This Week In the Ann Arbor Public Schools

April 16, 2012

This Week's Good News!

  • Three Huron 11thgrade students received the top composite score of 36 on the ACT Test:  Eilam Morag, Cyrus Nikolaidis and Valerie Peng.  Nationally, while the actual number of students earning a composite score of 36 varies from year to year, roughly one-tenth of one percent receive a top score.
    The ACT consists of tests in English, mathematics, reading and science.  Each test is scored on a scale of 1-36, and a student’s composite score is the average of the four test scores.
  • Skyline students Stacey Balter (10th grade) and Jonah Pollens-Dempsey (9th grade) earned 1st and 2nd place, respectively, in the Kroger I Can Make History Black History Month Contest poetry division. The awards ceremony took place on Saturday, March 24 at the Henry Ford in Dearborn. Stacey's 1st place prize was a  laptop computer and Jonah's 2nd place prize was a $50 gift card and a family pass to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
  • The Abbot Elementary School Student Council raised a total of $358.69 dollars in a Dimes for Dexter fundraiser.  The funds were donated to the Chelsea Community Relief Fund at the Chelsea State Bank in Dexter.
  • Bryant~Pattengill Pen Pals ( 2nd graders in Mrs. Stewart's class and 4th graders in Mrs. Blair's class) traveled to the Michigan Theater to see the live performance of Freedom Train. The two classes have been writing to each other during the school year and were able to participate, face to face, with their Pen Pals on this spectacular outing!  Since Bryant is K-2 and Pattengill is the sister 3-5 school, activities such as this provide great opportunities for students to interact and form relationships between students in the two partnering schools.  A huge thank you to the PTO, PTO Thrift Shop, and Principals Mrs. Heyward and Mr. Carter for supporting and allowing such enrichment outings between the two schools!
  • As a result of their performance at the STATE Solo and Ensemble Festivals on March 24th the following Pioneer Band and Orchestra students have been nominated from over 10,000 high school students from the State of Michigan to participate in the MSBOA Youth Arts Festival SOLOIST Auditions:
    Peter Urie Bae (violin), Alayna Coverly (bass clarinet), Iris Ho (piano), Skye Huerta (flute), Livia Luan (cello), Wei Luo (clarinet), Daniel Rothchild (cello), Griffin Roy (clarinet), and Helen Rucinski (violin).
    The following have been nominated as Outstanding Ensembles:
    Trombone Ensemble: Halley Bass, Jack McKarns, Henry Pakela, Bo Peng, Nick Terrell, and William Wang.
    Woodwind Ensemble: Kevin Flannagan (horn), Kayoon Jung (flute), Norah Rast (oboe), Thea Yagerlener (bassoon), and Kevin Zhang (clarinet).
    String Ensemble: Dana Johnson (violin), and Helen Rucinski (violin).
    String Ensemble: Joe Jang (cello), Danny Luan (piano), and Helen Rucinski (violin).
    String Ensemble: Peter Urie Bae (violin), Joe Jang (cello), Dana Johnson (violin), and Helen Rucinski (viola).
    String Ensemble:  Emily Kindred (cello), Sara King (flute), and Helena Ratte (piano, Huron).
    The following Pioneer Band and Orchestra students have been nominated to the Michigan Youth Arts Festival Honors Band: Celisa Gutierrez (harp), Kayoon Jung (flute), Wei Luo (clarinet), and Kevin Zhang (clarinet).
    The following Pioneer Band and Orchestra students have been nominated to the Michigan Youth Arts Festival Honors Orchestra:  Peter Urie Bae (violin), Kevin Flannagan (horn), Skye Huerta (flute), Norah Rast (oboe), Daniel Rothchild (cello), and Helen Rucinski (violin).
  • Last night around midnight the Pioneer Bands returned from an amazing trip to New York City. The Pioneer Symphony Band performed at Carnegie Hall on Saturday. Also featured on the 8:30 PM prime time concert were musicians from universities, as well as high schools, in California, New Hampshire, Maryland, Wisconsin, Georgia, Arkansas and New York. Pioneer’s Symphony Band performed last, the entire second half of the program. When the students finished the audience immediately jumped to their feet and enthusiastically gave intense and very prolonged applause. The display of appreciation by the audience was breathtaking and indeed unusual for a high school group's performance. People in attendance said that Pioneer "blew the roof off" of Carnegie Hall that night!
