Greetings from Principal Scuderi Dear BHS Families: For non-emergency situations, take comfort in the fact that "tweets" are limited to 140 characters so you won't be inundated by a slew of overly long messages.
If student's are late, or arriving at odd hours due to appointments, etc, they may enter the campus by showing a current BHS I.D. to campus monitors at either the "A" gate or the gate at Milvia and Bancroft between the old gym and the new pool building. Dear BHS Families: Inaccurate Reports on Teen ProstitutionDear BHS Families: In the last few days media items have raised questions about teenage prostitution in the city of Berkeley, and in some cases those stories have contained speculation and/or drawn connections to Berkeley High School. This is an extremely serious issue that warrants attention, but I feel that a particular headline released by KTVU this morning on their website and in an accompanying television piece, Reports of Teenage Hookers Rock Berkeley High School , did a massive disservice to the BHS community. From my perspective, KTVU prioritized the need for a salacious, tabloid-style headline over a thorough, fact-checked report. KTVU cites supposedly confirmed reports that Berkeley police are "receiving one to two referrals per month from BHS officials about suspected student prostitution." This is incorrect and inaccurate, and no one at BHS was contacted for input, confirmation, or comment on the report. Our current understanding is that the one or two reports BPD receives per month on possible youth prostitution are citywide numbers. The Berkeley Police Department subsequently confirmed today in both a meeting with myself and via press release, that in 2010 their Special Victim's Unit investigated three (3) cases that involved BHS students. So far this year, BPD has investigated two (2) cases that they say involved BHS students. None of these investigations involved prostitution on the BHS campus, nor were they centered anywhere within the jurisdiction of Berkeley High School. I am grateful for our ongoing collaborative relationship with law enforcement, yet law enforcement agencies are in fact restricted in terms of the information that they can share with us when incidents occur off campus and outside of our jurisdiction. In October, the City of Berkeley's Commission on the Status of Women held a community forum that raised issues about the sexual exploitation of minors within the city. That forum, and a subsequent forum last night, led to the exploration of whether the juveniles involved were connected to Berkeley High School. Berkeley High supports the stated objectives of the Commission, has spoken with the chair, and plans to have representatives meet with them in the coming days. Our counseling staff and administrative team both discussed the matter this morning in light of the news reports and recalled no more than one or two cases that came directly to our attention over the past several years. Those cases were referred to the proper authorities and followed up on extensively. Teen prostitution, or any sexual exploitation of minors is obviously a grim matter, and in my estimation, one of the most contemptible and degrading forms of child abuse. Berkeley High School administrators and counselors will, if and when cases like this come to our attention, always follow-up on any and all reports with an aggressive package of actions and interventions. Those actions and interventions will include immediate referrals to both Child Protective Services (CPS) and on-site mental and physical health care professionals (BHS Health Center), as well as referrals to school counselors. Our process and response, should cases arise, will also happen in consultation with local law enforcement. We are not naïve to the fact that among our 3200 students there are those who are struggling through incomprehensibly difficult issues, and that some of those kids, often neglected and inadequately supported, can end up in appalling situations and circumstances. That said, one case of this type of is too many and we will continue to do our best to identify and support all students in any danger of physical or emotional harm by directing the resources we have at our disposal towards them, and by helping them access all of the services available to them via our partnering agencies and organizations. I am committed to being open and communicative about both the best and most challenging aspects of this very expansive and most amazing school. As always, my team and I are committed to giving you accurate and unvarnished information pertaining to Berkeley High School both when there are matters relevant to student welfare to be shared and when external reports need to be contextualized, corrected, or put in proper perspective. Respectfully, Pasquale Scuderi Principal Berkeley High School
BHS Construction update #6This is BHS Construction Report #6, providing the most accurate information regarding all BHS Construction projects.
The committee decided that bi-monthly construction reports will provide sufficient updates to the community. Every other communication will include an attachment of the Site Committee minutes. Timeline / BHS Facility Site Committee Minutes
PowerSchool is up and running |
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Elected |
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1. Mohammad Kazerouni |
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2. Julie Sinai |
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3. Margit Roos-Collins |
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4. Satish Rao |
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5. Diana Kuderna |
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6. Landi Ehnle |
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One alternate |
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7. Paul Steckel |
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Berkeley High School BSEP Site Committee
Elected
1. Hector Cárdenas |
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2. Seth Chazin |
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3. Karen Laws |
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4. Marjorie Alvord |
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5. Carol Brownstein |
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Two alternates: |
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6. Calvin Eng |
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7. Jeremy Thorner |
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Also ran: |
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8. Heidi Goldstein |
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9. Karen Ginsberg Beroldo |
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Thoughts About the Elections?
As many of you know, past practice has been to conduct elections at the first PTSA meeting of the year. Turnout for elections has never been much above 300 people. Last year we tried to increase turnout by extending voting hours to the following day, but six hours of open polls only yielded about 25 more votes. This year the Principal asked the PTSA to conduct elections on Back to School Night, in hopes that turnout would be higher.
