Roosevelt has sent home a letter with students' homeroom assignments, so if you are a current student, you should be getting that soon.

In the meantime, stock up on school supplies and start getting up earlier so you can be ready for the first day, September 13.

This year, the Design Teams are small schools, and we need to train ourselves to use the new names. For example DT1 is now the School of Law & Government. 

As principal of the School of Communications, New Media and Technology, I have been working all summer to prepare for the new school year. We've got a lot of exciting plans, and it was great to have some teachers and students back at school today to get a taste of the energy that comes from a full campus. 

See you all in a couple weeks!

Roosevelt High School Mariachi Olimpico presents their 10^th annual performance, “Este es mi Mexico”, also featuring Mariachi Olimpico Alumni, Mariachi Oropel, Danza Teocalt- Folklorico.

Roosevelt’s Mariachi Olimpico welcomes Boyle Height community and RHS students to come and experience their astonishing performance. No one has heard the mesmerizing sound of music until they have heard the great Mariachi Olimpico.

Mariachi Olimpico was founded in 1987 at Belvedere Middle School by Mr. Martinez, the previous Music Director at Roosevelt but had retired last year. Mr. Martinez had created the program to develop cultural foundation in kid’s lives and most of all, to build pride from where they come.

Mariachi Olimpico was continuously growing, by the year 1994 the program was also continued at Roosevelt High School where talented students could continue to develop their musical skills, constructing an extremely well trained performing group. Mr. Cloud obtained Mr. Martinez position at Belvedere Middle School following through the programs legacy while Mr. Martinez was actively trying to the same at RHS with a trustee companion, Mr. Ceballos.

“I am proud of Roosevelt Mariachi Olimpico; it is the spark of the school. I know that the program will continue forever,” said Mr. Ceballos, the current Musical Director of Mariachi Olimpico at Roosevelt High School.

Mr. Ceballos has been teaching music in various schools throughout the Los Angeles Unified School District for over 25 years. He has dedicated the last 20 years to Mariachi music and has been teaching at RHS for the past 12 years.

Mr. Ceballos supports his students by providing different pathways in life, “I want to open opportunities for my students by teaching them music. Music is an art form that people can pursue a career in.”

The Roosevelt High School Mariachi Olimpico Concert will take place at RHS school auditorium on Friday, March 26, at 7 p.m. Pre-sale tickets will be sold for $8 and tickets at the door will be $12.

On Thursday, February 25, PLAS held a meeting for RHS students during lunch on campus. Marshall Tuck, the CEO of PLAS was present at the meeting, an attempt by the Partnership to answer questions which students may have about the new changes and provide them with as much information as possible.

Because there has been a lack of student input, the Partnership is interested in engaging in conversations. Upon being questioned by a student, Tuck responded that, “small schools will not only focus on reforming the structure, but classroom instruction… in hopes that we will create a better classroom environment.”

Other PLAS representatives present at the meeting also stressed that because only 44% of students graduate from RHS, they feel that regardless of nation-wide budget cuts, it’s vital that the change occurs now. While other alternatives were considered, small schools will produce higher graduation rates, which when put into a “per graduate cost” perspective is more budget friendly. By not having a student take a class more than once, money is ultimately saved.

And finally, PLAS noted that “competition can be healthy, but segregation can’t.” In other words, PLAS hopes that by establishing small schools, students will reach their full potential.

Last but not least, deadlines for the new seven school-site counsels will be enforced so that there is a sense of accountability. Budget training will also occur amongst the small school representatives, so that decisions will be handled well.

Overall, the Partnership is making attempts to include and inform students on campus, and for the most part the students at the meeting seemed to appreciate that.

RHS may have to enforce school uniforms as in Hollenbeck Middle School

“Since my junior year, Roosevelt has been saying that we were going to get uniforms,” said Ms. Camacho, Design Team 6 Math teacher.

Prate has been rambling between Riders frantically talking about whether RHS will be changing the dress code for the upcoming 2010-2011 school year.

