This Week In the Ann Arbor Public Schools

April 9, 2012

This Week's Good News!

  • Welcome back.  I hope everyone had a wonderful spring vacation.
  • The National Merit Scholarship Corporation announced the names of approximately 800 outstanding African American high school seniors who have won Achievement Scholarship awards through the National Achievement Scholarship Program and Ann Arbor has two, Kamaria Lee from Huron and Ivy Gregory from Pioneer.
  • The Community High School Mock Trial team won the state championship for the third year in a row.  The state competition was held in Lansing on Saturday, March 24, and CHS won over Kalamazoo Central High School.  Mock Trial teams assume the roles of lawyers, plaintiffs, and witnesses, and “try” cases before actual judges.
    The Championship Team includes: Julia Karr, Shadi Ahmadmehrabi, Rianna  Johnson-Levy, Joris VonMoltke, Eli Sugerman, Cooper DePriest, Dan Roy, and Leah Penner.
    CHS’s B Team, instrumental in helping prepare and train Team A, include: Sara Burakoff, Christina Chang, Gabe Schat, Lynus Zullo, Jeremy Simon, Jeff Ohl, Galen Burrell, Stefan Wanczyk and Preston Horvath. Team alternates and timers are Bethany Wang, Henry Brown, Thomas Repasky and Christian Thomas.  The teams are coached by CHS Faculty member Chloe Root.
    The team will now represent Michigan in advancing to the national tournament in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on May 3-6.  Community High’s teams have been the only team in the state of Michigan to be in the state finals every year since 1993, last winning the state championship tournament in 2011.
  • The Ann Arbor Schools Academic Games teams have recently returned from 6 days of competition at the 38th annual State Tournament in Grand Rapids. Overall Ann Arbor teams competed in 31 different events at five different age levels and won 19 State Championships and finished 2nd or 3rd in nine other events.
    King Elementary, coached by parent volunteer Vivian Lin.
    Team members Emma Chen, Rhea Cong, Matthew Riddell, Eli Shavit, Benjamin Zhao, and Darius Abadi, Cyrus Abadi, Emma Helmich, Rena McRoy, Afua Nkansah-Andoh, Gabrielle Shapo, Bertrand Chu, Sampath Eaty, Brandon Geng, Austin Wang, Henry Zhou, and Matthew Riddell are the STATE CHAMPIONS in the social studies category of Presidents and STATE CHAMPIONS in the language arts game Basic On-Words.
    Angell Elementary and Ann Arbor Open Elementary have been coached by Ann Arbor teacher Natalie De Pasquale for over ten years.
    These two schools have been playing together for years on a combined team.  This year’s team members Arun Bhattacharya, Borun Bhattacharya, Zachary Weissman, Cooper Page, Elina Kang, Michelle Busschots, Jane Hughes, William Tang, Hubert Zhang, Steel Hurley, Nicole Tooley, Katie Joo, Derin Adunbi, Alaina Pellar-Kosbar, Will Panich, Marika Chupp, Zolan Baptista, Dominick DeVarti, Zachary Nelson, Billy An, Phillip Lee, Thor Clarke, and Aakriti Damai took home STATE CHAMPION honors in two math games:  Elementary Basic Equations and Elementary Basic On–Sets.
    Middle Schools.
    The tournament is divided up into grade based levels.  The 6th graders compete at the elementary level, whilst the 7th & 8th graders compete at the middle level.  This year’s 6-8th graders won STATE CHAMPION honors in Elementary Linguishtik, Elementary Propaganda, Middle Presidents, Middle Adventurous Equations, Middle Adventurous On-Sets, Middle Linguishtik, and Middle Basic Wff 'N Proof.
    Team members from Tappan include Jae Chan Hwang, JR Victorio, Kyle Ren, Steven Wang, Kern Chepeha, Eli Schmitter, Aishu Kamarajan, Tony Bai, Danny Oh, James Yang, Ethan Cohen, Charles Kotilla, Mason DeVarti and Livia Belman Wells.
    Team members from Clague include Susanne Sheng, Shreya Menon, Daniel Li, Oliver Barron, Justin Shim, Matthew Shen, Grace Li, Maya Foster, Jessica Chen, Miela Foster, Ji Ho Hyun, Chun-Lam Lau, Dhanuj Richard Zhao, Anly Li, Leo Tunkle, Mira Shetty, Jesse Cheng, Yuqing Wei, Hannah Cheng, Spring Gao, Jenny Bai, Simon Keep, Vishnu Kannan, Yuyi Li, Albert Wang, Ryan Yang, Matt Daida, Wesley Chen, and David Zhang  Andrew Redding, Shivani Jayendraprasad, Anastasia Shchurin, Timothy Li, Advaidh Venkat, Amritha Anupindi, Tao Cai, Joseph Lu, Jennifer Zhu, Radu Dumitrascu, Yug Chauhan, Mairead Erhardt, Lily Gechter, Carmen Giger, Preethi Narayanan, Reva Kulkarni, Shriya Goel, Devyani Agarwal, and Megan He.
