April 2005 News Archive
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
May is Prom Month in the Santa Barbara High School District
The prom schedule in the Santa Barbara High School District is as follows:
- Dos Pueblos High School, May 14, 2005, 8:30 p.m. until midnight at the Earl Warren Showgrounds. The after prom party will take place from midnight until 5:00 a.m., also at the Earl Warren Showgrounds.
- San Marcos High School, May 21, 2005, 9:00 p.m. until 12:30 a.m. at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort. The after prom party will take place at the Elks Club from 12:30 a.m. until 5:00 a.m.
- Santa Barbara High School, May 28, 2005, 9:00 a.m. until midnight at Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort. The after prom party will take place at Zodo’s Bowling and Beyond from 1:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m.
The post-prom parties are sponsored by each school’s Parent Teacher Student Association. They provide a safe and fun after prom activity.
What’s Cooking at La Cumbre Junior High School?
On Wednesday, April 27 at 6:30 p.m., at a special English Language Advisory Committee (ELAC) and Parent Teacher Association (PTA) meeting in the school cafeteria, La Cumbre Junior High School families will be able to participate in a free healthy cooking demonstration and dinner. The event is sponsored by ELAC, PTA, Nutrition Network, and Healthy Start. The “Taste for Health” will feature local cook Laurence Hauben, leader of Slow Food Santa Barbara Convivium, noted food writer, and former director of the Santa Barbara Farmers Market Association.
“In our world of fast food and convenience stores, teens with their own money can have real trouble in finding anything healthy to eat out there. It is taking a toll on their health. Imagine having high blood pressure at age 13!” stated Laurence Hauben. Ms. Hauben continued,“What do students find when looking for a healthy snack in their world? Everywhere outside the home, the top ingredients in most of the cheap and tasty packaged foods that are available are fat, sugar, salt or all three! Parents want to know more healthy ways to prepare food at home. This cooking demonstration will give families tasty and practical ideas to use at home.”
For more information about the event, contact Susan Horne, health educator with the Nutrition Network, a program of the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department: (805) 681-4757.
Santa Barbara Junior High’s Advanced Art Class Wins $1000
Twenty-three eighth grade students in Santa Barbara Junior High School’s advanced art class submitted a collaborative art work to the Community Action Commission’s Fourth Annual Reflections of Poverty Show. Fifteen students were selected to be a part of the final project and the project won first place among more than 75 entrants, mostly by adult artists. According to art teacher John Houchin, it is the first time that anyone under 18 has won first prize in this competition.
The show is currently on display at the Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara Public Library until April 29, 2005. After April 29 it travels to Lompoc and Santa Maria libraries.
The Santa Barbara Junior High School students decided to donate one third of their $1,000 prize to the Community Action Commission to support Santa Barbara County services for the homeless; one third will go to the Santa Barbara Junior High School art program; and the final third will be used for a special art project and pizza party.
Santa Barbara Junior High School is located at 721 E. Cota Street, Santa Barbara, CA.
Renewable Resources: La Cumbre Students Convert Vehicle to a “MerSOYdes BEANz”
It used to be a 1980 Mercedes Benz 300 SD (diesel). The car was in need of a significant amount of work. La Cumbre Junior High School teacher Michael Shallenberger purchased it for $1. Following some repair work to make the vehicle operational, Mr. Shallenberger turned the car into an industrial technology class project. The car underwent a two-month conversion where 15 junior high school students changed its operational system from diesel to vegetable oil. The vegetable oil used to power the car is acquired from restaurants and fast food businesses in town.
The project was designed to demonstrate how a vehicle could operate with alternative fuel. According to Mr. Shallenberger, “This project is part of the Industrial Technology Department at La Cumbre. I am really trying to build a program with a strong alternative energy and renewable resources component to show students that they can change the world in a better way, and do it today. Even though they are young, they can make a difference.”
The conversion project was a learning experience not only for industrial tech students but also for students in the La Cumbre video class. The budding videographers and some of the original 15 industrial tech students filmed and edited a documentary about the project. With the help of Keith Boynton of Boynt Point Presentation, the footage was edited to a 20-minute documentary entitled “The Making of the MerSOYdes BEANz.”
On Saturday, April 23, 2005, the MerSOYdes BEANz, the documentary, Mr. Shallenberger and several students will be part of the Green Car Show at the 2005 South Coast Earth Day Festival, organized by the Community Environmental Council. The festival will take place from 10:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Gardens.
At 10:45 a.m., Mr. Shallenberger and his students are scheduled to do a presentation on the MerSOYdes BEANz. At 4:30 p.m., they will accept an award on behalf of La Cumbre Junior High School from the event organizers.
