March, 2010
- Memorial HS student Iris Xu is the top female student in Advanced Placement math and science courses and as such, has been named the winner of the Siemens Award for AP®. The 12th grade student wins a $2,000 college scholarship from the Siemens Foundation.
One male and one female student in each state are honored. As the letter announcing the award to Iris states, “It is an outstanding accomplishment to be named a winner in your state.”
- Mary-Beth Rolland, a speech/language clinician at Randall Elementary, has been chosen to receive the Mentor Award from the state chapter of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association. As the only award given by this association to teachers, it was in recognition of Rolland’s “recognizable dedication, kindness, caring, exemplary work ethic and consistent openness with the students who shadow you.”
- Vishal Narayanaswamy, a 7th grader at Jefferson MS, won the 2010 Madison All-City Spelling Bee on February 27th. Four of the top five finishers attend Madison public schools.
Vishal's correct spelling of "apparatchik" clinched the victory over 49 other Madison elementary and middle school students. Vishal now advanced to the Badger State Spelling Bee on March 20 in Madison. The winner of that competition will go to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in May.
The top five finishers:
Vishal Narayanaswamy, Jefferson MS
Ben Gellman, Spring Harbor MS
Anne Wolf Pulsiano, Eagle School
Umer Sohail, Sandburg Elementary
Fletcher Rehbein, Toki MS
- East HS trumpet player Ansel No rris is one of only five Gold Medal winners in the YoungArts competition of the National Foundation for Advancement of the Arts.
At least 6,000 students register for YoungArts each year, with only 150 selected for the all-expense paid YoungArts Week in Miami – a week of master classes, showcase performances, exhibitions, enrichment programs, and final adjudications. There, 45 students were recognized as winners, with only 5 receiving gold medals – including Norris.
Scott Eckel is Ansel’s Band teacher at East.
- The district’s coordinator for Career and Technical Education, Gabrielle Banick, has been selected to receive the Financial Literacy Award for 2010 from Governor Jim Doyle’s Council on Financial Literacy.
The award recognizes excellence in promoting money management and financial skills. Banick is one of six individuals to be recognized along with nine organizations.
- Three MMSD musicians were among the four students chosen for the Final Forte of the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Bolz Young Artist Competition.
Left to right in the photo:
Alice Huang of West HS won the Steenbock Youth Music Award (violin) for 2nd place,
Leah Latorraca of La Follette HS received Honorable Mention for her violin performance,
MSO Maestro John DeMain,
Joel Weng of West HS received Honorable Mention for his piano performance.
Greg Riss of Oregon won the Bolz Youth Music Award.
Photo credit: James Gill.
Lynn Scoby, a 2/3 grade teacher at Lindbergh Elementary, received National Board Certification in 2006 while employed in California.
So that now makes 30 MMSD teachers who are Board Certified – 2nd most among school districts in the state.
- Seven MMSD elementary school students scored exceptionally high on the American Mathematics Competitions for Grades 8 and under. In fact, Chris Xu, a 5th grade student at Muir Elementary, earned the highest score among all 1,477 Wisconsin participants. (Chris’ older sister, Iris, received the Siemens Award reported above.)
Peter Yang, also a 5th grader at Muir, made the Honor Roll of Distinction for scoring - like Xu - in the top 1% nationally among all test takers.
Bryan Jin, a 5th grader at Van Hise Elementary, joins Xu and Yang on the national Honor Roll for scoring in the top 5%.
Sage Ono, a 5th grader at Thoreau Elementary, earned a Certificate or Merit with the other 3 for scoring 15 or higher on the 25 question exam.
Three other elementary students earned Participation Certificates for scoring higher than the national average on this test intended for middle schoolers:
Connie Cai, 5th grade, Van Hise School
Charles Hua, 4th grade, Van Hise School
Noah Stockwell, 5th grade, Randall School
- Four business and accounting teachers have received Accounting Careers Awareness Grants from the WI Institute of Certified Public Accountants Educational Foundation. The $2,500 grants are going to Darrin Graham – La Follette HS, David Krutchen – East HS, Mary Lehrer – West HS, and Dave Thomas – Memorial HS.
February, 2010
- Eleven MMSD high school students have been selected as candidates in the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. This is the first of three levels leading to Presidential Scholar designation. Candidates, semifinalists and scholars are chosen based on their accomplishments in many areas.
