Imaginations ran wild on Saturday, April 6 at the Arkansas Destination ImagiNation (DI) State Championships in Benton, when five DI teams from three LRSD schools won first place and qualified to advance to the Destination Imagination Global Finals next month at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Three teams from Carver Magnet Elementary School, and one team each from Forest Heights Middle School and Gibbs Magnet Elementary School all had qualifying first place scores to compete against thousands of students from over 25 different countries from around the world at the Global Finals.
Gibbs Magnet Elementary dominated overall with first place in three different categories—repeating the achievement of being the only school in the State Finals with three teams advancing to the Global Finals from last year. The categories were: Wind Visible, a scientific challenge; In Disguise, a fine arts challenge; and Real to Reel, a documentary film project meant to address a community need. In the fine arts challenge, Gibbs won the Instant Challenge and the Renaissance Award, a special recognition for exceptional skill in the area of engineering, design or performance. Last year, Gibbs emerged as the Global Winner in the scientific category beating teams from around the world.
For the sixth year in the row Carver Magnet Elementary School won first place at the elementary level for “In the Zone,” the most difficult category requiring a trifecta mastery of engineering, design and mathematical concepts. In fact, LRSD schools won at every level of competition in the highly technical “In the Zone” category with Forest Heights Middle School and J.A. Fair Magnet High School winning first place at their respective levels. Dunbar Magnet Middle School won the category’s Instant Challenge securing third place at the middle school level of “In the Zone.” Only Forest Heights and Carver advance to Global in this category.
Teams from Williams Magnet Elementary, Henderson and Mann Magnet Middle Schools also competed. In the scientific challenge, Wind Visible, Williams placed third and Carver placed fourth while Mann placed third and Dunbar placed fourth in the Twist-O-Rama structural challenge. Carver also placed eighth in the improvisational category, Change in Realitee. Hundreds of teams competed in the State Finals at Benton High School.
Dr. Lloyd Sain, Director of Leadership and Secondary Teacher Development, recently received his credentials as an Associate Certified Coach(ACC). After completing 125 hours of coaching training and successfully passing a rigorous written exam and oral coaching assessment at the PCC level, Sain is now among the nation’s emerging professionals to support school leaders as an executive or associate certified coach. Credentialed through the International Coaching Federation, which is the governing body for professional and credential coaches, Dr. Sain completed his intense training with Coaching for Results Global, an accredited training program. As the district’ first certified coach, he will continue to support the work of school and district leaders, academic coaches, teachers, and staff through powerful coaching conversation and training. Many have already witnessed the impact of Dr. Sain’s credentials in his work, in his conversations, and in his ability to inspire others to excel at their professional and personal goals.
More than 60 students from three LRSD high schools vied for bragging rights at the first annual AP Psychology Quiz Bowl, hosted by McClellan High School on May 4, 2013. Central High School team members Will Richardson, BeiBei Dong, Melinda Liu, and Evan Young emerged as the winning team. The competition, held two days before the AP Psychology exam is administered, served as an excellent review for all the participants
Chris Gonterman, Physical Education Teacher at Hall High School, and Vicki Stroud Gonterman, International Studies Specialist at Gibbs International Magnet Elementary School, have both been selected as winners of the Summer Teachers Seminar entitled, “U.S. Presidents and the Middle East: Truman to Obama,” offered by the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri this July. 
Maddie Robinson just found out that she was accepted to the Parkview Drama Magnet Program (9th grade). If she wins, the $45,000 goes to PV! Please spread the word and vote for her Google doodle. Voting ends May 10th so spread the word quickly.
Dr. Vanessa Cleaver was recently elected president of the National Benjamin Banneker Association, an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and will serve until April of 2015. Marcelline Carr, Lead Math Teacher for grades 9-12, was elected treasurer.
The 2013 Rotary Oratorical Essay Contest winners in grades 6-12 were presented with awards at the Rotary Club of Little Rock luncheon on Tuesday, April 30, 2013. This year, students from McClellan won in all four of the high school grade-level divisions, competing against applicants from all five LRSD high schools. Maraya Warren won first place in the 9th grade division; Rachel Lewis was the winner in the 10th grade division; William Lemonds was the 11th grade winner; and Brittany Threatt, last year’s 11th grade winner, won first place in the 12th grade division. 
