February 2005 vol. 41 no. 3

::PRESIDENT’S CORNER

Dear Students, Parents, Teachers, and Friends,

The Spring 2005 sememster is well underway and we're looking forward to completing our first year at the new school location here in Willow Glen. January proved to be a successful month scholastically. Our junior high and high school level students took the annual AATG (American Association of Teachers of German) National Exam for High School students and we are very pleased with the scores. Please read the article below for details of the results.

Josef Hellebrandt


::Notes from the Head Teacher

AATG National Examination for High School Students On January 15 of this year, our students in the junior high and high school levels took this exam with over all pleasing results. Over 25,000 students all across the US participate in this test every year. Our students were among those who scored in the 85th percentile or above.1/3 of our students scored in the 80th percentile or above. The top scores in the were made by David Yun and Jana Weller, both ranked in the 99th percentile. Additionally, David and Jana ranked #8 out of 215 students who took the test in our Northern California Chapter of AATG. Our other high scores were made by Sophia Weller, (97th percentile), Ben Jubelius (91st percentile) and Gabriel Rath (86th percentile). Those students who scored in the 70th percentile or above are invited to an awards ceremony held later this spring. Congratulations to our hard working students who did so well this year. A big thank you to teachers Karin Coder (High School) and Gigi Stein (Junior High) for doing such a great job coaching and preparing the students for this exam.

Linda Yarritu


::ANNOUNCEMENTS

Our once semesterly Eltern-Morgen, takes place on Saturday, March 5th at 9:30 am in our break room. Please mark your calendar. We are holding Board nominations and elections for the next school year, discussing upcoming events such as Easter and the last day of school picnic. The SBDS PTA cordially invites all members attending for coffee and cake. Come meet the board and teaching staff and ask questions in a relaxed, cozy atmosphere.

Please note the changes to our spring 2005 school calendar. Earlier this semester we had an unexpected change in our spring calendar due to a Willow Glen Middle School event and were not able to hold classes on February 12. As a result, we have added a make-up session on Saturday March 26. The Easter Bunny will be coming by to pass out goodies to all of our students.

The last day of school for the 2004/05 year is Saturday, May 14.


::NEWS

Farewell to Karin Coder, our teen level class teacher. We thank her for her many years of dedication in the education of our high school level students. We will miss her positive, energetic and creative spirit. We wish you all the best Karin! In the same spirit, I would like to extend a warm welcome to the newest member of our teaching staff, Gigi Karimzadeh . Born in Hamburg, Germany, Gigi obtained the Abitur from the German Gymnasium in Teheran, earned her BA at Boston University and M.Ed at Boston State College. She will be the new teacher for the teen level class. In addition to German, Gigi speaks Farsi and has lived in the US since 1977. In her free time she loves to read and is a knitting instructor in Campbell. LY

Special Acknowledgements

A big thank you to Peter Klikovitz for the swift repair of our coffee machine this past month. We would also like to thank the Germania Verein of San Jose for generously donating the use of the Germania Hall for our annual school Christmas Party. Thank you to Music Village and Music Village General Manager Don Kong for the donation of the PA system used at the Christmas party. Thank you also to pianist Kathy Goldbach and guitarist Daniel Yarritu for providing the music which gave our party a special holiday atmosphere. Also on our thank you list is Lois Moore for once again successfully organizing the silent auction fundraiser for our school. The fundraiser generated $700.00 to go towards books and supplies. A thank-you to everyone who donated. Last, but not least, a special thank you to everyone who helped put the party together. We couldn't have done it without you.


New Cookie Lee Fundraiser

Once again Amanda Weitzel has offered to host another Cookie Lee jewelry fundraiser for our school. The fundraiser will be held at our annual end of year school picnic on May 14th.

E-Scrip Fundraiser

Please remember to sign up for our E-Scrip program! This is also an important avenue to raise money for the school. Signing up is easy, simply follow the link below and register. Every purchase you make at any of the major grocers and retailers sponsoring E-Scrip will generate a percentage of the sales towards our school. Details can be found at: http://www.sbds.org/fundraising.htm or simply sign up at http://www.escrip.com

Albertson's Fundraiser:

To participate and earn money for the school, participants need to sign up their Albertsons' Preferred Savings Card. This can be done either Albertson's online or through a mail-in registration form. We will make these forms available at school. If supporters have been issued a replacement Preferred Card after registration, they will need to re-register in the Community Partners program with the new Preferred Card.

On behalf of the Board and Teaching Staff, THANK YOU to our members for continued support at SBDS.