March 7, 2008

Dear Friends,

Coming and going.

February/early March are our swan months—smooth on the surface and paddling rapidly underneath. Contracts for returning students and for teachers are being prepared. Admissions files and financial aid requests are being reviewed with excruciating care. The college counseling office is on the telephone with the three hundred colleges our seniors have chosen. The board is discussing the school and its future with potential new trustees. The head of school search process is thoroughly under way, leading up to my retirement in June 2009.

By early April, all of these changes will be complete except the head search, which will last through the fall. We will know the names of next year's students and quite a lot about what they will be studying. Virtually all the seniors will be settled. Faculty needs will be close to completion.

The remarkable thing about schools–even new ones–is that they have a twenty-five percent turnover each year and yet remain the same. In many ways, we are still the same school as the one that assembled with sixty eighth graders at the Log Cabin four years ago. There is a power to our corporate culture which transcends the individuals who join it, who adapt themselves to it as the culture adapts, much more slowly, to them. Of all the (many) things we did right from the beginning, I am especially thankful for our intentional pursuit of a kindly, honest, and adventurous environment. The floor of the Great Room may be filling up, and lunch may be in two sessions; but the spirit remains much the same.

Clearly, I am especially moved to think of these things since the formal announcement of my own departure has now gone out. At my age and stage, it is a privilege to be employed at all, let alone be given the opportunity to be part of building something new from scratch. I am so grateful; and I will be relishing these last fifteen months with particular focus.

All best wishes,

Fr. Malcolm

A Week in the Life of Bay
Audrey Mott-Smith

Each week is different at Bay as a wide range of activities and events supplement education in the classroom. Daily morning all-school meetings start our day together and frequent afternoon gathering events give us the opportunity to explore and share many different forms of artistic expression, unfamiliar cultural or religious traditions, personal triumphs, and challenging new ways of thinking.

During one particular week in February the entire Bay community had the pleasure to learn about and celebrate Chinese New Year; we held our own presidential primary election; welcomed the world-renowned international poetry slam champion, Anis Mojgani (see his video on You Tube); took lessons from the famed and exceptionally talented Shaolin Monks; and shared our appreciation for one another in an open, school-wide forum—all in one week. The energy, creativity, thoughtfulness and candor these events inspired are representative of what one can expect from the ongoing Bay School experience. We are so grateful to everyone whose contributions make the Bay School such an incredible place, not only for students, but for faculty, staff and parents as well; it is a privilege to be here.

The Bay School Senior Project Program
Eugene Mizusawa Ph.D., Director of Senior Projects and Field-based Learning

The Senior Projects and Field-based Learning Program is designed to be the culminating experience of the 12th grade year. This program is a meaningful opportunity for every senior at the Bay School to pursue their personal and academic interests inside and outside of the classroom with the close guidance of an experienced mentor. The Senior Project is intended to be a unique personal journey for each student as he or she works to gain an in-depth understanding of a subject area that is of importance to them, or to begin the exploration of an area of interest. The program offers the longer-term benefit of helping students to focus on possible areas of study in college, future careers, and community involvement and is a direct expression of the Bay School philosophy emphasizing the close connections between the acquisition of academic knowledge and its relevance and application to life in the real world.

Project field work outside of the classroom takes many forms such as internships, future career experiences, or working closely with mentors who will provide expertise and resources to facilitate an outcome that the student would like to accomplish or create. Significantly different from many senior project offerings available at other schools, the Bay School program is required for graduation. Projects must involve a minimum of 65 hours of field work, and students earn full academic credit for a two trimester elective course. Project work may be done during regular school hours, outside of the school day, or even during the summer, based upon student/mentor schedules and project opportunities.

The focus of senior projects is on field work. Students are required to create a resume, write a project proposal, keep a field work notebook, and they will write a research paper and reflection paper at the end of their work. This year graduating seniors will formally present the results of their work at the Senior Projects Conference and Celebration to be held at the Bay School on Thursday, May 29, from 5:00 to 7:30 PM. The entire school community will be on hand to learn about and honor their hard work.

It is important to acknowledge from the beginning that many of the senior projects will surpass their goals, and inevitably, a few will not. The success of a senior project is not only determined by whether or not the project meets its aim, because this form of education is all about process. Rather, it is about learning how to take an idea and reach for a goal–using one's knowledge, skills, and personal qualities, such as responsibility. If a student does everything right and the project doesn't work out, it is a successful senior project because the experience and learning process will bring him or her closer to success the next time. In real life, there is very often as much learned through failure as through success.