A final decision has not been made whether or not Roosevelt will implement school uniforms, but the idea doesn’t seem to appeal too many students. Yesenia Lozano 11 Design Team 6 is displeased at the thought, “We went out of middle school, thinking that we don’t have to wear uniforms anymore and it’s disappointing to know that I might have to start wearing them again in my senior year.”

Several of RHS students presume they are being disciplined with wearing uniforms because Roosevelt is a low performing public school. Presenting Lozano with a possible reason for uniforms, she was quick to react in daze, “Uniforms don’t magically make students proficient in academics, and the school shouldn’t base it on clothing.”

It’s lucid that there are numerous of controversial thoughts and opinions at Roosevelt dealing with the topic but Dr. Freire does not seem distressed. As principal of Theodore Roosevelt High, Dr. Freire articulates her opinion on the matter, “I personally love uniforms but I think that we have so many other things to focus on…My priority right now isn’t to monitor what kids are wearing.”

Nevertheless, Dr. Freire attempts to reach faculty, staff, parents and students on any updates regarding school uniforms through weekly letters. She has exclusively given RHS a preview of her upcoming weekly letter, addressing concerns for school uniforms, “The implementing of school uniforms isn’t directly associated to the small school transition. The mandate of student uniforms comes from the PLAS “Six Pillars of School Excellence” which the primary document was given to teachers and parents before the vote to approve PLAS to oversee Roosevelt High School. The implementing of student uniforms was in the essence approved by virtue that faculty and parents overwhelming voted for approval of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools (PLAS) and the Six Pillars.” PLAS overviews 12 schools and Roosevelt so happens to be the only one not implementing school uniforms.

Though aware that students at Roosevelt have opinions, thoughts and voice Dr. Freire argues that many students are minors and it is the parents that speak for their kids and in the case of voting for uniforms, many parents favor it.

Dr. Freire states that enforcing school uniforms will help with school safety, “You have no idea how many trespassers come in to our campus, intruders will be easier to identify, and inflicting uniforms has nothing to do with test scores.”

Mr. Brown Design Team  Drawing teacher believes uniforms can be a positive thing for a couple of reasons, “Fashion will be less of a distraction. Students will be more focused on school instead of what they will be wearing the next day to school. It can eliminate the pressure on students to constantly be self-conscious about them and avoid students being looked down on because they can’t afford ‘nice’ things.”

The teachers aren’t getting away with freedom of wear, Dr. Freire was clear to mention that if students wear uniforms the teachers will have to wear them as well, “Teachers are the example, I try to set the model especially for the girls at school to demonstrate when it’s appropriate and adequate to dress for a certain time and place.”

Things are not apparent as to whether RHS will implement uniforms but the talk is raging.

A group of Roosevelt students have recently published a video on Facebook entitled “Roosevelt Rough Riders Against PLAS”. These students, including ASB President Jenesis Fonseca criticize the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools for excluding students and parents from decisions and for planning to divide the campus into seven small schools.

The video was posted by Miguel Torres, who is listed as RHS Class of 1991 and runs a company called Angel Flight Media.

Several of the students featured in the video have been present at recent Small Schools Transition Team meetings and are also members of the Leadership class. Without further inquiry, it is unclear whether this video has any relationship to that class.

I hope to see more of an explanation of the video by the students who made it, including their goals in publishing it. I also hope to see a response from PLAS.

To editorialize a bit, I think it is positive that students are feeling empowered and are putting their viewpoint out in public. Although I disagree with some of their points about small schools and feel that some of their speculation is a bit alarmist, including the idea that small schools will destroy Roosevelt’s tradition, I understand why they feel shut out of the reform process.

Hopefully the students will continue to learn about the potential benefits of the changes being planned for Roosevelt. Their perspectives are valuable, but I would like to see them have more positive ideas about what kinds of changes they would like to see, because we should all acknowledge that Roosevelt needs to change to get better results.

