Soquel High School

KNIGHT NOTES

WE HAVE MANY PEOPLE TO CONGRATULATE THIS WEEK
Congratulations to Soquel High's poets! The following students received recognition of their poetry in a recent contest sponsored by Poetry Santa Cruz, a non-profit organization funded in part by the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County. Marina Rosenthal won first prize for her poem "My Great-Grandma's Death" and Michaela Chappell tied for 3rd prize for her poem "My Body Belongs to Them." In addition, Lily Denevan's poem "Goodnight," Moriah Quinn's poem "Reading," and Marina Rosenthal's poem "The Subway Man" were selected to be included in the annual anthology of poems written by local high school students. These poems were selected from a field of 436 submissions that were received from students attending all high schools in Santa Cruz County. Way to go, great writers of Soquel High School!

Congratulations to all of the swimmers that participated this weekend as Soquel High was well represented during league finals at both the JV and Varsity levels.  The boys JV ended up 3rd while the girls earned 6th.  On the Varsity side, the boys finished 3rd and the girls moved up to 4th place.
Nine swimmers, eight boys and one girl, earned CCS honors and will compete at Stanford University on 5/16. Those going to CCS are:
Elizabeth Sprenkle, Aaron McKinnon, Scott Goddard, Kyle Wowak, Ryan Moccia, Elliot Faber, Stefan Monsson, Daniel Salyer, and Garret Ryan.

Soquel will also be represented in the CCS dive finals as Shannon Stewart, a freshman, came in fourth during league finals and earned enough points to compete.  Congratulations to all of our swimmers and divers!

The A JAZZ BAND & the JAZZ SINGERS recently competed in the 44th annual University of Neveda, Reno Jazz Festival, April 24-26th.  The competition, which is one of the oldest and largest educational festivals in the west, included more than 350 middle, high school and college groups.  Our A JAZZ BAND took FIRST PLACE in their division and were invited to play in the encore performance in front of thousands of people.  It was quite a thrill!  The JAZZ SINGERS were also rated as EXCELLENT by their panel of judges.  Congratulations to all members and to the top-rated Soquel Music Department!

“HISTORY NERDS” BATTLE FOR THE CANNON

You’ve heard of the Battle for the Stump now there’s the battle for the Cannon.

The first annual AP US History Review Battle with Santa Cruz High was a great success!  Though Santa Cruz High's AP US History students won by a very narrow margin, everyone had a good time and had a chance to review for the upcoming AP test.  We'll bring home the Review Battle Cannon next year for Soquel!

UPCOMING EVENTS

End of second grading period – Friday, April 25
Minimum “A” day – Wed. May 7th
No school - Mon., May 26 for Memorial Day

PARENT MEETINGS

Soquel High Fund – Tues. 4/29 at 7pm in the library
SoMu – Tues. 5/6 at 7pm in the band room
Humanities Academy – Tues. 5/20 in room 222.  Frosh-4:30, Soph-5:15
Site Council – Tues. 5/20 at 3:15
Attention Senior Parents – the Grad-Night meeting will be this Tuesday 4/29 in the MU room at 6:30. With only a few weeks left before June13th, we NEED as many parents as possible to make this event successful for all the graduates.

CONGRATULATIONS

On April 10-13, 2008, the Soquel High School Concert Choir and Jazz Singers, under the direction of Mark Bidelman, traveled to San Diego, CA, for the Heritage Music Festival. The following awards were presented to these talented and dedicated vocal artists:

* The Jazz Singers received a gold first place, superior rating.
* The Concert Choir received a gold second place, superior rating.
* The Jazz Singers received the Outstanding Choral Group Award for the highest total points of the festival.
* The Sweepstakes Award was awarded to both groups for the highest combined top score of the Festival for vocal music.
* Isaiah Roberts was awarded the Maestro Award for his solo instrumental work with both the Concert Choir and the Jazz Singers. Only one award is given for the entire festival.
* Finally, the Concert Choir received an invitation to the Heritage Festival of Gold in Washington, D.C. in 2009.

Congratulations to Mark Bidelman, the Jazz Singers and the Concert Choir for giving the community another reason to be proud of Soquel High School!

FROM STUDENTS AT SOQUEL HIGH

This April, Soquel High, as well as all other schools across the county,begin taking the STAR Test. Most students are not aware of how theirstar test scores effect Soquel High and they do not know that poor testscores have a negative impact at Soquel High. The truth is, STAR testscores do matter! Bad test scores could mean losing all electives andextracurricular activities, which include all school sports and classessuch as ceramics, ROP courses, and band. In turn, these classes wouldbe replaced, and each student would be required to take two math andtwo science classes. Poor STAR tests also mean that, if the school wereto fail, Soquel’s rank would go down, making it harder for our studentsto get into big name colleges and making the houses surrounding theschool have less value.  Please encourage your students to treatthese tests seriously and give them their best effort.  Thanks!