Temple City High School, Department of the Performing Arts presented its 47^th annual Broadway musical, Guys and Dolls, fully staged at the historic Mission Playhouse during March 2012.

A $2,000 donation from the Temple City Schools Foundation was used to pay for half of the royalties (the “rights” to do the show and includes the librettos, scripts, orchestra scores and music), which included all of the materials and licenses needed to produce the show.

The entire musical production involved more than 160 TCUSD students from our Elementary schools, the Jr. High and High School, both on stage (in the cast) behind the scenes (stage crew and costume crew) and in the pit (orchestra) and was presented to two Student Matinee audiences and had three regular (General Audience) performances.

Guys and Dolls was honored recently with 13 nominations at the “J-Ray” (John Raitt) awards for regional high school musicals; nominations included Best Crew/Technical Execution, best Student Orchestra, Cameo, Featured Actor, Supporting Actor, Comedienne, Soloist, Dancer, Stage Manager, Director, Musical of the Year, Lighting, Choreography– and WON in the categories for Best Soloist of the Year, Student Orchestra, Director, and Crew/Technical Execution!  For a public school, this is huge – as most of the competitors are performing arts “magnet” schools in Orange County.

Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard on Guys and Dolls! Your honors are well-deserved. We are proud to support your efforts.

Volunteer Vinson Bell and Board of Education member Joe Walker join the crowd preparing the mailing.

Thank you so much to the more than 50 amazing volunteers that came out to help with our March 3rd Mailing Party this past weekend! Many of you stayed for 6-7 hours to help us prepare 12,000 letters appealing to the Temple City community for help preserving the quality of education from budget cuts. Truly, it was a superhuman feat, and we couldn’t have done it without you all! Many, many thanks!

And thanks to Jerry Jambazian for all the photos!

Teacher Mark Howard (who designed the campaign materials) and Board of Education member Ken Knollenberg also dedicated long hours to help finish the mailing.

Whole families pitched in to help with the effort.

Miss Temple City Nikki Chan and friends are hard at work.

TCSF board member Marty Rockenbach helps Board of Education member Kien Tiet sign in.

PLEASE HELP US RAISE FUNDS AGAIN THIS YEAR BY CONTRIBUTING TO TCSF DURING THE MONTH OF MAY!

What does education make possible for children?

What does it make possible for our community?

Tell us below…

(You can leave just your first name if you wish. Emails will not be published nor collected from these comments.)

to attend a free community-wide event

to learn about how budget cuts will affect our schools

and what you can do about it.

Our guest speaker, Mary Perry is an education consultant and was deputy director of EdSource from 1993 to 2011. She is widely known for her ability to clearly explain complex education policy, data, and research, with a particular expertise in California school finance. She served as a primary author and executive editor for EdSource’s publications on school funding and other education policy topics and has often presented to education and community groups based on that work. She also teaches a course on education policy for the Educational Leadership doctoral program at San Francisco State University. She served as a member of the governing board of the Campbell Union School District from 1990–99 and also chaired a local bond election campaign.

This year due to financial constraints, the Temple City Unified School District (TCUSD) has announced that it will not offer remediation summer school classes in 2012. Special education classes will continue to be offered as specified in a student’s IEP.  Should high school students wish to re-take a class for a higher grade, students will have the option to enroll in TCSF’s summer school classes, DDSLC Adult School, or another local high school. The cancellation of these classes by TCUSD does not affect TCSF’s summer school offerings, and we will continue to offer our usual enrichment classes.

Photo by Mark Howard

TCSF is gearing up for another successful school year and is excited to introduce the new Responsive Grant Program!

The Foundation has allocated $20,000 to this fund to support a wide variety of projects that enhance the academic achievement of TCUSD students or enrich their student life.  Teachers and others in the TCUSD community can propose a broad range of activities such as a special field trip that ties into classroom studies or a health program involving parents, teachers and the community.

If you qualify and would like to apply for a responsive grant, please be aware of two very important deadlines this school year:

• November 15, 2011 deadline for grants awarded in January 2012 and intended for use in Spring 2012.
• March 1, 2012 deadline for grants awarded in May 2012 and intended for use in Fall 2012.

To learn more about the Responsive Grant Program, please visit here.

Last spring, the Temple City community generously gave funds to the Thrive! fundraising campaign to help maintain our music program for all district students. The importance of a music education and the opportunities it creates is an example of how TCSF would like to make an impact for all children in our district.

Together with our Board of Directors, I’m excited to begin a new school year and continue our support of programs that offer students a variety of opportunities and foster more innovative ways of learning.