More than a year ago, we challenged all students in the founding Class of 2008 to take a chance and dare to do something great for their senior projects. The class responded to the challenge by initiating and developing projects, that when viewed as a group, far exceeded our initial expectations.

A representative selection of this year's senior projects includes:

• Internships at: an investment firm, a school for students with learning disabilities, an engineering facility that produces one-and-two person submarines, the Presidio School of Management, the San Francisco Free Clinic (nursing), a law firm, a consulting firm specializing in political campaigns, Presidio Sports and Medicine (physical therapy), an architectural and design firm
• Developing an online radio show and live sports broadcasting capability at the Bay School
• Motion graphics design work
• Writing an article for the SF Chronicle about the relationship between fishing and the mental well-being of children
• Developing an ad campaign for a natural cereal targeted at teens
• Biology and computer modeling
• Working at a medical research lab
• Developing a strategy-based video game
• Designing a residential treatment center
• Creating an artistic mural
• Designing a alternative energy park at Ocean Beach
• Launching a peer tutoring program at the Bay School
• Developing a computer-based, English-Mandarin Chinese dictionary
• Developing a documentary, website, and curriculum about the American food system
• Studying the economics of the film industry
• Photography and the music industry
• Learning how to dance and choreograph
• Translating the Bay School website into Spanish and Mandarin Chinese
• Organizing a benefit fashion show
• Designing a car and building a 1/12 scale model
• Writing and publishing a book
• Designing and prototyping an ultra-light airplane
• Researching and forecasting the future of sports media and journalism in the US
• Designing and building a functional model of a solar-powered charging station
• Developing a plan to become a professional race car driver
• Researching race relations in independent schools
• Video documentary production
• Publishing a multicultural magazine with writers from all over the world
• Developing a PDA-based electronic tour at the Presidio
• Marine mammal research

2008 Senior Project Highlights

Seniors Henry Wettersten, Meg Millhouse, and Max Pochebyt are now more than half-way along in the complicated process of building an electric car using the chassis of a Model A Ford that they hope to drive to their graduation ceremony in early June. As Henry remarks, "The project includes mechanical, chemical, and electrical knowledge. It presents many of the challenges that are inherent with electrical vehicles and is giving me experience in a field that will grow exponentially over the coming decades. The possibilities are nearly endless. Cheap transportation, environmental friendliness, a whole new industry. If this project can convince just 50 people that this is a viable technology, our efforts will be vindicated. This project brings together all studies I have undertaken at Bay–science, the environment, and politics."

The goal of Anna Ortiz-Aragon's senior project is to learn what it takes to start and run a nonprofit company. Anna's mentor is a Bay School parent who founded and operated a successful company selling a broad range of personal care products. Working closely with her mentor, Anna is creating a new brand called 'Bay Splash Naturals' that includes six products that will be sold to the Bay School community as a fundraiser benefiting the school's financial aid program. "I chose this project because in college I'm hoping to study business management or advertising and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to gain experience and exposure to the fields," says Anna. "My goal is to create a fundraising vehicle for the Bay School but with my own spin on it. I want to create something that can be a permanent reflection of the Class of '08, that is green, healthy, and family oriented."

Avid mathematician and aspiring physicist Zach Fisher has used his senior project as the opportunity to pursue his long-time interest in learning about the workings of a particle accelerator. "I’ve been interested in particle physics for years, but the field is so large and requires a long time to learn. Within the framework of a senior project, though, I have plenty of time to explore this exciting area of physics." Zach applied and was accepted to attend the two-week U.S. Particle Accelerator School sponsored by UC Santa Cruz in February where he joined college and graduate students from around the world as the only high school student in the class. "I'm proud of the work I've done on the project so far. I even found out that I received the top score in the class! In addition, an extensive analysis of linear accelerators could have benefits for a large number of people in the future. They have important applications in medicine as cancer radiation therapy as well as in industrial uses involving precise measurement."

Senior Kelly Wyatt is in the midst of her internship at Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz Architects (KMD), an award-winning architecture and design firm located in San Francisco, founded by her mentor, Bay School parent Herb McLaughlin, in 1963. KMD design projects have focused on areas such as the unique housing needs of the elderly; the creation of active public spaces on the university campus; and the development of exciting environments in retail centers throughout the US and across the world. KMD is also known as a leader in the field of "Green Design", sustainable architecture.

