Where'd Those New Picnic Tables Come From?

On Sunday five of us students and Mr. Chretien built five picnic tables from scratch for the enjoyment of the LPS community. We gathered at school at ten o'clock in the morning and to my surprise there was only five of us students that came to help and to be rewarded with community service hours. It was my brother Andrew, Luis Martinez, Jose Martinez, Omar Esteban, and myself (Chris Whitmore).

With the size of the group and the lack of experience when it came to building a picnic table, we knew our work was cut out for us as it took us exactly nine and a half hours before calling it a day with all five tables finished but only two were able to be used. From ten until seven-thirty, I had some of the most fun that I could ever have while doing work. Of course we drilled, sawed, hammered, and gave our arms a workout by sanding each piece of wood by hand about 3 times, but the fun parts were just goofing off and acting crazy. We also made our school look good when the WASC organization dropped by the school for a tour and they were very impressed with the dedication of us LPS students for giving up our time to make our campus look nice.

I would never have guessed that I would have so much fun building and working all day. I'm almost ready to start building some more.

- Chris Whitmore

Advisory Awards for Academic Excellence

Two advisories were honored this past Friday for their stellar work in the classroom. Mr. Chretien's advisory won the Most Improved GPA Award, while Ms. Thomas' advisory won the Highest GPA Award for the second report period in a row.

Congratulations to both advisories for their academic excellence!

PUMAS of The Week 4/25

Here they are, this week's PUMAS! Congratulations to all!!!!!

12th Grade PUMA - Vieneese Kelly
11th Grade PUMA - Jose Ortega
10th Grade PUMA - Javier Jacinto
9th Grade PUMA - Christian Chavez

Feel The Puma Pride!


Note: YouTube just started giving viewers the ability to see higher quality versions of some of it's videos. So if you have a high speed connection and want to see a much nicer looking version of this video, click here to see it on YouTube. Just click "watch in high quality" underneath the YouTube screen.

1st Annual Lady Pumas vs. Staff softball game

I have to say: if you couldn't make it to this edition of a new yearly tradition, you missed out. Everyone involved--players and fans--had a great time. It really means a lot to me to see students and staff having so much fun together, like we're all a part of a big ol' family.

Some highlights for those who couldn't make it:

- Everyone hit the ball! Special kudos to first-time players like Ms. Gitis, Ms. Montes, and Ms. Ram. You all were extra great.

- The two pop flies the girls caught in the top half of the first. We're still working on the idea of "calling it".

- Terrisha catching Mr. Jernigan's wicked line drive.

- Tanika "The Vacuum" Avingon at shortstop and Lizett "Velcro" Lopez at first base. I don't think either one had an error all game.

- Sharnae bowling over Ms. St. John at second; maybe she was attempting to break up the double play? Ms. St. John is tough as nails though.

- Mr. K's antics on the mound in the bottom half of the last inning; he still swears he was really trying.

Next we're thinking about having a boys baseball team vs. staff softball game, maybe on a Friday. Maybe even next Friday. We'll keep you posted.

Go Pumas,
Mr. Hatcher

p.s. When Mayra Rodriguez asked after the game who won, I said, "Everybody." It's true. =)

Voices of LPS Richmond: Sun Screen Advice for Leadership Public Schools Richmond

Yeah...soo..

I guess I haven't written any posts in awhile, which triggers a response from Mr. Madway (haha just kidding). But the reason is because as the end of the year approaches, the homework load increases!!
As you all know, that's not the most fun way to end the school year, (due to the fact that since I'm a Junior I have stress from dreading the arrival of the SAT date, and also the AP history test). But, that's how life is and we just have to realize that that's apart of growing up.
But, my reason for writing this post is because today in Ms. Lac's 11th grade English class, we had a very interesting/brief conversation (or mini debate if you will) about how the American society forces women (in particular) to not only deter from choosing one career path over another, but teaches them to believe that some careers are just not destined to be theirs because they are women.

As this is true, I want to pose some questions:
As America has evolved from being a completely oppressive nation (in the sense that women and people of color didn't have the same rights as white men) will it ever be able to escape all the injustice that was in the past? Will the belief, that has been instilled in the minds of all Americans and subconsciously passed down from generation to generation, that some are inferior to others because of their race or gender ever be outgrown? Can we, as a nation, completely move on and start over again? Or will the repeated teaching of this injustice keep us from achieving the goal of a final end to all oppression?

