·       Ms. Kidder who has been checking the dress code on the MS at her door. She and I worked with some of the girls on their shorts.

·       Ms. Maher who had her students do a PE project on breathing and the lungs. The results of these projects are displayed in the library on the book racks on the South side.Great add of reading and writing to PE

·       Our Hercules city "Educator of the Year" Michelle Thibault,  "Youth of the Year" Justin Bautista Jones, and HMHS parent, Janice Leighton-Armah, "Citizen of the Year." If you would like to celebrate,here is the info:  

Where:  La Revolucion, 3190 Klose Way, Richmond

When:  Wednesday, May 29, 2013

RSVP by May 25th

Tickets:  $35

Call:  510-741-7945, payment by credit card, or

Mail check payable to:

Hercules Chamber of Commerce

P.O. Box 5283, Hercules, CA 94547

5:00 P.M. NO HOST COCKTAILS

6:30 P.M. DINNER & AWARDS CEREMONY

• Coach G and his staff who put on a great senior night for baseball. To start the game, an emotional Mrs. Banagan (Romell Banagan-4 year starter) threw out the first pitch!  It was a great idea and everyone loved it! After the game, each senior was called to home plate (where the coaches and rest of the team were waiting) as a speech they wrote was read over the speaker.  When they reached home plate they each received a gift (signed, decorated baseballs).  Romell Banagan being the only 4 year senior that also excelled academically was given a signed, decorated baseball AND an autographed bat from Willie McGee!!
• Our MS MESA winners--Keesan and Tairi placed THIRD in the 2013 CA State Engineering Design Competition, SECOND Place in the Academic Board Display, THIRD Place in the Distance Accuracy Performance, and THIRD Place in the Object Relocation Performance. This is the first time that the East Bay MESA Regional Center competed at the State level. They were awarded medals and trophy at the University of the Pacific
• We had the Junior/Senior HS Prom last Friday in SF. The students really brought their best to the Prom. It was a lovely event and I was impressed with the venue and the DJ. Thank you too to our Hercules PD officers Wrangham and Sanchez who came in to the city and added security.
  

Leadership

·       MS SSC meeting Tuesday @6:30 in the library.

·       HS SSC meeting Thursday@ 7pm in the library.

Safety and Security

·       HS side, please continue to stand at doors and check IDs. Be part of the solution.

Congratulations and Appreciations

·       To the 3 MS studentswho represented us at the District Spelling Bee

o  Marc Pugeda

o  Jahnvi Doshi

o  Marc Capito

·       To our HS Ed Fund Scholarship winners

• Valeria Avila
• Gurinder Rai
• Marjorie Gatchalian
• Darian Wong

o  Marina Queiroz

• Our Retired Educators Scholarship winners

o  Gurinder Rai

o  Valeria Avila

o  Michaela Stone

o  Jobel Vecino

o  Ashley Castromero

o  Rachael Redlo

o  Cherise Cenon

o  Eric Wang

o  Aurora Lee

o  Ms. Krystek for setting up the 1^st even CCC assessment testing at HHS, thereby increasing kids’ steps toward college. Yea!

o  ELD 1s and 2s for passing the CAHSEE!

o  Ms. Ishmael who got the new tech carts out to people.

o  Mr. Aaron Ross who delivered all of the new white boardson wheels out to our HS science department so the teachers now have adequatewhiteboard space for those good practices like objectives, agendas, homework,and visual directions.

o  Our 1^st Chopped winners from AHIT: the dessert round had the mystery ingredients of: Vermicelli (beanthread) noodles, fresh passion fruit and bacon. The winners: John Chan, DanielFong, Daisy Boutelle, Baltazar Saravia, Alex Monalastas & Eric Anderson.Theirdish was composed of crepes with a strawberry & passion fruit compote,saute'd apples with brown sugar and bacon,  brule'd orange supremesand topped with a vanilla whipped cream with fried noodles for crunch.

·       Check out the new and super snazzy name plates on all the LA buildingdoors. It should be a bit easier to find us now.

• Our amazing STUDENT athletes and that 7 of the 8 teams have a team overall GPA of 3.0 or above and 4 of the 8 teams are 3.5 or above!

Overall Team GPA's

Badminton  3.6

Softball  3.5

Tennis  3.5

Swimming  3.5

Golf  3.1

Track  3.0

Baseball  3.0

Volleyball  2.7

·       Did anyone notice that the central rotunda staircase and floors werepower washed Thursday last week? Thanks to the district scrub crew who came outand did this work.

·       Ms. Maher for all the support she has given to Ms. Newton on the CSTs. It takes a series amount of work to get the CSTs done. 