Kelly's senior project goal is to learn about architecture in general, considering the field as a possible future career. As she reports in her journal: "I worked with Alex today–he was working on a project in Korea; the government wanted to separate the locations of different branches and he was working on the legislative building. The design for the building had already been approved but there was a courtyard in the center which needed to be filled. He had established that it would be a sculpture but didn't know of what. In Korea trees are symbols of everything good so he wanted to have them incorporated somehow. I sketched ideas for the sculpture and ended up with one that Alex and I were both pretty happy with."

Investigating Hydrology and Water Resource Issues
Nicolas Fiszman, Science Teacher

Two years ago, I moved to San Francisco to teach science at the Bay School. I came from Massachusetts where the biggest water issue is whether the area will be hit with 50 or 90 inches of snow in a given winter. Two months into my first year, I was asked to vote on Proposition 84 which asked voters whether the State of California should issue 5.4 billion dollars worth of bonds to solve various water problems. My academic background has been focused on theoretical seismology, so in addition to the fact that I had never encountered a proposition, I quickly realized that I had never had to think much about water, that I really did not know much about water, and that I specifically knew little to nothing about water issues in California. In February of 2007, faculty members were asked to propose new science courses for the rising senior class. The Bay School prides itself in being a haven for learners, a place where both students and teachers are challenged to remain intellectually active and engaged. I seized the opportunity to teach something I had never learned myself, and thus, the Water Resource Sustainability class was born.

The Water Resource Sustainability course is a new upper-level science elective. True to the mission of the school, it challenges students academically by confronting them with a real social issue, namely "How should we manage water in California?" While students were faced with this compelling social problem, they were also confronted with a new way of thinking, namely something less reductionistic in nature and more systems based. So, even though the course first looked at water by separating it into precipitation, surface water, ground water, etc…, it soon became clear to us that all these different water reservoirs were, in fact, linked, and that furthermore, the process through which these various reservoirs interacted mattered.

What is a watershed? We started the class by looking at the Presidio watershed that surrounds us. The class built a three-dimensional model of the Presidio which allowed us to clearly see the many creeks and different basins–all different watersheds. We then identified the many issues surrounding water management and distribution systems in the Presidio: the Tennessee Hollow Restoration Project, Los Lobos Creek water treatment plant, Presidio golf course irrigation, Mountain Lake, the interface between the creeks, the marshes and the bay at Crissy Field and Baker Beach, the tension between recreational use of the Presidio, and the water resources needed to support vegetation and animal life throughout the park.

During this process, students formulated and considered many important questions that are central to the process of water management: Do you let people enjoy Los Lobos creek or do you fence it off to protect water quality? Do you restore a once pristine watershed such as Tennessee Hollow thereby eliminating soccer play on the Paul Goode and Morton Street fields? Does it really make sense to have a golf course in a national park? How should it be irrigated and fertilized?

These types of questions can be expanded and applied to critical water resource management issues facing the United States and many parts of the world in the 21st century. How much water should the Imperial Valley get from the Colorado River? Do dams on the Sacramento River really have a negative impact on fish and wildlife? Are levees the most appropriate way to provide flood control? What happens to the River Ganges when the Farakka Dam is built? How does intensive use of fertilizers by the farming industry affect the land in the Colorado or the Rio Grande basins? We finished our world tour by returning to California and investigating the Central Valley and the Central Valley Project.

One of the realizations that the class had was that no matter how well we understood the science involved, the roadblocks that consistently got in the way of a sustainable solution were human factors such as politics, budgets, policies, and greed. In order to get a better understanding of how water is actually apportioned and managed, guest speakers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the San Francisco Public Utility Commission made class presentations giving background information about their respective agencies, outlining current and future water resource issues. Jennifer Dunn SPN, from the Corps, spoke about flood prevention and flood insurance, Jeffrey McCracken, from the Bureau of Reclamation, discussed water and irrigation, and Suzanne Gautier, from the San Francisco Public Utility Commission, talked about the water system that supplies San Francisco as well as the many challenges that lie ahead in the next fifty years.

Our final project was to write a position paper on Proposition 84. Each student was asked to take a position on the issue and to argue in support of their position using material covered in the course and from other sources of information. Following are a few excerpts from student reports that illustrate the depth of thought and understanding that students exhibited:

• "Our past choices have led us to be a society that thinks we have control over all of nature. One of the prime examples of our attempt to control nature and disrupt the natural flow of things is levees. Primarily this is a huge disturbance of the vast riparian habitat. Since the construction of levees we have built cities around them due to the ready availability of water. The final result of this poorly thought-out system is a world where we must get rid of the levees but are unable to do so because this would destroy our cities and impact the lives of countless people. Sadly, Proposition 84 needs to deal with this issue in one of the only possible ways, providing money to maintain this ludicrous system. We have dug ourselves into a hole, where we are stuck maintaining a system that eventually can't continue to exist, it is just a question of when people are willing to sacrifice for the larger good.”