Tile to Commemorate the Work of Poet Gabriela Mistral
Tile will be on permanent display at Santa Barbara High School
At 1:00 p.m., Friday, April 22, 2005, in Alameda Park, the city of Santa Barbara will hold a memorial ceremony to honor the late Gabriela Mistral, the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in literature (1945). Mistral, the pen name of Chilean poet and educator Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, lived in Santa Barbara in the 1940s. Participating in the event will be Chile’s ambassador to the United States, Andres Bianchi.
At the ceremony, Mayor Marty Blum and other city officials will dedicate a memorial plaque on a lava stone transported from Gabriela Mistral’s birthplace in Chile.
Gabriela Mistral once lived at 729 Anapamu Street, across the street from Santa Barbara High School. At Friday’s ceremony, Santa Barbara School Districts’ Superintendent Brian Sarvis will unveil a 13” wide x 18” high tile that includes Mistral’s poem “I Am Not Alone.” Santa Barbara High School student Gisela Rodriguez will read the poem in both English and Spanish. Once framed, the tile will be permanently displayed in the school’s library.
The Alameda Park ceremony will be followed by a 2:00-5:00 p.m. reception at the Faulkner Gallery, Santa Barbara Public
Library (main branch), 40 E. Anapamu Street. The event is open to the public.
Purple Hair for Peabody Principal Pat Morales
In celebration of the $126,500+ raised during the March 18 school jog-a-thon, silly hair will be in evidence at Peabody Charter School’s awards assembly at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, April 22, 2005. The assembly will be in the quad area of the school’s Exploration Center. Normally a blond, Principal Pat Morales will join the whimsy with her freshly dyed purple locks.
This year, 720 students ran in the jog-a-thon for 40 minutes. The jog-a-thon is part of the school’s physical fitness program. Students are encouraged to exceed the number of laps they did the previous year and also to do their personal best for the school.
According to Principal Morales, “The jog-a-thon supports programs that would have been cut because of tight budgets, such as visual and performing arts, physical education, field trips, classroom budgets for teachers, library books, technology, science materials, and other needs.” She continued, “The jog-a-thon is a fun engaging community event where teachers, little brothers and sisters, and parents run with their children. The students and their families raised more than $126,500, that deserves a big whimsical celebration.”
Peabody Charter School is located at 3018 Calle Noguera, Santa Barbara, CA.
La Cumbre Students Meet with Congresswoman Lois Capps Prior to Their Visit to the Nation’s Capitol
From April 7-12, 24 La Cumbre eighth graders and four adults traveled to Washington D.C. Their visit tied into their social studies classes. Prior to their journey, the students met with Congresswoman Lois Capps.
Students visited Yorktown, Jamestown and Williamsburg. In the District of Columbia, and with the help of Congresswoman Capps, they were able to tour the Capitol building and White House. Other highlights of their trip included a visit to the new Museum of the American Indian and the Holocaust Museum, where students heard the recorded voice of Santa Barbara resident Judy Miesel. Mrs. Miesel survived Auschwitz and was a recent speaker at La Cumbre Junior High School.
Student fundraising and support from North Side Rotary Club made the trip possible.
La Cumbre Junior High School is located at 2255 Modoc Road, Santa Barbara, CA.
Taste Testing of Possible Cafeteria Fare
On Friday afternoon April 29, 2005, beginning at 2:30 p.m. in the Goleta Valley Junior High School cafeteria, Santa Barbara School Districts’ Food Service Department will conduct taste tests of food products for future menu consideration
Parents, staff, and food service directors from nearby school districts are expected to attend between 2:30-3:30 p.m.; K-12 students from the Santa Barbara Elementary and High School Districts will join the taste test as soon as they are dismissed from school.
Twenty-one vendors will provide samples of breakfast entrees, a la carte lunch items, and new projects that meet nutritional guidelines. Participants will be able to try items such as pizza, empanadas, calzones, soy and tofu products, whole grain breakfast items, chicken products, breakfast burritos, and more.
Participants will be asked to rate the product’s taste. According to Food Service Director Frank Lihn, “The taste testing will provide an opportunity for students and parents to taste a variety of foods, meet with food service staff, discuss concerns with manufacturer representative, and evaluate breakfast and lunch meals.”
Goleta Valley Junior High School is located at 6100 Stow Canyon Road, Goleta, CA.