Jose Martinez and Preston Fore, Automotive Collision Repair and Automotive Service Technology students at Metropolitan Career Technical Center received $1,000 scholarships to Universal Technical Institute (UTI) in Nashville, Tennessee. The students were awarded the scholarship for exhibiting exceptional skills in their perspective programs of study. The award was presented by Richard Deluca, UTI Representative.
Students from Henderson Middle School and Rockefeller Elementary were big winners at the 2013 Student Media Festival awards ceremony on April 20, 2013. Both schools were selected to receive multiple awards for their creative media works.
Bobby Portis and Tyler Scaife, Hall High School's historic McDonald's All-Americans, each tasted victory on the boys' (110-99) and girls' (92-64) West teams, respectively, of the 2013 McDonald's All-American Games in Chicago April 3rd. They make Hall and LRSD proud. Their respective wins in the All-American Games continue their winning season, as they each led their Hall teams to 2013 6A Championships. Bobby has signed a letter of commitment with the Arkansas Razorbacks, while Tyler has committed to Rutgers. We wish these basketball superstars much success in their endeavors.
The results are in for the 2013 Arkansas Science and Engineering Fair, sponsored by Southwest Energy, and the Central High Science Fair team has won 2nd place overall. Team first place honors went to the winning team of Dana Abulez and Devyani Shekawat from Central. Individual first place winners from Central were Ayush Saraswat in the computer science category and Dhruba Dasgupta in the energy and transport category. Osvaldo Cossio of Parkview won first place in the biochemistry category.
Central High’s Science Olympiad Team is the two time state champion, 2012 and 2013. The Arkansas State Science Olympiad Competition was held at University of Arkansas at Little Rock under the direction of Dr. Eric Kaufmann on February 23, 2013.
LRSD students from three elementary schools and one high school were selected as winners at the 52nd Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition. Washington Elementary fourth grader, Jalesa Humphrey and Little Rock Central eleventh grader, Zach Blair, were selected as “Best of Class” for their grade level. Carver Magnet Elementary Kindergartener, Andrew Daniel, and Wakefield Elementary third grader, Ricardo Alvarez, both received Honorable Mention recognition for their grade level.
Please congratulate the National History Day District 7 winners from Pulaski Heights. PHMS students won 13 awards and even swept one category, Historical Paper. Ms. Buford received the award for Outstanding Junior Division Teacher. Most of these students will move on to the state level competition on April 20, 2013 at UCA.
THEA FOUNDATION GIFT Gibbs Magnet Elementary School artists have been given a wonderful gift of art supplies! Herron Horton Architects founders, Jennifer Herron and Jeff Horton, made a generous donation to the Thea Foundation that was matched by the Foundation. Herron Horton Architects made the stipulation that the art support go to Gibbs where both of their children attended school.
Little Rock Central High School won first place in the Arkansas Bar Association's Regional High School Mock Trial Competition held March 2 in Ft. Smith. The tem advances to the state level in Little Rock on March 9, 2013, where they will vie for the opportunity to compete at the National High School Mock Trial Championship later this year in Indianapolis, Indiana. Last year the Central High team won the State Championship and competed for the national title in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Hall High’s School Champion, tenth grader Mandy Nguyen, won the title of Arkansas State Champion in the statewide Poetry Out Loud Contest held Saturday, March 2, 2013, at Pulaski Technical College Auditorium. Nguyen along with Hall’s poetry coach, Ms. Georgia Walton, will travel to Washington, D.C., in April to represent Arkansas in the national contest. As the State champion, Mandy won a $200.00 first place prize and Hall won a $500.00 award for use on poetry related items. This is the third state level win for Hall High School and Ms. Walton, the only high school and poetry coach to have that distinction in the State. Three wins from a single high school and poetry coach is also believed to be a National distinction throughout the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. Hall’s previous winners are the late Roshundalyn Scribner in 2006 and Temple Price in 2008.