pfc newsletterO A K P A R K H I G H S C H O O LApril 2013 www.oakparkusd.org/ophs

In Memoriam

Our Miss. Ellen

Ellen Meloeny1955 - 2013

Forever in our hearts.

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Dear Parents,As I write this message, a team of school and

district administrators are visiting Oak Park HighSchool to validate the signature practices we featuredin our California Distinguished School (CDS) Awardapplication. This team is called the CDS ValidationVisitation Team and is charged by the CaliforniaDepartment of Education to visit our school toobserve classrooms, interview staff,students, and parents to determine ifwe are doing what we said we aredoing in our application.

The California DistinguishedSchool Award is achieved bysubmitting an application thatfeatures two signature practices thatthe school staff believes sets theschool apart. Schools are invited toapply based upon excellent academicachievement and we applied inNovember. Our application was approved by theCalifornia Department of Education (CDE) on thefirst reading. We were then informed that a visitingteam would come to OPHS to validate our applicationby spending a day here. The signature practices weselected to feature were chosen with great care andmuch pride to reflect our core values of addressing alllearning needs, as well as the needs of the whole child.We chose our Special Education Inclusion Programbecause we work very hard to ensure that all of ourstudents have access to a rigorous curriculum and thatwith the right support, all students can be successful.

For our other signature practice we focused onstudent support and selected Peer Counseling, SafeSchool Ambassadors, and Life Skills Retreat as a cadreof student support programs that address the socialand emotional well being of our students and directlycontribute to their health and well-being, as well as the

overall positive school climate. If this wasn’t enough,this year the CDE added an option for schools torecognize another exemplary program and of course weapplied for this distinction too in the area of health,nutrition, and fitness. That visit was conducted twoweeks ago and featured our food services program, ourschool garden, our health curriculum, and our PE andfitness programs.

The visiting team spent the dayat OPHS meeting with AdvancedPeer Counselors, Life SkillsRetreatants, Safe SchoolAmbassadors and parents of all ofthe above.

They met with advisors,teachers, counselors and specialeducation teachers. The dayculminated with an all staff meetingwhere they shared their impressionof our school with the staff, district

leadership, and governing board members. Theirreports were consistent and unanimous and theylauded praise on our staff and community for makingOPHS a truly Distinguished School. The visitingteam lead said that once in a while you get to visit aschool that transcends the term distinguished and thatOak Park High School is that school. Our studentsand parents echoed the same refrain that our teacherscare about each student and that the school culture isone of love and support that enables high achievement.

They were happy to report that they are able tovalidate our application to County SuperintendentStan Mantooth who will recommend to StateSuperintendent Tom Torlikson that Oak Park HighSchool receive the California Distinguished SchoolAward for 2013.

— Sincerely, Kevin Buchanan, Principal

The Principal’s Message

See information for the OPHS Spotlight Productionon the last page of this newsletter!

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Apr. 1-5 Spring BreakApr. 9 Site Council Meeting, 3:30 pm, Lib. CRApr. 9 OPPAA Meeting, 7:00 pm, B-2Apr. 11-13 Les Miserables Production, times varyApr. 16 Board of Ed Meeting, 6:00 pm, Lib. CRApr. 16 Boys Basketball Awards Banquet, 6:30 pm, Pav.Apr. 17-19 AP Pre-Admin Session, 2:25 pm, G-9Apr. 17 Naviance Training, 6:30 pm, C&CCApr. 17 Hypno-Gig, 7 pm, Pav.Apr. 19 Spring Sports RallyApr. 19 Barbershop Mania, 7 pm, Pav.Apr. 20 AP Pre-Admin Session, 10 am, Lang. LabApr. 20 Spring Vice Dance, 7:00 pm, Pav.Apr. 22-26 ASB Election WeekApr. 26 Cheer Tryouts, 3:15 pm, Pav.Apr. 26 Comedy Sports, 7 pm, Pav.Apr. 29 Dance Showcase, 7 pm, Pav.Apr. 29 No School

Pav. = Pavilion C&CC = College & Career Center

Campus Calendar, News & Notes

Don’t MissComedySportz!Friday, April 26th, Pavilion

7:00 p.m.Ticket Prices: $5 for adults,

$3 for students

Refreshments sold!

This is from Ben and theFull Circle Learning Club

at OPHS ("FCL"):

Thank you to the OPHS and OPcommunity for donating amazing artsupplies for the 2013 FCL Art Drive!With your generous donations, wehave a wonderful assortment of

supplies to give to the kids in April!

They will be thrilled!

Thank you again from all

of us in the FCL Club.

APPLY NOW FOR AN APPLY NOW FOR AN

OPHS PFC SCHOLARSHIP!OPHS PFC SCHOLARSHIP!

