Tag Archives: Berkeley High School
Berkeley filmmakers shine light on American story
By Nathan Pensky
Berkeley filmmaker Ben Schuder is looking to shine a light on a wholly unique American story, that of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. Schuder and his crew are midway through the production of Village of Peace, a film about a group formerly hailing from a Chicago-based church that emigrated from America and settled in Israel during the late 60s.
Schuder said he and his brother, Sam, were inspired to make the film after going on a Birthright Israel trip, following Ben’s recent graduation from Berkeley High.
During this trip, the brothers were introduced to the African Hebrews in Dimona, Israel, a tightly knit, self-governing community of 500 people living on a compound the size of a city block. … Continue reading »
Photo gallery: A week of high spirits at Berkeley High
Spirit Week at Berkeley High was, well, as spirited as one would expect. Students put their all into the daily costume themes, and the red and gold hued Friday finale of Spirit Rally included performances at the community theater and two special tributes to friends who passed away recently: Malik Grayson and Tim Moellering.
The week was topped off by the football team’s 41-7 thrashing of league rival Pinole Valley. Yellowjackets kicker Sam Boyden had two field goals, including a 51-yarder. The Yellowjackets are undefeated in league play with two games left in the regular season.
Update, 9:22am: The photos shown here are just a tiny selection taken by BUSD Public Information Officer Mark Coplan. To see the full collection (and try to spot you and your friends) visit these six galleries: Monday/Nerd Day, Tuesday/Tie-Dye Day, Wednesday/Toga Day, Thursday/Pajamas and 70s-80s Day, Friday/Senior Spell, Friday/Spirit Rally.
Rotary Club builds new play structure for homeless kids
For more than two years, the homeless children at the Ursula Sherman Village on Harrison Street in West Berkeley only had an empty lot to play in. The decrepit play structure that had stood in the yard for years was shut down because it was no longer safe.
“It was old,” explained Boona Cheema, the Executive Director of Building Opportunities for Self Sufficiency (BOSS) which was founded in 1971 and runs the village. “It wasn’t safe, so we took it down.”
Thanks to the intervention of the Rotary Club of Berkeley and assorted affiliates, the 24 children at Ursula Sherman Village now have a state-of-the-art play structure and playground to play in. Officials from the Rotary, BOSS, and the city of Berkeley gathered Monday afternoon for the official ribbon cutting ceremony of the playground.
“It’s already made a huge difference,” said Cheema. “The kids feel it’s their place, that it was done for them. They are so excited.”
Evidence was everywhere Monday that the kids were enjoying the structure. As adults mingled around chatting before the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the children ran all around the play structure, climbed up its stairs, and played on its bars. … Continue reading »
BUSD addresses concerns over BHS campus construction
Earlier this month, the Berkeley Unified School District abruptly closed Berkeley High School’s Old Gym citing the unsafe condition of the building. The lack of warning meant that several of the school’s sports teams, including its football squad, had no place to store equipment. The rowing team abruptly lost access to its ergometers, the football team lost its weights room, and the wrestling team lost its practice facilities.
Superintendent Bill Huyett apologized for the disruption, but staff, students, and parents have expressed concern over both the handling of that case and a variety of issues related to construction at Berkeley High. BUSD last week responded to these issues in an email to the school community:
A plan for communication regarding construction projects at Berkeley High
• Weekly Wednesday communications sent via e-tree with updates directly from both the Berkeley High site and the District Facilities Department. … Continue reading »
Berkeley High Junior wows judges on America’s Got Talent
Update, 11.40pm: PopLyfe made it to the finals in tonight’s America’s Got Talent show.
Kehlani Parrish, a Berkeley High Junior, received an outpouring of praise from all three America’s Got Talent judges last night, along with her band PopLyfe, who performed a foot-tapping medlée of Jackson Five songs on the show’s semi-final season episode.
Parrish not only packed a punch into her singing, she had the chutzpah to encourage judge Piers Morgan to join his fellow judges in a standing ovation after the performance, calling on him to “stand up” from the stage.
Morgan acknowledged that PopLyfe fully warranted him leaving his chair, and said: “What we’re looking for right now is an act that can represent our show and America. An act that can go out, entertain, inspire, have fun, make money, live the life of stars. You are a great pop band, that’s what you are.”
Sharon Osbourne was also full of praise for the group and for Parrish personally. “Kehlani, you belong missus. You are loved. You’ve got yourself going a huge fan base already,” she said.
Howie Mandel, the show’s third judge, was unambiguous: “Everybody in America: you are idiots if you do not start voting and put these people through to the final. There is no other act that will appeal to a wider audience.”
