Albemarle High School - Albemarle County Public Schools

Albemarle High School
Newsletter
June 2015
Principal’s Message
Table of Contents
Principal’s Message
1&2
Contact Information
2
Important Dates
2
Summer Athletics
2
AHS Robotics
3
Student, Staff and School
Awards
4
Rowing Team Wins Big
At Regatta
5
Dear Parents and Guardians,
As the 2014-15 academic year draws to a close, AHS celebrates graduating its sixtyfirst class. Our school community has every reason to be proud of these 443 seniors
as they move beyond high school and into their future endeavors. Our seniors have
distinguished themselves as a group and as individuals, and we join their families in
expressing our pride and best wishes for them.
Graduation Ceremonies for the Class of 2015 were streamed live and a DVD
recording of the graduation ceremony is available for $20. Orders must be received
by Friday, June 19, 2015. Learn more at http://bit.ly/1FZFB64.
Summer Assignments
Summer break ushers in more unstructured time for students, but does not mean
disconnection or disengagement from school. Summer assignments and activities
stimulate students’ intellectual, physical and artistic growth. Students can access
information on the home page of the AHS website for “Summer Assignments,”
then click on the subject to find assignments. For a preview, you may click here:
Summer Assignments.
Band Rehearsal
Mr. Thomas has an energetic summer rehearsal schedule. He asks students to
check the band website, AHSBand.net, for dates and times. Congratulations go to
band members for another incredible year. AHS was named an Honor Band for the
14th time and earned Superior Ratings at all adjudicated festivals.
Immunizations
Summer is a good time to make sure your son or daughter has completed
immunizations. The school nurse will be mailing notices home regarding any
immunizations that students are missing. A student may not attend school unless
his/her required immunizations are on file. (Continued on page 2)
Rowing Team Wins at Stotesbury Cup Regatta ~ see page 5
Page 2 ~ June 2015
Albemarle High School
Principal’s Message (continued from page 1)
Summer School
The primary goal of the Summer High School Program is to offer Albemarle
County Public Schools’ students the chance to retake a course where they would
like to improve their knowledge, skills, and understandings that were not
developed during the regular school year. Additionally, there is the opportunity
to earn new credit in Health, PE, and Economics and Personal Finance.
Contact Information
Main Office 975-­‐9300 Main Fax 974-­‐4335 Athletics 974-­‐4308 Attendance 974-­‐4310 Community Ed 975-­‐9450 Guidance 974-­‐4321 Important Dates
Last Day of School 6/9 Did you know? More than 70% of our graduating
students have acquired college
credit at the time of graduation. In
fact, last year 224 seniors earned
an Early College Scholars
designation with at least 15
transferable college credits during
enrollment at AHS. They also
earned an Advanced Studies
Diploma with the Governor's Seal
and subsequently were accepted
by a college or university. Summer school is an independent program run by the county that uses all three
high school buildings. AHS is the site for most academic courses, while MHS
and WAHS host physical education. The first classroom session of summer
school starts on June 15th. Your son or daughter’s guidance counselor is your
best resource for information regarding summer school. You may also find
valuable information on the AHS website here: Summer School Program
More Summer Training
Community Education offers driver’s education courses here throughout the
summer, both classroom instruction and “Behind the Wheel.” To see the AHS
schedule, click on this link: AHS Summer 2015 Behind the Wheel. Contact the
Community Education Office directly at 975-9450 for further information.
I close this newsletter out with best wishes to you and all the AHS families
for a wonderful and relaxing summer vacation.
Jay Thomas
Principal
Summer Athletic Schedules
Summer Football Conditioning
Start Date: Monday, June 15, 2015. There will be no conditioning during the
Dead period: 6/28-7/5/2015. Conditioning will resume on July 6th.
Conditioning days: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. with
Friday morning optional.
Alternate Summer Conditioning Times: 8:30 a.m. – 10:15 a.m. This session is
only for those who have summer jobs, internships, or academic program
commitments in the evenings.
Preferred Conditioning Time: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. This is the preferred session for
ALL players as it serves as our major team building experiences. *Note: Players
only need to come to one session per day.
Football Season Start Date 7/30/15
Early Equipment Issue Dates: 7/28-29/15: Varsity Players only!