    The Clague team has been coached by a district parent volunteer of more than two decades Mr. Eric Nelson and former A2 player/ current University of Michigan student, Vivek Thanabal.   The Tappan team is coached by another former A2 player, Ike Wade, and also currently a University of Michigan student.
    High Schools
    High school students competed on a combined Ann Arbor team.  9th and 10th graders compete as juniors and 11th & 12th graders compete as seniors.  This team took home State Championship titles in Junior Equations, Junior Linguishtik, Junior Presidents, Junior Propaganda, Senior Linguishtik, Senior Presidents, Senior Propaganda, and Senior World Card.
    Team members are Kathleen Huntzicker - 12th grade, Huron; Priya Menon - 12th grade, Skyline; Conrad Pan - 9th grade, Skyline; Luke Cheng - 9th grade, Skyline; Caleb Cheng - 10th grade, Huron; Andrew Gitlin - 10th grade, Greenhills; Claire Fishman - 9th grade, Huron; Shwetha Rajaram - 9th grade, Skyline; and Yuxuan Chen - 10th grade, Skyline.
    Additionally, Yuxuan won an outstanding player award for the Junior Division, and Priya won an outstanding player award for the Senior Division.
    The high school team is coached by Paul Lewis.  A former player and current University student!
    Best of luck to our middle and high school teams in their quest to become National Champions later this month!  Congratulations to all!
  • All of the teachers in the AAPS Art Department are very proud of their student artists who did so very well at this year's Potential Show at the Ann Arbor Art Center.  This annual event highlights the very best student artists of Washtenaw County in an annual juried art show.  The show was adjudicated by professor Harmut Austen from Wayne State University, and will be open for viewing through April 22nd at the Ann Arbor Art Center.
    These are the award selections from 2012:
    Senior Portfolio: Lexy Carlson, Community, Untitled Pencil Drawings (4)
    Best In Show: Alayna Coverly, Pioneer, Still Life with Reflections
    2/D: Elizabeth Postema,Pioneer, Dynamism of a Junior Year
    Metal/Jewelry: Sherri Wan, Pioneer, Summer Soltice
    $500 Cranbrook Scholarship: Sophie Buchmueller, Pioneer, Self Portrait with Shadow
    AAPS students won 5 of the 7 cash awards in this year's prestigious show.  Congratulations to our talented students and their very proud teachers.
  • The Northside kindergarten class celebrated reading month by having guest readers for the entire month! Thanks to the following guest readers:
    our families, friends, and the community:  Mrs. Monica Harrold,  Mr. Nick Mosher, Ms. Ransom, Melanie Sobocinski, Grant Meadors, Jen Beichman, Shannon Wade, Nicole Chardoul, Grace Gheen, Meg Mott, Ambika Tejasvi, Sophia Hanifi, Dave Keeney, Ellyn Christensen, Dr. Loreena Parks, Mrs. Burgers, Alex Burgers, fifth grade-John Kuhnke, and Dr.Patricia  Green.     We had a birthday party for Dr. Seuss, made bookmarks, and visited the Ann Arbor District Library.  Our love of reading goes on and on!
  • On Saturday March 24th at Chelsea High School several Skyline students participated in the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Associate State Solo and Ensemble Festival.  To qualify for this event, students had to earn a I (superior) rating at the District festival in January at Livonia Franklin High School.  Out of the 11 events that participated two events received a II (excellent) rating and nine events received a I (superior) rating.  Judges rate students based on their intonation, technique, rhythm, and Interpretation of the music, awarding students with a score ranging from a I (superior) to a V (poor).  Seven students participated in a proficiency exam consisting of a solo performance, scales, and sight-reading.  Six students passed their proficiency exam.  Judges from this event nominated two students, from the performances that they felt were outstanding soloists.  These students get the opportunity to audition for a spotlight performance in the Gala Concert with the Michigan Youth Arts Festival on May 12th.  Grace Pernecky, sophomore was nominated to audition for this prime solo spot.  Jonathan Jue-Wong, Senior was invited to perform with the honors orchestra with Michigan Youth Arts Festival based on his proficiency exam score.  Congratulations to all of the students and their success.
