Student Body

A group of 14 Glendale High School students have already been to college. Associated Student Body members took a 12-hour train ride up the scenic coast to attend a California Assn. of Student Councils leadership conference at Stanford University, then took a side junket to San Francisco just to take in all the sites. It was the first time student-body members took such a trip, advisor Mary Hazlett said. "The bonding and sharing they did on the train and at the conference gave them the communication and leadership skills to lead them through the challenges they'll face throughout the year," Hazlett said.

Some 1,000 students at Roosevelt Middle School got their last-minute instructions Monday before going out to sell candy for the Associated Student Body. The money raised from the candy sale will go to the student body and student clubs and organizations of their choice. The drama class did skits to demonstrate the right and wrong way to sell the candy, World's Finest Chocolates. The students were urged not to go out alone and be kind and courteous because they represent the school.

Student Body President Lauren Fong tapped her gavel on the podium in front of her. Approximately 30 representatives of clubs and campus organizations at Woodrow Wilson Middle School, as well as class officers, were clustered near her as she read the tallies for last week's expenditures. Every Monday at lunch student officers meet with apples, tater tots and pizza slices on their desks to discuss the new and old business of events, clubs and organizations on campus. "Oh my gosh, that was so many checks," Lauren, 13, of Glendale said.

GLENDALE — Some high schools are selling sweets to the bitter end. Certain candy and junk food items will be barred from sale at schools statewide starting July 1, as state legislation goes into effect. Senate Bill 12 — passed into law in September 2005 — changes the nutritional code for food items sold at elementary, middle and high schools. It puts a calorie restriction of 250 calories for food items sold individually, among other restrictions on sugar and fat content.

Judy Seckler GLENDALE HIGH SCHOOL -- In preparation for the start of school on Sept. 7, Glendale High School is distributing student program information on the campus today through Thursday. Signage will direct students to the right location. Seniors can pick up class schedules from 8:30 to 11 a.m. today. Program information for juniors will be available from 8:30 to 11 a.m. Wednesday. Sophomores can pick up class information from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Hundreds of Rosemont students, families, and friends turned out for the annual Family Fun Night on the school's campus last Friday evening, April 27. The lower field was dotted with carnival-type booths, with students hawking everything from cotton candy to a chance to knock down milk bottles with a ball. Representatives from Kid Krazy provided face painting services and an expert balloon sculptor. The Korean Parents Club served delicious traditional food. For the less culinary adventurous, the Kiwanis had the barbecue going with hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken sandwiches.

Kicking off a week of Western-themed events, Hoover High School students, tied together at the calves, hopped, skipped and dragged their way to the finish line in an old-fashioned three-legged race Monday. The high school's Associated Student Body organized daily activities as a prelude to Friday's Sadie Hawkins dance, and Monday's three-legged race winning team, Shara Davoodi and Derik Ziraky, from the class of 2008, won free admittance to the dance, said Vaheh Hartoonian, 16, a senior and the club's director of public relations.

So it appears that Glendale Unified's College View School for special needs students is finally going to get some love. After the campus - built in 1977 - was passed over during the last bond go-around, district officials now are poised to give it a makeover in the $17 million to $19 million range. The most expensive proposal would revamp the site to accommodate traditional students for a “mixed” student body, a model that is favored by state officials. But more than that, it would give teachers the amenities and badly needed infrastructure to prepare their students for the future.

On Friday, Feb. 20 students at Crescenta Valley High School were treated to a special assembly by “Teen Truth Live,” an organization that raises awareness of drug abuse and bullying in schools. Pupils gathered at the campus’ MacDonald Auditorium early in the morning, most of them with little idea about what the assembly would address. Once the auditorium lights dimmed, a 22-minute film began; it was a presentation created with the help of teenagers around the nation, focusing on certain issues that might pressure teenagers to use alcohol and various types of drugs.

So it appears that Glendale Unified's College View School for special needs students is finally going to get some love. After the campus - built in 1977 - was passed over during the last bond go-around, district officials now are poised to give it a makeover in the $17 million to $19 million range. The most expensive proposal would revamp the site to accommodate traditional students for a “mixed” student body, a model that is favored by state officials. But more than that, it would give teachers the amenities and badly needed infrastructure to prepare their students for the future.

They may not have been there to occupy, but the two dozen student government leaders who visited Glendale City Hall on Thursday expressed many of the same concerns as protesters camped out in New York City, Oakland and downtown Los Angeles. “I feel like way too many people are in debt after college,” said Salar Hajimirsadeghi, 17, a senior at Crescenta Valley High School. “They study so hard to become something in the future, but once they get out, they are just trying to pay the bills.

Editor's Note: Numerous instances of plagiarism have been discovered in Dan Kimber's “Education Matters” column, which ran in the News- Press from September 2003 to September 2011. In those columns where plagiarism has been found, a For the Record specifying the details will be appended to the piece. I don't usually respond to letters written to this paper, but I'm going to make an exception here because it allows me to follow up on a suggestion I made in last week's column and comment further on a subject that has been simmering in my mind for years.

On Friday, Feb. 20 students at Crescenta Valley High School were treated to a special assembly by “Teen Truth Live,” an organization that raises awareness of drug abuse and bullying in schools. Pupils gathered at the campus’ MacDonald Auditorium early in the morning, most of them with little idea about what the assembly would address. Once the auditorium lights dimmed, a 22-minute film began; it was a presentation created with the help of teenagers around the nation, focusing on certain issues that might pressure teenagers to use alcohol and various types of drugs.

The Crescenta Valley High School Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) program commemorated Veterans Day with its annual school-wide assembly on Thursday, Nov. 13. The assembly honored three local veterans, informed the student body of the five military branches and raised awareness for Operation Gratitude, a letter-writing project hosted by the JROTC program. The day started off with a formal reveille ceremony on Community Avenue at the school flagpole. Students, school office staff and guest speakers somberly observed as JROTC cadets methodically raised the United States flag to the top of the pole.

During his years at Glendale High School in the 1960s, Pat Navolanic was a varsity athlete, stellar student and president of the Associated Student Body. Fittingly, Glendale High senior Henrietta Movsessian, who was named the winner of the 2008 Pat Navolanic Memorial Award on Friday, shares these accomplishments with the award’s namesake. Navolanic went to Stanford University after graduating from Glendale High in 1963. He died at the age of 20, while studying abroad in France.

At a 2,000-plus-student school like Hoover High, it’s not always easy keeping students in the loop about all the classes and activities that are going on. So this week, arts educators launched the school’s first-ever Arts Advocacy Week on campus, to spread the word to the school’s own students about the varied arts offerings happening on campus. “We want the students on campus to be aware of what we do,” said Mary Anna Pomonis, a Hoover art instructor who also advises the school’s extracurricular art club.

Members of the Don José Verdugo Chapter, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, honored five local young women at its annual Good Citizen Award ceremony held recently at the La Cañada Flintridge Country Club. The Good Citizen Award is presented to students for outstanding work they do for home, school, community and country. The students are selected by school faculty committees based on the qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism. The young women, all seniors, represent five local high schools and were selected for this prestigious award.

The Crescenta Valley has had some wild weather of late with some residents even enjoying a light dusting of snow on their front lawns. But at Rosemont Middle School, there was enough snow on Jan. 25 to have a fun snowball fight, slide down an embankment and even make a tiny, but significant, snowman. The snow was actually trucked in by Snow For Parties and was part of the after school Winter Wonderland Dance sponsored by the Associated Student Body. It was dumped onto the embankment at the entrance to the cafeteria, where the dance was being held.