Incline Village Schools

INCLINE def. SPARKS, 1-0, in double (second half of) overtime. Congratulations to the coaches and team!  Way to go Highlanders!

The December 5 SAT test date is fast approaching, and even though your child may have missed the registration deadline, there's still time—thanks to late registration (up to November 13).  *Please note there is an additional $23 fee for late registration.

Students who register online can get free practice materials, including an Official SAT Practice Test and The Official SAT Question of the Day™ e-mail and access to low-cost tools, including The Official SAT Online Course™ and The Official SAT Study Guide™. It's a great site where you and your child can go together. You'll both find lots of useful information to help ensure your child's SAT experience is a positive one.

THERE ARE ONLY 5 DAYS LEFT TO REGISTER*, so have your child sign up today. Remember, the SAT is the one test that shows colleges what students know and what they know they can do.

Please Note: The December SAT test date may be the last testing that a college will accept with your student's application!!!!

To register online:  http://www.collegeboard.com/

Applications for the 29th Annual "Snow-Fest Queen" for 2010 are available in the IHS office.

More about Snowfest...

CELEBRATING 29 YEARS OF FAMILY FUN IN NORTH LAKE TAHOE!

The 29th Annual Snowfest takes place March 5-14, 2010.

Plans are underway for another huge celebration.

Every spring since 1982, North Lake Tahoe comes alive with ten fun-filled days and nights, jam packed with events and activities for all ages. This year, the annual favorites will be back, along with a host of great new ones! On and off the mountain, at North Tahoe's numerous resorts, and vibrant lakeside neighborhoods, there's something for everyone. Enjoy on-snow events at resorts like Squaw Valley USA, Alpine Meadows, Homewood, Diamond Peak, and Northstar-at-Tahoe; Participate in special events, parades, races, parties, concerts, theater; and of course, there's plenty of wining and dining to be had at North Lake Tahoe's fine restaurants and lively establishments.

Join in and celebrate the fun and frolic of winter! There's no better time to be in North Lake Tahoe. Snow conditions in early March are some of the best of the season, the sunny California days are getting longer, and the nightlife is in full swing.

For more information on Snowfest

This is an opportunity that will go down in history (and in the yearbook) for all to remember.  If you have pictures (we all have have 'em - those adorable baby pictures of our kids.  Now is the time to pull them out for all the world to see!), or a favorite saying, poem or remembrance of your Senior - the yearbook staff is offering a deal we, as parents/grandparents cannot pass up!

Check out the attached brochure for all the information!

If you are submitting your transcripts to Common Application member institutions through Docufide Secure Transcript, you need to follow certain steps in a specific order to make sure that your transcript gets matched with your application.  As you read the instructions below, keep in mind that you will be managing two different accounts: one for Docufide and one for Common App.

• Login to Common App (commonapp.org) and note your Common App ID (upper portion of page after login).
• Use the School Forms section of the Common App to invite your counselor to be a recommender. Doing this will trigger an email message to your counselor providing instructions on how to submit school forms online.
• Login to Docufide.com and search for the name of one of your Common App colleges.
• When the college comes up in the search, select the listing for the college that is preceded by a "C" (this means it's a Common App college).
• Your transcript will be sent directly to the Common App Online system where it will be matched by your counselor with your school forms and submitted on your behalf.
• Once you have submitted your transcript to one "C" college, your transcript is ready for submission to ALL of your Common App colleges.  You do not need to submit one for each "C" college.

Reference:  CommonApp.com, Support Center for Applicants

Do you know how to find the Colleges that fit you?

College Admissions Counselor Sharon Schladow will be in the Incline High School Counseling Office on:

• Thursday November 12th
• Friday November 13th
• Monday November 16th

Seniors – Do you need help with College Applications?  Do you know where you are going next year?

Juniors – Do you need help with College Admissions?  Choosing a Major? Mapping your testing? Making a College List?

Sophomores and Freshmen –Do you understand the College Admissions Process and how to explore your options?

Signups are in the IHS Counseling Office.

Dear Senior parents:

After much back and forth we finally have a date for the Senior Showcase, so  please put it on your calendar and spread the word! We need volunteers and especially someone who would like to chair or co-chair the event. May 22nd will be rehearsal and the show will be on Sunday, May 23rd.  Please see the list below for current volunteers and what is still needed.

Fashion Show features a “Senior Showcase” and is a fundraiser for Safe and Sober Graduation, which will be a trip to Disneyland for the 2010 graduates.  Incline High School’s seniors – their accomplishments and activities, plans and personalities – are featured in an annual Senior Showcase, a fashion show that also showcases their style.  Seniors will be modeling fashions from local and Reno stores. As they walk the stage in prom dresses, tuxedos, dressy clothes, or casual and sporty outfits, an emcee will offer a short bio and insights from each senior. We are hoping to get 100% participation from the senior class, either as models, working behind the scenes, or helping with the production, lighting and music.  There will be some volunteers needed from the junior class as well.