       Brian D. - Class of 2008

• "I would vote no on the proposition. Right now is a bad time to make any long term plans for water management because of global climate change. Right now money spent on water should be for conserving water use and notifying the public about the potential for a water crisis. Projects that start recycling water are much more effective at getting quality water to all of California. This proposition only gives $580 million to sustainable programs. This is not nearly enough for a 5.4 billion dollar bond."

       Max S. - Class of 2009

• "I am voting for Proposition 84 to be passed in order to fulfill our water needs. Now that I know more about water; I have grown to care for it more."

       Mikhail A. - Class of 2008

• "If Proposition 84 were to pass it would not necessarily do what it was proposed to do. This means the state can use the revenues for anything they want. Most bond legislation includes provisions about how the state will use the funds honestly. Currently the law is flawed in that there are inadequate checks and balances."

       Cameron S.- Class of 2008

• "It is our duty as citizens of this state to provide the best water and the best protection, against pollution, floods and other hazards. Landscapes and our rivers, lakes, beaches, bays and coastline. When the oil spill occurred in the San Francisco Bay late last year, the bonds from Prop 84 covered the necessities needed in order to restore the Bay."

       Camille L. - Class of 2009

The History of War Comes Alive – A Visit to the Presidio National Cemetery

Students in Dennis Hartzell's literature class, "The Red Badge: War and Literature," spent their morning in the Presidio National Cemetery on February 11th. Their tour was guided by Galen Dillman, recently retired from the Bank of America and now serving as a docent for the National Park Service. The cemetery, which is maintained by the Veterans Administration, was the first national cemetery established west of the Mississippi. There are 28,000 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen buried in the Presidio; thirty-five of those individuals were recipients of the nation's highest military decoration: the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Galen offered the class a series of fascinating verbal portraits of several significant U.S. military figures whose final resting place is the Presidio:

• Sgt. William Thompkins (9th Cavalry) fell in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. Awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry under fire, Thompkins is one of nearly four hundred "Buffalo Soldiers" buried in the Presidio. The "Buffalo Soldiers" were African-American men who fought both in the Civil War and in the "Indian Wars" of the latter nineteenth century.
• Sgt. William Wilson is one of only fourteen soldiers who have received two Medals of Honor. Both were awarded for his service during the "Indian Wars."
• Maj. Dana Crissy was an early pioneer in developing aircraft as a tactical weapon. The Presidio's Crissy Field was named for him following his death in a plane crash outside Salt Lake City in October, 1919.
• Pauline C. Fryer (née Harriet Woods) was an actress in Louisville, KY who became one of the Union Army's most important spies. She was arrested by Confederate forces late in the Civil War and was sentenced to hang. She was saved by advancing Union troops and died in San Francisco in 1893.

The tour of the Cemetery provided a valuable perspective to the juniors and seniors in Hartzell's course. Throughout the second trimester, the class has examined and discussed, using the reflections of novelists and poets, the highly complex issues presented by organized warfare in the 19th and 20th centuries. Readings have included Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, Erich Marie Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Joseph Heller's Catch-22, and selected poems by Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, E.E. Cummings, Ezra Pound, Randall Jarrell, and Anthony Hecht.

One of the principal challenges posed by the course is grappling with the enduring and central paradox of combat, a human phenomenon that calls for what is best and what is worst in us. Students strive to understand for themselves the balance between the ideals of courage, loyalty, and self-sacrifice, so much a part of the traditional warrior's code, and the realities of savagery, destruction, and darkness that have always been a part of organized combat.

Highlights of the 2008 Basketball Season

Spring Sports are up and running following a successful basketball season—highlighted by the Bay girls' varsity team earning a spot in the BCL-Central championship game. Our girls entered the playoffs as the number 3 seed and after upsetting Gateway in the semi-finals, earned the right to play in the championship against International High School. In the championship final, International jumped out to a substantial early lead, but Bay stayed in there and fought back, cutting International's lead to only 8 points with 3 minutes left in the game.