The OPHS PFC awards annual scholarshipsto graduating seniors from the followingGPA ranges: 2.5-2.99, 3.0-3.49, 3.5-4.0.

Scholarship winners will be recognized atSenior Awards Night and awarded a letterof recognition and a $500 check to be

used for further education. Pick up an application now at the

College & Career Center.

Winners will be announced on Senior Awards Night.

Applications due April 17thby 12:30 pm SHARP!in the College & Career Center

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PFC Update

President’s LetterDear Parents and Friends of OPHS,

I wish everyone a fabulous Spring Break, andHappy Pesach and a Happy Easter. Hopefully the sunwill come out and we can have some fun!

This year is going by quickly and I would like totake this opportunity to thank some of the chair peoplewho have been instrumental this year!

Uma Narayanan, our eNews editor – has done afabulous job! Every Sunday evening without fail, weall receive our eNews. This has become a criticalcommunication tool and we could not do it withoutUMA!!

Suzie Bock has been our Newsletter editor, she hasput in many hours publicizing our well designednewsletters and has done a marvelous job! Suzie willcontinue in this position for next year. Thank you!

Stacey Lindenau and Andrea Myerson ourEmergency Preparedness Chairs, replenished andrefreshed the water and emergency supplies in ourclassroom black boxes and our Emergency StorageContainer! They are working with administration tomake sure our campus is ready in case of an emergency– thank you so much!

Barbara Shubin-Galaif, our DirectoryChairperson, is already working on ways to improvethe directory for next school year! Barbara did anamazing job with the new directory software, and weare looking at ways to improve the directory evenmore. Kudos to Barbara!!

Toni Anderson, has been working on our E-Scriptand has been doing a wonderful job in remindingpeople to renew their E-Script. Karen Sephtan, who has revitalized and brought theBarnes and Noble Book Fairs back to life.Leslie Meyer, who continues to amaze us with thefood and decorations for the staff hospitality.Shirin Sexton, who has the textbook room totallyunder control and well organized

We are making good strides towards having mostof our PFC chair positions filled with many talentedand dedicated parents for next school year, but we are

Continued on page 13

Please note the updated datePlease note the updated date

Please join us for a specialpresentation on Transitions

Tuesday, April 16, 2013, 7pm-8pmLocation: Oak Park High School-Room H-11

Presentation: The Special Education Departmentwill cover the following transitions:

Preschool to kindergartenElementary to middle school, middle to high school and

a brief discussion about post-secondary

Featured Speakers:Susan Roberts, Director of Pupil Services

and Derek Ihori, Program Specialist

Please RSVP with your transitional area of interest to rcarmail-cpr@yahoo.com

For more information contact: Connie Risley, SEAC President,

rcarmail-cpr@yahoo.com or 818-585-0523Darla Christensen,

SEAC Publicity and Outreach, darlachristensen@hotmail.com or 818-597-1246

High School Map LinkClick Here

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SPR ING V ICE DANCESPR ING V ICE DANCE

TICKET SALE INFORMATIONSaturday Apri l 20, 2013

7:00 – 11 :00 pm

DATE WITH ASB WITHOUT ASB4/15/13 to 4/19/13 $15.00 $20.00

***TICKETS WILL NOT BE SOLD AT THE DOOR***

Very important information regarding ticket purchase:

1) You must have your ID card, NO EXCEPTIONS.2) If you are taking someone from another school, you must have a

completed guest contract with all signatures before buying your guest ticket. Guest contracts are available at the Student Store.

3) The Student Store Hours:Mon – Fri - Nutrition, lunch, after-school (2:25-3:00)

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Spring seasons are well underway and league contests have begun. All of our teams are working hard to gain TVLchampionships. At this point in the season, here are the following overall and league records, to date, of ourteams:

Schedules and locations of all our spring contests are located on the OPHS web site under Athletics – please comeout and support out teams!

SUMMER SPORTS CONDITIONING – Towards the end of April all the information regarding summersports conditioning classes, registration, etc., will be posted on our web site. If you have any questions, pleasecontact us at 818-735-3303 or by e-mail at apettit@oakparkusd.org.

Eagle Athletics Update

League OverallTRACK

Boys Varsity 3-2Boys Jr. Varsity 1-0Girls Varsity 2-3Girls Jr. Varsity 0-1

BASEBALLVarsity 4-4Jr. Varsity 3-3Frosh 4-3

BOYS TENNISVarsity 3-3 7-4

GOLFVarsity 3-3

BOYS VOLLEYBALLVarsity 4-0 10-4Jr. Varsity 2-0 5-2

SOFTBALLVarsity 2-1 6-4Jr. Varsity 1-1 3-3

GIRLS LACROSSEVarsity none 10-2-1

BOYS LACROSSEVarsity none 4-5Jr. Varsity none 6-1

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A Message From OPHS Football

OAK PARK HIGH SCHOOL

FOOTBALL

All 9th, 10th, and 11th Grade Oak Park Students,

As we approach spring, we look forward to warmer weather and also the beginning of

a great adventure for high school students that participate in the sport of football. At

this time we are looking for any students who would like to join our football family

and reap the many benefits of playing a sport that promotes camaraderie and builds

strong bodies and minds.

