Tag Archives: Berkeley High School
Principal alerts Berkeley High parents to nearby robbery
Berkeley High School Principal Pasquale Scuderi sent the following email memo out to parents at 5:05 p.m. It appears below in its entirety. To subscribe to the school email list, send a message to bhs-request@lmi.net with the word “subscribe” in the subject line.
Dear Staff and Families:
We had a sizable police presence on the southeast end of campus today (Milvia and Channing).
What we can share with you is that a robbery occurred about a half mile from campus sometime between 2:40 and 2:45 p.m. There was no weapon involved in the incident and neither the victim nor the suspect were identified as BHS students. … Continue reading »
Lady Yellowjackets fall in final to Long Beach Poly, 46-28
Berkeley High’s girls’ basketball powerhouse, the Lady Yellowjackets, played — and lost — their third consecutive state final on Friday night, falling to Long Beach Poly, 46-28. The game was Berkeley’s record-setting 12th state final appearance.
Senior standout Rachel Howard led the Yellowjackets with 11 points and five rebounds. Berkeley was held to 23% shooting from the floor and committed 26 turnovers. It was the fourth meeting between Berkeley and Long Beach Poly in a state final: the Jackrabbits … Continue reading »
Berkeley High lockdown follows robbery attempt
[Editor's Note: This story has been updated throughout the day. Scroll down for updates.]
Berkeley High went on a precautionary lockdown at around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday following police activity involving a report of a weapon near the school.
Berkeley Police Lt. Dave Frankel said the incident began just after 10:20 a.m. when a lone man “dressed in distinctive Army clothing” entered a business in the 2200 block of Shattuck Avenue and tried to rob it with a simulated weapon. The business didn’t cooperate, said Frankel, and the man left. He was followed by an employee who called police, and officers responded within minutes. … Continue reading »
BHS Lady Yellow Jackets headed to NorCal champ game
By David A. Gerber
The Berkeley High women’s basketball team pulled off yet another upset on the road against Gunn-Palo Alto on Tuesday night in front of a packed house by a final score of 54-46.
The Lady Yellow Jackets started the game off on a 9-0 run and never looked back; playing stellar defense and hitting their shots when they needed to. Gunn didn’t score until 11.9 seconds left on the clock in the first quarter and they were never able to get within less than 6 points.
Down the stretch, Gunn made runs in front of an electric home crowd that erupted with nearly every shot they made, but just when they would inch closer, it seemed like Berkeley would hit a clutch shot to keep the opponent at a distance. … Continue reading »
BHS women’s basketball team continues Cinderella story
By David A. Gerber
Update, March 13: The team made it to the Division I Northern California regional championship game for a fourth consecutive year after topping host Gunn-Palo Alto 54-46 in Tuesday’s semifinals. Read more on BUSD site.
Original story: Berkeley High School women’s basketball team continued its Cinderella story last Saturday night as it knocked off the favored McClymonds High School of Oakland by a score of 54-44. Both teams had a boisterous and cheering crowd on hand at the game, which was played at Oakland Tech High School.
Berkeley started off the third quarter with a 10-0 run and seemed to never look back, playing strong defense through to the end. Desire Finnie led Berkeley with 20 points and 13 rebounds, with 10 of those points coming in the 4th quarter. Rachel Howard contributed 12 points and 11 rebounds, with Jaimoninia Welch-Coleman adding 10 points for the Yellow Jackets. … Continue reading »
Berkeley High asks youth to fight back against violence
A Berkeley High alum came back to school Thursday, after nearly two decades, to speak with students about the importance of resisting violence and standing up for each other in the face of bullying.
Victor Rios, now an associate professor in UC Santa Barbara’s sociology department, described to students how tough times in his teens — including temporarily dropping out of school and watching two loved ones get killed — nearly derailed his future.
Rios said it was mainly due to the efforts of Berkeley High staffer Flora Russ, who founded a small school in the district with an emphasis on serving at-risk students, that he didn’t end up in prison or dead. … Continue reading »
Benefit for Dayna Stephens, top saxophonist, BHS alumnus
Dayna Stephens knows a thing or two about overcoming obstacles. As a standout tenor saxophonist at Alameda High in the mid-1990s, he and a friend took over the jazz ensemble when the school’s band director quit at the beginning of his junior year. Looking for more rigorous musical training, he transferred to Berkeley High his senior year, and quickly became one of the vaunted jazz program’s leading lights. These days he’s one of the most respected saxophonists on the New York scene, and he’s facing a far more daunting challenge than an AWOL teacher.
