Principal's Weekly Update #59

A Big Thank You - to the Language Arts Department and Stacy Shube, Department Chair, for organizing our PLC presentation last Monday – “Step up to Writing”. I appreciate everyone’s dedication and energy to help us work on student writing skills in all curricular areas. I had the opportunity to sit in with the Social Science Department as Rich Cadra presented the Step up to Writing process. This area in student learning is a goal on our Single Plan for Student Achievement, which is a portion of our WASC report, along with being a districtwide goal. AGAIN – thank you everyone for supporting each other and our “T” in STAMPEDE - Teamwork.

Congratulations to Angelina Atmadja and four YLHS students – that competed in the OCC Math Meet, a math competition that has been around since 1957. Our team placed 4th out of 19 high schools. YLHS students, Tyler Stevens, Sean Kanne, Jung Woo Oh and Irene Cho competed against other high school students, many of them seniors, who have completed Calculus. We scored a combined total of 581 points. This is very exciting for our first academic competition and we look forward to next year’s competition with our seniors! Great job, Angelina!

Did You Hear? - For your information, Roseann and Precious will be celebrating our first National Library Week at YLHS during the week of April 11 – 15. We will have guessing games, opportunities for students and faculty to name their favorite book, the Yorba Linda Public Librarian will offer free books to the first 100 students to fill out an application for the Public Library and a check out a book raffle. Prizes have been donated from McDonalds, Chick-fil-a, and others… Closer to the event we will post the information in our Daily Bulletin and have signs made to advertise the event. Fun-fun-fun!

Another Big Thank You – to Jason Kaylor and our PTSA for Mustang Pride Day on March 12th. It was a huge success. We had over 250 students and parents attend. A special thanks to our PTSA for organizing this great event and our staff, Mike Moore, Angelina Atmadja, Kelly Buchan, Bryan Bloom, Fred Fonseca and Jose Vasquez for helping out.

Message from Jason – Everyone is invited to attend our Sophomore Class Ring Ceremony on Wednesday, March 30th at 6:30 p.m. in the Forum Theater. Our sophomores that ordered rings will take part in this special one hour evening with
their parents.

Good News from Dr. Smith – “Academic Achievement District – The Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District was just named a 2011 AP Achievement School District. The PYLUSD was one of only 388 school districts in the nation recognized by the College Board for increasing the number of high school students taking advanced placement (AP) courses while continuing to increase the number of students passing. From 2008 to 2010, the number of PYLUSD students taking advanced placement course exams increased from 1273 to 1557. The PYLUSD’s already high passing rate increased from 85 percent to 87 percent while the national pass rate remained at 57.5 percent. Students who pass the AP exam with a score of three or better are eligible to receive college credit for that course. Schools have done an exceptional job of opening doors for more and more students to take advanced coursework and teachers have done a great job in ensuring their success. The Board also is to be commended for setting clear and précised goals, one of which was increasing the number of AP offerings at high schools.”