The students are:
Nelson Auner, East HS
Timothy Choi, West HS
Laurel Hamers, Memorial HS
Benjamin Klug, West HS
Jane Lee, Memorial HS
Ansel Norris, East HS
Valerie Shen, Memorial HS
Wendi Sun, West HS
Eric Swaney, West HS
Peter Wear, West HS
Jacob Wolbert, West HS
- East HS student Darrel Butcher and West HS's Richard Jones won first and second place, respectively, in a Dane County spoken-word poetry competition at the Goodman Community Center. The competition encourages young people to use poetry as a means to tell their stories and to be agents of social change.
- Chelli Riddiough, a 2009 MMSD graduate, is one of 48 students in the nation whose submitted manuscript will be included in the book "The Best Teen Writing of 2009" from the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers.
- La Follette High School received $2,500 from State Farm® Insurance in Friday Night Feats - a national video contest highlighting the biggest moments from the 2009 high school football season.
The play featured a terrific block by La Follette's Will Norton against an opponent from Janesville Parker. It earned enough fan votes on YouTube to be one of 25 Zone Winners for the second half of the season. Click here to see the La Follette play. The $2,500 check was presented at a La Follette basketball game on January 12.
January, 2010
Lexi Slater, a 7th grader at Hamilton Middle School, recently entered and won a writing competition sponsored by the Commonwealth Development Corporation of Madison. It was called the Dane County Money Smart Kid Essay.
Lexi won a $1,000 EdVest scholarship for her age group, 6th - 8th grade. In her essay to President Obama, Lexi wrote about the ways that her family is coping with the tough economic times.
She will go to Governor Doyle's office in January to receive her award. Her letter will also be forwarded to the President.
MMSD Fine Arts Coordinator Julie Palkowski is the author of the featured article in the latest edition of Wisconsin School Musician magazine. Making the Most of the Concert Festival Experience is a case study of a collaborative project among the Madison School District, the Overture Center for the Arts, and the Wisconsin Music Educators Association that took place in April.
The project - Large Group Festival 2009 - provides "great information to help build successful performance and clinician experiences in the future."
December, 2009
- Emerson Elementary School physical education teacher Kitty Erdman is the Dance Educator of the Year according to the WI Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.
Erdman recently received the award which recognizes a dance educator who "shows evidence of effective teaching linked to standards, uses creative methodologies, promotes the understanding of dance, encourages the development of a sequential curriculum and encourages an overall appreciation for dance while serving as a positive role model for students."
November, 2009
Three MMSD elementary schools and one MMSD middle school are among the 138 recognized by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction with their annual Wisconsin Promise School of Recognition Award.
Congratulations to Black Hawk Middle and Hawthorne, Lowell and Orchard Ridge Elementary Schools for meeting the strict criteria set by DPI for this award:
- the school must have a high student poverty rate;
- student achievement on statewide reading and mathematics assessments is higher than the state average for schools with similar poverty rates;
- the school made adequate yearly progress for the past two years as defined under federal education laws;
- the school is Title I eligible or receives Title I funding.
The schools were recognized by the Madison Board of Education with a resolution on October 12, and by DPI during a special October 20 ceremony at the State Capitol.
August, 2009
- National Board Certified Teachers for the 2009/10 school year
Jill Cohan
Kelly Ferguson
Debora Gil R. Casado
Evan Gnam
Laura Godfrey
Robert Hetzel
Susan Hobart
Andrew Kuemmel
Patricia McDonald
Kirk Mefford
Ebby Melahn
Anne Moore
Mark Nepper
Mary Paulson
JoAnn Riecke
Lynn Scoby
Robin Staley
Mathew Thompson
Janet Tuccinardi
Chris Vander Ark
Kristin Voss
June, 2009
- Valerie Shen, a junior, and Troy Arneson, student counselor, both from Memorial High School, have been selected as 2009 scholars for the prestigious Bezos Scholars Program @ the Aspen Institute.
Valerie and Troy are among only 12 students and 12 educators selected for the program, open to juniors and educators at public high schools across the U.S.
Shen and Arneson receive scholarships to attend the Aspen Ideas Festival - June 30 - July 6, - in Aspen, CO where they'll meet world leaders, global thinkers and creative artists. They'll participate in seminars, plenary sessions and informal meetings offered throughout the Aspen Institute campus.
These top public high school juniors and engaged educators not only want to meet and share ideas with global visionaries, they plan to return home and replicate the acclaimed festival's spirit of inquiry, dialogue and debate in their schools and communities.