·       The MS and HS students who participated in the California Music Educators Association (CMEA) Festival at El Cerrito High this past Saturday.Lots of winners:

o  MS AdvancedOrchestra—received a unanimous superior

o  HS IntermediateOrchestra—Superior

o  HS Advanced Orchestra--Excellent

And to Ms. Calonico who arranged the event anddealt with the ever-changing study trip requests AND the parents who broughttheir students to it. A community effort.

·       Our Ivy League winnersfrom Hercules High. It takes a lot of work to get into this program and ourkids have done it. Now for the summer work of being a college student.

·       Rochelle Yee                 HerculesHS         Cornell: Hotel Management


·       Jay Fan        Hercules HS        Brown: Techniques in DNA-Based Biotechnology


·       Liwen “Johnny” Ko   Hercules HS   Brown: Techniques in DNA-Based Biotechnology


·       Christian Abraham        Hercules HS        Cornell: Freedom & Justice


·       Jenna Lee        Hercules HS        Cornell: Freedom & Justice

·       Tamilyn Chen        Hercules HS        Cornell: Freedom & Justice

·       
Damian Wong        Hercules HS        Yale: Grand Strategies


·       Anmol Randhawa        Hercules HS        Columbia: Presidential Powers

Congratulations and Appreciations

·       Interact club for the multicultural rally way back on Friday March 29^th. This was a wonderful showcase of or talent, diversity, and ability to come together.

·       SBHC for Increase the Peace Week. The SBHC crew of Rachel, Eddie and Heather created themed activities which were student-driven and enlightening.

·       To student Camille Winfield who is a winner of the 2012-2013 ROP Students of Excellence award fo rher work in the Careers in Teaching class. We are very proud of her work in the community.

·       Athletic Director Strickland for tightening up the issues for release time for athletes. Having the time listed on both the weekly athletic events calendar and the daily excuse list emails has brought clarity to release times and supported students being in class.

·       The exhibition for the 48^th annual WCCUSD art show at the Richmond Arts Center started back on March 23^rd. Thank you Ms. Schrampf for taking determining the art to take to showcase our students and doing all the set-up required. The Reception was last Friday from 5:30-7:30. I have attended the last few years and always enjoy all the art. If you are driving that direction, I would consider stopping by and seeing the art to support our kids.

·       Saturday the 13th was the Study trip for MESA to the annual competition in Hayward. MESA stands for Mathematics Engineering Science Achievement. Thank you Ms. Cruzat and Ms. Palis, Ms Faraon, and Ms. Gatchilian for your work with MESA. And to the five parents who went as well + our two support teacher chaperons Mr. Harris and Ms. Maher. These students stayed after school to design, practice and improve on their project.  Having smart, talented,and dedicated students and supportive parents is a testimony of what is positive about our school district. Here is a link to what MESA is about:

http://www20.csueastbay.edu/csci/departments/mesa/

Here are the list of student winner. Please congratulate them:

Ms. Cruzat

1^st Place – Human Eye Model:   Ernestina Hsieh

 Prosthetic Arm – 1^stPlace; Engineering Design (1^st); Performance (2^nd); Oral Presentation (2^nd)

1.    Tairi Buchnan

2.    Keesan Nam

Prosthetic Arm – 2^ndPlace; Engineering Design (2^nd); Performance (1^st); Oral Presentation (1^st)

1.    Mia Yuen

2.    Christelle Cadang

2nd Place - Team Math Quest

1.    Eden Wetzel

2.    Branden Owens

3.    Liiana Atizado

1st Place - Mouse Trap Car Engineering Design

Advisor: Ms. Gatchalian

Prosthetic Arms – 2^ndPlace; Oral Presentation (1^st); Engineering Design (2^nd);Performance (1^st)

1.    Juan Pablo Palabrica

2.    Arjo Santo

3.    Giselle Fernandez

3rd Place - Team Math Quest

1.    Melanie Lum

2.    Juan PabloPalabrica

Solo Math:

1.    Nicholas Tran – 2^nd Place Pre-Calculus

2.    Bartell Lin – 3^rd Place Geometry

3.    Jennifer Wu – 2^ndPlace Geometry

Advisor: Ms. Palis

Solo Math and Team Math Quest

1.    Liwen Ko – 1^st Place Calculus (solo); 3^rdPlace Team Math Quest

2.    Jing Yi Chung – 1^stPlace Pre-Calculus

Solo Math and Team Math Quest

1.    Yerie Nam-  2nd Place Calculus

2.    Wai Hin Tsang -3rd Place Calculus

3.    Alexander Lin - 1st Place Algebra 2

4.    Hoai Thu Tran - 3rd Place Algebra 2

5.    Rommel Raveenera - 1st Place Algebra 1; 3^rd Place Team Math Quest

6.    Murillo Queiroz- 2nd Place Algebra 2

Advisor: Ms. Cruzat

1^st Place – Human Eye Model

1.    Ernestina Hsieh

 Prosthetic Arm – 1^stPlace; Engineering Design (1^st); Performance (2^nd); Oral Presentation (2^nd)

