April 2015

Page 1

The World Is Our Campus Volume 62, Issue 8

April 2015

Arcadia High School 180 Campus Drive, Arcadia, CA

THEY’RE ALL ON BOARD

In this issue:

Graphic courtesy of USERS2.UNIMI.IT

OPINION pg. 6 Strung Out: Concerned about schoolwork? Don’t be; that kind of stress might actually be beneficial to one’s success.

Photo courtesy of CUNG NGUYEN

BEHIND THE SCENES These five men and women of the Board of Education work tirelessly to furnish

Arcadia’s students with the best education possible and to prepare them for the future. By EMILY SCHUBE Staff Writer Photo courtesy of ALYSSA PIDLAOAN

PERFORMING ARTS pg. 10 Throw your Flags Up: Pep Flag spirited its way to the top 10 in two national tournaments.

Graphic courtesy of JFRANKDOBIE.ORG

ACADEMICS pg. 19 The Talk Show: Speech & Debate recently hosted its Speech Follies event to showcase the skills of its orators. Have a question, comment, or concern about The Apache Pow Wow? Email the Editors-in-Chief at eic.powwow@gmail.com Find us online at arcadiapowwow.wordpress.com

Arcadia’s students come to school five days a week for about 36 weeks each school year from kindergarten to senior year. Even with all these days, weeks, and years’ worth of knowledge, many students are unaware of the origins of their education. The curriculum does not magically appear into a teacher’s textbook or lesson plan. In actuality, it starts with the AUSD Board of Education (BOE). The BOE is made up of President Lori Phillipi, Vice President Kay Kinsler, Clerk Janet Chew, and members Cung Nguyen and Fenton Eng. They have been working together for over two years now, tackling budget issues, promoting educational reform, and making sure Arcadia’s schools grow stronger. Whether it is informing the public through speeches, organizing meetings, or formalizing documents, “every board member has equal responsibility,” explained Ms. Chew. She added, “We strive to be a relationshipdriven organization that works collaboratively with our staff, parents, [and]

students.” With that, major proposals are being put in motion, like the $218 million that was raised for the new upgrades and impressive remodeling throughout Arcadia’s 11 school campuses. Mr. Nguyen revealed that the BOE “also engages and collaborates with the community and serves as a liaison to various community and school based organizations,” titling the members as both leaders and privileged supporters. “We implement and approve policy, curriculum and textbook adoption, [handle] the budget, and set direction for the District,” Mr. Nguyen said, “We also approve contracts for the administrators, teachers, and non-certificated employees, as well as the contracts for the architects and design team that prepared the construction.” Not only that, programs such as AVID, AP Open Access, character encouragement, and so much more are formulated by the BOE. With all that hard work comes many achievements, and the BOE couldn’t be prouder of what it has helped to accomplish so far. “We all work together to come up with things to do,” Mrs. Phillippi confirmed. “It’s not just individual people, it’s everyone working together to come to the right

solutions that are best for our kids.” And according to the U.S. News and World Report, their solutions were even better than expected, as AHS earned a gold medal in the Best High School rankings of 2014. This result comes not just from the efforts of the AUSD, but from the many intelligent and diligent students among all the schools in Arcadia. “That [hard work] does not only exist [in the BOE], but in all levels of the district, amongst staff members, students, and even parents. The collaborative culture is very important for us in being successful,” Mrs. Phillipi exclaimed. Mrs. Kinsler agreed, stating, “We are very fortunate to have extremely dedicated, professional people in the district, and we all want to do our best.” Mrs. Chew mentioned, “I have seen such tremendous progress and improvement over the years, but what makes Arcadia great is that it is continually striving to be better and is innovative in meeting the changing needs of our students.” It is great to know that Arcadia’s schools are in the hands of these five dedicated members, as well as all the other supportive staff and teachers involved. eschube@apachepowwow.com


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