Diagnosed in with Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) at 19, he’s long depended upon dialysis and has been on a kidney transplant wait-list for four years. Beloved by his peers as a person and a player, Stephens is at the center of an ongoing campaign, including a website, Help Dayna Stephens, to raise awareness about FSGS and funds for his medical expenses, which will run some $4,000 a month for anti-rejection medications alone. … Continue reading »
Learning to write, one edit at a time
By Mollie Hart
Andrea didn’t make eye contact with her writing coach right away. The 8th grader from Berkeley’s King Middle School brought out her rough draft of “An Open Letter to the Adults of our Country,” and started to read out loud, but kept her face turned away from the woman sitting next to her in the school’s designated “coaching” room.
“What did you think of the assignment?” the coach asked.
“It was okay,” said Andrea, without much enthusiasm.
Despite the young girl’s shy demeanor, the coach forged on. Soon the pair was talking about Andrea’s thesis statement, her conclusion, and how the American Revolution figured into the piece. … Continue reading »
Berkeley High to offer rewards to boost attendance
In an effort to build on a concerted campaign to keep students in class, Berkeley High is introducing an incentive scheme based on rewards that the school hopes will be donated by local businesses and members of the community.
“It’s about recognizing and rewarding the kids who are in class,” said Daniel Roose, Dean of Attendance at Berkeley High, who said the past two years have been spent focusing more on the students who skip school. “We have been addressing the needs of truants, getting them resources and setting consequences. Now we want to step up the game and introduce positive incentives.”
Starting next week, at the beginning of the school’s second semester, the high school will begin a fundraising push to collect attendance rewards. Roose said he is hoping to galvanize local businesses into contributing money or products and services as rewards for kids who have good attendance. … Continue reading »
Juveniles in custody after fights outside Berkeley High
Scroll down for an update from Berkeley High’s principal at the foot of this story.
Four juveniles were taken into custody on suspicion of fighting outside Berkeley High School on Wednesday afternoon.
Large crowds of students and passers-by gathered near the intersection of Bancroft Way and Milvia Street shortly after students were leaving the campus at the end of the school day to watch the fights, according to officer Jennifer Coats at the Berkeley Police Department.
Many Berkeley police officers were dispatched to the area after receiving calls from the public, starting at 3:41 p.m, and they worked to disperse the large groups of onlookers. Officers were able to disperse the crowds, and they took four juveniles into custody in connection with the fighting, Coats said. … Continue reading »
After Newtown: Lockdown drill Wednesday, vigil Thursday
As the community continues to try to come to terms with Friday’s school tragedy in Newtown, CT, at least two Berkeley events this week respond to the deadly shooting.
A vigil to remember the victims took place over the weekend in Berkeley, and messages from school leaders and staff members have been going out daily to members of many Berkeley schools.
‘Today seems like a day to hug our kids a little harder’
Berkeley High’s Principal, Pasquale Scuderi, this afternoon sent an emailed letter to the BHS community in the wake of the tragedy that occurred in Newtown, CT, this morning. In it, he addresses how the school has dealt with communicating news of the mass shooting at an elementary school to BHS students, issues of security on campus, and shares guidelines on how to talk to our children about such a senseless and potentially traumatic incident.
We publish the letter here in full:
Dear BHS Families:
This morning, following the devastating news we all received from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, we made a brief announcement to the staff and students updating our community on what we knew to be the facts, and encouraging us all to support one another as a school community. We simply asked that as a staff and student body we keep our thoughts and positive energy moving in the direction of the families, children, and fellow educators who are in the midst of a tragedy whose dimensions are still nearly impossible to fathom. … Continue reading »
Why most Berkeley 9th-graders aren’t actually failing PE
A recent state report that includes fitness test results for Berkeley students in three grades shows the district’s ninth-graders falling far short of county and state benchmarks.
Berkeley Unified School District officials said last week, however, that the results actually are an indicator of a more holistic approach to health, rather than a sign that Berkeley teens are out of shape.
The 2012 Physical Fitness Test Results, released in mid-November, were given to 1.3 million fifth-, seventh- and ninth-graders statewide; they make up more than 93% of all students enrolled in those grades in California public schools, according to the state Department of Education. … Continue reading »
