Campus Has Head Start on Olympics

The 2000 Summer Games may be months away, but the Olympic spirit has already arrived at Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth. The entire student body recently donned special team uniforms to participate in the opening ceremonies of the school’s fifth Olympiad. Bruce Jenner, the 1976 Olympic decathlon champion, was on hand at the opening ceremonies to address the athletes and lead them in the traditional Olympic oath.

Sierra Canyon’s Olympic Festival 2000 is a yearlong academic, athletic and community service program that promotes individual and group achievement. Throughout the year, the students will meet regularly to study the culture and history of the countries they’re representing. Planned activities include art and science projects, geography lessons, triathlon and gymnastics events and a variety of community service opportunities.

The 750 kindergarten through eighth-graders launched the project by marching around the school’s playing fields waving the flags of the 31 nations they’re learning about.

“The kids get a wonderful sense of community out of this project,” said Ann Gillinger, Sierra Canyon’s director of learning. “They have something meaningful to talk about and work on all year. They share a common goal.”

KUDOS

Cool Design: The Glendale Community College Office of Communications, Marketing and Foundation took first place in the recent “Successful Marketing Programs” competition, in which the school showed off its new logo and design in a collection of publications. Sponsored by the National College Marketing and Public Relations organization, the competition attracted participants from colleges in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah.

Science Grant: Margie Hickman, Carol Reeder and Randi Tunick, all sixth-grade science and math teachers at Nobel Middle School in Northridge, have been awarded a $5,000 Chase Active Learning grant by Chase Manhattan Bank. The funds will be used for a “Physics in the Park” day in May, during which the school’s sixth-graders will participate in several activities that demonstrate Isaac Newton’s laws of motion.

PROGRAM NOTES

Beautification: Holmes Middle School families and teachers picked up hoes and spades for the recent Honor Society-sponsored Beautification Project. They planted flowers inside and outside the Northridge campus. The gardening project was funded by a Los Angeles Board of Public Works Neighborhood Matching Fund grant.

Across the Valley at Olive Vista Middle School in Sylmar, the Student Leadership Committee sponsored its own Campus Beautification Day that attracted students, parents and teachers.

EVENTS

Kids’ Opera: More than 4,000 local public school students will attend Los Angeles Opera performances of Engelbert Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” next month. The opera company’s nationally recognized Student Matinee Program offers the free shows to students whose teachers have attended a workshop about opera instruction in the classroom. An opera company lecturer will visit the classrooms of all the students attending the performances--both before and after the shows--to discuss the opera. The students will attend either a Dec. 6 dress rehearsal or a special performance Dec. 10. Both shows are fully staged and feature the regular main stage cast.

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