Pre-season Parent Meeting Dates: 6/8/2015 and *7/28/2015. This meeting is
mandatory and will contain important information regarding the 2015 season.
6:30 p.m. at AHS Auditorium.
Page 3 ~ June 2015
Robotics Takes the World
~The Revolution staff correspondent
Andrew Carlisle
“The competitions are my
favorite part.”
“Seeing our pride and joy, this
collection of wires and aluminum,
drive around and even win, is very
rewarding,” senior Alex Brown
said, after returning from the
Robotics World Championships.
The local robotics team, Vertigo,
made it to the World FIRST (For
Inspiration and Recognition of
Science and Technology),
Technology Challenge
Championships, taking No. 18 out
of 64 competing teams. The World
Championship hosted several
different challenges, and took place
in St. Louis from April 22-23. It
pulled over 18,000 students from
over 40 countries around the world
to test their robotic mettle against
each other.
“Getting to Worlds was incredible. I
mean, there are over 4,000 teams
out there trying to get to where we
were; being in the top 1% is
fantastic,” sophomore Nicholas
Gutkowski said, cracking a huge
smile.
Team Vertigo is comprised of
seniors Luc Bailey, Alex Bowen,
Wade Foster, Jacob Beiter, Abey
Koolipurackal, Ann Joseph,
Andreas Ravichandran, Willa Lin,
Sarah Trotter and Sean Simpson
along with sophomores Nicholas
Gutkowski and Sander Abraham.
They are one of three Robotics
teams at Albemarle.
Vertigo’s robot, Casimir, won six
matches and lost three.
Ultimately it pulled through and
won a $7,500 grant from FedEx
for the Robotics Club; money for
Robotics usually comes from
MESA and fundraising.
Robotics is a pretty independent
and student-oriented club; students
design and build their robot
themselves. “Early in the season,
roughly from September to
November, we brainstorm. We look at
the (FTC) challenge, and we come up
with ideas to address it. We have
“whiteboard” meetings to illustrate
concepts and discuss different
approaches,” Bowen said.
Then, after finally agreeing on their
design, they get to work on the
repetitive task of building and
programming, then rebuilding and
reprogramming their robot. “Building
Casimir took around 100 hours total.
Robotics is pretty time-consuming if
you’re serious about it,” Gutkowski
said.
But the specific roles each member
takes can vary. “It gets hectic if
everyone tries to work on the robot at
the same time, so we try to split up
and take care of other things like
engineering notebook or designing
new elements,” said senior Ann
Joseph. “Vertigo has no solid
organizational structure, that is, we all
have fluid roles that allow us to be
flexible during the season,” Bowen
said.
Finally, after getting their model just
right, teams set out on these
competitions. FIRST releases their
challenge–the platform for Robotics
competitions–in September, and
teams set out on competitions
around December.
Teams usually partake in 2-3
competitions per year, which are
pretty laid back. “FTC is a very
unique competition setting because
there’s a very prominent sense of
camaraderie. Everyone is just so
nice and kind-spirited,” Joseph said.
“There’s basically never anyone
letting the competition get to their
heads. Booing or negative
comments never happen. It was
really cool meeting teams from all
around the globe and everyone was
so helpful and nice.”
But after all the competitions, every
season comes to an end; having
given it their all, Vertigo is now
retiring for the year. They’re ready
to move on to bigger and better
things, but they are also ready to
pick the torch back up next year.
Most of the team is graduating, but
that still won’t stop them from
remembering the fun they had with
each other, and the pride of making
it so far in a world competition.
Albemarle High School
Page 4 ~ June 2015
Page 4 ~ June 2015
Albemarle High School
AHS Research
Student,
Staff and
School Honors
Student
and Teacher
Accomplishments
AHS Students Present
Findings
on
Age-dating
Star Clusters at California
Conferences
AHS Team is the Virginia
AHS Track Wins at
Destination Imagination
Conference 16
Scholastic Rowing
AHS Smartie Nerds received 8th
place in the Fine Arts Challenge
The AHS boys and girls track teams
Association (VASRA) State
global finals!
took first and second place,
Champions in Women’s
respectively, in conference 16
Soccer Player Michael
Doubles.
competition this spring.