If you think you might be interested in playing football, you are welcome to come and

join us at our first introductory meeting for all new and returning players on April 10,

2013 at lunchtime at the entrance to the gym. At this meeting we will discuss the pro-

gram and you can meet current players and coaches.

If you would like to see more about the football program go to our Team Website at:

http://oakparkeaglesfootball.shutterfly.com/ where you can see our upcoming schedule

and more about our JV and Varsity Football Teams..

Sincerely,

Head Coach Terry Shorten

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The show is right afterThe show is right afterSpring Break!Spring Break!

We are forcasting thisWe are forcasting thisshow to sell out, soshow to sell out, so

buy your tickets early.buy your tickets early.Click Here for ticket information

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Superintendent’s MessageNew School Funding Mechanism Proposed

Serious Concerns for Oak Park

I’m sure you have heard in the news that GovernorBrown has proposed a new method of funding K-12public schools in California. He calls the programLCFF, or the Local Control Funding Formula. Thebasic concept behind this is not really about local controlbut about distributing funding to school districts basedon the types of students they serve. The proposal callsfor providing districts that serve students who comefrom disadvantaged homes, defined by participation inthe Federal Free/Reduced Lunch Program, and thoselearning English with substantially higher levels offunding. Districts that do not serve as many of thesestudents would be required to get along with less –although more than we are getting now. In other words,all school districts would see an increase in funding nextyear but some districts would receive a very smallincrease and others larger and more substantialincreases. Can you guess how Oak Park USD wouldcome out with this plan? In fact, OPUSD wouldreceive the smallest amount of total funding per studentout of the 21 districts in Ventura County. When theGovernor first talked about this idea, he said that itwould create winners and losers, and so we would havethe distinction of being the ‘biggest loser’ in the countywhen it comes to funding.

Most people agree that schools that are servingstudents who are trying to learn English and who comefrom poor families have many obstacles and shouldreceive more funding. The fact is that they already do.The federal government provides substantial funds tothese schools through programs such as Title I. In fact,for example, the Los Angeles Unified School Districtalready receives about 50% more in funding per studentthan Oak Park. The Governor’s newly proposedformula does not take those funds into consideration,so they would receive another 35% more on top of thefederal dollars. In some cases, some districts would be

receiving 100% more per student than others such asOak Park.

Other concerns about the proposal that have beenraised are that these funds will not be required to bespent on any particular program but will simply beadded to a district’s general fund. The accountability issupposed to be addressed through the already existingSingle Plans for Student Achievement that are alreadyrequired for all schools. Many educators have concernsabout this.

I wonder why this plan was not revealed by theGovernor prior to the passage of Proposition 30 lastNovember? I wonder if it would have passed if voterswould have known about this plan? There is no doubtthat Prop. 30 has helped us immeasurably this year byrestoring over $1.8 million in funding in the currentyear. It will also help us next year and into the future.I think that most people would be supportive of theconcept the Governor is proposing if our level offunding was first restored to 2007-08 levels, afterrestoring the 25% cut that all districts have taken. Itsomehow doesn’t seem right that under the proposal itwould take Oak Park seven years to reach that level,while other districts would reach it much sooner.

School Board members and I have expressed theseconcerns to our legislators and to anyone else who willlisten, hoping for some consideration. Remember, thatCalifornia school funding is far below the nationalaverage – ranking 47th out of 50 states. After a five-year struggle over budget cuts and funding, I find it sadthat suburban districts like Oak Park are now engagedin a new protracted fight over funding restoration, afterthe voters in California generously voted tax increases tohelp ALL schools.

— Anthony W. Knight, Ed.D.Superintendent

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Advanced Peer CounselingHey Oak Park!

Punxsutawney Phil may have been wrong aboutspring starting on the East Coast, but it sure looks likehis prediction came true in California. It has beenabsolutely beautiful as of late. Springtime marks thehome stretch for the school year at Oak Park HighSchool. Everyone is picking their classes for thefollowing year, seniors are deciding where they want togo to college, and parents continue to try and wraptheir heads around another school year whizzing by astheir “babies” grow up too quickly.

On March 23rd, Peer Counseling held its annualBeginning Peer Counseling workshop. OPHS junior,Kyra Stevens, along with the help of BPC advisor,Anna Lovejoy, organized the workshop. Localmarriage, family, and child counselor, Melody Black,

led the workshop to help teach students how toeffectively help their peers through everyday problems.The workshop was a huge success with nearly onehundred students in attendance.

