Members of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill honored, from left Mark Allan Holmstrom, Britton Middle School; Philip Perez, San Martin Gwinn Elementary School; Alissa Wilson, St. Catherine School; and Rebekah Inouye, Martin Murphy Middle School, at their regularly scheduled meeting Wednesday. The students received Outstanding Student of the Month Achievement Awards from the group.
Four Morgan Hill students, each chosen by their school as a top student, were honored with Outstanding Student Achievement awards Oct. 8 by Rotary Club of Morgan Hill. Each student received U.S. saving bonds for their future education, and an achievement certificate. Their parents and school representatives were also recognized.
Those honored included:
San Martin Gwinn Elementary: Outstanding student Philip Peres, parents Manuel and Connie Peres, Principal P.J. Foehr.
Britton Middle School: Outstanding student Mark Alan Holmstrom, parents David and Jennifer Holmstrom, Principal Carol Coursey.
Martin Murphy Middle School: Outstanding student Rebekah Inouye, parents Mark and Beth Inouye, Principal Barbara Nakasone.
St. Catherine's School: Outstanding student Alissa Wilson, parents Jim and Christie Wilson, Principal Fabienne Esparza.
The awards recognize and reward outstanding student achievement as exemplified by academic performance, individual leadership, commitment to community and overall commitment to excellence. All public and private Morgan Hill schools have the opportunity to annually select one outstanding student for the honor. Awards are announced on a rotating basis throughout the year.
The recognition program of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill is a part of its ongoing commitment to serve the youth of the community.
Mount Madonna School senior awarded National Merit Scholarship commendation
Mount Madonna School is pleased to announce that senior Camille Schwartz has been named a Commended Student in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program. Earning this distinction signifies that a student scored in the top 3 percent of the more than 1.5 million students nationwide who took the 2007 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
"Camille has a broad range of interests and talents and approaches learning with curiosity, focus, and excitement," said Jivanti Rutansky, Interim Head of the Upper School at Mount Madonna. "Her vitality is contagious and makes working and collaborating with her fun and engaging."
Schwartz, a resident of Morgan Hill, started attending Mount Madonna as a fourth grade student and is one of about 34,000 high school seniors across the country commended for their exceptional academic promise. She has a great desire to travel, learn many languages, and serve humanity through environmental work and/or foreign service.
Study examines what happens to high school dropouts who re-enroll
Though 35 percent of students in an urban California district's Class of 2005 dropped out of school at least once over a five-year period, almost a third of the dropouts re-enrolled, finds a new study by education research organization WestEd.
However, more than half of all re-enrollees returned to school for just one year, and fewer than 20 percent ultimately earned a diploma.
The report, Reenrollment of High School Dropouts in a Large, Urban School District, examines the roughly 4,000 students who enrolled as first-time freshmen in the San Bernardino City Unified School District during the 2001-02 school year, with a particular focus on those who left school and then returned. It found that four years later only 45 percent of the first-time freshmen in the Class of 2005 had been continuously enrolled and had graduated with a regular high school diploma; the report calls them "standard graduates." (The 20 percent of students who were neither counted as dropouts nor graduates were considered "others"; included in this category were out-of-district transfers, students who were expelled, and those who earned alternative high school completion certificates.)
According to the report, more dropouts left in their first year of high school than any other year. However, the majority of these dropouts-60 percent-reenrolled in a San Bernardino high school at least once. The six reenrollees interviewed cited academic struggles, the need for additional help to master grade-level content, boredom, and "limited ways to make up failed courses and credits" as factors that led them to drop out. In addition, "life stresses" such as demanding jobs, parenting responsibilities, and violence in their communities overwhelmingly took a toll on the reenrollees. "Without exception, reenrollees reported mental health issues that impeded their ability to attend school regularly-anxiety, depression, and a 'sense of hopelessness that can take you nowhere far,'" the report reads.