The turnout did not improve. Polls stayed open nearly an hour after class visits had concluded; we stayed until no more parents were walking through the courtyard. Furthermore, the attendance at the first PTSA meeting fell to less than about 1/3 of the usual turnout. Those who did come were very impressed by the candidate speeches and the Principal's presentation on the State of the School, but the vast majority of you missed that event. Obviously we are all very busy and it's hard to do it all, especially when events pile up at the beginning of the year. However, people are missing opportunities to be informed participants in the life of the school.
I would love to hear ideas from all of you as to how to improve parent engagement - in terms of volunteers, candidates, and voters. What makes people come out and get involved? What are the barriers? Should the Principal give his presentations on YouTube? Are Community Forums a thing of the past? Are online communications more inclusive or less? Should we also consider online voting? Voting in the spring instead of fall? Voting in more than one location? (If so, we're going to need a lot more volunteers to work on outreach and elections - there's only so much a small group of us can do to pull this off in a short period of time.)
Tell you what - send an email to bhs.president@gmail.com . I'll collect your input, and I'll bring it to the PTSA Exec for discussion with Principal Scuderi. In the meantime, my deep appreciation for all the candidates who came forward, all the volunteers who helped, and the voters who voted (or would have if only..) We're all doing the best we can, and next time, maybe we'll do it a little better than our best. And meanwhile, help those improvements become possible by volunteering your ideas and some of your time: help with communications, website, events, elections, parent education..whatever you care about most: http://natashabee.wufoo.com/ forms/ptsa-volunteers/
Sincerely,
Natasha Beery
Welcome back, everyone! Time for a new year, and time for new folks (and old) to come forward to bring the school community together and make this a better place for every student and family at Berkeley HIgh. And how do we do that? We serve on committees , we love committees, right? Of course right!
Most of you have served on school-wide committees in the past, and I'm hoping many of you are still willing to serve in the future, and also hoping you have friends, acquaintances, people you've met who you might just be able to corral into joining just one more committee. Please forward (or adapt this email) to people you think might be tempted to come forward this year:
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Please come to Berkeley High on Thursday, September 8th for the Parent/Community Information Meeting in the BHS Library, from 7:00 to 8:00. If you've served on a committee before, come prepared to talk it up. If you haven't, come with questions. And I'll bring cookies if you will...
Here's what we're looking for:
PTSA (Parent Teacher Student Association) In order to improve the learning environment for all students at Berkeley High School, the PTSA works to: * Build community and partnerships across the whole school * Encourage school-wide discussion about issues that affect the lives of students * Provide information, skills and opportunities to work together constructively.
PTSA Leadership: 6 elected positions: President: Yes, it's up for grabs, time for me to step down, but I'll help the next person step up! 3 Vice Presidents: Act as liaisons for each of 3 main areas: Community, Communications, and Events Secretary: Keep minutes, act as Historian or Parlimentarian if needed. Treasurer: Behave responsibly with money! (Don't worry, it's not a lot of money)
PTSA Volunteers (not elected, we just need you to come on forward!)
Community:
Communications:
Education and Events
That's It! Please contact me to let me know that you're coming to the meeting, or if you have further questions!
Thanks,
Natasha Beery PTSA President 2009-2011, BSEP Site Committee, 2009-2010
According to No Child Left Behind, all high schools are required to turn over to the military the names and addresses of juniors and seniors for recruitment purposes. Earlier this year all juniors and seniors at Berkeley High School were given the opportunity to opt out of the NCLB list. Berkeley High did not turn over personal information on any students who requested that their information be withheld. However, it is important to know that the military has other means than direct school to military contact to gather information on potential recruits.
JAMRS or Joint Advertising Market Research Studies is a database funded by the Department of Defense with a registry of 30 million Americans between the ages of 16 and 25. The database stores information such as name, date of birth, gender, mailing address, e-mail address, race, ethnicity, telephone number, high school name, graduation date, Grade Point Average, college intent, military interest, field of study, and the ASVAB test score. The Department of Defense acquires this information through private data brokers and marketing companies that specialize in collecting information about youth including the SATs. JAMRS will hand over this information to the military recruiters unless there is a request to opt out.
During 2nd period announcements on Wednesday December 14th 2011, all students will be given the opportunity to opt out of the JAMRS database. Students who do not wish for their information to be sold to the military should complete the JAMRS opt out form.
Berkeley High will compile a list of the names and address of students who do not want to be contacted by the military and send it to JAMRS.
NOTE: students who are 15.6 years or younger will need a parent signature. These students may take the JAMRS opt out letter home and return it to the front office by January 13th 2011.
Any student who is absent on December 14th the can pick up a JAMRS opt out form from the front office. There will be a box in the front office where students can return their completed JAMRS opt out forms.