Congratulations go to varsity Coach Larry Minnich and the Girls' Varsity team for another strong season. Furthermore, we have just received word that junior, Amelia Mostovoy, has been placed on the First Team All League (BCL-Central) and seniors Kelly Wyatt and Cara Vennari were selected for the Second Team All League (BCL-Central). In addition, Bay boys' varsity team member senior Kaneja Muganda earned a spot on the First Team All League (BCL-Central) and senior, Morgan McQuown earned a spot on the Second Team All League (BCL-Central). A big congratulations to our boys' varsity team and Coach Dennis Hartzell for all their hard work and commitment in finishing their second varsity season ever.

The girls' JV basketball team enjoyed another successful season with an overall record of 11-5. We are very excited about the future of the Bay School basketball program with these young ladies leading the way. Our boys JV team improved from last season more than doubling their number of wins from last year. Congratulations to Coach Adam Farren, Coach Ralph Barhydt and our boys and girls JV teams for always trying their best, and representing Bay with pride.

GO BREAKERS!

News from the College Counseling Office
Peter Olrich, Director of College Counseling

The Bay School began putting considerable energy into the college counseling program in 2005, and since then students in our founding classes have done tremendous individual and collective work, on their own and with our counselors, to find postgraduate options that best suit their talents and interests.

The College Counseling Office is currently humming with activity, involving both our junior and senior classes. The senior Class of 2008 is putting the finishing touches on what has been a very successful journey as a group, and our juniors have been working weekly with us since January. Early returns have been extremely gratifying, and the culture of calm and poise around the process that our students and families have established is enviable.

Over 90% of the admission decisions rendered for the Class of 2008 so far have been acceptances, spanning more than 40 institutions in 16 states. We're very happy with the early returns. Seven seniors have committed to attending their first-choice schools after early decision admissions: at Bowdoin College, Hampshire College, Wellesley College, Bates College, the University of Oregon, Reed College, and St. Olaf College. Two students have earned commissions to US service academies, and are planning to attend: one at the US Naval Academy, and another at the US Air Force Academy. Conversations with our admissions representatives confirm what we've all sensed: there's a great deal of excitement about the Bay School and our students! Bay School seniors have submitted applications to 165 colleges and universities across the country, and the next month will bring the final 75% of our class' admissions decisions. They've done a superb job through every phase of the process, and we are very proud of their work. We've already had to move to narrower pushpin heads on an acceptance map in our hallway to fit everyone in!

Juniors in the Class of 2009 and their families participated in our second-annual Bay College Weekend kickoff event on January 26. Admissions representatives from Cal Tech, Occidental, Bentley, and the University of Redlands joined us for a panel and case studies, and families and students alike expressed gratitude and relief at the end of an exhausting and comprehensive day. We have been meeting with the juniors in small groups each week since early January, and are now meeting individually with each of them over the next month. They are a great class, and have been excited to get moving.

We're busy, but we're having a lot of fun. These are exciting times, for our school as a whole and for our first two classes in particular. We're looking forward to seeing where the rest of our seniors decide to land, and to our continued work with the class of 2009 through the spring.

The Bay School College Counseling Office
Peter Olrich, Matt Hannibal, and Chris Argenziano

On Stage at Bay

February was an inspiring theatrical month at the Bay School beginning with the three-night run of The Secret in the Wings performed by the Bay Theater Troupe on February 7th, 8th, and 9th, followed by the superb Spanish IV class performance of Historia de una Escalera on Wednesday night, February 27th. Both performances were received with great enthusiasm–each concluding with standing ovations!

The Secret in the Wings, by acclaimed writer and director Mary Zimmerman, took the Bay School audience on a sometimes confusing and rough journey from once-upon-a-time to happily-ever-after. The dark essence of children's fairy tales took us on a captivating and intense voyage into our collective subconscious as the play weaved elements from Beauty and the Beast with four lesser known stories into a dream-like exploration of the darker side of human impulses.

The play opened on a note that typifies Ms. Zimmerman’s simultaneously creepy and comic approach. A terrified little girl pleads with her pooh-poohing parents not to leave her at home with the neighbor next door. "He's got a tail!" she screeches. Except for the central story, each tale was told in two parts–the first half of each story interrupted by the first half of the next story–requiring precise timing and intense focus by the ten actors as well as the production team. An original score written and performed by Jake Holtzman ('11) on the piano, accompanied by Meyer Jacobs ('10) on bass, and Angelina Gomez ('08) playing the violin, created a powerful atmosphere that totally engaged the Bay School audience.