We will be holding our annual Hypnogig event onApril 17th in the Pavilion! Hypnotherapist BruceWilkoff will be coming to OPHS to hypnotize peoplefrom the crowd. Come watch the hilarious show ashypnotized members of the community perform funnyacts. Tickets can be purchased for seven dollars at thestudent store. You won’t want to miss out!

We hope that everyone has a fabulous April!— Sincerely,

Moe Scott, Vivian Rotenstein,and the Advanced Peer Counselors

O P H S T H A N K SJoAnn Tattersall, Kelly McGugan &

The Tattersall Team of Active Real Estate

Kelly McGuganTattersall Team

Cell: 818.207.7408www.tattersallteam.com

JoAnn Tattersall & Kelly McGugan sponsor Oak Park High School’s “All Call,” our computerized phone system -

A vital link to our OPHS families!

JoAnn TattersallBroker/Owner, GRI, SFR

Cell: 818.370.7688www.tattersallteam.com

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No Frills Donations AppreciatedThank you to the following families for their generous donations to our 2012-2013 No Frills Campaign. Withouttheir contributions, the PFC could not continue to support Oak Park High School teachers and students. A bigthank you also to Wayne Kubik of T.O. Printing for his generous donation of printing for our Annual No FrillsFundraiser mailing.

AggarwalAhdootAlexanderAndersonAnninoAokiAppelrouthArshtAsherAshkenaziAviramBagamianBalenBallasBearBenderBermanBernerBerweilerBhardwajBhatiaBochanBoganimBongioviBouimerBraniganBriton-JonesBronsteinR.BrownS.BrownBuckleyBulusuBurgerBurkeByrneCamhi

CapposCarrelliCarrilloCastilloCatoneM.ChangChasinCheneyR. ChiuS. ChowChrisakisClarkClaxtonClearyD.CohenJ.CohenS.CohenConklinConnersCookCorbittCroyCruzDaveDeGrinisDelgadoDetamoreDiPaoloDoheneyDorianDrewsDunnEbuenEichstadtEisenbergElayne

EpsteinFeemsterFelderFerberFieldsFletcherFongFrameFreedbergFreyFriedmanFuttermanGageGalaifGebhardGeeGeldinGerberGhaffariGodsickGoldsteinGordonGorelikGorensteinGortnerGreenGreenwaldGreerGunnHainesHarrisHassaniehHasserjianHealdHedlundHelfand

HerbertHirschHolmesHorwitzHowardHsiongJamisonJassoJhaJohnsonJuliusKalinkeKatzKawamotoKealerKeeferKhawKopeckyKristensenKubikLaifmanLamLambLawsonLeeLevanonLevinLiuMaholchicMandellMarkarianMarshallMartinelliMcCleeryMedinaMengMertzel

Continued on next pageClick Here to use

PayPal to make your

No Frills Donation!

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MeyerMillerMiremadiMogaveroMoghimiMohabeerMoody-MorseMouzayaMyersMyersonNevilleNguyenO’ConnorOkimoto-WheatleyOngOrnsteinPaulPetersM.PhillipsR.PhillipsPinePiurkowskyPowersRamirezResnick

RidinioRifkindRinkovRisleyRiveraRobertsonRochonRomanovP. RosenJ. RosenM. RosenRosenbergRozanskiSahleySalingerSanta CruzSantiagoSaravisSaucedoSchapiroSchlatterSchneiderSchnurrSchroederSchwartz

ScottSerafica-StermerShaevitzShanahanShaoShemtovSholtySilverSilverstoneSimonsSklarSmithSnaderSnyderStarkSteinhardtStilloStrauchTamiyasuTangTaylorThedingaThiruvamkulamTobiasTolentino

TooTorigianTownsendTreitmanTrnavskyVelasquezVermaVonSchneidauVosguanianWadaWaldmanWallWangWelinWhiteleyWiederspahnWilsonWingWuWulfWynerYangYeZaitlenZhang

No Frills Donations Appreciated (continued)The PFC would like to thank the following families for their contribution to the No Frills Campaign.

Click Here to use

PayPal to make your

No Frills Donation!

Oak Park High School PFC Newsletter published monthly September - June

by the OPHS Parent Faculty Club (PFC)for families of Oak Park High School

students.

Oak Park High School • Oak Park Unified School District

Principal: Kevin Buchanan899 N. Kanan Road, Oak Park, CA 91377

OPHS Main Line: 735-3300 Attendance/Temp. Off Campus Pass Line: 735-3311

(please call before 9 a.m.)

PFC President: Gillian Miller ophspfc@gmail.com

Newsletter Editor: Suzie Bock bockgraphx@sbcglobal.net 818-970-5251

eNews Editor: Uma Narayanan umasaa@yahoo.com 818-707-3124

www.oakparkusd.org/ophs • www.oakparkusd.org

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Dear Parents and Community Members,

Hello from the Oak Park School District Board ofTrustees! Our March Board Meeting started out byrecognizing Oak Park High School's National MeritFinalists. There are only 15,000 across the entirecountry, and Oak Park High School has 6 - this isreally quite remarkable. Congratulations to them all!