I believe that schools and the government do repeatedly teach us about this topic with good intentions, but I also wonder if by doing so, is it causing this injustice to live on?
...Just something to ponder.

LPS Richmond College Day 2008

On Friday, all LPS Richmond students headed off to one of four college campuses on the first annual LPS Richmond College Day. And what a day it was!

The freshmen went to UC Berkeley, the sophomores headed to UC Davis, the juniors traveled all the way to UC Santa Cruz, and the seniors chose to go to either Cal State East Bay or one of the other three universities.

A big thanks goes out to Ms. Ram for organizing the whole thing. Check out the video below for a little glimpse of the day. We can't wait until next year's trip!


Note: YouTube just started giving viewers the ability to see higher quality versions of some of it's videos. So if you have a high speed connection and want to see a much nicer looking version of this video, click here to see it on YouTube. Just click "watch in high quality" underneath the YouTube screen.

How About a People's Grocery in Richmond?

Did you know that in West Oakland there are 40,000 residents, over 50 liquor stores, and no grocery stores? Check out this very cool video about the People's Grocery, a youth-staffed organization dedicated to bringing healthier food and a healthier lifestyle to the people of West Oakland. If you are inspired and want to learn more, check out their website and the full video.

Live from UC Berkeley Shadow Day

My experience at Shadow Day was cool because I got to see what a college day really is. I got to see a little bit of the college campus, I visited the UC Berkeley sports arenas and some Japanese classes. I learned some different types of Japanese stuff, like their culture, their health, diet and the difference between love in the U.S. and love in Japan. These are things that I’m always going to remember and I really would like to go visit UC Berkeley once again. I would like to do this Shadow Day thing again, but with a different person so I could learn new things and learn more about college life. I hope that Leadership still offers shadow day to all the students at LPS so everybody could see what a college day really is.

When I first arrived at Berkeley I didn’t know what to expect. I was kind of nervous because I didn’t know what type of mentor I would get, but in the end me and him got to know each other better and he was cool. He seemed really different than me and I’m guessing that he thought that we weren’t going to get along, but in the end we got to be good friends. Shadow Day is something that I’m never going to forget and hopefully everybody at LPS tries it out. And whoever is reading this, you should try out shadow day and I know that you’ll like it.

- Erick Brenes

PUMAS of The Week 4/11

Here they are, this week's PUMAS! Congratulations to all!!!!!

12th Grade PUMA - Gloria Bermudez
11th Grade PUMA - Isis Espinosa
10th Grade PUMA - Erick Brenes
9th Grade PUMA - Daniel Stallworth

Feel The Puma Pride!

Sophmores go to U.C. Berkeley Shadow Day

On Thursday, April 10th, a large group of 10th graders participated in Shadow Day at U.C. Berkeley that was organized by the YWCA. For those of you who don't know what Shadow Day is, it is a day where you basically get paired up with a college student and you follow them around for the day. To be more specific, we went to their classes, where they hang out or study and for some of us we got see their dorms. On the trip we got to ask our mentors whatever we wanted to ask, whether it was, "What are the classes like?" or "Where are the best places to party?"

Besides being with a college student for a chunk of the day, we saw two very talented U.C. Berkeley musical groups perform. We were visited by three different groups of people from campus. The U.C. Berkeley all male singing group (who sang to our very own Asiah Fuller), the Berkeley Straw-Hat Band, and two U.C Berkeley athletes, one of them the starting forward for the men's Basketball team, and the other, a player from the women's Lacrosse team. Bottom line, this was one of the coolest field trips ever. It was something that everyone who took part in will remember from their experiences and for those sophomore's who missed out on it, I feel bad for you.

Barack Obama Speech on Race in America

After watching the video of students in The Bronx who were deeply impacted by Barack Obama's speech on race in America, a number of LPS students admitted to me that they had heard about the speech, but hadn't actually seen it. They also mentioned that Mr. Baer's poetry talked a lot about the speech as well. So, here it is. It's long, but it is truly one of the great political speeches of our time. Enjoy!

LPS Voices Hits The Big Time

Tonight, LPS Voices got its one-thousandth site visit - a pretty impressive number if you consider the fact that it has only been up and running for 13 days. Thanks to all of the readers and contributors who have gotten Voices off to such a great start!

Report: 40 Years After King, Little Progress in Closing Economic Inequality Gap Between African Americans and Whites

You can read the article or watch the video at democracynow.org if you follow the link below. 

