The Lassiter High School DECA club held a three-week Breast Cancer Awareness fund-raising campaign during the month of October, capturing the attention and generosity of the whole school. The campaign raised more than $2,000 for breast cancer research!

The campaign began with with St. Joseph’s Hospital’s Mammogram bus offering mammograms for teachers. From Oct. 11-17, students passed out pink ribbon-themed treats to Lassiter staff members to raise awareness and show appreciation. DECA sold custom pink t-shirts, included facts about cancer during the morning announcements and offered discounted pink spiritwear in the school store. The campaign concluded with a “Pink Out” at the home football game against Milton on Oct. 16, where everyone from the band to the cheerleaders to the football team got into the spirit of support.

The Lassiter DECA sponsors are teachers Kari Palmer and Wanda Wexler.

Starting high school can be a scary experience for ninth graders, but an elite group of Campbell High School upperclassmen are reaching out to their younger peers and making connections for success. The Campbell Link Crew members are juniors and seniors hand-picked by teachers to serve as mentors for freshmen Spartans. Before school began on Aug. 10, the Link Crew operated activities at the ninth grade orientation.

Throughout the school year, the group will serve as ushers at school activities, participate in academic and social events with freshmen, and provide individual encouragement, easing ninth grade transition into high school.

The group hosted a “Freshmen Tailgate Party” before the home opener for the 9th grade football program.  Students enjoyed snacks, an obstacle course, music, a giant slide and many other activities.

The team from Sedalia Park Elementary School took home third place in the Georgia Science Olympiad on May 15 at Kennesaw State University. The statewide event is a hands-on competition where students compete in specific events relating to science. The program is aligned to the Georgia Performance Standards and has been recognized nationally for enhancing science education. The Sedalia Park team, coached by Linda Leland and Gina Coss consists of:

5th grade:  Steven A., Hans B., Marco C., Savannah B., Samanthan C., Francesca V., Francis V.

4th grade:  Faith, Maria, Chris, Eduardo

3rd grade:  Ellen W., Daryl Ann C.

For more information, visit the Georgia Science Olympaid Web site.

Wheeler High’s Culinary Arts students had the distinctive opportunity of assisting with the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show April 17-19 at the Galleria Center. Students assisted with prep work for Tyler Florence, Guy Fieri, The Neelys, and Paula Deen. The behind-the-scenes experience immersed the students in the world of television food prep. During the Tyler Florence show, one of the Wheeler students was actually on stage and was chosen for his efforts in prepping for Tyler’s dish. Later that day, Tyler visited the prep area where he signed aprons, posed for pictures, and gave words of wisdom and encouragement to our culinary students.

Wheeler students also assisted in the Children’s area where they taught how to prepare various snacks of animal themes. The little chefs created their own cheesy caterpillars and a chocolate octopus. The cooking show allowed them to teach and relate to young children.

Local chefs Chef Kory Mac and Chef Alex Reetoff helped the group prepare for the event, visiting the class to demonstrate their culinary knowledge. The class is advised by Lyvonda Crumb.

Submitted by Freida Frady, parent liaison

Austell Intermediate School in Powder Springs has been going green during the school year.  Beginning in August, the staff purchased  green cloth bags to provide a means for used paper to be recycled in the classroom. After School Program students empty the bags daily into bins provided by Partner in Education Caraustar Industries.

After school Science and Earth Savers Clubs were organized and sponsored several activities during the school year. The Earth Savers had a bake sale before a PTA meeting in order to adopt an infant gorilla as well as collected used cell phones to send to Zoo Atlanta for gorilla research.  The Earth Savers and Science Clubs have been helping care for an established garden and identifying areas on the school grounds that need beautification.  The Science Club made birdhouses to attract native birds.

Teachers planned and taught environmental lessons to help obtain Green School distinction. Austell Intermediate earned Gold status their first year of participation in Keep Cobb Beautiful’s Green School awards program.

Cobb County Water System presented Water Conservation lessons to second and fourth graders helping them realize even students can help save our county’s water supply.

In March, 102 students, parents, siblings and teachers planted 14 trees to help provide shade for the school’s sunny playgrounds under the direction of Joe Burgess from the Georgia Forestry Commission and the Cobb Tree Program. Classrooms “adopted” a tree to water weekly.

Classrooms participated in different Earth Day activities on April 22 and were encouraged to wear blue or green to celebrate.  In conjunction with ideas from an environment movement “No Child Left Inside” and Earth Day, the science classes spent the week transforming an eroded, rocky portion of the school grounds into an outdoor discovery area.  With the goal of restoring habitats destroyed during the construction of the school, students placed rocks brought from home and cement borders donated by Austell’s GMS company to form pathways over the eroded areas. Planters were also made from cement cap blocks for native plants.  The paths were filled with mulch provided by Greystone EMC with hopes of enriching the soil. The Science Club birdhouses were hung as well as a bat and ladybug house during the week.  This area is now habitat friendly.