Refreshments are served during intermission. Tickets are available at The Potlatch or Incline High School. Last year tickets were $15 for adults and $8 for students. 

We are planning for the second annual and looking for parent volunteers to help with this event.  Please contact Tanya Canino, canino1020@aol.com or Dianne Severance, sevgroup@nvbell.net, if you would like to volunteer for the event.  

Volunteer Needs:

• Event Parent Leader(s) & Overall Volunteer Coordination (1 or 2 people to chair the event):
  (Will coordinate about 20 volunteers, overall, and also need to be point person with Senior Leadership Class)
• ShowCase Date Coordination: Sunday May 23, 2010 (rehearsal May 22nd).  (Dianne Severance)  DONE!
• Senior Bios Coordination and Script Development:  Includes Model Grouping.  (Dianne Severance & Tia Rancourt)
• Senior Model Coordination:  Includes Model Grouping & Store Identification and Clothes Coordination (6 - 8 volunteers) (Lisa Allred)
• Raffle Prize Coordination (3 volunteers) (Maura Steinmeyer)
• Show Coordination:  Runway, Model Group, Lights, Music, Dressing Rooms, Stage Decoration, coordination with Senior class volunteers and Junior class volunteers.  (Dianne Severance can help, but can’t chair this committee)
• Show Choreography: (Mindy Wegener)
• Refreshments Coordinator (Linda Cronin, Jennifer Lee)
• Program, Tickets & PR (Tanya Canino)

The Guinn Millenium Scholarship available to Nevada high school graduates is worth up to $10,000 over their college career.

If they attend Sierra Nevada College, they can multiply that award by six.

In an effort to attract high performing students — the Guinn scholarship is available to students who achieve at least a 3.25 GPA in high school — SNC is offering the Sierra Nevada College Millenium Plus Scholars Award, a $50,000 scholarship over four years which students may tack on to their original $10,000.

The Incline Village college announced the award last week, and the class of 2010 will be the first to qualify for the $12,500 annual scholarship.

“Our emphasis for the past two years has been on fundraising for academic scholarships,” said SNC President Robert Maxson. “We're going after the best and brightest. These students really improve the quality of the student body as a whole.”

Maxson said the funds came from the school's private donors, who he said were excited to support academics at SNC.

The move comes during a push to grow SNC's enrollment — the last two freshman classes have come in at more than 160 students, up from classes of about 90 earlier this decade — and Maxson's commitment to snaring academically gifted students.

“We're in the game now — every school offers money to very talented students, and we're doing the same,” Maxson said.

Nicole Ferguson, who serves as the school's director of financial aid, said attracting high-achieving in-state students is an added bonus of the scholarship.

“One of the founding principles of the Guinn Millennium Scholarships was to provide the opportunity for Nevada's best and brightest students to remain in-state,” Ferguson said in a press release. “This Millennium Plus Scholars Award — the first of its kind in the state — will create an added benefit for Nevada's Millennium Scholars, as well as a further incentive for them to remain in Nevada, and is a win-win both for the student and for Sierra Nevada College.”

For information on the award, call SNC's admissions office at (775) 831-6223.

Hello all,

It's time to start thinking about the always fun IHS Crab Feed.  This is the biggest fundraiser of the year for our IHS students, and in these rather challenging economic times, our school could use every penny that we can bring in. 

In trying to stick with the adage "many hands make light the work", I am asking for your help.  Many people have already jumped on board and we have a great group so far.  We would love to have you join us and the fun!

We are heading back to the North Tahoe Conference Center on February the 6th.  Purple Wave has signed on to handle the auction again.  Carolyn Smith and Kathy Long have signed on to handle ticket sales and table coordination, Mike Smith has kindly offered to produce the programs, ticket design and printing are taken care of, Denise Hooker has offered to handle supplies procurement.  Whew! 

We need help in the following main areas at this point:  Kitchen/Food Procurement, Prize Procurement and Advertising.  Please say you'll help!  I look forward to hearing from you (and might just call you as well!).  Thanks and have a great day.

Best regards,
Heidi Breider
832-8497
722-0701

As an ongoing celebration of this year’s Teen Read Week, kids ages 10 – 17 who are “caught” reading or studying at the Incline Village Library have a chance to win an MP3 player.