*Explanation of removal of video
When I posted the video I felt it was newsworthy and would be of interest to the Roosevelt community. However, upon further investigation of the law surrounding defamation, I have decided that since I have serious doubts about the truth of a statement in the video that could be defamatory, it is best for the Rough Rider Blog not to publish the actual video. Defamation is defined as when someone communicates “false information that damages the reputation of another person or entity.” I have also removed the link after reading further that linking to defamatory content also constitutes libel.

So far, the total number of members is a very sad number of four. I can say I was a little disappointed. But of the members that were there, we managed to decide that this little book club is more than another read-as-a-group book club. There will be weeks where we will all choose a single book to read as together as a group, but other weeks we’ll most likely just read any random book that catches our attention and share what we liked or disliked about the book. It’s a better way to have other members of the group see what kind of books they might be interested in reading.

The club is sponsored by SHOUT, who will cover most of the expenses we would ever need, and we might even have a little field trip to the Central Library in Downtown, LA.

Many people hide the fact that they like to read while others don’t really care, but there is a spot – more than one if you remember my sad little number – at the RHS Book Club, so come join us next Monday, the 22 of February. We won’t bite.

Before I had the responsibility to cover the water polo game, I really didn’t pay much attention  to it. I think it was mostly because I didn’t have a clue about what water polo was really all about.

As I started to witness the tension of this game, I realized that it’s actually really interesting. Water polo is a game that has a combination of the best aspects of Basketball, soccer, and Hockey.

There are 6 Field players and one goalie. The winner of the game is obviously the one who scores more goals. Sounds easy but the girls tend to get aggressive and rough really making the sport interesting, it gets even more complicated when the players are only allowed to pass a bright yellow soccer like ball.

Watching the RHS girls play was really fun. On February the 3rd They played against Huntington Park and the game was really intense and so aggressive. Both teams are really good, several team players got a bit hurt, by the level of aggressiveness and roughness. Sometimes the girls have to play “ghetto water polo” often referred to by water polo team member Claudia, a sophomore.  Losing by one, the girls played an amazing game and played El Camino Real this past Wednesday, winning 8-4

In recent weeks, students have become more vocal about their hopes and concerns for the coming years, as the Small School Transition Team continues to meet monthly, planning the opening next year of 5 autonomous small schools on the Roosevelt campus, along with the Magnet program and ESP, which will operate as a small school at the East LA Skills Center.

At the last SSTT meeting, each Design Team brought two student representatives, who spoke articulately about their desire to keep electives open to all students, even if they are not in the small school where the class is offered. Other topics of concern to students include the imminent imposition of a school uniform policy and the potential of having multiple bell schedules with perhaps two or more separate lunch periods.

More information is available on the Partnership website, but here are the details taken from there:

In order to increase our students’ roles and voice in our efforts to improve schools and transform teaching and learning in the classroom, the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools is pleased to announce the creation of the Youth Advisory Project — a 5 month program aimed at 8th graders and high school students from The Partnership’s seven eligible campuses (Markham MS, Gompers MS, Hollenbeck MS, Stevenson MS, Mendez Learning Center- 1A and 1B, Roosevelt High School, Santee Education Complex). The purpose of this first group is to provide the Partnership with feedback regarding their schools, their ideas for the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools and what they envision their role to be to improve those schools. The group will total no more than 20 students initially. Feedback from this group will help the Partnership staff, administrators and school site staff, craft its future student voice component for the Partnership Home Office and potentially for its secondary schools.

Students may apply directly and we encourage school site staff, administrators and teachers to nominate students as well (all students must apply as well). We are especially looking for a diverse range of students including different achievement levels, so there is no GPA requirement. However students must be in good academic standing in order to participate.

Students have a valuable perspective, and it is refreshing to see the Partnership acknowledging that. Now it’s time to step up and get involved.

Click here to download the Overview and Application (DOC)