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/10/report_40_years_after_king_little

We all know that racial disparities persist in the American class structure, but this article provides valuable information and analysis as to how extensive this disparity is and why it remains.  Here are two key quotes from Dedrick Muhammad: 

DEDRICK MUHAMMAD: Well, what we found in the report is that African Americans have made some progress, particularly in the realm of education, where since about 1968, blacks have attained high school diplomas or GEDs—that has increased by 200 percent—and college graduation rates has increased by 400 percent. So in those areas there has been some success, some progress. 
But where we find the progress very much lacking is in the economic divide, which I believe and which I believe Dr. King understood, was the center component of the racial wealth divide in America. We found in 1968, African Americans were making about fifty-four cents on every dollar that white Americans were making. And in 2005, African Americans were only making fifty-seven cents on every dollar that white Americans were making. So over those four decades, African Americans had only increased by three cents. And at this rate, it would take 537 years for African Americans to reach income parity, which I believe and I hope the country believes that’s unacceptable. 

DEDRICK MUHAMMAD: Yeah. I mean, again, I think—what I’m hoping this report can really help highlight to the nation is that too often, I believe, we look at Dr. King and we celebrate his birthday as if he died after a victory. But Dr. King died on a battlefield. And on that battlefield, he understood that there was still much work to be done. And I’m hoping this report can help highlight that we still need to fight this battle and that when we look at Dr. King, we need to embrace the struggle as a struggle that has been incompleted and that the dream is still just that, a dream. And America finally needs to come together and say we’re going to make this a reality. 

College Tour 2008

Thanks to Ms. Ferrer for these great pictures from the college tour. Makes going to college look like the way to go, doesn't it? Hey sophomores, looks like a good time, huh? Are you ready for next year?

LPS Richmond Baseball Beats LPS Hayward

After a very hard fought battle, our LPS Pumas defeated the LPS Royals from Hayward. We opened up with an 8-0 lead but quickly saw that lead disappear behind poor fielding and some errant pitching. Taking a 9-4 lead into the top of the 7th (the last inning), Hayward scored 4 and had the bases loaded with no outs. Behind the great pitching Omar Solano, we held them off and won 9-8.

Big thanks to all the students, teachers, and staff who came out to cheer us on!

Highlights of the game included the stealing of home twice, a 3 inning no-hitter by Carlos Ponce, and a triple by Cristian Mejia.

All over the team played great and really worked hard to get this victory!

Next home game is Monday at 4:30.

- Mr. K

New LPS Richmond Calendar

If you scroll to the bottom of the page, you'll see a new feature - a calendar that lists upcoming LPS events. You can see a week, month or agenda view. Now there's no excuse for not knowing what's going on!

Bronx Students Inspired By Barack Obama

Check out this amazing video about students from a high school in New York who were deeply moved and inspired by Barack Obama's speech about race in America a few weeks ago.

LPS Richmond: Student Work

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PUMAS of The Week 4/4

Here they are, this week's PUMAS! Congratulations to all!!!!!

12th Grade PUMA - Emanuel Peterson
11th Grade PUMA - Carla Lopez
10th Grade PUMA - Carla Rejano
9th Grade PUMA - Michelle Villalobos

Feel The Puma Pride!

Cesar Chavez Family Meeting

Here are some photos from our magnificent family meeting today. Cesar Chavez would have been honored, I am sure.

This Week's Announcements

Here are all of the announcements from this past week. Click here.

Shout out to Spring Break College Tour participants

I want to give a huge shoutout to the juniors who went on the college tour last week! It was an eye opening experience, and so much fun. We visited UCLA, UC San Diego, Chapman, San Diego State University, and the 5 Cs (ask one of the juniors what the 5 Cs are).

We also did a lot of social activities, like hanging out in hotel swimming pools, enjoying the Santa Monica Pier, relaxing on the beach at La Jolla Shores, and enjoying the rides at Disneyland!

I had an amazing time and I want to give a special shoutout to the students from my advisory who went on the trip! You guys rock.

Honoring Cesar Chavez

Great Cause!

Improve your vocabulary and feed the world at the same time! See which one of your friends can score the highest vocab level and who can donate the most rice! Free lunch for anyone who can top my level 41 and beat my donation of 15,500 grains of rice!

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

Suheir Hammad Throwing Intellectual Hand Grenades...