If you have questions about JAMRS additional information can be found at http://www.baypeace.org . All students will be given the opportunity to opt out of the JAMRS database.
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Vernon L. Walton Jr.
Vice-Principal
Academic Choice
Berkeley High School
Please sign up for Escrip at www.escrip.com (BHS Group ID#137646958). Through this program, 2 to 4% of your shopping dollars are donated to the BHS Development Group at no cost to you. 25% of those funds are put aside for the Athletic Fund. Even if you already signed up for Escrip, you MUST sign up again each year to participate. It's very easy-go to the Escrip website and click the RENEW NOW button. If you have questions, or if you prefer not to enroll online, please contact: [mailto: marianberges@ earthlink.net ] and put "escrip" in the subject line.
Greetings BHS Families:
This year I am utilizing the Twitter platform to add another dimension to our school's communication capabilities with families and students.
Twitter's short, 140-character text messaging and micro-blogging capabilities will in no way be a replacement for the e-tree, but it will enhance our capabilities to communicate reminders for major school events, school news, and calendar changes directly to the smart-phones, devices, and computers of our students and families.
If need be the platform can also provide a rapid way to get preliminary information out to parents and students during an emergency or in the event that a crisis develops on or around campus.
If you are interested in following our updates sign up for a Twitter account and follow our posts. Please encourage your students to sign up as well.
The address is: @bhsinfo
We look forward to the beginning of the school year and to partnering with you to have a great year.
The annual, and in-depth, summer mailing should arrive at your homes within the next few weeks.
Respectfully,
Pasquale Scuderi
Principal
Berkeley High School
WriterCoach Connection (WCC) is a rewarding experience working with students one-on-one during class time on their writing assignments. For over 10 years at Berkeley High, volunteer writer coaches have been helping students strengthen their writing and thinking skills by giving them constructive feedback and building their confidence as writers. The time commitment is only 1-2 hours, usually twice per month. This year we're coaching all 9th and 10th graders in Community Partnerships Academy and 12th graders in Green Academy!
Coaching is during class on the following days and times (but not every week):
Thursdays: 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th period
Fridays: 1st and 2nd period
You do not have to be a writer to be a writer coach - WCC provides hands-on training to give you all you'll need to be a terrific coach. Community members of all backgrounds, ethnicities and walks of life are welcomed. Fall training sessions are now underway. For the complete training schedule and more information, go to www.writercoachconnection. org (click on "Volunteer").
Sahib-Amar Khalsa
BHS Site Coordinator - WriterCoach Connection
The scrip program needs an infusion of new energy!
A. We need a monthly deliverer for North Berkeley, north of Solano Ave. This is a good route to walk/hike and takes about an hour or so.
B. We need a co-coordinator. For the last 4 years, there has been one person doing purchase, distribution, deposits, and accounting. That person is getting tired! We're looking for someone to share the coordinator job. A new volunteer could do one of two aspects of coordination:
1. Purchase scrip from stores, process monthly orders, distribute those orders to neighborhood deliverers, and fill occasional orders as they come in throughout the month. Depending on the number of requests for scrip during the month, this job takes 7 or more hours per month
OR
2. Make deposits and do the accounting at the end of the month. This is the smaller of the two jobs. We usually do 3 deposits each month. This work takes 4- 5 hours per month.
IF you are the least bit interested or just want to find out more about the jobs, please contact Linda Safarik-Tong at scrip@bhsdg.org . No pressure, I promise!
The BHS Parent College Handbook Committee is seeking someone to help finalize the formatting of the Spanish-translation of the BHS College Application Handbook for Parents and Families of Seniors for the Class of 2012. The document is in Microsoft Word. We seek someone who could do this between approximately August 20 and September 7. Our experience suggests that this is a lot easier to do on a PC (rather than a Mac), because the translator uses a PC to make changes in the Word files. Fluency in Spanish is not necessary, but the ability to check for consistency of the text by matching paragraphs would be helpful.
The Spanish-translation of the BHS College Application Handbook greatly helps Spanish-speaking parents at Berkeley High because it makes college information more accessible. If you can help with this activity, please contact Frances Cohen ( frances.cohen@ucsf.edu ).
Attention all Berkeley High Athletics fans. The attached flyer is about the 5 th Annual Berkeley High School Golf Classic on May 4. The proceeds from this popular annual golf event allow BHS to continue to offer freshman sports. Thanks for your support!
Senior Ball is May 5 at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. A shuttle option to and from the event is being arranged.
Graduation will occur on Friday, June 15, 2012 from 5:30-8:00pm. More information is available at: http://bhs.berkeleyschools. net/student-activities-3/ senior-information/ .
A letter with detailed senior information including graduation ticket prices will be mailed home soon.
If you can help, please let me know which day and which shift. You can contact me at jhuseby@pacbell.net