Next, we honored our wonderful Director ofTechnology, Jane Mintz. Over the past 5 years, Janehas worked tirelessly to build our District's technologyprogram from the ground up to become a model towhich other districts around the state and countryaspire. Jane will be leaving us at the end of March andwe wish her all the best as Director of Technology inthe Montecito Union School District.

As part of our first action item, we heard from Mrs.Vanessa Heller (Teacher at Medea Creek) and TheWater Warriors. Partly because of their dedication tothe goal of eliminating plastic water bottles on allOPUSD campuses, the board approved the purchase of14 new Hydration Stations, as well as arecommendation to staff to look for ways to reduce anywaste associated with cups or bottles that may be usedat the stations.

We approved the awarding of several bids forschool improvement work to be completed at ourcampuses over the summer including ADA fieldimprovements at Oak Park High, parking lot repairs atOak Hills Elementary and repairing damaged waterlines at Brookside Elementary. All of these items areinclude in our Facilities Master Plan, and will be paidfor by Measure "R" funds.

Next, as required by law, the Board approved the"Second Interim Financial Report and BudgetRevisions." And, although funding is still tight, we areoperating within our means, while continuing to boostour Economic Reserves fund back towards 3%.

Finally, as we do at most Board Meetings, wededicate a portion of the agenda to adopt changes toour school policies which must be regularly updated tocomply with changes in state or federal law, or arechanged to adapt to the changing desires of thecommunity. This month, we revised the followingpolicies:

· Board Policy 6161.1 – Selection andEvaluation of Instructional Materials· Board Policy 6161.11 - SupplementaryInstructional Materials· Board Policy 6174 – Education forEnglish Language Learners· Board Policy 7214 - General ObligationBonds· Board Policy 9322 - Agenda/MeetingMaterials· Board Policy 9323 - Actions by the Board

All of the District’s policies can be found athttp://www.oakparkusd.org/Page/12.

— Allen RosenOPUSD Board President

News from OPUSD Board President

still looking for a few more willing volunteers tocomplete our PFC team:

Senior Breakfast Chair; Organize the Seniorbreakfast which is in May 2014. This person is usuallya Senior Parent and has a committee of people to workwith.

April 17th, 12:30 pm is the deadline for PFCSenior Scholarship applications. Parents pleaseencourage your student to apply.

April 19th, 12:30 pm is the deadline for entries forthe PFC Senior Art Award. The entries will be judgedby parents on May 3rd at our PFC general meeting.

— Regards,Gillian Miller, PFC President

ophspfc@gmail.com

For all the latest, most up-to-datePFC News and Information

CLICK HERE

President’s Letter (Continued from page 4)

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Important College Dates & Deadlines for Seniors:

Spring Break: Spring Break is the time to make final visits to schools that have made offers of acceptance.This is also the month students will notify most schools of their decisions.

• Information about Campus Previews and scheduling trips to UC campuses can be found at: http://www.oakparkusd.org/page/1155

• Information about Campus Previews, and scheduling visits to CSU’s can be found at: http://www.oakparkusd.org/page/1149

May 1st: National Commitment Deadline! Students must formally confirm acceptance or declination of anoffer of admission by this date.

May & June: are still critical months for seniors because last semester grades do count! Spring semester class-es (that were listed on the student’s admission application) that are dropped or not passed with at least a "C"may result in a college rescinding its offer. Most competitive universities expect seniors to maintain at least a3.0 GPA in the senior year.

Wait Lists, Deferrals & Appeals

What can students do?Many students frequently find themselves in the unhappy position of having been deferred or wait-listed attheir first choice school. The following information should be helpful both in terms of what to do, as well aswhat the chances are of still being admitted in these situations.

DEFERRALS:From College Confidential.comAccept, reject, and wait list are scenarios that run through the minds of college applicants until spring, whencolleges send out their decision letters. Yet, this time of year, some early admission applicants are getting famil-iar with another application outcome: deferral. The jury will be out for these applicants, rolled over to the gen-eral applicant pool, until the Regular Decision general admissions cycle has run its course. Deferrals are thepurgatory of Early Decision and Early Action (ED/EA) college admissions. You're not in, but you're not out.You're just hanging there, waiting for the April Regular Decision-shoe to fall. It's exquisite anguish. Manyapplicants would much rather be rejected outright so that they can just get on with things, without the unfin-ished business of "admit" or "deny" hanging over them. Most likely, if you've been deferred your credentials are in the ballpark for getting accepted. If they weren't,you'd be rejected. However, your application wasn't so far above average that the college wanted to give up aspot in the entering class until they could compare you to the full applicant pool. The percentages vary fromcollege to college, but many students do get accepted after being deferred.

