Tiny South Coast drama club presents rollicking comedy
Tiny South Coast drama club presents rollicking comedy
Charles Russo
In a pivotal scene from “The Foreigner,” from left, Ellard (Robert Graff) brandishes a croquet mallet while the “foreigner” Charlie (Joseph Krempetz) assures him that a croquet mallet confers great status in his country and Catherine (Hanna Harwood) and Betty (Ellen Brancart) look on.
Posted: Thursday, March 8, 2012
By Stacy Trevenon
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A Pesadero drama club will shine with a production that has fun with the way some people treat differences.
It’s almost curtain time for the seven freshman-through-senior students from the Pescadero High School Viking Boosters Drama Club, their adult director and stage manager who are theater professionals, an assistant director who is a Pescadero High graduate, and a sound designer from Pescadero Middle School.
On March 16 and 17, in the Pescadero High theater, the drama club presents contemporary comedy “The Foreigner” by Larry Shue. It was chosen by director Bruce Krempetz when his son Joseph, a senior, said
he wanted to do a “kick-ass comedy” show for his last hurrah with Pescadero High.
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Ajuria to retire from Pescadero
Ajuria to retire from Pescadero
Longtime AD admired by teachers, students
Charles Russo
Terry Ajuria is set to retire in June. She worked for the La Honda Pescadero Unified School District for 39 years. She was the Pescadero High School athletic director for the last 13 years.
Thursday, March 8, 2012 1:29 pm
By Mark Foyer [
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]
Terry Ajuria made a decision when the school year started. It would be her last at the school.
Ajuria decided to call it a career after 39 years with the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District. Her last day is scheduled to be June 15.
She was a health teacher, a driver’s education instructor and, for the last 13 years, Pescadero High School’s athletic director.
Ajuria has been working nearly her whole life. She figures now is the time to enjoy the fruits of her labor.
“I have only traveled to the West Coast,” Ajuria said. “I have never been back east to see the change of the seasons. I have never seen Europe.”
There are also plenty of projects to do around the house.
Highlights of her good work include the formation of the Small Schools Basketball Tournament, taking placing the first weekend in December.
“I have mixed feelings about leaving,” Ajuria said. “I love the Pescadero community. I love the Pescadero kids. I love my job. But it’s time to move on.”
She was very popular at school. She was also very busy, from teaching in the morning to attending meetings in the afternoon to attending as many games as was possible.
Behind the scenes, she was on top of everything, making it look easy.
“When she put her hands in something, you never had to worry,” said volleyball coach and science teacher Wayne Johnson. “She was liked by everyone in the league. She was very pleasant to deal with.”
“She’s one of the five most influential people in my sports career,” said Tess Jacquez, a three-time athlete of the year and 2007 graduate of Pescadero. “She got me into club sports.”
Jacquez played volleyball, basketball and softball at Pescadero. Jacquez played volleyball and softball at Beloit College.
“Every time I’m back in town, I make it a point to stop off at the school and say ‘Hi’ to her, Jacquez said.”
The Vikings had a nice run of success during Ajuria’s time, including the volleyball team, softball team and girls’ soccer team advancing to the North Coast Section playoffs.
“She had her finger on the pulse of everything,” Johnson said.
Her personality was her greatest trait with her organizational skills a close second.
“We never had to worry about the schedule,” Johnson said. “Everything was in place.”
It wasn’t just the athletic program that ran smoothly at Pescadero. She was also organized when she taught.
“Whenever I had a question, she had the resources for the answers,” Jacquez said. “She would always get our homework back to us the next day. She’s one of the most organized people I have ever met.”
No one at Pescadero is looking forward to June 15, though many figure she will back if only to say hello.
“She’s going to make certain that everything is in good shape,” Johnson said. “She’s going to type up a lot of notes for her replacement.”
Having worked only in the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District, she will take a lot of institutional memory with her.
“She has a very nice family,” Johnson said. “I wish the best for them. She will be missed.”
Ajuria admits she won’t be gone on June 15. It’s going to take a while to clean out her office.
