Glendale High School

For the small price of 12 songs, Glendale High School's chamber choir got free admission to "The Happiest Place on Earth" Friday. The 27 singers gathered in the school's choir room before getting on the bus to Disneyland, where they would perform a 23-minute program on the Plaza Garden Stage ? formerly the Carnation Stage. For 17-year-old Alexandra Nagy, singing to a passing crowd of tourists was second to enjoying the special access to the hidden parts of the theme park. "I get really excited about it," Alexandra said.

Glendale students and city workers are among the hundreds of thousands in Washington for today’s historic presidential inauguration. A group of 14 Glendale High School students made the trip with two of their history teachers, as did Fire Chief Harold Scoggins, who said the opportunity of seeing Barack Obama sworn in as the nation’s first black president was too momentous to miss. “When you think of the significance of this, the first African-American president, that can only happen once,” Scoggins said from the nation’s capitol Monday.

The excitement of three Glendale High School students is almost palpable as they wait to find out if they’ll be chosen to dance in a Jennifer Lopez music video. Anna Avagyan, Violet Ismailyan and Arpi Takhmasyan are among 10 dancers from across the country competing in an online video casting call, Secret’s Show Us Your Moves. “Wow, it feels really great,” said Violet, 16. “I’m really excited about it and I hope I get to work with her.” Entrants were asked to submit a 30-second video online of them dancing, or they could go to the live auditions held in Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Miami, Las Vegas or Dallas.

Youth may be wasted on the young, but talent isn’t — at least it wasn’t at Glendale High School’s annual variety show on Friday night, where student singers, dancers and musicians converged onto one stage to exhibit their skills. More than 25 students’ acts, ranging from belly dancers to solo drummers took part in this year’s show, which was organized by the school’s dance and drill team for the eighth year in a row. The show is a way for the dance team to try out their routines with an audience, and a way to showcase the talents of other Glendale High School groups, said Kelly Palmer, the director of the drill and dance team.

GLENDALE ? The needs of English-language learners were the focus of a hearing on Wednesday as State Deputy Supt. of Instruction Bill Padilla visited Glendale High School to hear public comment on ways to modify the No Child Left Behind Act. Padilla held the hearing as part of a series of open forums designed to gather suggestions that state officials can take to Congress as it considers reauthorizing the act next year. No Child Left Behind, enacted in 2001, sets federal accountability measures for schools, including stiffer requirements for assessment tests.

Before entering Glendale’s Youth and Family Services house, observers can already see the dedication and hard work of Glendale High School seniors Jennifer and Michelle Regalado in the recently planted front garden. The twins spent the last semester sprucing up the front of the building at 815 E. Harvard St. But their service to the nonprofit doesn’t end there. The Regalados joined the Youth and Family Services Program during the summer of their junior year because they wanted to make a difference in their community.

The echoes of hip-hop remixes and contemporary dance routines bounced through crowded gyms Saturday at Glendale High School, as hundreds of California teens converged on the site for a regional dance competition. Groups of girls twirled in shimmering skirts and skin-tight suits in a practice room, while others stood by to coach and critique teams before they performed in front of bleachers full of screaming onlookers and judges from the United Spirit Assn., which sponsors a national competition series.

Winter break for students on the 10-time national champion Glendale High School dance team has meant one thing: more time for practice. The team, which started its 16-week season last week with a win at a national competition in Las Vegas, will convene from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. most days during the school recess because of what has become a common enthusiasm among team members to be the best in the country, Coach Kelly Palmer said. “There’s kind of a fever brewing with these kids,” Palmer said.

GLENDALE ? After his first day at Glendale High School on Monday, 17-year-old Yuuki Shitashimizu said he would prefer that the teachers switch classrooms in between periods. It would be more like the system back home in Osaka, Japan, he said. "It's very different," he said. "Students don't move to class." Yuuki and five of his classmates from Nisshin High School arrived Saturday from one of Glendale's sister cities ? Osaka, Japan ? for an annual exchange program with the city's high schools.