College News

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Deferral can signal hope, or be like a mirage in the desert, something that was never there in the first place.The circumstances surrounding the deferral are what really count here. Why do schools issue deferrals?"Sometimes, schools want to see a high school senior's first quarter or semester grades before they make adecision" on early admissions applicants, says Senior Consultant, Nadine C. Warner. Warner, a former a for-mer assistant director of admissions at the University of Chicago, adds, "Other times they want to see if otherstudents from the school are going to apply during the Regular Decision admissions cycle so they can comparethis student with the other students." The point is that schools want to see how an early decision applicant looks in comparison to the big picture,the general applicant pool. Admissions officers are eager to fill up first-year classes with top applicants and inthe process bolster their school's prestige by attracting the most accomplished students. And, to muddy thewaters even more, an ever-expanding roster of colleges now offer a second round of Early Decision--usuallywith a January 1 deadline. So sometimes "strategizing" includes moving on to an ED II option after beingdenied--or even deferred--in December by the ED I choice. (Confusing, isn't it?)

What should you do if you end up deferred? You must undertake a carefully deployed program of self-marketing to further enhance your "almost goodenough" application. After all, if the colleges deferring you weren't interested in you, they would have rejectedyou, right? Let's take a look at what you can do to improve your chances of getting in:

Your job is twofold: • First, you need to establish a distinguishable presence with the admissions office without

becoming a pest. • Second, you need to reveal more of yourself and your sincere passion to attend your target

college.

How do you do this? First, you need to communicate your continued interest with the admission office. This should be done by let-ter (and e-mail is fine, too.) In most cases, the best person to contact is the regional rep for your area of thecountry. Your job is to find out who this person is. Call admissions and ask for that person's name and e-mailaddress.

The purpose of your letter will be to: Emphasize your ongoing interest in this college. (If you will definitely enroll if admitted, be sure to say soclearly.)Explain why this college is a great match for you. Your reasons should be as specific as possible ("I have doneresearch on the role of women in Mesopotamia and am eager to work with Professor Snurdley whose writingin this area is renowned") and not generic ("It is an excellent school, and I fell in love with the beautiful cam-pus").Provide updates on what you have done since you sent your application. Ideally, this list would include signifi-cant achievements ("I won a national physics contest") but, more commonly, you've been too busy with aca-demics and applications to say much more than, "I pulled up my Calculus grade from a B- to a B+"). Onceyou've communicated this list to your admission rep, you can follow up with additional updates when you havemore news to report. Meanwhile, think about how you can generate such news. Apply for an internship, entera contest, and get a part-time job.

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Finally, you can always consider going for broke with a “gimmick." For instance, if your application touts yourtalents as a budding poet, perhaps it's time to write your "Homily to Haverford” or your "Ode to Occidental."Granted, gimmicks don't often work, and there's usually a huge element of luck involved if you try thembecause an effort that might delight one admission official could potentially irk another. But, especially when itcomes to candidates at the hyper-selective schools, where your chances aren't too hot to begin with, a carefullyconceived outside-the-box approach might just be your very best shot.

WAIT LISTS: From Collegewise.com When you end up on a wait list, you’re in the twilight zone. Essentially you're on-call. Wait lists are a kind ofhedge against the unpredictability of accepted students enrolling at a college. From many years of experience,colleges know rather precisely what percentage of the total number of students offered admission will enroll.That percentage is called yield.For example, if a college is looking to admit a freshman class of 1,000 students, they may offer 2,000 studentsadmission. That’s because they know their yield is almost always around 50 percent. If their yield were histori-cally 25 percent, they would offer 4,000 students admission, and so forth.Sometimes, however, the yield flies in the face of history. When more than the expected number of studentsenroll (exceeding historical yield), temporary housing has to be acquired and there is a strain on collegeresources. When fewer than expected students enroll, colleges go to their wait lists and offer admission tothose who are “in waiting.” This way, the college makes certain that the incoming freshman class is the rightsize.The wait list can serve other purposes. At super-selective schools, where there are many more qualified appli-cants than can be accommodated, applicants are wait listed as a consolation. Instead of being turned down foradmission, they are put on the wait list, the implication being, “We wish we could have admitted you, butthere wasn’t room.” Diplomacy lives. The likelihood of being admitted from the wait list is small. Someschools wait list 500-600 applicants. Your only chance is to undertake a heavy-duty marketing effort with theadmissions office. Even then, your chances are small.