Austell Intermediate is very appreciative of the support of county and community organizations and businesses who have enabled students to experience Georgia Performance Standards in true life. Students will now be able to observe habitats, life cycles, water conservation, and the effects of human intervention on the environment.

Several student newspapers and yearbooks from Cobb schools received awards at the 2009 Georgia Scholastic Press Association Awards Ceremony at the Classic Center in Athens, GA. The honored publications and individuals from Cobb are:

Harrison High School, The Legacy yearbook, AAAAA
Lassiter High School, Laureate, AAAAA
Pebblebrook High School, BrookSpeak, AAAA
Pebblebrook High School, Aplomado yearbook, AAAA
Pope High School newspaper, Greyhound Tracks – General Excellence, Best Front Page Design, AAAAA
Sprayberry High School, Echo yearbook, AAAAA
Walton High School, The Legend yearbook – General Excellence, AAAAA

Marcus Lyons, Pebblebrook High School, Cover Design (yearbook)
Rachel McCoy and James McJunkins, Spread Design  (yearbook)
Chandler Fisk, Special Interest Story  (yearbook)

Nearly 500 high school students and their advisers attended the annual event, which was keynoted by Julie Wolfe, a noted “backpack journalist” and Atlanta TV reporter for 11 Alive. Organized in 1928 by UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Georgia Scholastic Press Association assists Georgia high school media programs and students by encouraging the production of quality publications and broadcast programs through instruction and contests. There are 132 GSPA member publications for the 2008-09 school year, representing some 3,000 students across the state.

A graduation ceremony was held for 12 new Cobb Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) members from Harrison High School on Wednesday evening, April 15, 2009, at the Cobb Public Safety Training Center in Marietta.

Cobb’s CERT program is the largest in Georgia with 847 trained and is offered to any Cobb resident who is at least 16 years of age.

This is the first class comprised soley of teenage members. The teens volunteered over 24 hours each learning fire safety, first aid, emergency preparedness, disaster psychology, teamwork, and search techniques.

According to Cobb County’s Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) Deputy Director Lanita Lloyd, “This group is filled with energy and excitement – we’ve learned as much from them as they have from us. These teens are leaders – They are willing to step up to the plate and help others should a crisis occur – these teens are leaders and will be an asset to Cobb County!”

Participant Matt Piper added, “CERT has prepared me and my classmates to step-up and help our community when faced with emergencies. I learned a great deal in the class and would recommend it to others.”

Wheeler High School’s robotics team The CircuitRunners performed flawlessly on Saturday, March 14 at the US FIRST FRC Peachtree Regional Championship, reaching the semifinals of the competition.

The combination of Robot Performance and overall team effort throughout the competition as well as the community earned the team the 2nd Highest Overall Award for the championship, The Engineering Inspiration Award.  This award recognizes that inspiring others to respect science and technology requires passion, knowledge and commitment.  FIRST celebrates these qualities by presenting the Engineering Inspiration Award.  This award celebrates a team’s outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school, as well as their community.

The judges were highly complimentary of Wheeler’s program.

“This team demonstrates all of the qualities of an organization that truly values technology and understands the need to drive young adults into technical and engineering programs after high school.  Through community outreach and mentoring programs they run a circuit that keeps talent coming into their team and helps them continue education in engineering after graduation.  This year they continued their streak by painting the sky green.”

This award and the robot’s performance earned the CircuitRunners a trip to the INTERNATIONAL US FIRST FRC CHAMPIONSHIPS, to be held in the Georgia Dome April 16 -18.

A student group at Campbell Middle School is immersing themselves in a cultural tradition that spans from England to China and beyond. The popular girls-only group the Lady Spartans held their first High Tea event on March 11, dressing in formal attire to share desserts and exotic teas.

Under the tutelage of advisers Luella Jacobs, Marsha Powells, Meta Rome, Brenda Sellers, Glenda Spring and Rose Wilkins, the Lady Spartans participate in many extracurricular activities, ranging from a pampering Spa Day to the Evening Etiquette dining experience to a Poetry Stomp event. The group is also active in community service activities; during the holiday season, the Lady Spartans served residents at the Del Mar Gardens nursing home.

The Lady Spartans provide an excellent outlet for Campbell Middle School’s female students, promoting social, mental and physical development.

Submitted by Stephanie Rosekrans

The Osborne High School JROTC Leadership Academic Team recently won first place in the 2009 Army JROTC Leadership Academic Bowl. The cadets competed against teams from Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Osborne’s team won an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC where they will attend a leadership symposium with 51 other JROTC teams from across the globe.

Congratulations to cadets Amy Castro, Jordan Robertson, Jacob Furman, Tiare Castillo, Rosa Arriaga and Sabino Rico for their performance at the Academic Bowl!