It should be noted that this marks the second consecutive year of Bezos Scholars from Memorial. In 2008, Hannah Postel attended the Aspen Ideas Festival with English teacher Kara Glasser.
- A team of students representing Hamilton Middle School took first place in the nation in WordMasters Challenge - a national language arts competition entered by over 230,000 students annually.
Coached by English teachers Betsy Sato, Mark Siegel, and Meredith Raimer, the school's 8th graders placed first in the nation in the year-end cumulative standings among 309 school teams participating in this level. The Challenge consists of three separate meets held at intervals during the school year.
Students Myfanway Adams and Ari Pollack won highest honors for the year-long individual achievement as well. Each made only one mistake in the course of the year's three meets. They were among the 28 highest ranked 8th graders in the entire country in the year-end standings.
In addition, six other Hamilton students won highest honors for individual achievement in the year's final meet: Micah Baum, Eric DeVries, Joe Monette, John O'Connell, Oliver Redsten, and Libby Scholz.
The WordMasters Challenge is an exercise in critical thinking that first encourages students to become familiar with a set of interesting new words (considerably harder than grade level), and then challenges them to use those words to complete analogies expressing various kinds of relationships.
- The Madison School District has received a What Parents Want Award for meeting the seven criteria most commonly cited by parents according to SchoolMatch - a school selection company.
SchoolMatch gave 16 percent of the nation's public school systems the award for meeting the criteria most commonly expressed in over 95,000 questionnaires. They are:
- competitive in academic test scores and academically solid, but not so rigorous as to intimidate their children
- accredited
- recognized for excellence by a national foundation or by the U.S. Department of Education
- competitive in teacher salaries
- above average in instructional expenditures on a national percentile basis
- above average in expenditures for library/media services on a national percentile basis
- known for small class size.
- Another recognition for the design of the Paul J. Olson Elementary School. The building won a 2009 Commercial Design Merit Award for Best Green-Built Project, a competition sponsored by In-Business Magazine of Greater Madison. See all the winners.
One of the judges wrote, "I think it's important that our kids grow up thinking it's normal to be green, to be sustainable... This is what it should be."
May, 2009
MMSD students are well-represented in two prominent recognition and scholarship programs.
- Suvai Gunasekaran of Memorial HS is one of two Wisconsin students named a Presidential Scholar, one of the nation's highest honors for high school students. Suvai will receive the Presidential Medallion in a White House ceremony in June.
Steve Guziewski, Suvai's physics teacher at Memorial, will accompany her to the nation's Capitol and receive the annual Teacher Recognition Award.
A few weeks earlier, two other MMSD students were among 12 in the state named Presidential Scholar Semifinalists. They are Hannah Postel of Memorial HS and Chelli Riddiough of West HS. They are among 560 semifinalists chosen among roughly 2.8 million high school seniors.
- Six MMSD students are 2009 All-State Scholars. Their names and high schools:
Dianna Amasino, West
Yang He, West
Antonio Puglielli, Memorial
Benjamin Seeger, Memorial
Runqi Song, West
Rachel Wang, Memorial
The 120 All-State Scholars are chosen based on their overall grade-point average and scores for the ACT or SAT college admission tests. Fifteen students are chosen from each of the eight Congressional districts in the state.
- Bonnie Augusta, GLBTQ Resource Teacher for the MMSD, received the Adult Ally of the Year Award from Diverse and Resilient, Inc. "for her ongoing support and encouragement of school-aged LGBT youth" in the Madison area.
Bonnie's accomplishments were highlighted at the awards ceremony in late April. Diverse and Resilient is a statewide nonprofit whose mission is the healthy development of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Wisconsin through the development of groups and communities to take action.
- The new Olson Elementary School is winning awards for its environmental design and construction.
Designed by Zimmerman Architectural Studios, Olson School has been selected by the editorial advisory board of the Real Estate & Construction Review as one of the best new green projects in the Midwest region. The project will be publicized as a Green Building of America Award-winning project.
Also, the school's design is one of only four to win a GOLD level award in the category of Sustainable Design by the Wisconsin Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers.
See this listing.
- Three of the 16 Excellence Awards given by the Wisconsin Association of Public, Educational and Government Access Channels went to MMSD-TV.
Congratulations to producer Lindy Anderson for her exceptional work on this year's video contest entries including:
"Don Hunt: A Lasting Impression"
"Welcome to Crestwood"
"Growing School Gardens.