Parrish’s band mates are students at the Oakland School of the Arts. Berkeley High put out a note on its e-tree yesterday encouraging the BHS community to watch the show, and news the band’s success was broadcast on the school’s P.A. this morning.
Read about the band, who practice in Oakland, in their bio on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” website. The next episode of the show airs tonight at 9pm PST.
Students see security changes at Berkeley High School
As Berkeley High students returned to school this week, they weren’t permitted to enter by the Allston Street door leading into the main office. Instead they were directed to a nearby gate.
“Visitors Entrance Only,” read the lettering on two new signs posted by the office. “Students Please Use the ‘A’ Gate.”
Five and a half months after two students discharged a gun in a portable bathroom, spooking students, parents, and administrators, change has come to Berkeley High. Access to … Continue reading »
Berkeley High supports staffer after brutal murder
A fund has been established at Berkeley High School to support Dinesh Kumar, the school’s day custodian, whose family was the victim of a vicious home invasion on Friday which resulted in the death of Kumar’s mother.
In an email sent to the BHS community this morning, Principal Pasquale Scuderi said that early Friday morning Kumar was shot multiple times after at least one intruder entered his home. His mother, Sushila Prasad, who moved here from Fiji recently, was shot and killed.
Kumar’s … Continue reading »
Berkeley High Principal Pasquale Scuderi takes to Twitter
Students may be still enjoying long lie-ins and hours of minimal activity, but for Berkeley school faculty, the vacations are all but over as they prep for the new semester.
Witness Berkeley High Principal Pasquale Scuderi who has opened a Twitter account (@bhsinfo) and is already well at ease with the medium, providing information on dates class schedules will be available, details of assessments being devised by staff — even putting out recruitment notices.
Scuderi has … Continue reading »
Pasquale Scuderi on his first year as head of Berkeley High
Pasquale Scuderi accepted the position of Principal of Berkeley High School one year ago this month, succeeding Jim Slemp, who headed the school for six years. Scuderi came to the district in 2006 and was formerly a Vice Principal at BHS before moving to a post in the district administration.
The position of Principal did not prove an easy one to fill, despite a national search. Few are in any doubt that running Berkeley’s only mainstream high school, which is on an open campus in the city’s downtown with a register of more than 3,200 students, is a challenging task.
Scuderi’s first year on the job has required him to deal with a slate of gun-related incidents at the school, as well as budgetary pressures, the aftermath of an at-times bitter battle over science labs at BHS, and the transition of one of the small schools into the Green Academy. There were also compensations inside the classrooms and out, including a state girls’ basketball championship game and an early morning pig roast.
Berkeleyside interviewed Scuderi on June 27. We asked him for his perspective on the past academic year, reflections on successes and frustrations, and to outline his priorities for the next 12 months. The full transcript of the interview can be read here.
Interview snapshot
* Gun incidents at BHS made headlines this year, but great learning and inspiring achievements not covered by the media happened every day on campus.
* Scuderi’s primary goal in his first year was to get into classrooms to be able to observe teaching and give direct feedback to teachers and students. He achieved this on average 1.5 days a week.
* Scuderi feels he has earned the respect of students, partly because he listens to them and takes their opinions into account.
* On safety, a renewed intensity in dealing with prevention has paid off, but there is no room for complacency.
* A focus on attendance will go some way to tackling non-permitted out-of-district students and the historic achievement gap between white and non-white students.
* Scuderi’s four focus areas for next year are attendance, assessment, instruction and program development.
Berkeleyside: Looking back at the year, what would you say were the highlights for you?
I feel I have just started to get things done in a job that has been like being in a washing machine from the beginning. There hasn’t been time to stop and reflect because the one thing the job is is constant in terms of its pace.
It was easy for people who are not part of our daily operations to just let what was covered – the weapons and such – define us. For those of us who are here every day, that wasn’t the case. We’re still sending kids to Ivy League schools and running some very creative programs.
I could point to something in almost every community that was emblematic of the great work and great teaching that was going on in all of those communities, from the bus commemorating the Montgomery boycott that AHA did, to the girls’ basketball team… The list is too long to enumerate, but I can say there was something pretty terrific happening here every day in terms of teaching and learning. … Continue reading »
Berkeley sketchbook: Berkeley High graduation
Berkeleysider and graphic designer Diana Howard attended the Berkeley High School graduation at the Greek Theatre on Friday. She was there to see her mentee graduate.
She writes: “Here’s a sketch of what I could see from the nosebleed (lawn) ‘seat’ I was in. No one up there could understand anything they were saying because all the speakers, in their undoubted enthusiasm, yelled into the microphones and the echos were dreadful. It was sweet to see all the families … Continue reading »