• Directed by: Katherine Riley
• Cast: Benjy Wachter, Pearl Morgan, Allison Cleary, Hannah Blockley, Maddy Engelfried, Michael Hemberger, Katie Yeilding, Kris Doodha, Spencer Stamats, and Jessica Peck
• Original score: Jake Holtzman and Meyer Jacobs
• Choreography: Paula Plessas
• Lighting: James Salazar
• Costumes: Jean Menapace and Liz Colleran
• Set Design and Construction: Greg Karp-Neufeld
• Prop Design and Construction: The Bay School Arts & Crafts Club

Historia de una Escalera (Story of a Staircase), admirably performed entirely in Spanish (with super titles in English) by Ana Bayat's Spanish IV class on the evening of February 27th, left the audience in awe of the mastery and professionalism exhibited by its performers.

Historia de una Escalera was written in 1949 in post-war Spain. The playwright, Antonio Buero Vallejo, is considered one of, if not the best, Spanish dramatist of the Spanish Civil War era. The play highlights the harsh realities of several families living together in spartan conditions in a Madrid tenement. In Spain, Historia de una Escalera is required reading for all seniors wishing to enter university.

The class began working with the play at the beginning of the second term–reading, researching the period, translating, and writing about their respective characters in Spanish. Learning lines and designing the set and costumes came next, and finally rehearsing for the performance. A linguistic advantage of studying this particular play was the opportunity to make Spanish their own by learning the colloquial Spanish that is part of the script–going beyond simply looking up words in a Spanish dictionary, getting to the very core of the Spanish culture itself.

Bravos go to Spanish IV student actors, directors, and producers: Katie Shepherd, Krysta Seiwert-Vassallo, Magaly Coronado, Jessie Peck, Amelia Mostovoy, Jake Kleiner, Crissy Gee, Rebecca Roycroft, Vicky Holt, Sarah Baron, Jake Haigh, Olivia Gibson, Thea Rodgers, and Luke Kiehn-Thilman.

A Cappella Valentines

The Bay School A cappella singers turned into unexpected cupids on Valentine's Day last month, spreading love and harmony throughout the hallways and classrooms. Instead of being hit by arrows, teachers were hit with surprise serenades by the Singing Valentines, who harmonized, snapped, and "Do-Wopped" to Sam Cooke's classic melody, "Don’t Know Much." The Singing Valentines crooned their appreciation to their teachers to the appropriate lyrics:

"Don't know much about History
Don't know much Biology
Don't know much about that science book
Don't know much about the French I took…

But I do know that I love you
And I know that if you love me too
What a wonderful world this would be."

Expanding from five members to fourteen, this year's A cappella group is having much fun, and has enjoyed performing for the Bay community several times during morning meetings this year. Their diverse repertoire ranges from "Sweet Child of Mine" by Guns n' Roses to traditional carols around the winter holidays. We would love for you to hear us sometime. Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!

Annie Tsang
Director of Admission and A cappella Advisor

Bay Honors

Congratulations to the following members of the Bay School community for their recent achievements and accolades:

Spencer Stamats, Zach Fisher, and Daniel Rathman, members of the Bay School Class of 2008, have been selected as finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Competition. We're proud of you and your hard work!

Rose Frazier, Bay Class of 2009, was recently chosen as a regional winner in the prestigious voice competition sponsored by Classical Singer magazine. She has been invited to compete in the finals in New York City to be held over Memorial Day weekend in May. For information visit: http://www.classicalsinger.com/convention/hscomp-expo/. Congratulations go to Rose.

Sophomore Eliza White recently earned her certification as an accredited sailing instructor, awarded by U.S. Sailing, the governing body of sailing in the United States. Eliza, a founding member of the Bay School Sailing Team, completed the comprehensive 40-hour certification course that included drafting lesson plans and giving mock classes both on land and out on the water. The minimum age for the certification is 16–and Eliza made it by a month to the day!

Three Bay cheers go to Camille Lendormy, Class of 2009 for having organized the school's first blood drive on campus in conjunction with Blood Centers of the Pacific, on Friday, February 15th. Surpassing her original goal of registering 27 people to donate, more than 35 students, parents, and members of the faculty and staff signed up to donate blood. Plans are now underway to host another Bay School blood drive in the fall of 2008.

Bay School Director of Learning Services, Dr. Charles Roth, was the keynote speaker at a conference sponsored by Maplebrook School, a high school and post-secondary program for learning disabled students in Lakeville, Ct., on February 15th-17th. Dr. Roth's presentation was titled "Fostering Independence; The Perspective of a Parent and Psychologist." Contact Dr. Roth at: croth@bayschoolsf.org for more information.

March 2008 Events Calendar