    The Concert and Jazz Bands also gave spectacular performances at the Madison Avenue Atrium. All three Pioneer bands that were on the tour participated in clinics, receiving instruction from highly regarded New York City professionals. The Symphony Band with Michael Adelson, one of the New York Philharmonic conductors. Concert Band with a conductor from Broadway Classic’s Instrumental Clinic. Jazz Band at Lincoln Center Music Clinic with Vincent Gardner, the lead trombonist with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
    Pioneer Band Director David Leach and Associate Director Nancy Waring report, “they are extremely proud of our students, not only as performers, but also as model citizens. Repeatedly we were told that our Pioneer students were very, very well behaved. The people that we encountered said that they were absolutely not used to this type of behavior from high school students!
    We thank our students, their parents and our administration for their support in this trip of a lifetime. We are proud that we were able to give our students this tremendous opportunity.”
  • Congratulations to the Huron High School Jazz Band who traveled to Jackson High School to perform at the State Jazz Festival on March 28th.  They performed for an enthusiastic crowd and for three adjudicators who critiqued and rated their performance.  Each of the three judges awarded the jazz band with superior ratings (I) and gave great comments on how the band sounds and how they can improve.  The Huron Jazz Band is directed by Stephen Roberts.
  • Congratulations to the Huron High School Band and Orchestra students who attended the MSBOA State Solo & Ensemble Festival on Saturday, March 24th at Chelsea High School.  Students performed either in an ensemble or in a solo.  Those who performed solos were also tested on scale memory and on sight reading.
    Those students that received an "Excellent" rating (1) on their solos were: Brandon Cutler, Kieran Williams, Domenic DiGiovine, Allen Chang, Ethan Chupp, Emily Ji, Abby George, Seth Stancroff, Yearahm Ahn, Lorna Barron, Eugene Zen, Rachel Hai, Ashton Strother, Michael Barton, Hyewon Kim, Ryan Powell, Young Lee, Jordan Steiff, Jungwoo Chang, Michael Shen, Amanda Blackson, Isabelle, Salley, Bum Namkoong, Yeon-Woo Chung, Sarah Yoon, Emma Kellenberg-Callewaert, Paulina Tsao, Jiaao Hou, Yonatan Hodish, Deniz Karabakal, Kevin Yang,  Steven Zou, Jenny Wang, Justin Tang, Valerie Peng, Andrew Hiyama, Christopher Liu, Rong Situ, Joshua Wu, Allen Chang, Shranya Jayendraprasad, Caroline Elliott, Jungsoo Chang, Hiro Adachi, Andy Hsiao, Joshua Wu and Aviva Gordon.
    Those students that received a "Good" rating (2) on their solos were:  Ian Blaauw, Nick Richardson, Orion Sang, Michael Dekker, Isaac Balinski, Gerard Graham, Laura Kanji, Jeffrey Zhang, Austin Luker, Evan Sanfield and Amanda Jung.
    Those students that received an "Excellent" rating (1) on their ensembles were:  Atulya Shetty, Seth Stancroff, Anna DiGiovanni, Michael Barton, Ethan Chupp, Domenic DiGiovine, Jordan Steiff, Kieran Williams, Brandon Cutler, Mark Boyer, Patrick Gilchrist, Andrew Radant, Orion Sang, Deniz Karabakal, John Brinley, Kate Zheng, Christina Daniels, Ohihero Kakishima, Kaitlin Kim, Shalini Lakshmanan, Mariam Souweidane, Valerie Peng, Allen Chang, Maria Bonvicini, Austin Luker, Andrew Hiyama, Hiro Adachi, Andy Hsiao, Caroline Elliot, Noah Aaron, Eva Roos and Joshua Wu.
    Those students who received a "Good" rating (2) on their ensembles were: Emma Kellenberg-Callewaert, Ryan Powell, Ryan Silvester and Ashton Strother.
    Those students who were nominated for the Michigan Youth Arts Festival Honors Band are:  Jenny Wang - Clarinet, Jiaao Hou - Clarinet, Emily Ji - Clarinet and Kevin Yang - Tenor Saxophone.