Students head south to shoot the moon
Students head south to shoot the moon
By Mark Noack [
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] | Posted: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 2:37 pm
 For years now, Pescadero High School teacher Wayne Johnson, right, has been accompanying his science students to several Southern California engineering and science landmarks. Call it "2011: A Space Odyssey."
Students at Pescadero High School will gaze into the stars next week and tour the rockets that could someday take them there.
The school's astronomy class and its tiny crew of seven students are a go for takeoff on Tuesday, charting a course for the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
As part of an annual five-day field trip, the school science class will tour the acclaimed skunkworks that constructs the robots and gadgetry behind the nation's space exploration.
"The students are excited, of course," said science teacher Wayne Johnson, who will lead the trip. "It directly ties in with what they're learning in astronomy, and hopefully it sparks their interest to get into this."
The Southern California trip has been the signature event each year for the school's astronomy class. Johnson started the program in 2000 after leaving an engineering career at aerospace companies including Rockwell Collins, Boeing and Pratt & Whitney. More than 20 years in the industry has left him with plenty of colleagues who help arrange a tour for his students.
After seeing the engineering behind the space program, the students peer at the stars at the Griffith Observatory and peruse its many exhibits on astronomy. The Pescadero class has been researching past space missions to prepare for the visit.
Students will also be seeing stars of a different kind in Hollywood. On the tail end of the trip, the high schoolers will get to see the Sunset Boulevard strip and some of the famed tourist sights.
Hoping to inspire the students further, Johnson plans to also take them for a visit to his alma mater, the University of California, Los Angeles.
During their stay, Johnson will be putting up all the students at his brother's house in Southern California.
Hoop Dreams
Vikings ready to host basketball tourneys
By Mark Foyer [
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] | Posted: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 10:26 am
Terry Ajuria may be an expert running a high school basketball tournament, but that doesn't make it easy.
"There's lots of work to do," Ajuria said.
For the sixth straight year, Pescadero High School hosts the Small Schools Invitational Basketball Tournament, starting Thursday.
The eight-team girls tournament begins at 10 a.m. with Alma Heights of Pacifica playing Kirby of Santa Cruz.
The schools' boys teams begin the tournament at 11:30 a.m.
Pescadero's girls team begins its portion of the tournament, playing Mid-Peninsula of Menlo Park at 1 p.m. The Vikings' boys play Pacific Collegiate of Monterey at 5:30 p.m.
By the time the games begin, Ajuria can relax and enjoy them. The biggest headache going into the tournament was solved in October when Archbishop Hanna of Sonoma Valley entered, replacing Potter Valley, which chose not to participate in the tournament. All the other teams that played in the tournament last year indicated their desire to return.
Other plans included getting host families for the teams from Geyersville. In a few weeks, when the Vikings participate in the Geyersville Tournament, Geyersville will provide host families for the Vikings.
"We have a lot of other things to take care of," Ajuria said. "We know what to do. It's still work to be done."
Ajuria received a lot of help and planning from the Vikings' Booster Club.
"This is a great community-builder," Ajuria said. "Everyone is looking forward to the tournament."
Volunteers prep school for tourney
Volunteers prep school for tourney
Parents, students spruce up Pescadero High
Sprucing up Pescadero High
Pescadero High School students Jesse Paris and Rowan Friday participated with about 30 volunteers in a clean-up before the Hoop Dreams Small School Invitational
Volunteers prep school for tourney
November 9, 2011
By Mark Noack
Pescadero High School students, parents and staff helped spruce up the campus on Saturday to prepare for busloads of visiting basketball players.
Starting next month, Pescadero High will be hosting seven girls and boys teams from other schools for the Hoop Dreams Small School Invitational tournament. Building up to the event, a cadre of volunteers has annually helped clean up the campus over several weekends to make it welcoming for the three-day competition.
About 30 helpers gathered on Saturday to sweep, weed, paint, clean and plant flowers at the school. Later this month, the helpers will meet again for final touches on the gym and locker rooms. When visiting teams come to Pescadero, they should see a spic-and-span high school with welcome banners.
"It really is a great thing; since I've been here we've always planned these work days," said Principal Syd Renwick. "We got a lot of things accomplished and that means fewer tasks that our maintenance crew needs to do."
Students earned community-service hours by helping out.