UC to Wait-List Some Freshman Applicants The following is a press release that explains how the UC system plans to utilize wait-lists: "The University currently enrolls more than15,000 students for whom it receives no state funding. New enroll-ment must be carefully managed to enable campuses to reach their enrollment targets with greater precisionwhile still offering a space to as many deserving students as possible." Most campuses will participate, although UCLA has determined that the use of a waiting list, as an enroll-ment management tool, is not necessary at this time. Berkeley is still evaluating its position on waiting lists.Merced will continue to offer admission to all of its UC-eligible applicants and therefore will not participate inthe wait-list process. Each campus will manage its own waiting list, but certain principles will guide the process at all:

• At the same time campuses send admission and deny letters, participating campuses willinvite a subset of their denied freshman applicants — those who came closest to being admit-ted in the campus's comprehensive review process but didn't quite make it — to indicate theirinterest in being on a waiting list. Applicants may receive wait-list offers from multiple cam-puses and can accept as many as they wish. • After processing Statements of Intent to Register (SIR) in early May, campuses will ana-lyze likely enrollment and accept students off their waiting lists if they anticipate not reaching

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their targets. Acceptance offers will be sent by June 1 so that students and families can planappropriately. • Students who are offered admission off the waiting list will receive a preliminary finan-cial aid award letter shortly after if they filed a FAFSA by the March 2 deadline. Additionally,they will be eligible for housing and sports at orientation, just like students admitted earlier. • "Because it is impossible to know how many applicants ultimately will be admitted off thewaitlist, students should submit by the stated deadlines an SIR and the requisite deposit to aninstitution to which they have been admitted," Wilbur said. • Eligible applicants who don't receive an admission offer from any campus to which theyapplied will be offered admission at a campus that has room, even if they are on the waitinglist at another campus.

CSU impacted campuses The list below is for CSU campuses that are impacted for Freshman Admission in 2012-13. They may also useWait-lists as an enrollment management tool. Visit the individual CSU campus or campuses of your choice formore up-to-date information on campus and program impaction, including admission supplemental criteria:

CSU Campus First-Time Freshman Upper-Division TransfersBakersfield.......................Not Campus Impacted..........................Not Campus ImpactedChannel Islands ..............Not Campus Impacted..........................Not Campus ImpactedChico .........................................Freshman................................................TransferDomingues Hills.............Not Campus Impacted..........................Not Campus ImpactedEast Bay ..........................Not Campus Impacted ....................................TransferFresno ........................................Freshman................................................TransferFullerton ....................................Freshman................................................TransferHumboldt..................................Freshman ....................................Not Campus ImpactedLong Beach ...............................Freshman................................................TransferLos Angeles...............................Freshman................................................TransferMaritime Academy .........Not Campus Impacted..........................Not Campus ImpactedMonterey Bay..................Not Campus Impacted..........................Not Campus ImpactedNorthridge.................................Freshman ....................................Not Campus ImpactedPomona......................................Freshman................................................TransferSacramento ................................Freshman................................................TransferSan Bernardino..........................Freshman................................................TransferSan Diego..................................Freshman................................................TransferSan Francisco.............................Freshman................................................TransferSan Jose .....................................Freshman................................................TransferSan Luis Obispo........................Freshman................................................TransferSan Marcos................................Freshman................................................TransferSonoma......................................Freshman................................................TransferStanislaus ........................Not Campus Impacted..........................Not Campus Impacted

Note: Non-impacted campuses may have impacted programs

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APPEALS: The information below comes from UCLA & Collegewise.com, and is fairly representative of the appealprocess at most universities:

UCLA does not set aside space in our class for students who appeal admission decisions. Every denied appli-cation has gone through extensive reviews. Therefore, for an appeal to have merit it must bring to light newacademic and personal information as well as information pertaining to extenuating circumstances that wasnot present in the application—information that clearly shows the student to be stronger than had been ear-lier evidenced. High grades received in the senior year are not a basis for the reversal of a decision.

Submitting an Appeal 1. Send us a letter requesting that we reconsider your application. The letter must come from you(the applicant), and be postmarked no later than mid-April.2. Your letter must clearly outline your reasons for appealing the initial decision. The informationyou present should be new and compelling. Your letter should not simply repeat information thathad already been presented in your application. 3. Submit your high school transcript from the most recent term; please note the transcript musthave course information and grades from the fall semester of your senior year and any additionalsemesters available at the time of appeal; an official transcript in the school's sealed envelope is pre-ferred 4. If the basis for your appeal involves specifics such as a changed grade or an incorrectly reportedtest score, you should provide documentation (e.g., transcript or a revised score report) in the sameenvelope as your letter of appeal. 5. Letters of recommendation are not required. However, if you wish to include such letters withyour appeal, the limit is two (2). It is also recommended that these be submitted in the same enve-lope as your letter of appeal.

It is UCLA's usual practice to respond to appeals within three (3) weeks of the date we receive them.However, we cannot guarantee a response by May 1, the date by which many institutions require their appli-cants to make a commitment. We encourage applicants to consider all of their educational options. While allappeals are reviewed on case-by-case basis, the rate of a decision being reversed based upon an appeal hashistorically been very low.