Vaughn’s Kick Earns ESPN
The Albemarle High School rowing
Replay
Sophomore Michael Vaughn made
sure to end the junior varsity boys’
soccer season for Albemarle High
School in memorable fashion.
Vaughn scored a highlight-reelworthy goal on a bicycle kick in the
Patriots' season-ending 3-0 win at
home over Louisa County on
Monday night. AHS JV boys coach
Bob Warren shared the team's video
of the goal with CBS19 Sports and in
the wee hours of Friday morning, the
highlight made an appearance as one
of the Top Plays on ESPN's
SportsCenter.
With Monday's win, the Patriots
ended their season at 10-1-3, and
riding an 11-game unbeaten streak.
According to Warren, Vaughn was
added to the varsity boys’ soccer
roster following the conclusion of the
JV season.
http://www.newsplex.com/sports/h
eadlines/JV-Player-Scores-HighlightReel-Goal-for-AHS304633461.html?device=phone&c=y
Charlotte Wood
Recognized by Journalism
Education Association
Charlotte was recently awarded
Certificate Journalism Educator
status by the Journalism Education
Association. This certification is
extremely rigorous to achieve.
team had three boats with top 3
finishes at the Virginia Scholastic
Rowing Association (VASRA) State
Championship Regatta on the
Occoquan River in Northern Virginia.
AHS faculty member Cathy Coffman
coaches the team.
The Women’s Double Team of
Claiborne Earles and Lydia Eisenberg
finished in first place with a time of
5:52.4 just seconds ahead of 2nd place
SSSA at 5:56.0, with Western
Albemarle finishing 3rd with a time of
5:59.7.
Other Albemarle boats that finished in
the medals were the men’s lightweight
double of Liam Rickard and Jake
Pierce which finished 2nd in their
finals, and David Braatz finished 2nd
in the Men’s single.
Later this past May, Earles and
Eisenberg represented Albemarle High
School at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta
in Philadelphia, in the largest high
school regatta in the world, and won
third in Girls’ Double.
AHS German Class Wins
UVA Film Competition
Kiersten Luther and her German III
class entered UVA’s first German
Film Festival Short Film contest and
won the competition with their film
“Eric’s Birthday”, in German, of
course. They wrote the script, and
then created a three minute film using
iMovie. Albemarle High School’s
A3House was utilized for audio
recording. The awards ceremony was
held at UVA April 17th. The film was
played as part of the Film Festival.
The award including a $100 prize
which the students chose used in part
for a small in school celebration. The
bulk was donated to the AHS
German Honor Society that supports
many causes each year including the
Blood Water Project and the Angel
Tree.
To see the film, please click on this
link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=xUCKFJx7fDQ&feature=youtu.be
Page 5 ~ June 2015
Albemarle High School
AHS Girls Win at Prestigious Rowing Regatta
The Albemarle High School
newsletter is a publication of
Albemarle County Public Schools.
It is published quarterly and
distributed to all Albemarle High
School families.
Albemarle County Public Schools
does not discriminate on the basis of
race, color, religion, age, sex,
disability, national origin,
pregnancy, or marital status.
Questions or concerns regarding
compliance with the School
Division's nondiscrimination policies
may be directed to:
Director of Human Resources 401
McIntire Road Charlottesville, VA
22902 Phone: (434)296.5827
Title IX of the Educational
Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §§
1691 et seq., prohibits discrimination
on the basis of sex in educational
programs or activities receiving
federal funds, including
discrimination in employment and
student admissions. All Albemarle
County Public Schools students,
applicants, and employees are
covered by this law. For questions or
concerns regarding Title IX, please
contact:
Title IX Coordinator Department of
Human Resources 401 McIntire
Road Charlottesville, VA 22902
Phone: (434)296.5827
Our Vision:
All learners believe in their power to
embrace learning, to excel, and to
own their future.
On May 15 and 16th, Coach Cathy
Coffman and the girls’ double of Lydia
Eisenberg and Claiborne Earles, placed
third at the 89th Stotesbury Cup Regatta –
the largest high school regatta in the
world! Less than one second separated
second through fourth place over a
distance of 1500 meters. They were
required to complete time trials on Friday,
as well as semi-finals on Saturday morning
to earn a spot in the six boat final on
Saturday afternoon. This is the first AHS
medal at this very prestigious regatta!