    Andrea Cowper is Skyline’s Orchestra Director.  The following students participated in the MSBOA State Solo and Ensemble Festival:
    Brian Chang and Eitan Rubinfeld-violin duet-Superior Rating
    Chihiro Kakishima-violin solo-Superior Rating
    Shwetha Rajaram-violin solo-Superior Rating
    Jonathon Muir-Cotton-bass solo-Excellent Rating
    Qianchi Zhang-violin-proficiency 1-Excellent rating
    Michael Zhang-piano-proficiency 1-Superior rating
    Grace Pernecky-violin-proficiency 1-Superior rating
    Shin Lee-cello-proficiency 1-Superior rating
    Shruthi Narayanan-violin-proficiency 2-Superior rating
    Jack Hu-piano-proficiency 2-Superior rating
    Jonathan Jue-Wong-vioin-proficiency 2-Superior rating
  • Pioneer Band students received 51 first division and 24 second division ratings in SOLO performance, as well as 58 first division and 7 second division ratings in ENSEMBLE performance at the STATE Solo and Ensemble Festivals held on March 24.
    The following Pioneer High School Band students participated in the Michigan School Band and Orchestra Association (MSBOA) STATE Solo and Ensemble Festival on March 24. 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.
    Sophomores through seniors who performed solos were also eligible to participate in Proficiency Examinations, requiring scales and sightreading, as well as performance on their solo. 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:  Halley Bass, Iris Chen, Han Qiu Cheng, Claire Christensen, D’Arcy Cook, Rennie Cotner, Alayna Coverly, Marianne Cowherd, Eric Dutton, John Fan, Kevin Flannagan, Alexander Ginsberg, Celisa Gutierrez, Anna Hayman, Clare Higgins, Andrew Hocott, Betty Hu, Skye Huerta, Kevin Jiang, Taylor Johnson (2), Kayoon Jung, Jared Kaufman, Trevor King, Tyler Leach, Andrew Lemerand, Siyan (Daniel) Li, Emily Liu, Wei Luo, Natalie Martin, Sowdeepya Nadimpalli, Henry Pakela, Abraham Paternoster, Elliot Polot, Norah Rast, Griffin Roy, Ellen Sauer, Michael Shapiro, Becca Shipan, Ken Simon, Nicholas Simon, Antonia Smith, Austin Stout, Stephanie Terrell, Kevin Tian (2), Charles Wang, William Wang, Brinda Yarlagadda, Tina Yu, Kevin Zhang
    Pioneer High School Band students receiving a "II" (Good) rating for their performance of a SOLO were:  Shreya Bahl, Kevin Blaesing, James Boyd, Galen Burrell, Stein Housner, Will Jibson, Aina Kelsaw-Fletcher, Sara King, Nicholas Lemerand, Nicholas Liu, Yuming Liu, Sara Long, Abbey Maxbauer, Jack McKarns, Daniel Olson, Bo Peng, Lillie Ross, Zachary Sedgwick, Ken Simon, Alysha Szewczul, Maria Ten Brink, Nick Terrell, Benjamin Vinnik, Thea Yagerlener
    Pioneer High School Band students receiving a "I" (Excellent) rating for their performance of an ENSEMBLE were:  Janette Ahn, Halley Bass (2), Megan Battersby, Aaron Baum, Ben Bielajew, Will Bogen, Cameron Boyd, James Boyd, Hangil Choi (2), Claire Christensen, D’Arcy Cook, Rennie Cotner, Marianne Cowherd, Seetha Davis, Peter Doyle, Ruby Emberling, John Fan, Kevin Flannagan (2), Charlie Geronimus, Alexander Ginsberg, Clare Higgins, Conor Howe, Betty Hu (2), Kayoon Jung, Jared Kaufman, Catherine Kim, Sara King, Reina Larkin, Siyan (Daniel) Li, Wei Luo, Jack McKarns, Jordan McKay, Oleg Mihans, Henry Pakela (2), Oksana Palczynski, Abe Paternoster, Bo Peng, Gabe Puno, Norah Rast, Hannah Rhodenhiser, Ellen Sauer, Michael Saunders, Kaylee Schonsheck, Ben Schreiber, Ken Simon, Kathy Sun, Maria Ten Brink, Nick Terrell (2), Stephanie Terrell, William Wang, Thea Yagerlener, Kevin Zhang
    Pioneer High School Band students receiving a "II" (Good) rating for their performance of an ENSEMBLE were:  Isaiah Davis, Will Jibson, Harry Lee, Ben Lindstrom, Andrea Martin, Sara Park, Dana Shin
  • The Community High Athletic Tribe (CHAT) just dropped off $1700 that was raised for the Strong Kids Campaign at the Ann Arbor YMCA! Great Kids, Great Cause: Strong kids supporting Strong Kids! Students that participated in the fund raiser include:  Emma Sowder, Claire Fendrick, Eliza Upton, SariGreifer, Noah Hirschl, Sofia Fall, Annie White, Lucy Moran, Aidan Tank, Carlos Jackson, Ian Grosh, Eliza Stein, Cooper DePriest, Keely O'Donnell, Sarah Zimmerman, Abby Kleinheksel, Will Arts, Jacob  Johnson, Galen Burrell, Ella Bourland, Liz Roy, Cassidey Durkee, Devin O'Donnell, Brienne O'Donnell, Sophie Faylor, Bobby Coulter, Stephen Orr.  Advisor is Robbie Stapleton, CHS Faculty member in PE and Health.