How to Appeal an Admissions DecisionCopyright© 2009 by Collegewise™ All rights reserved. ww.collegewise.com Copyright ©2009

What is an appeal?

An appeal is a student’s formal request, in writing, that a college reconsider an application for admission. Theappeal letter should be about one page and should explain your position why you believe you should be recon-sidered for admission. Some colleges also invite you to include extra material that wasn’t in your originalapplication, such as another teacher recommendation or report card from the first semester of the senior year.While most appeals are not successful, students who can present compelling new information sometimesbenefit from the formal request to be reconsidered.

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Who should appeal? As unfair as the admissions process may seem at times, most colleges are very thorough in their evaluationof candidates. That’s why the few appeals that are successful usually bring to light new information that wasnot available to the college when they were reviewing your application. For example, if your 7thsemestergrades were a dramatic improvement over your previous grades, or your club that you started raised a largeamount of money for a charity event you planned, or the new internship you just secured happens to be inthe field you plan on majoring in, these are things that can be taken into account when reconsidering yourapplication. Students who do not have new information to share have a very difficult time presenting a com-pelling case for an appeal tube accepted. Some students want to appeal a decision because they simply believe they are stronger applicants than otherstudents from their school who were admitted. Unfortunately, while the fact that these students were admit-ted and you were denied may frustrate you, the colleges will not consider this a valid reason to overturn theiroriginal decision. It’s important not to criticize the decisions that were made in favor of other applications.Keep your tone positive and focus on what you have accomplished since you applied. Do not compare your-self to other applicants who were admitted.

How-to appeal 1. Carefully read the decision letter the college sent you, and research the admissions section of the college’swebsite to see if any information about appealing decisions is provided. Some colleges will come right outand tell you that they do not accept appeal requests. Other colleges will not only tell you that they acceptappeals, but will also tell you exactly what to do in order to appeal the decision. Follow all instructions thecollege provides. And if any of their instructions seem to contradict what you read in this guideline, do what-ever the college tells you to do. 2. Write a letter as soon as possible explaining why you want the admissions committee to reconsider yourapplication for admission. Be polite and respectful, and make sure to present new information; don’t justrehash what was in your application. Time is of the essence when it comes to appealing, so don’t wait to dothis. 3. If the college indicates that extra letters of recommendation will be accepted in appeals cases, considerasking teacher to write a letter of recommendation (a different teacher than you used before).However, youshould only do this if you feel this teacher will be able to present new and compelling information. Forexample, if you recently rose your grade dramatically, excelled in a class project, or received an academicaward for your work in a particular teacher’s class; it might be worth asking that teacher to write a letter foryou. 4. If invited to do so by the college, consider submitting recent paper or project you have completed in yoursenior year. If you will be submitting a paper or project, make sure you reference it in your letter, and makesure to explain. 5. Send all of these materials in one envelope to the admissions office.

Some final thoughts on appealsWe know it’s disappointing not to be accepted to a school you really wanted to attend, and we understandwhy you might decide to try an appeal. But we want you to be excited about whatever college you ultimatelyattend, so we feel compelled to say that the very best thing you could do while you’re waiting for your appealdecision is to start falling in love with one of your other colleges that said, “Yes.” Visit those schools again.Buy a sweatshirt. Start imagining yourself there. You’ll feel much more positive and encouraged by focusing

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on great school that admitted you, rather than lamenting the decision of one who said, “No.” And remem-ber that the vast majority of college freshmen report that they are happy with their college experience, eventhose students who were not admitted to schools that were their first choice at the time. Whether or not yourappeal is granted, you’re going to go to college with a bunch of 18-22 year-olds and all you have to do is learnand have fun for four years. It might not feel like it now, but you’re going to be OK.

Advice From Your OPHS Counselors: Letters of recommendation supporting an appeal or deferral should not be reprints or copies of previouslywritten letters. They should be written to the admission committee at the specific school with new infor-mation included! Because of the low rate of successful appeals students should make plans to commit to theirsecond choice school by May 1st to ensure that they have a college to attend. If a student's appeal is suc-cessful and they ultimately decide to rescind their commitment, they should be prepared to forfeit the depositthat most colleges require at commitment time.

This year’s Spotlight Production will be Rumors, by Neil Simon.This classic play will be directed by Aaron Teebor.

Sign-ups: Thursday, April 11th & Friday, April 12th at lunchtimein front of the pavilion. Any student can sign-up to audition.

Auditions: Monday, April 15th & Tuesday, April 16th

Callbacks: Wednesday, April 17th.

The performance dates are Thursday, May 23rd, Friday, May 24th, and Saturday, May 25th.

Spotlight ProductionSpotlight Production