Send announcements to the Alexandria Gazette Packet, by e-mail to gazette@connectionnewspapers.com. Deadline is Friday at noon for the following week’s paper. Photos are encouraged. Call Rebecca Halik at 703-917-6407 with questions.
The St. Elmo's Group, a get-together of parents of children with special needs, will hold its last meeting of the school year from 8-10 p.m. on Monday, June 4, at St. Elmo's Coffee Pub, 2300 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria. The meeting will include discussion time to voice questions and concerns. Contact Parent Resource Center Coordinator Anne Lipnick at 703-706-4552 or by e-mail at alipnick@acps.k12.va.us.
T.C. Williams Basketball Camp will offer boys and girls ages 7 through 15, who have completed grades one through nine, an opportunity to learn fundamental skills through intensive individual instruction combined with fun and creative drills. Sessions will take place daily from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 12- 15 and daily from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 18- 22 and June 25- 29 at George Washington Middle School, 1005 Mount Vernon Ave. $125/session or $300/all sessions. Payment for each session is due no later than May 25. The cost for late registrations and walk-ins is $150 per session. Each camp also will offer before- and after- care for an additional $25 per session. Each camper should bring a book to read during a 45-minute daily reading time. Campers may bring their own lunches or purchase items such as pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers and chips at the concession stand. Download the camp brochure and registration form at www.tcwilliamsathletics.org/files/tcbasketballcamp2007-1.pdf.
Samuel Tucker Elementary School has been named a Title I Distinguished School by the Virginia Department of Education for meeting federal benchmarks in reading and math under the No Child Left Behind Act, maintaining full accreditation for two consecutive years, and having mean test scores in both English and math at the sixtieth percentile or higher.
Four teachers at Alexandria Country Day School have been recognized:
* Kathy Heyder (1st grade) has received the Excellence in Education Award from the Alexandria Education Partnership. Kathy is a teacher who engages her class with creative lesson plans and a variety of instructional techniques. She is continually expanding her knowledge and is currently pursuing an advanced degree.
* Sara Stein and Bodo Heiliger (4th grade) were accepted into the Klingenstein Summer Institute.
* Tim Laramy (6th grade) has been accepted into the masters program in curriculum and instruction with a focus on the humanities K-12 at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Tim has been with ACDS for the past five years, most recently as head of the Social Studies department.
Bishop Ireton Junior and Honors Spanish IV student, Valerie Roth, is one of four national winners of the Ruta-Quetzal BBVA 2007 competition, sponsored by the Embassy of Spain. The Ruta-Quetzal takes selected Spanish-speaking students from around the world on a six-week educational adventure in Latin America and Spain. Each student received a scholarship to cover all costs of the six-week program; this year’s scholarship is valued at $14,000.
Four elementary principals have been selected to fill upcoming vacancies at Samuel Tucker Elementary School, George Mason Elementary School, Mount Vernon Community School and William Ramsay Elementary School.
* Samuel Tucker Elementary School: Loretta Scott is the current assistant principal at Tucker. She was instrumental in the implementation of the first modified school calendar program in Alexandria and is experienced in using student test data to assist teachers with instruction.
* George Mason Elementary School: Dawn Feltman, current assistant principal at Mount Vernon Community School, and served as acting principal for several months during Dr. Lulu Lopez’s absence. Ms. Feltman has demonstrated her abilities as an acting principal, summer school principal, PEP (Performance Evaluation Program) specialist, staff development provider, evaluator and teacher.
* Mount Vernon Community School: Scott Coleman has been a school administrator in Fulton County, Ga., and most recently served as principal of White Center Heights Elementary School in Seattle, Wa. Over his 16-year tenure in public education, Mr. Coleman has been a high school Spanish teacher, summer school principal, and elementary principal in two different Title I schools.
* William Ramsay Elementary School: Catherine Thomas has been a principal since 1999 with a proven track record of success. During the first year of Ms. Thomas’s leadership as principal of Berkeley Elementary School in Spotsylvania, third-grade reading scores increased 27 percent and fifth-grade math scores increased 30 percent.
Six T.C. Williams High School students will participate in the 2007 Governor’s "Foreign Language Academies: A Global Village," summer residential programs for top Virginia foreign language students. Participants include Nagina Bhatti, Latin; Tasniya Sultana, Spanish; Denise Maye-Obama, Japanese; Joolan Saroor, Russian; and Lucy Shapiro and Sara Neilson, French. Anna Kalil in an alternate for Latin, and Tim Mannel is an alternate for German.
Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner presented Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy with the 2007 Governor's Gold Award for Best Practices in Nutrition and Fitness during a student assembly. Lyles-Crouch is one of only two schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia to receive this year’s Gold Award, and is the first school to earn a Governor’s Award at a progressively higher level during each of the program’s three years. The school received a Silver Award in 2006 and a Bronze Award in 2005.
Five T.C. Williams Career and Technical Education (CTE) students received awards during the 43rd annual Skills USA competition, held recently in Richmond, Va. Alex Fithian won first place in Technical Drafting and will represent the state in the national Skills USA competition in Kansas in June. Other winners include Tyler DeCourt, Taylor Pearson and John Wilson IV, second place in T.V. Productions; and Jamal Berry, fifth place in Graphic Communications. Other T.C. Williams students who participated in the competition include Vamsee Gunduboina in Architectural Drafting, Janae McLemore in Customer Service; and Brooks Eaton, Reid Scholar and Will Shankles in TV Productions. Cosmetology student Amber Mills joined the group as a voting delegate representing T.C. Williams.
Drew Smith received the second place award in the 8th Congressional District Art Competition for her photography image titled "Sunset of the Soul" and Nora Dickert received Honorable Mention for her photo titled "The Red Stairs."