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have passed the midway point in the school year and students are busy
with their second semester studies and co-curricular activities. We
are pleased to announce that both the Yosemite High School Mock Trial
and Academic Decathlon teams have won the Madera County championship
again this year.
This is the 16th consecutive county championship for the Mock Trial
team, and the 10th consecutive championship for the Academic Decathlon
team. Both teams have qualified to advance to the state finals. The
Mock Trial team, coached by James Lee, will be competing in Santa
Ana on April 1-2, and the Academic Decathlon team, coached by Steve
Browning will be at Sacramento on March 12-14.
The face of Yosemite High School continues to change as our building
project progresses. We opened the second semester in the new music
facility, which houses our choral and instrumental music programs.
The drama program has been temporarily re-located into a portable
classroom while renovation of the new performing arts center takes
place. Our drama students, under the direction of Lars Thorson, are
busy preparing for an outdoor performance of “The Rascal” this spring.
We plan to open the new theater building next November with our fall
production.
The guidance department is currently working on registration for both
returning and new students for the 2004-2005 school year. Counselors
have been visiting feeder schools and meeting with incoming freshmen
to register for the 2004-2005 school year. We hosted information nights
on February 10 and 12 for parents of all new students. Returning students
will register for classes the week of March 8-12.
Yosemite High School will be hosting “Challenge Day” on February 24
and 25. Challenge Day is a program which is designed to help students
to deal with conflict, promote tolerance and improve student’s self-esteem.
Approximately 200 students will be participating in the program, which
is being held for the second consecutive year. We believe that the
Challenge Day program will help us continue to improve school climate
and promote an effective, safe and orderly learning environment for
students.
As we move into the months of March and April, we will be focused
on testing. Current sophomores will be taking the California High
School Exit Exam on March 16and 17. You are probably aware that last
year the state postponed implementation of the Exit Exam until the
class of 2006. Current sophomores will be required to pass the exam,
which assesses students in language arts and mathematics, in order
to graduate from high school. Students will be given multiple opportunities
to take the exam, as well as opportunities for remediation should
they fail to pass a portion of the exam. .
The state’s STAR testing program, which consists of Content Standard
Tests and the nationally normed CAT6 test, will be administered to
9th, 10th and 11th grade students on April 21-23. Students will test
in the areas of English-language arts, mathematics, social science,
and science. The tests are used to measure individual student and
school performance, and are the basis of the school’s Academic Performance
Index (API) ranking. In addition, the district uses the results of
the tests to determine district proficiency requirements and placement
in intervention and remediation programs. We will be sending additional
information home to parents on both the High School Exit Exam and
the STAR testing programs as we approach the test dates.
School
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