Five exemplary Madison principals have completed their participation in the three year Wisconsin Urban Schools Leadership Project.

The five are (front) Lisa Kvistad - Lowell ES, Anne Fischer - Affiliated Alternatives, (back) Sandra Gunderson - Mendota ES, Nancy Evans - Wright MS, and Alan Harris - East HS, along with Susan Abplanalp - MMSD Asst. Supt. for Elementary Schools, and State Supt. Elizabeth Burmaster.

The Madison principals along with 21 other urban principals have taken university coursework, reflected on their administrative practice, provided peer support, and explored ways to plan, assess and improve learning communities in their schools.

The project brought together strong school leaders who can effect change with education faculty from three Wisconsin universities to transform school leadership in the state, and develop a state and national model for master educator licensure.

Half of the 18 statewide honorees in UW-Madison's Math Talent Search are from the Madison School District — as is the winner of the coveted Van Vleck Scholarship.

Iris Xu (right) has been a student at Memorial HS and Jefferson MS but this year is attending an Illinois school. The Van Vleck Scholarship pays $6,000 per year for four years to attend UW-Madison. Xu is a 10th grader.

The other eight winners - with grade and school - in the Talent Search:

Seven students from the MMSD were among the 120 students named All-State Scholars based on overall grade-point average and scores for the ACT or SAT college admissions tests.

The seven are: Ruth Davis and Reuben Henriques - West High School, Brian Ji - Memorial, Richard Pang - West, Maren Raab - Memorial, Eleanor Shoshany Anderson - La Follette, and Alexandro Trevino - Memorial.

The seven Madison students comprised just under half of the 15 All-State Scholars from the whole 2nd Congressional District.

Deidre Green, a junior at La Follette HS, is the first student journalist to win the School Bell Award in its 35-year history. Green received the award from the Wisconsin Education Association Council for her "Bridging the Achievement Gap" column in the Simpson Street Free Press, a Dane County newspaper for and by teens.

Green has reported for the SSFP for four years, writing about education and health issues.

WEAC presents the School Bell Award in two categories to a Wisconsin reporter, broadcaster or school journalism teacher for excellent coverage of critical education issues.

School teams and students were very successful at the WI Future Problem Solving competition this spring. West HS's team took first place in the senior division; they are Hannah Creager, Reuben Henriques, Thomas Ostby and Eleanor Wroblewski, coach Lynn Buckmaster.

Also advancing to the international Future Problem Solving event were one team and two students from Hamilton MS: teammates Maddy Brighouse-Glueck, Sophia Hill, Jack Roe and Trevor Stewart, coach Kris Bauer, plus individuals Soshana Rudin and Anna Rzchowski.

Lean Godchaux of Randall ES took first place in the junior division.

Amelia King, of Madison, is one of three Wisconsin students to win a competition and be among the top Braille users in the United States and Canada. King, who has attended Memorial HS and will return there in the fall, qualified to compete in the International Braille Challenge in late June in Los Angeles, becoming one of only 12 students in grades 10 to 12 to do so.

The Braille competition — held at the WI Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Janesville — involved reading comprehension, proofreading, spelling, dictation, and charts and graphs events as part of the challenge to find the best Braille-using students in North America.

Three MMSD students have been named national finalists in the statewide National History Day competition.

The students - with titles of their projects and teachers - are:

• Alexandra Cohn and David Aeschlimann, West HS, "The Sterling Hall Bombing: The Destruction of a Movement," teacher Carrie Bohman
• Joanna Weng, Hamilton MS, "Nanjing Massacre," teachers Vince Busenbark and Jan Turcinardi.

They will go on with 45 other Wisconsin students to represent the state at the national event in mid-June in Maryland. National History Day is actually a yearlong program that teaches students how to use both primary and secondary sources to conduct historical research.

Five teachers and library media specialists have been selected for five weeks of summer study in Chile.

Sheri Boser - Sandburg ES, Gwen Frank and Josie Guiney - Midvale ES, Sara Huse - Cherokee MS, and Erin Kernkamp - Nuestro Mundo ES will focus on Spanish-language children's and young adult literature and its potential for the classroom.

"Chile and Children's Literature" will be based in Santiago, Chile and is part of the Fulbright-Hays Projects Abroad program.

Eight 6th grade students have been recognized for their essays in a Sixth Grade Writing Contest sponsored by the Madison Senior Center, the four Madison Coalitions of Older Adults and the WI Assn. of Senior Centers.

Over 375 sixth grade students from four different middle schools wrote short essays on the topic of "My Grandparents" or "My Best Older Friend." The top two student essays (one boy and one girl) from each middle school were chosen by each coalition of senior volunteer evaluators based on set criteria.

The student winners are:
Black Hawk MS - Emma Carlisle and Ian Murkve
Cherokee MS - Danielle Murray and Christian Rasmussen
Jefferson MS - Isaac Treves and Ulyana Moisseeva (not pictured above)
Whitehorse MS - Helen Rottier and Hayden Milligan