Now in its fifth year, the Hoop Dreams tourney has become a slam-dunk fundraiser for the school's Viking Boosters and student groups. During the event, each class has a hand in organizing the tourney: the seniors handle concessions, the juniors host a dance, the sophomores put on a raffle, and the freshmen serve breakfast. Hoop Dreams is generally the biggest student fundraising event of the year.
"We end up with teams coming to the campus from all over the Bay Area," said Heather McAvoy, a member of the Viking Boosters. "It's a good opportunity for folks to see the tournament and watch good basketball."
Hoop Dreams is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Dec. 2 and run through Dec. 4.
Art alive and well in South Coast schools
The visual arts, music and drama all enhance the lives of South Coast students.
   
The Art in Action program, a mainstay in schools closer to Half Moon Bay, is "alive and well," said La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District Superintendent Amy Wooliever. She added that it brings something vital to developing young minds.
"I think every young person is inspired by something different," she said. "Not all students are inspired by academics. If art provides a focus for students to strive to be successful, it's very important ... (Students) can be very surprised at themselves."
Parents and community members trained in the Art in Action curriculum give age-appropriate lessons that focus on the great masters. Lessons also include art techniques like perspective or composition. Art in Action for La Honda and Pescadero elementary school students is funded by the Pescadero Education Foundation. But it's not all.
There's also a parcel-tax-funded district music program. It covers general and choral music sessions once or twice a week, with annual winter and spring performances. This year's spring program will be a musical, Wooliever said.
La Honda Elementary School teachers also wrote and obtained two grants from the South Coast Artists' Alliance in Pescadero and from the Philanthropic Ventures Foundation on the Peninsula to bring in art teacher Danny Goldberg for several sessions in the first half of this year. Students were introduced to cartooning and art around the creatures and native arts of the world.
"It was a wonderful program," said La Honda Elementary School Principal Kristen Lindstrom. She added that, with some grant money left over, she brought Goldberg back for eight more weeks, starting in late September.
"It's a challenge for parents to do extracurricular activities" like art activities over the hill or in Half Moon Bay, she said. "It's so helpful to have artists in La Honda after school."
At Pescadero Elementary School, Principal Pat Talbot depends on funding through the Pescadero Education Foundation and volunteer parents to bring Art in Action to the kids, whose work decorates the school's multi-use room. "It starts with one class, then grows," she said. "It makes the multi-purpose room look gorgeous."
There are additional venues for South Coast kids to get into the arts. South Coast Children's Services offers after-school art in which participants work with recycled materials. They have chances to be part of the Pescadero Art and Fun Festival, by making T-shirts.
Written by Stacy Trevenon, Half Moon Bay Review
South Coast students become Panthers
South Coast students become Panthers
New summer program poised to raise test scores
Charles Russo / Review
Third-grade student Brittany Rowden works on her math exercises during teacher Brenda Sterling’s July 13 class at Panther Camp at Pescadero High School.
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"If you have a second-grader who's behind going into third grade, that problem is going to get compounded over time."
Randy Vail, Panther Camp principal
Posted: Wednesday, July 20, 2011
By Mark Noack
It's the thick of summertime, but at 9 a.m. sharp each weekday about 100 students file into the gymnasium at Pescadero High School. And each day, teacher and principal Randy Vail greets all the students coming off the school bus to a new summer school started this year at the La Honda-Pescadero Unified School District.
In a change for both teachers and students, the South Coast school district is making a multi-pronged push this summer to keep its student body up to speed in the classroom before they advance to a new grade level. The district hasn't had a full-scale summer-school program for years, and school officials believe the extra class time can raise test scores, boost performance and prevent students from forgetting everything they learned over the last school year.
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Food lab blends learning and lunch
Food lab blends learning and lunch
Program gets students cooking in school cafeteria
Photo courtesy William Milliot
Maia Haley, left in the foreground, is among La Honda Elementary School students who enjoyed the Food Lab banquet at Pescadero Community Church recently.
By Mark Noack [
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]
Instructors at La Honda Elementary have been stirring together different academic disciplines this year as part of their recipe to create a new cooking class.