The sponsoring organization, WAPC, represents community media centers throughout Wisconsin, and advocates for citizen access to and involvement in local, non-commercial media.
- A team of four La Follette HS students produced a winning multimedia documentary at the Wisconsin History Day competition earlier this month. Nick Jensen, Wendy Wolf, Colin Brochtrup and Bailey Derks produced Isaac Newton: Space Pioneer which, due to its selection, will be presented by these four students at the national competition next month.
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Susan Huang, an 11th grade West HS student, won a bronze medal for her research project at the 2009 International Sustainable World Project Olympiad held in Texas last month. Susan presented her research on the "Fabrication of Micro-Structured Stencils to Study Biofilm Formation".
Susan first worked on this project as part of the MMSD Summer High School Research Internship Program.
- The MMSD has been mentioned as a "pioneering school district already engaged in robust energy conservation efforts" as part of a news release announcing a green computing certification program by a professional association for school district technology.
The release from the Consortium for School Networking quotes Supt. Dan Nerad on two reasons for MMSD's efforts toward energy conservation: "Clearly, it provides many ways for us to reduce our operating costs and save money but more importantly, it allows us to model for our children and the community we serve, steps each of us must take to protect our Earth."
March, 2009
In the spotlight - City Spelling Champ, Topnotch Teachers and others
- Congratulations to Toki Middle School 8th-grade student Brandon Dumas, who took 1st place in Madison's 2009 All-City Spelling Bee.
Several other MMSD students were among the top 10 finishers. They include:
3rd place: Ben Gellman, Spring Harbor MS,
4th place: Miriam Plane, O'Keeffe MS, and
5th place tie: Kyson Dams, Emerson Elementary School, Cayleigh Hickey, Sennett MS, Chloe Robinson, Thoreau ES and Libby Scholz, Hamilton MS.
Brandon Dumas represented Madison in the Badger State Spelling Bee on March 14.
- Brooksy Beilke-Skoug and Fawn O'Brien have been featured recently as Topnotch Teachers of the Month by WISC-TV. Beilke-Skoug is a dynamic chorus teacher at East High School while O'Brien -- a 6th grade teacher at Whitehorse Middle School -- is cited for her excellence in math instruction.
The video reports on each of these outstanding teachers can be viewed by clicking here and choosing February and/or January 2009 Topnotch Teacher.
- Four Madison high school teachers have been awarded Accounting Careers Awareness Grants from the Wisconsin Certified Public Accountants Educational Foundation.
The four business teachers are Darrin Graham - La Follette, David Krutchen - East, Mary Lehrer - West, and Dave Thomas - Memorial.
The grants will be used so that students can participate in an accounting seminar and in financial literacy events called Mad City Money.
- A 5th grade student at Stephens Elementary, Bryce Piotrowski, has qualified to participate in the 2009 Wisconsin State Geographic Bee.
After Bryce won a competition at his school, his score on a National Geographic Society qualifying test was among the top 100 scores in the state, advancing him to the State Bee in early April in Madison.
February, 2009
In the spotlight - Memorial sweeps Siemens Awards in state
The prestigious scholarships - also sponsored by the College Board - are given to two students per state who have earned the greatest number of scores of 5 in math and science Advanced Placement courses during their high school years. Each student receives a $2,000 college scholarship from the Siemens Foundation.
Suvai is a very active member of her senior class. Among her many activities is that she serves as president of the Spanish Club. Antonio is also a senior and has volunteered numerous hours for various organizations in Madison.
Congratulations to Suvai and Antonio, their families and all the teachers and other MMSD staff who have worked with these outstanding students.
- Five MMSD students have been selected as candidates for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. They are Emma Cornwell, Hannah Postel and Benjamin Seeger of Memorial High School, and Dianna Amasino and Chelli Riddiough of West High School.
Each year some 3,000 candidates are identified based on having scored exceptionally well on the College Board SAT or the ACT Assessment. Scholars are eventually chosen on the basis of their leadership and involvement in school and community in addition to their academics.
Congratulations to these five students.