Rockin’ and a Rollin’ to Adverbs and Nouns at Santa Barbara Junior High
At 7:30 p.m., on April 28, 29, and 30, 2005, Santa Barbara Junior High School will present the spring musical Schoolhouse Rock Live! This production, which takes place in the newly renovated Marjorie Luke Theater at Santa Barbara Junior High School, takes songs from the popular television series and puts them together to create an energetic musical. Tickets are $8 for adults and $4 for students and can be purchased at the door, the school office, or reserved in advance by the calling the Box Office at 963-7753, extension 129.
The production, which includes 17 cast members and 10 stagehands, centers around new teacher Tom Mizner and his worries about his first day of teaching. The characters come to life and help him remember what to teach his students. The performers help Mr. Mizner make learning fun with songs like “I’m Just a Bill,” “The Preamble,” and “Three is a Magic Number.”
Schoolhouse Rock began in the 1970s when David McCall, an advertising executive, recognized that his 11-year-old son had difficulty memorizing his multiplication tables but yet knew all the words to every rock song on the radio. With catchy tunes and creative phrasing, an engaging form of programming was born and aired on ABC from 1973 to 1985. The concept was very successful and quickly expanded to include other academic subjects.
Santa Barbara Junior High School is located at 721 E. Cota Street, Santa Barbara, CA.
Celeste Darga named Santa Barbara County Teacher of the Year
Following is an excerpt from the April 7, 2005, Santa Barbara County Education Office news release.
Celeste Darga, a first grade teacher at Washington School in the Santa Barbara School District for four years, was named 2005-06 Santa Barbara County Teacher of the Year. The announcement was made by County Superintendent of Schools Bill Cirone at a press conference convened at the regular monthly meeting of the County Board of Education April 7. She will become the county’s official representative on July 1.
Darga, one of a number of outstanding countywide nominees for the honor, was selected by a committee including representatives of teachers, administrators, PTAs, and school boards.
Superintendent Cirone expressed congratulations for Darga’s professionalism, enthusiasm, creativity, and successes in the classroom and in the community. Her teaching style has been described as patient, caring, enthusiastic, creative, animated, respectful, loving, thorough, passionate, and dedicated.
Darga received a B.A. in child development from Cal State Northridge and is working on an M.A. and an administrative credential from UCSB. She earned her teaching credentials from Cal State Northridge.
Darga began teaching at the kindergarten, third, fourth, and fifth grade levels at Pinecrest Preparatory Private School before becoming interim preschool director at Pinecrest. She taught at Gan Israel Hebrew Academy before serving as summer school principal at Montecito Union. She then joined the Santa Barbara School District as a first grade teacher at Cleveland School. Since 1999 she has served as a Reading First instructor of Open Court, Governor’s Reading Professional Development Institutes in the summer. Since 2002 she has been a language arts presenter for SRA McGraw-Hill, and since 1998 she has been a first grade teacher at Harding and Washington Schools in Santa Barbara.
Darga’s recognitions have been numerous. She has received the Principal’s Award, an Honorary PTA Award, Santa Barbara Schools-Mentor Teachers, Santa Barbara County Technology Mentor, and Teacher of the Month.
She has also served on the Leadership and Technology Committees at Washington School, and is responsible for the textbook ordering at the school. She serves as Teacher in Charge when her administrator is absent. She is a countywide Tech Mentor, a BTSA Support provider, a member of her site’s Leadership and Technology Teams, and a School Site Council Representative.
She has trained new teachers, veteran teachers, and administrators in five-day Language Arts trainings, along with training teachers in how they can enrich their curricula using technology. In terms of community involvement, Darga works with local businesses in her school’s neighborhood to help promote literacy in her classroom. She has served as head of fundraising committees in two schools, both raising more than $50,000.
Wrote Principal Beatrice Cordeiro: “I have known Mrs. Darga to be dependable, responsible, organized, resourceful, flexible, and extremely conscientious. Her enthusiasm is unmatched and her student’s results in all curricular and fine arts speak for themselves. She is the most requested teacher on my site...No one child goes without a snack for the day, without a costume on dress-up days, without books to call their own, without shoes, clothes, or a coat...Mrs. Darga finds every person’s talent and accepts everyone as the important human being that he or she is. Everyone is equal. Everyone is valued...Mrs. Darga spends hundreds of dollars of her own money every year in her intense desire to ensure equity and yet never mentions the sacrifice...
“She has a huge heart and is personable, kind, professional, intuitive and knowledgeable...She is what every educator aspires to be.”
Darga’s nomination will next be reviewed for consideration as California Teacher of the Year in the fall. The California winner will then proceed into consideration for 2006 National Teacher of the Year.