that this is the last full week of school.  As we say goodbye to another year and look forward to a summer break, I want to take a moment to thank you all for working so hard to make this a successful school year for our students.  I hope you get a chance to rest, rejuvenate and enjoy time with family and friends during the summer season.
  • Students in Patty Carden's CI classroom at Huron attended the State Summer Olympics in Mt. Pleasant and received the following awards:
    Alex Carson, 1st in 100 walk, 3rd in 200 walk, 4th in softball throw;
    Bethanie Kitts: 2nd in 200 dash, 3rd in 100 dash, 4th in Running Long Jump; WeiJen Sun: 2nd in 100 walk, 5th in 200 walk, 4th in Softball throw;
    Shallon Kovac: 1st in 50 backstroke, 1st in 25 backstroke, 2nd in 25 freestyle;
    Tila Havlik: 1st in Running Long Jump, 3rd in 200 dash, 4th in 100 dash;
    Caelye Favorite: 5th in 200 dash, 5th in 100 dash, 2nd in softball throw.
  • Michigan Japanese Quiz Bowl competition was held recently and many of our students study Japanese as a Community Resource.
    Clague Middle School students Samantha Liu and Hao Hao Wang Pontius took second place in Division II of the 17th annual Michigan Japanese Quiz Bowl competition. These students rose to the top of the 380 students from 26 elementary and secondary schools from across the state in a competition showcasing their knowledge of Japanese language and culture. The teams were divided into six different divisions, depending on the number of hours of Japanese language instruction they have received. Division II was the largest division, with 25 teams competing, and the tightest point spread. They are taught by Kaori Ohara of Ohara Language School in Ann Arbor.
    Huron High School student Margot Wang Pontius and Community High School student Miles Grofsorean won second place in Division IV of the 17th annual Michigan Japanese Quiz Bowl competition. They are taught by Kayo Nakamura of Emerson School in Ann Arbor.
    Miles Grofsorean of Community High School was also one out of nine finalists in the Michigan 2010 Japanese Language Speech Contest hosted by the Consulate General of Japan in Detroit. He was selected from over sixty speeches submitted to the competition.
  • Skyline Women's Soccer team won the District 20 event on Saturday beating Chelsea.  They are only a JV squad with only 9th and 10th graders and will play on Tuesday in the semi-finals against Berkley.
  • The Enough! Club at Tappan Middle School.  During the 2009 – 2010 school year, the Enough! Club and the Tappan community raised $8500 to build a school in Kenya.  The Enough! Club was awarded a $5000 Adopt-a-Village Matching Fund Grant to construct a clean water system near the school. Funds were also raised to provide a year of lunches to nearly 60 students at the future school.
    The Enough! Club finally got to see the results of their 2007-2008 campaign for which they raised money to build a school in Sierra Leone.  That school is called the Free the Children Junior Secondary School.  It opened in the fall of 2009, and it serves 87 students.  A picture of this beautiful school now adorns a wall at Tappan.
    The Enough! Club had over 50 members this year and many, many more people who supported their campaigns with their time, talents, and energy. Enough! Club members wrote letters to Michigan senators and representatives about the Asian carp issue, participated in Vow of Silence Day, Service Day, and Water Week, raised awareness about global water issues, encouraged the use of reusable water bottles, sold 77 pounds of coffee for Café Justo, and promoted healthy living with Project Healthy Schools.  The Enough! Club raised over $2000 for the local organization Ann Arbor Active Against ALS (A2A3) to support research to find a cure for ALS.
    For its achievements, the Enough! Club was awarded, for the third year in a row, an all-expenses paid trip to Arizona in August to develop leadership and public speaking skills and to learn about immigration issues at the border.
  • Mrs. Sherrie Pokela's Thurston Fifth Grade class has been chosen as the winner of the solar cooker contest!  As the winner of the contest the class will be recognized with a certificate and pizza party.   Congratulations!  ~ Ali Nieman, GLREA Wind Program Coordinator.
  • Best wishes to all for a safe and happy summer vacation.

Todd Roberts, Ed.D.
Superintendent