  • The Pioneer Chapter of The Alzheimer's Foundation of America is an impressive group of young adults who have been making an impact on our local community and recently raised over $1,500 for the Alzheimer's Foundation of America by holding a benefit concert.  Teacher Robert Klemmer is the faculty advisor and reports that he is very proud of them, and hopes that others will join him in thanking these students for making a positive difference.
    Founded by Ananya Mayukha, a current Pioneer student, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Teens Chapter of Pioneer High School is an organization dedicated to spreading local awareness of Alzheimer’s Disease, and supporting those afflicted by it. Participating in this club are Pioneer High School students Ananya Mayukha, Kathleen Kollman, Allison Brooks-Conrad, Helen Rucinski, Meg Erkkinen, Elizabeth Hines, Azba Gurm, Anthony Fulton, Ramya Dronamraju, Livia Luan, Danny Luan, Alan Zhou, Emily Kindred, Sarah Goetzke, Allison Wier, Sowdeepya Nadimpalli, Hoai An Pham, Tina Yu, and Jana Pok. Through their monthly volunteering experiences, these members of the AFA Teens chapter of Pioneer High School have experimented with several different methods of disease therapy, such as art, conversation, games, and music. Music has resonated with the patients in a way that no other efforts have. In light of this spectacular power of music, the AFA Teens chapter of Pioneer High School decided to host a benefit concert for the AFA. Displaying the diverse talents of the chapter members, the AFA Teens Benefit Concert included several acapella ensembles, string ensembles, and even Chinese and Indian classical musical performances. Having spent countless hours planning and advertising for this concert, the chapter members were delighted at the outcome. The concert ran smoothly, and the audience members were moved by the depth of the music and the personal connections that many of the musicians had with Alzheimer’s disease.  The chapter raised over $1,500 for the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America.
  • Kudos to the ladies of the Ann Arbor Tech High Parenting class along with their teacher, Crystal Fluker, who have embarked on a fund raising campaign to support The Childhelp Organization.  This mission arose due to their awareness of Dominick Calhoun, who was a bright and happy 4-year-old boy from Argentine Township here in Michigan. Dominick was brutally murdered at the hands of his mother's boyfriend in April 2010.  So far the Parenting class has raised a total of $183 for the Childhelp Organization.  They will continue raising funds for Dominick during the next two weeks after break. If anyone from the Ann Arbor Schools would like to contribute to this fundraiser, please send your donations directly to Crystal Fluker at A2T.
  • The week of March 26-30, the Kindergarten classes at Eberwhite combined Everyday Math Lessons on coins and data collection with a desire to help our neighbors in Dexter who were affected by the recent tornado. The two came together into a fundraiser called Donations for Dexter. The Kindergarten families donated coins and dollars that the Kindergarten students counted and recorded as data.  The grand total of $375 was given to the Dexter Community Schools Relief Fund to help those children, families, and teachers in need from the tornado damage.
  • The Logan Elementary staff and students wish to thank all who contributed during our book drive. Although our goal was to collect 1,000 gently used books for children in the Philippines, we amassed 5,297 books during our "Reading Around the World" March is Reading Month celebrations.  During our culminating assembly, Mayor John Hieftje, congratulated the Logan students and staff for their  tremendous accomplishment!  To learn more about the book drive, read the AAPS News article by AAPS Reporter, Tara Cavanaugh.  Congratulations Logan Leopards!
  • I want to thank Northside kindergarten teacher, Jan Smith, and Burns Park media specialist Rachel Erdstein, for inviting me to read to their students for March is Reading Month.  I had a lovely time and enjoyed the children and the stories very much.  I am always happy to see children excited about reading.

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