August 12, 2005

ESD NEWS BRIEFS

Evergreen School District saves residents $4.6 million

By Katherine Gomez
and Jim Crawford
Special to the Times

On March 31, the Evergreen School District sold $45 million of general obligation re-funding bonds, which replace older bonds issued from 1998-2000.

These new bonds were sold with interest rates 0.625 to 1.3 percent lower than the previous issues. This resulted in a savings of $4,619,430 during the life of the bonds. When added to two previous re-fundings in 2003, the district has saved Evergreen residents a total of $6.6 million.

Four large financial institutions bid on the sale with J.P Morgan Securities, Inc. winning the bid with an average interest rate of 4.35 percent. Since the sale, J. P. Morgan Securities has sold most of these bonds to large mutual funds and insurance companies.

Measure A, which Evergreen citizens approved in 1997, made the sale of these general obligation bonds possible. By law, funds generated from the sale of these bonds can only be used for construction projects. They cannot be used for classroom expenses or to cover teachers’ salaries.

In Evergreen, bond funds have been used to construct new schools such as Carolyn A. Clark and James Franklin Smith elementary schools and to modernize existing schools. Typical modernization projects include: installation of upgraded and energy efficient lighting, new roofs, new cabinets in classrooms, bathroom renovations that meet the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, asphalt repairs and beautification projects such as resurfacing, painting, landscaping and concrete work.

ESD is committed to maximizing general obligation refunding bonds to ensure that its schools are not only effective and efficient learning environments for its students, but also places of pride for the entire Evergreen community.

Jim Crawford is the assistant superintendent and Katherine Gomez is the director of educational services for the Evergreen School District.

Quimby Oak wraps up school year with Cinderella

Plans for ‘The Music Man’ in January 2006

Alyssa Friend as the master chef is ready to lead the rest of the cast in a song and dance for the king and queen. Everyone is preparing for the Grand Ball.

April Gooding as Cinderella tells her fairy godmother Jennie Anne Ayap she is just a poor maiden not worthy of going to the ball, and together they sing the song “Impossible.”

About 38 students from Quimby Oak joined in a musical production of the classic fairy tale Cinderella on May 26.
Eighth-grader April Gooding played the starring role of the downtrodden housemaid forced to wait on her stepmother and stepsisters. Jennie Ann Ayap played the fairy godmother that transforms a pumpkin into a carriage and provides the beautiful dress and accessories to knock the socks off of the handsome prince, played by Aaron Parker, at the ball.

Sharon Jones, Quimby Oak’s drama teacher, explained that all the students help move the sets so that everyone has an opportunity to be out onstage.

She was quick to point out that without the help of parents and a few essential people working the sound and lights, the show could not have happened. Jason Scheffler-Allen, a former Quimby Oak student, worked his magic on the sound and lights with the help of student Taylor Alcala.

“PTA President Evelyn Allen was also a huge help with this production,” Jones said. “Parent Bill Friend helped with the backdrops while his wife Anne was busy altering our costumes. Valerie Gooding kept us organized and made beautiful wrist corsages and hair pieces for our ladies. And Bill Snelgrove gave our speakers a solid check before each of our rehearsals and our productions.

For her January 2006 production, Jones plans to bring “The Music Man” to Quimby Oak, and hopes to involve both the school’s band and the choir in the production. The story is about a con man that comes to a midwestern town with a scam using a boy’s marching band program, but as expected, things don’t go according to plan.

Primary Math World Contest

Evergreen student returns from international math contest with team honors

Evergreen’s Akash Gupta represented the United States in Hong Kong as part of a four-student team at the ninth Po Leung Kuk Primary Mathematics World Contest, helping the team win a third-place trophy for the Po Leung Kuk Cup in the group prizes and a fourth-place trophy in the team prizes.

This is the only international math competition for middle school students 13 or younger held on July 16-20 against 43 teams from countries such as Australia, Bulgaria, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Macau, Mexico, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and South Africa.

(From left) Displaying their awards from a recent Primary Mathematics Contest in Hong Kong are assistant coach Elisha Garg, student Logan Short from Redwood Middle School in Saratoga, student Alex Chang from Menlo School in Atherton, Coach Ewa Garg, student Felix Sung from Miller Junior High in San Jose, Evergreen’s student Akash Gupta from Chaboya Middle School and assistant coach Aaron Garg. Felix Sung was the only U.S. student to receive an individual prize.

“The contest was highly competitive, and I’m extremely happy with the results,” said Coach Ewa Garg, who entered a team in this contest for the first time. “Many countries had a long process to select their final team from tens of thousands of students who signed up initially. They would go through many rounds of vigorous training and elimination.”

To select the students, Garg held a tryout in April, where 61 fifth- to seventh-graders from 25 different schools in the Bay Area took the qualifying test. Garg offered brief training in May and mid-June.

“I’m a competitive math coach who teaches problem solving mathematics,” Garg said. “I love coaching talented students and taking them for math competitions. I believe that kids learn and improve better if they have goals.”

She noted that most math competitions focus on problem-solving mathematics, which is different from the straightforward computational math that is done in school. It requires reasoning, logical thinking and problem-solving techniques.

If you’re interested in math contests and/or learning problem-solving mathematics, contact Ewa Garg at (408) 354-1022. Her e-mail address is ewagarg@gmail.com and Web site is www.mathedge.org.

4.0 Addition

Shruti Rajagopal, a fourth-grade student at Carolyn Clark Elementary School, earned a 4.0 grade point average in the last trimester of the 2004-05 school year. The Evergreen School District regrets the omission of her name in the list of 4.0 students provided to the Evergreen Times.