From now through December 31, 2009, young library patrons may be awarded one raffle ticket per day for a chance to win one of five MP3 players. Prize drawings will take place on Tuesday, December 1 and Thursday, December 31. Winners will be notified and should come to the Incline Village Library to pick up their MP3 players.

Contact:  Amy Levy
Incline Village Library
845 Alder Avenue
Incline Village, NV  89451
Phone: (775) 832-4130
alevy@washoecounty.us
Website:

It would take a pandemic among teachers and students for Washoe county schools to close because of the H1N1 virus, a school district official said today.

But if that were to happen, the Washoe County School district has a strategy for learning to continue, using both cyber technology and low-tech methods, said Steve Mulvenon, district spokesman.

“Closing schools is really a remote possibility,” Mulvenon said. “ we have not noticed a big spike of students out because of influenza-like illness.

“And teacher absenteeism is not running unusually high,” he said.  Mulvenon said that student and teacher absenteeism would have to be so high, “ that we simply wouldn’t be able to operate.”

Mulvenon said that a valuable lesson learned last spring when the virus first started to spread.

“The (Centers for Disease Control) learned that pre-emptive closure of schools did not really slow the spread of the virus,” He said. “It also had a negative impact on families with parents having to miss work."

In the event a high school or middle school student will be absent for a protracted period they can take advantage of the Edline Web site, where students and parents log on, enter a password and can get the students homework plan and finish it from home, Mulvenon said.

“For elementary schools, we have a more low-tech approach,” he said. “Home and lesson packets are prepared and parents can pick them up from the campus, and then return them or the students can we the return to school.”

For the flyer

Join us as Sierra Nevada College captures the magic of the holiday season at our Annual Tree Lighting. Quickly becoming a new Incline Village favorite, the event’s activities take place on the SNC campus in Patterson Hall from 4-6PM, Thursday, December 3rd.

• SNC Student Gingerbread House Competition
• Letters to Santa
• Holiday Crafts
• International Tree by SNC students
• Visit from Santa (parents, bring your camera)
• Refreshments
• Festive Music & Carols
• And much more!
• Free and Open to the Public

For More Information Contact: Rosie Striffler
rstriffler@sierranevada.edu
*Events Subject to Change

Music really does matter.

This year, the Reno Philharmonic Youth Orchestra expanded its number of orchestras from two, the Youth Concert and Youth Symphony Orchestras, with students ranging in age from 12 to 18, to three, now including the Youth Strings Symphonia. In spite of financial difficulties, the youth orchestra began the third orchestra in order to expand its range of musicians to include children in fourth to sixth grades.

The youth orchestras are made up of young musicians in the Washoe County School District, including woodwind, brass, percussion and string players. Every year, the groups entertain more than 32,000 people in Northern Nevada and northeastern California.

The three groups have three different functions.

The youth concert orchestra, led by Jason Altieri, is geared toward developing players, teaching children better performance technique. Meanwhile, the symphony orchestra, also under Altieri, is for the most advanced students who want more of a challenge and can rise to the occasion.

The newest orchestra, the strings symphonia, was created as a string-only ensemble to serve children younger than 12, who because of their age, can't participate in the older groups. It is led by Carol Laube.

The group had thought about expanding the program because it had to turn away so many after the auditions. Many of these students had nowhere to go for orchestral experience.
The audition experience is, nonetheless, rather rigorous.  "They had to play for me a scale and excerpts of pieces," Laube said.  This can prove difficult, especially for younger students.

Laube originally moved here from Branson, Mo., and stayed because of the relationships she formed here through the philharmonic. Her favorite part of the new program is being with the students.  "It's one of my favorite hours of the week," Laube said.

The symphonia rehearses one hour from 4 to 5 p.m. each week, while the other two rehearse 2 1/2 hours.

"It's a sense of accomplishment with their instruments and as a group together," she said. "I do it for the thrill of sitting with an orchestra and hearing the music."

Although the symphonia is the new section and has the least experience, Laube said she has high hopes for the young musicians. They are going to perform with the established orchestras at the biannual concerts, in fall and in spring. Also, they will be performing in the Christmas concert, playing "Carol of the Bells" with the group The Tintabulations.

"It's scary for some of them because it will be their first time performing," she said.  However, Laube said she is confident in their abilities.  "I hope to have many proud moments with them," she said.

Caleb Wolz, 18, of Sparks, originally joined the symphony orchestra on the recommendation of his strings teacher, who thought participating in the group would be a good experience for him.

"I've always wanted to play in a more advanced orchestra," said Wolz, who has been playing the bass for seven years.  Now, his favorite part of the orchestra is its advanced atmosphere. He enjoys the challenge the program provides for him and the other upper-level musicians of Northern Nevada.