- The following ten students will represent Memorial HS at the state conference of the Future Business Leaders of America, having qualified at the regional conference:
Anna Seely & Nathan Powell (Global Business)-1st Place Team
Ebony Balele (Personal Finance)
Jordan Carlin (Business Law)
Julia Gu (Accounting I)
Suvai Gunasekaran (Business Calculations)
Connor Haas (Economics)
Michael Miernowski (Accounting I)
Arjun Seshadri (Business Math)
Sam Shabtaie (Public Speaking II)
January, 2009
In the spotlight - 2 out of 3 … is great
- Two of the three Wisconsin students who scored a 36 on the ACT in October 2008 are from Madison. Valerie Shen, an 11th grade student at Memorial HS, and Sungik Yang, a 12th grade student at West HS, attained the highest possible composite score on the college qualifying test.
Only 69 students in the nation achieved this score, making this "truly distinguished", according to the ACT.
- Madison teacher is one of 74 in Wisconsin to earn national board certification in 2008. Debora Gil R. Casado, a social studies teacher at Memorial HS, now has board certification status - a voluntary process that requires teachers to demonstrate exceptional professional practice and in depth subject-area knowledge.
Debora is one of 20 teachers in the MMSD who now hold national board certification; that's the 3rd highest number of nationally certified teachers.
December, 2008
Recognition for MMSD educators and schools
Six MMSD educators have been honored recently by the UW-Madison School of Education.
(L-R) Suzanne Folberg of O'Keeffe MS, Jane Stimac of Stephens ES, Leslie Kebbekus formerly of Stephens ES, and Geoffrey Herman of Memorial HS all received the 2008 Rockwell Award (Ruth and Roland Rockwell, bottom row) for excellent teachers who have chosen to pass on their expertise by providing professional experiences for UW-Madison student teachers.
Carlettra Stanford, principal at Gompers ES, received the Nemec Distinguished Elementary Education Award as a graduate in Elementary Education who has demonstrated commitment and distinguished service as a classroom teacher and/or educational administrator. Stanford is shown with MMSD Supt. Dan Nerad.
Monica Urbanik, art teacher at East HS, received the Heideman Secondary Education Award for demonstrated commitment and distinguished service as a teacher and/or educational leader.
These six educators were honored at the School of Education's Partners Banquet during American Education Week.
Photos by Kerry G. Hill.
Spring Harbor and Wright Middle Schools have been commended recently by being named an Exemplary Middle School as determined by the Association of WI School Administrators and the WI Dept of Public Instruction.
The recognition is based on high scores or high growth in scores on student reading and math assessments in the past year.
Luis Yudice, MMSD Coordinator of Safety and Security, has received a special honor from Edgewood College. The Madison-based college honored Yudice with the Mazzuchelli Medallion Award, the school's highest honor for alumni and given to persons who exemplify the values of St. Dominic.
Luis is a retired captain from the Madison Police Department and has been in his MMSD post since August 2006.
The Madison School District received the Wisconsin Partners for Clean Air Recognition Award from the WPCA for its voluntary efforts to improve air quality. The MMSD is the only school district and one of only four organizations so honored this year.
The award says the district will make "significant improvements on air quality (through its) ingenious approach of using internal improvements to save energy and money while also educating students."
David Ross, social studies teacher at West HS, has received the Outstanding Teaching in Wisconsin Award from Lawrence University, one of two K-12 teachers so honored this year.
Nominated by Lawrence senior and former West student Jeanette Devereaux-Weber, Ross graduated from West and has been teaching there since 1993. He previously was given two outstanding teacher citations by the University of Chicago also based on former student nominations.
Five MMSD principals -- Nancy Evans of Wright MS, Anne Fischer of Affiliated Alternatives, Sandy Gunderson of Mendota ES, Alan Harris of East HS and Lisa Kvistad of Lowell ES -- have earned a 10-year WI Master Educator License that, according to DPI's announcement, "shows true devotion to education."
Earlier this year, the same five principals completed the WI Urban Schools Leadership Project -- a Wallace Foundation funded project which brought together strong urban school leaders with education faculty from three Wisconsin universities to transform school leadership in the state.
At the 25th annual recognition event in November for this year's finalists for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, the Wisconsin DPI also recognized finalists for the past 25 years for this award. Eighteen of the former finalists were or are from the Madison School District.
Do you know or remember these outstanding teachers?
Math finalists: Peter Barbella, Ray Blum, Karen Falkner, Suzanne Folberg, Cheryl Hoyt, Mazie Jenkins, Jo Olson, Doug Yost and Nan Youngerman;
Science finalists: Sheila Briggs, William Carey, Alan Ginsberg, Marilyn Hanson, Kathryn Lee, Candace Nerge (2000 National Award winner), Don Vincent, Mark Wagler and Frank Zuerner.
to Madison!
