Summer 2009
Lowell Alumni Association
State Superintendent Honors Lowell as Distinguished School Jack O’Connell, California Superintendent of Public Instruction, visited earlier this year to help celebrate Lowell’s selection as a California Distinguished School, one of only 125 high schools honored this year. This marks the seventh time Lowell has received this award, a record unmatched by any other high school in the state. Before this year, Lowell was named a California Distinguished School in 1986, 1990, 1992, 1994, 2001 and 2005. During his visit, Superintendent O’Connell met with Lowell students, faculty, staff, administrators, parents and alumni and held a town hall meeting with students that featured a lengthy question and answer session.
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Retired Teachers Hold 10th Annual Luncheon The Lowell retired teachers group reveled at their 10th annual luncheon at the Presidio Golf Club on May 20th. 55 teachers came early, stayed late and caught up with the active social lives of their ex-colleagues. Only a new cane or hearing aid (or maybe two) were to be seen! Next year’s luncheon
will be May 19th same place, same time, same delicious food! Special thanks to the organizing committee: Wandaline Perelli, Deanna Nielsen, Pat Hanlon, Sara Trelaun, Ron Wong, Sandra Mack, Olene Tilton and Jan Hernandez.
Pat Morehen and Sara Trelaun. Michael Descilo. Superintendent O’Connell (holding Lowell history book) with (from left) Assistant Principal Janet Tse, Assistant Principal Michael Yi, Principal Andy Ishibashi, Assistant Principal Holly Giles and SFUSD Associate Superintendent Margaret Chiu.
Alumni Funding to Focus on Meeting Technology Needs Thanks to the combined leadership provided by the Lowell Alumni Association, Lowell PTSA, school site council and administration, a newly-energized effort to address Lowell’s current and future technology needs has been launched. Until now, most technology funding at Lowell was haphazard at best, reliant upon seeking small grants from the alumni association or PTSA to purchase a few computers or other tech equipment for a particular class or program. While such purchases were helpful, there was no organized effort to assess the overall gap between the school’s current technology resources and the unmet needs of students and faculty — until now. Guided by Assistant Principal Michael Yi, Info Systems Administrator Alex Hsieh, librarian Linda Guitron, alumnus Marcus Pon ’86 and parent Lisa Pollard, the newlyformed Technology Committee is working to develop a multi-year technology plan that will, for the first time, allow the Lowell community to get a sense of the ongoing funding that will be needed to purchase new equipment while replacing or upgrading old equipment to meet the needs to the 21st century classroom. One recent success for the Tech Committee was convincing the alumni association, PTSA and site council to allocate a combined total of $65,000 in technology funding for the 2009-10 school year.
With 400-plus computers on campus now, many of which are overdue for replacement, and a legitimate need for even more classroom technology, it is clear that additional resources will be needed each and every year to bring Lowell up to date. A recent survey of 125 Lowell administrators, faculty and staff revealed that nearly 90% use technology often or frequently in their work, with most using computer applications to produce materials for use in the classroom and using the internet to find materials to support their curriculum. The survey also identified significant unmet demand for laptop computers for teacher use as well as LCD projectors and other classroom technology (interactive white boards, digital cameras, electronic grade books, etc.). In order to support these efforts, the Lowell Alumni Association plans to make technology funding an ongoing priority for the use of alumni donations. Our 2009-10 Annual Fund Campaign, which kicks off on July 1st, will focus on raising money to help address the most urgent technology needs as the Tech Committee completes its work on a multi-year plan for ongoing support and maintenance of Lowell’s technology infrastructure. Your support will be critical if this effort is to be successful, so please look for the Annual Fund Campaign mailer headed your way this fall.
Maud Pearson Green, Linda Grondahl, Loys Rodatos and Olene Tilton.
Jan Hernandez.
Pat Hanlon and Bob Kaiser. Sandra Mack and Robert McMains.
Deanna Nielsen and Wandaline Perelli. Robert Jow and Barbara Prato. Ron Wong and Darlene Vuicich
Gloria Bogdanoff.