"I think it's fantastic," Wolz said. "I love all the music and the opportunity to play it at Nightingale Hall. It always gives you something to do."

A closer look

The symphony orchestra is made up of the best players in Northern Nevada, according to conductor Jason Altieri, 38, of Atlanta.  "They're the best of the best," he said.

The orchestras comprise the upper levels of the program.  The concert orchestra provides a training orchestra for the symphony, with both groups auditioning on the same material. The group is made up of winds, brass, percussion and strings for a total of about 70 musicians.  The symphony orchestra performs throughout Reno at community concerts and at Renown.  They are in the process of a few tours to Las Vegas and Sacramento in order to spread awareness of the group.

The two orchestras also are dealing with a new addition to their ensemble: Altieri, who also conducts the University of Nevada, Reno Symphony Orchestra, has only been with the philharmonic for one year.

"Truthfully, I've been touring for the past six years," Altieri said.  He moved to Reno because it gave him the chance to stay in one place, which was very appealing to him. "I'm basically doing everything young conductors want to do," he said.

The music

For all their similarities, the two groups have their differences when it comes down to the music. In the concert orchestra, they play many arrangements for the whole group, with one piece for strings only in order to develop their technique.

This year, they will be performing movements from Antonín Dvorak's "Symphony No. 8," arranged by Vernon Leidig; "Didon," originally by Niccolo Piccinni and arranged by Harold M. Johnson; "Psalm and Fugue," a strings-only piece by Alan Hovhaness; and "March to the Scaffold" by Hector Berlioz, arranged by Anthony Carter.

However, in the symphony orchestras, "arrangements" is an unheard of word.

They are playing mostly romantic music this year, including "Slavic March" by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky; "Academic Festival Overture" by Johannes Brahms; "English Folk Song Suite" Ralph Vaughan Williams and "Intermezzo" by Pietro Mascagni. "Slavic March" is Wolz's favorite piece.  "It involves every section, and the main melody is shared by every instrument once," Wolz said. "It's difficult, but really fun. I've always loved Tchaikovsky's work." 

As a bass player, Wolz knows that many times, the bass will simply be written off as a rhythm-keeper by the conductor.  However, he said that this is not the case in symphony orchestra.  "(Altieri) doesn't neglect the bass players," Wolz said. "If we mess up, he calls us out on it. He doesn't neglect any section."

Altieri has many excellent characteristics that are noticed and praised by his students.  "Jason is awesome," Wolz said. "He's really animated. He's up there leading the music. It exudes his energy to us."  However, Altieri doesn't view his job in such a light manner.  "My job as a conductor is to create new soldiers for the arts," he said.  His main goal is to improve the orchestra's talent and overall provide them with experience by surrounding them with other phenomenal musicians.

The performances

His proudest moment in the orchestra is the Young People's concerts. "That's four shows of trying to be as consistent as you can," he said.  "They played at a level that was very, very professional. I couldn't have been prouder."

In addition, the spring concert gave them another spectacularly professional performance. Altieri's accomplishment was very different.  "I really felt like they had begun to trust me, and that felt great. I'm really, really proud of these kids."

The symphony's current goal goes in defiance of the economic recession: Altieri wants to take them overseas.  "When you work for a goal like that, everyone wants to work hard," he said.

His goal is to shine a good light on Northern Nevada and allow the orchestra to play at an even more advanced level.  "More than (the economy), it takes a lot of will to make this happen," he said.

For more information

Free admission Thursday, November 5, to Fleischmann Planetarium

Admission is free to the University of Nevada, Reno's Fleischmann Planetarium and Science Center from 3 to 8 p.m. Thursday.

Activities include the film "Solar Max," hands-on interactive displays, exhibits and free ice cream. Gift shop purchases will be 10 percent off during those hours.

The event celebrates the planetarium's new wind turbine and solar panel installation, built by Black Rock Solar with a grant from the NV Energy Foundation.

For every person who visits the planetarium then, NV Energy will donate $6 to its GreenPower environmental education program.

Details: 775-784-4812 or www.planetarium.unr.edu.

Nevadans Helping Natives

A Blanket andWinter Clothing Drive

The Native American Student Association (NASA) of Sierra Nevada College is conducting a two-day blanket and winter clothing/coat drive at the SNC Campus in Incline Village, Nevada.

Individuals and businesses wishing to donate may drop off (new or gently used) clean items:

Friday, November 6          (12 pm to 7 pm)
Saturday, November 7        (9 am to 5 pm)
Patterson Hall on the SNC Campus
999 Tahoe Blvd. Incline Village, Nevada

Donations are tax deductible.
California residents are encouraged to participate.
Info: 775-832-1212