LRSD Spotlight

Debate students from Parkview Magnet High School sucessfully defended their state title at the Arkansas Mock Trial Championships at the Pulaski County Courthouse on Saturday, March 6. They won decisions over Jonesboro in the quarter-finals and Rogers Heritage in the semi-finals. The final round featured Parkview on the plaintiff side meeting Little Rock Central on the defense, and the decision went to Parkview. In addition to prizes and trophies, the team won an all-expenses-paid trip to the national Mock Trial championships in Philadelphia in May.

Debate team members include Seemaab Ali, Cassidy Boyle, Stephen Jones, Bukola Odeniyi, Dolapo Odeniyi, Kailum Scharf, Olivia White, Carman Wilson and Laura Yoder. They are coached by Parkview's oral communications and debate teacher Pat Treadway and attorney/coach Judge Dennis James.

Could a future world-famous scientist or doctor be in our midst? Only time will tell! Kamakshi Duvvuru, Abu-Rmaileh Muhammed and the team of Audrey Jacquiss, Chrystal Lau and Tatianna Lupashina will represent Central High School and the Little Rock School District at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), which will take place in San Diego, California, this May.

These students and hundreds more participated in the Central Arkansas Regional Science Fair (CARSF), which took place on March 5 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Students from several Little Rock School District schools won awards in the many categories ranging from animal science and biochemistry to physics and astronomy.

Kamakshi won the 1st-place award in the Computer Science category and also won 1st place overall.

Muhammad won 1st place in Biochemistry and 2nd place overall.

They, along with Audrey, Chrystal and Tatiana, will receive an expenses-paid trip to the ISEF to compete against students from around the country and around the world.

Aadil Khan and Samia Nawaz, also students from Central, were 4th- and 5th-place winners, respectively, in the CARSF.

View a complete list of CARSF winners

LRSD students also recently submitted papers for the Central Arkansas Junior Academy of Science (JAS). Those students who placed first, second or third in their categories in the senior division will present their work in front of a panel of judges on April 4.

View a complete list of JAS winners

Two Central High School seniors, Yi Wu and Helio Liu, were selected as winners of the 2009-2010 Siemens Award for Advanced Placement. They were selected based on their exceptional performance on Advanced Placement (AP) Exams in math and science courses. Both students will receive a $2,000 college scholarship as part of their recognition. Only one male and one female from each state are so honored each year.

The National Academic Quiz Bowl Tournament (NAQT) has ranked Parkview Magnet High School’s Quiz Bowl "A" team 29th in the nation!   

Parkview’s Quiz Bowl team has been very busy in recent weeks, preparing for and participating in several Quiz Bowl tournaments.

February 20, St. Mark’s Invitational
Parkview’s Quiz Bowl participants recently traveled to Dallas for the St. Mark’s NAQT Invitational Tournament. Twenty-one teams participated, and the Parkview “A” Team won 2nd place. The “B” Team was ranked 2nd in the preliminary rounds before the afternoon games.

Chris Altheimer was ranked 2nd highest individual scorer.
Jake Kimmerly was ranked 3rd highest individual scorer. Jake was the number-one sophomore scorer in the country last year.
Connor Thompson and Alex Smith also posted high individual scores.

February 27, Benton Invitational
The Parkview “A” Team won 3rd place at the Benton AGQBA Invitational Tournament. Thirty-one teams participated. Unfortunately, Parkview “A” had to play Parkview “B” in the quarterfinal round. Parkview “A” lost to 1st place team Northside High in the semifinal round.

High scorers for the team include: John Sykes, Chris Altheimer, Jake Kimmerly and Eric Carter.

The following students are members of the 2009-2010 Parkview Quiz Bowl team: Seemaab Ali, Chris Altheimer, Eric Carter, Catie Edwards, Jake Kimmerly, Darcie Moore, Kerry Richmond, Robert Rogers, Neal Sanger, Alex Smith, John Sykes, Connor Thompson, Kyle Vachon, Dallas White, Josh Woods and Laura Yoder. The team is coached by Pamela Crane.

Mrs. Harris' 1st grade class at Williams Magnet Elementary wanted to do something special to mark the 100th day of school this year, and they certainly accomplished their goal. They were supposed to collect 100 items to donate to the Ronald McDonald House. Students were asked to bring in items such as soap, toilet paper, paper towels, cleaning supplies, toothpaste and toothbrushes to be donated to the Ronald McDonald House. The class would count how many items they had each day to see how many more items they needed to reach their goal. They went above and beyond by collecting a total of 128 items!

Through this project the students learned the importance of giving to others in need. Everyone in the Williams Magnet family takes pride in helping their community. They feel that it is important for them to do what they can to make the lives of others just a little bit easier.