1.    Tairi Buchnan

2.    Keesan Nam

Prosthetic Arm – 2^ndPlace; Engineering Design (2^nd); Performance (1^st); Oral Presentation (1^st)

1.    Mia Yuen

2.    Christelle Cadang

2nd Place - Team Math Quest

1.    Eden Wetzel

2.    Branden Owens

3.    Liiana Atizado

1st Place - Mouse Trap Car Engineering Design

Advisor: Ms. Gatchalian

Prosthetic Arms – 2^ndPlace; Oral Presentation (1^st); Engineering Design (2^nd);Performance (1^st)

1.    Juan Pablo Palabrica

2.    Arjo Santo

3.    Giselle Fernandez

3rd Place - Team Math Quest

1.    Melanie Lum

2.    Juan Pablo Palabrica

Solo Math:

1.    Nicholas Tran – 2^nd Place Pre-Calculus

2.    Bartell Lin – 3^rd Place Geometry

3.    Jennifer Wu – 2^ndPlace Geometry

Advisor: Ms. Faraon

Solo Math and Team Math Quest

1.    Liwen Ko – 1^st Place Calculus (solo); 3^rdPlace Team Math Quest

2.    Jing Yi Chung – 2^ndPlace Pre-Calculus

Advisor: Ms. Palis

Solo Math and Team Math Quest

1.    Yerie Nam-  2nd Place Calculus

2.    Wai Hin Tsang -3rd Place Calculus

3.    Alexander Lin - 1st Place Algebra 2

4.    Hoai Thu Tran - 3rd Place Algebra 2

5.    Rommel Raveenera - 1st Place Algebra 1; 3^rd Place Team Math Quest

6.    Murillo Queiroz- 2nd Place Algebra 2

• Once again congrats to the MS classes who raised 1809 pounds of food for the food bank which has already been distributed. As Ms. Dirk mentioned, There is another way you can help. They are in a contest with 100+ national food banks for a $45,000 grant. With this they will buy produce at ~.13/pound. That money could feed a lot of hungry people.  To win, they must get the most votes. You can help by voting:

www.foodbankccs.org/walmart

You must have a facebook account. You can vote every day in April, but you cannot access the voting page from school because it does require you to log in to fb

Curriculum &Instruction

·       Below is a link to a NYT article regarding character and schools. It really made me think.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Facilities

·       Mr. Banuelos has expressed in email that we can not have food and drink in the classrooms.  I would like to reiterate this. The trash from food attracts ants and mice. In addition, food and drink in class is often a distractor and is sometimes spilled. Please do not allow students to being food into your classrooms; this included coffee drinks in the morning and Jamba juices after lunch. The will need to finish items before entering and leave the trash in outdoor bins.

Safety and Security

·       We have a lockdown on Wednesday April 17th at 11 for both sides of the campus. Procedures for lockdown included:

o  Locked and closed windows and door

o  Blinds down and “closed”

o  Students and adult against a wall that is least visible from the door.

• Thank you teachers for standing at your doors and checking in with kids as they walk in
• Much appreciation to the entire crew of The Wiz,it is a wonderful production. Get your tickets before they are gone!
• Congrats to the HS security staff for transitioning to the “new” lunch placement with all the kids in the old quad each lunch period. It is making a big difference on garbage and on the tone of lunch

• We are prepping for the CSTs-- get ready for the testing season
• We have moved to having all of the students on the HS side enrolling for classes on line. This supports a much quicker and more accurate inputting of  requests. We are one of only 2 high school sites in the district who do this. Check out the article at arkenews which speaks to this change

• The WASC visit dates for next year, please mark your calendars for Monday April 28th and Tuesday April 29th 2014!
• SSCs—to be in line with state requirements we now have an SSC bulletin board in the main office on the left side when you come in. SSC meeting dates, members, and agendas are listed there.  We have also added an SSC page under “our school” to each website where this information is also listed.

• RE the HS girls Restroom. 2weeks ago we made a very concerted effort to address the cleanliness and stocking of this restroom.This included adding additional toilet seat cover holders in each stall of the restroom, another soap dispenser, and another paper towel holder. The custodial staff is also checking the restrooms more frequently. HOWEVER, we now have much of the supplies being wasted through entire cover packages being thrown about the room and whole rolls of toilet paper unrolled and put in the toilets,plugging them up. It’s not good. If the issue comes up, please discuss the appropriate use of public facilities with kids.