    Those students who were nominated for the Michigan Youth Arts Festival Honors Orchestra are:  Yeon-Woo Chung - Clarinet, Michael Shen - Clarinet and Brandon Cutler - Trombone, Valerie Peng - Violin, Christopher Liu - Violin, Jongsoo Chang - Viola, Joshua Wu - Cello.
    Those students who were nominated for the Michigan Youth Arts Festival Outstanding Small Ensemble are:  Ethan Chupp, Domenic DiGiovine and Jordan Steiff on clarinet.
    Those students who were nominated for the Michigan Youth Arts Festival Outstanding Soloist are:  Emily Ji - clarinet, Jiaao Hou - clarinet, Jordan Steiff - clarinet, Michael Shen - clarinet, Yeon-Woo Chung - clarinet, Kevin Yang - tenor saxophone, Brandon Cutler - Trombone and Valerie Peng - Violin.
    In addition, the Huron Symphony Orchestra was nominated for the Michigan Youth Arts Festival Multi-Discipline Event Orchestra to perform at the 50th Anniversary of the Michigan Youth Arts Festival.
    The Huron Bands are under the direction of Stephen Roberts and Craig Beery.  The Huron Orchestras are under the direction of Timothy Krohn and Ingrid Pylvainen.
  • Congratulations to the Huron High School Symphony Band, under the direction of Stephen Roberts,  who performed at Western Michigan University's 44th Annual Spring Conference on Wind and Percussion Music on Thursday, April 12, 2012.  Only two high school bands from the State of Michigan are selected each year to perform at this prestigious event sponsored by WMU's School of Music.   This year's featured ensembles were the Huron Symphony Band and the Novi High School Wind Ensemble.  This is the 4th time that the Huron Symphony Band has made an appearance at this conference.
    Members of the Symphony Band performed a forty-five minute concert featuring five band selections.  One of the pieces selected needed to be a work by this year's guest composer, Dr. Jack Stamp.  Members of the band had the opportunity to meet Dr. Stamp and hear him talk about his composition.  Students also took the opportunity to hear other concerts and clinics throughout the day-long event.  Congratulations to the following members of the band who have represented our school, city and state so well:
    Isaac Balinski, Lorna Barron, Michael Barton, Hanel Baveja, Ian Blaauw, Mark Boyer, Tess Chamberlain, Tiffany Chang, Oscar Chen, William Chen, Yeon-Woo Chung, Ethan Chupp, Brandon Cutler, Domenic DiGiovine, Nora Eder, Corinne Froning, Hannah Gadway, Grace Ganzel, Abigail George, Jessica Gibson, Patrick Gilchrist, Jacob Higle-Ralbovsky, Brandt Hofman, Jiaao Hou, Jennifer Jeon, Emily Ji, Deniz Karabakal, Harrison Kieme, Robert Knutilla, Jinwoo Lee, Sooyeon Lee, Linda Liu, Hannah McCabe, Emma Mees, Christine Mei, Adam Miller, Charlie Nicoli, Andrew Radant, Nicholas Richardson, Michael Shen, Genevieve Sponseller, Jordan Steiff, Andrew Toader, Paulina Tsao, David Vallem, John Vaughn, Patrick Wan, Richard Wan, Jenny Wang, Johnathan Williams, KieranWilliams, Kevin Yang, Eugene Zen, Renee Zhao and Zibo Zou.  The Huron Bands are under the direction of Stephen Roberts and Craig Beery.
  • Congratulations to the Logan PBIS team who just received the  Gold Star of Excellence award from AAPS School Board Trustees!  The award reads in part, "The Positive Behavior Intervention Support program is a fairly new concept in the AAPS elementary schools.  Recently I had the opportunity to view an i-movie that was developed by the Logan Elementary PBIS Team that will serve their school and other schools for years to come.  What struck me the most is that the teachers who participated in the development of the i-movie did so on their own time which speaks to their commitment to the children at Logan Elementary and a willingness to lead.  The completed project is high quality and innovative. They have clearly demonstrated a level of excellence that I want to recognize publicly.  Congratulations and keep up the great work!"

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