Graduates-to-be want Obama

LA CRESCENTA — A team of roughly a dozen Crescenta Valley High School seniors this week applied to host a commencement speech by President Obama.

As part of its education reforms, the White House and U.S. Department of Education have offered a presidential graduation to public schools that can prove themselves a model for the nation.

Winning schools will demonstrate they have robust college- and career-readying academic classes, extracurricular activities, graduation rates, daily attendance and college enrollment rates, according to the White House.

Thousands of schools met the Monday deadline to apply. Despite the odds, Crescenta Valley students said, they feel good about their work.

“I liked the school beforehand, but I learned a lot of new things,” said Kathryn Tzekov, who wrote one of four essays in the application.

Even if the school does not win the competition, the experience brought the senior class closer together, Jordan Adajar said.

“Even people who weren’t concerned about it were curious and researching other schools’ videos,” he said.

The application consists of four essays, an up-to-two-minute video and data to prove student assertions.

“The video was more of the emotional part of the school,” Winona Bechtle said. “The writing was more statistics and facts and how the educational aspects work.”

Students referenced the Station fire, which delayed the start of school, and the mudflows that have punctuated the second semester. The school was used as an evacuation center.

“Even though we used the fires — we became stronger,” said Matt Anderson, who did the video-editing and production side of the application. “It didn’t hamper our ability to learn or show that students come first.”

The students celebrated their more than two weeks of work with a pizza party Monday as they submitted their application. Principal Linda Evans said the White House indicated that it would be a few weeks until finalists are selected.

The U.S. Department of Education will choose six schools to showcase on the White House website. The public will vote for three finalists, and Obama will choose the winner.

“Why not us?” asked student Catherine Schetina.

Students said their school has everything the White House would want.

“There are so many different walks of life here and different learning styles,” Winona said. “There are so many [student] clubs and ways to find your niche, and [Crescenta Valley High] accommodates all of them.”

Glendale Unified was one of many districts across the country that was on the receiving end of parent objections to a presidential address to schoolchildren broadcast last fall.

Students said that had John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, been elected and offered to speak at commencement, they still would have applied.

“We might not have ended the video with, ‘Yes we can,’” said student Ashlynn Fiss. “But it’s still the president.”