Palisades High Regains Crown in Scholastic Test

After dominating the Los Angeles Unified School District’s academic decathlon in the early 1980s, Palisades High School had been unsuccessful in recapturing the title for a number of years. But this year, Palisades regained the title, scoring 44,981 out of a possible 60,000 points and edging out defending champions El Camino Real High School. In March, the nine-member team will travel to UC Riverside for the statewide competition.

Space exploration is the theme for this year’s decathlon. Categories include math, history, science, economics, speech and fine arts.

In addition to juggling difficult class schedules, team members spent countless hours outside of the classroom preparing for the competition. “All this studying has helped me learn to budget my time,” said Neal Kaplan, who won a $750 scholarship for being one of the top-scoring students. Several other students received scholarships ranging from $500 to $1,000 for their performances in the decathlon.

Part of the preparation was learning to work as a team. “In the beginning, we really didn’t know each other but now we’ve gotten to be friends,” said Ritu Batra.

The team is coached by English literature teacher Rose Gilbert and speech, debate and English teacher, Donald Walz. The team’s captain is David Elashoff.

Representing Palisades in the state competition will be seniors Kaplan, Elashoff, Amir Berjis, Robert Brombach, Matthew Gelbart, Eddy Kup, Thatbiti Sabahive, Lesley Young and junior Batra.

The Westside Jewish Community Center celebrated its 10th anniversary with a special tribute to Saran Kirschbaum. Kirschbaum, president of the Westside center from 1980 to 1983, assisted in the creation of an adult day center for seniors. The center helps elderly individuals with the tasks of daily living.

She is president of the HUD senior adult housing project in Los Angeles.

Linda Lucks will join the staff of Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter as the Venice area field deputy. Lucks, a Venice resident, is a member of the board of directors of Crenshaw Consortium Inc. and is past president of the board of directors of the Westside Women’s Health Center in Santa Monica.

Loyola Law School Professor Christopher May has been awarded the Alpha Sigma Nu Book Award in the sciences category for his book, “In the Name of War: Judicial Review and War Powers Since 1918.” Alpha Sigma Nu, the honor society of Jesuit colleges and universities throughout the United States, sponsors this annual book competition. May joined Loyola Law School in 1973 and is the James P. Bradley professor of constitutional law.

Santa Monica resident Donna Krupkin Whitney has been honored with the Outstanding Young Alumna Award by the Emma Willard School in Troy, N.Y. Whitney, a 1970 graduate of the Emma Willard School, is an assistant clinical professor at UCLA in the Pain Management Center.

Santa Monica High School English teacher Carol Jago has been appointed to the National Council of Teachers of English.

She will serve as a member of the Commission on Literature, an advisory body that identifies and reports on current key issues in the teaching of literature.

Kay Briski has been named executive director of the Venice Area Chamber of Commerce. Since 1984, Briski has directed the Culver City Convention and Visitors Bureau.

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