Ninth-grade and black dropouts were the most likely to reenroll, the report finds, while. conversely, male and English language learner students were especially likely to drop out and not reenroll. Almost half of all ninth-grade dropouts eventually returned to school, a percentage that dropped sharply with each successive grade. Researchers speculated that one reason for the decrease was that dropouts who returned to school at seventeen or eighteen were often sent to the district's adult education school rather than the district's standard high schools.
Reenrollment of High School Dropouts also details the results of interviews between researchers and San Bernardino district administrators and high school principals on their concerns related to reenrollment. They felt that reenrolling dropouts was "unquestionably the right thing to do, so we do it," but admitted to feeling that there were disincentives to readmitting students. Key among these disincentives were the reduction in the state funding the district receives, as the money is connected to enrollment and attendance (and reenrollees tend to have poor attendance rates); the adverse effects on meeting accountability requirements (for example, because dropping out is counted as an event, a student who drops out and reenrolls more than once raises the dropout rate); and limited funding and staffing capacity to offer targeted credit recovery interventions.
"We need to make sure that ninth and tenth graders who fall off track make up those course credits quickly before they forever lose the chance to catch up," said BethAnn Berliner, lead author of WestEd's study. "We also need options for older reenrollees who may need to balance job and family responsibilities as they try to make up the missing diploma requirements."
Details: To read the full report, which also details policy and practice recommendations made by San Bernardino district staff and students, go to http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/west/pdf/REL_2008056.pdf
Quilt Association awards scholarships to LO High graduates
The South Valley Quilt Association awarded two $500 Textile and Fiber Arts Scholarships to students in the Live Oak High School Fashion and Design Program at the 2008 Harvest Quilt and Fiber Art Show at the Taste of Morgan Hill Sept. 26. This year's winners were Brianna Pena and Kimberly Hafstad. Their projects were displayed at the show. To date, the SVQA has awarded five scholarships to Live Oak students.
To encourage the art and skill of quilting and fiber art, SVQA awards a yearly Textile and Fiber Arts Scholarship to local high school graduates and college students enrolled in a textile arts educational program. The objective is to encourage the pursuit of education in the areas of textiles and sewing. Proceeds from the annual Harvest Quilt and Fiber Art Show support the Textile Arts Scholarship and Classroom Grant fund.
Details: http://www.svqa.org/philanthropic.htm
Mount Madonna senior receives Merit Scholarship commendation
Mount Madonna School senior Camille Schwartz has been named a Commended Student in the 2009 National Merit Scholarship Program. Earning this distinction signifies that a student scored in the top 3 percent of the more than 1.5 million students nationwide who took the 2007 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).
"Camille has a broad range of interests and talents and approaches learning with curiosity, focus, and excitement," said Jivanti Rutansky, interim head of the upper School at Mount Madonna. "Her vitality is contagious and makes working and collaborating with her fun and engaging."
Schwartz, a resident of Morgan Hill, started attending Mount Madonna as a fourth-grade student and is one of about 34,000 high school seniors across the country commended for their exceptional academic promise. She has a great desire to travel, learn many languages, and serve humanity through environmental work and/or foreign service.
Study examines high school dropouts who re-enroll
Though 35 percent of students in an urban California district's Class of 2005 dropped out of school at least once during a five-year period, almost a third of the dropouts re-enrolled, finds a new study by education research organization WestEd.
However, more than half of all re-enrollees returned to school for just one year, and fewer than 20 percent ultimately earned a diploma. The report, "Reenrollment of High School Dropouts in a Large," Urban School District, examines the roughly 4,000 students who enrolled as first-time freshmen in the San Bernardino City Unified School District during the 2001-02 school year, with a particular focus on those who left school and then returned. It found that four years later only 45 percent of the first-time freshmen in the Class of 2005 had been continuously enrolled and had graduated with a regular high school diploma. Details: Visit http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/regions/west/pdf/REL_2008056.pdf.
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Gilroy Garlic Festival: City vs. City Challenge