A new "Food Lab" class blended together math, geography, history, agriculture and - of course - culinary arts to give the school's sixth-graders a well-rounded diet for the stomach and the mind.
"The Food Lab is using the kitchen as the place to teach everything," said school Principal Kristen Lindstrom, who helped start the program this year. "It involves students in every part of the meal - they're planning, planting, harvesting, cooking and eating."
Starting in March, students began meeting each week at the cafeteria kitchen at Pescadero High School to learn a new recipe and its history. The class then tried its collective hand at the dish, using math skills to make sure students had the ingredients portioned correctly. The students made enough food for the entire school district to sample; everyone from kindergartners to high school seniors tried the dish the next day.
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Mosaic mural pieces together lessons
Mosaic mural pieces together lessons By Stacy Trevenon [
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] Half Moon Bay Review Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Photo Lars Howlett
Class project
Delma Soult, top, of La Honda, Krestin Melanson, left, of Burlingame, and Catherine Favre, of Half Moon Bay, have created a mosaic mural for La Honda Elementary School. The art was part of a project for a class at the College of San Mateo.
For four women - two Coastsiders and two Peninsula residents - an adult class in mosaic-making allowed them to piece together life lessons in the form of art for La Honda Elementary School students.
An open house at the school, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on May 25, will display the result: a 4-foot-by-5-foot mural, created by the women, said La Honda Elementary Principal Kristen Lindstrom, and mounted on the exterior wall of the school's multipurpose room.
The mural occupies a wall in a building commonly used for school events and passed by students and parents on the way to classes.
"Art is always positive," said Catherine Favre of Half Moon Bay, one of the four artists. "It makes everyone happy."
In addition, she added, the mural is meant to inspire the students to create art and also to show them something about life.
The design is based on a spiral similar to a snail's shell, upon which are interwoven elements representing the four elements - water, air, earth and fire.
The spiral is a shape commonly seen in natural objects like shells, reflects a mathematical formula and is known as a "golden spiral," said artist Delma Soult of La Honda.
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Pescadero drama club explores love
By Stacey Trevenon, HMB Review
The trials, tribulations, magic and fun of love are cleverly fitted to the stage in "Almost, Maine" a new play presented this weekend by the Pescadero middle-school, high-school drama club.
Penned four years ago by John Cariani, a New York actor, the play will be performed in the Pescadero High School theater, directed by drama teacher Bruce Krempetz.
It presents a series of vignettes involving couples taking place in a fictitious northern Maine small community not unlike the Coastside.
In a series of sad, funny or hopeful scenarios and magical moments played out by quirky characters, the couples confront, interact, make discoveries and experience life-changing moments.
In one case, a woman, thinking her relationship is going nowhere, gives her lover bags filled with all the love he gave her and demands that he return to her the same. In response, he pulls out one tiny bag. She opens it to find something that puts the relationship in a different light and on a whole new level.
"There are magical moments in every scene, where people's lives are affected and then become grounded," said Krempetz.
Krempetz had envisioned a comedy for this year's play but, given events that affected the lives of South Coast teens this year, opted instead for something with more intense themes that could help viewers deal with feelings.
The drama club, an after-school program under the auspices of the Viking Boosters, involves intermediate- through high-school students age 13 to 18, playing multiple roles. Many props will come from Krempetz' brother, a set designer in Marin County.
The cast includes students David Hope, Caroline Graham, Joseph Krempetz, Hanna Harwood, Izzy Pisani, Robert Graff and Ellen Brancart. A prologue, interlogue and epilogue, performed by students Carina Cain and Andrew Turner, helps tie together the scenarios, which take place at the same time in the same town.
"With this a lot of people will be able to connect really well (to it,)" said Graham, who has performed with school, local and regional theatrical troupes since third grade. "There are a lot of situations that are very much everyday things.
"A lot of people are touched by this show. The way it's written, the way it's performed, is absolutely honest. Not cheesy, not exaggerated. It's honest."
"Almost, Maine" will be performed at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 20, and Saturday, May 21, in the Pescadero High School theater. Admission is $10/adults and $5/students, with proceeds designed to go to the drama club.
For information, call Bruce Krempetz at (650) 492-0126.
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