Fifty Outstanding Scholars Lead the Class of 2009
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FAST FACTS The Class of 2009 1,346 June graduates Graduation rate up 9% $30,619,536 in scholarships 33 students earned international Baccalaureate Diplomas
Upcoming Events First Day of School for Students Tuesday, September 8 Superintendent’s Community Forums Wednesday, September 30 Yonkers Middle High School Thursday, October 29 Roosevelt High School BOARD OF EDUCATION Bernadette Dunne, President Marlin K. Wiggins, Vice President Michael E. Carey, Debra Martinez Paresh Patel, Nydia D. Perez Rev. Gerald Sudick Bernard P. Pierorazio Superintendent of Schools
volume 3 • number 3 summer 2009
Message from the Superintendent of Schools If you would like a glimpse of the future, look at our high school graduates today. Colleges and universities certainly have, and they like what they see. So much so that they offered the graduating Class of 2009 an unprecedented $30.6 million in scholarships. These colleges are banking on Yonkers students because this city invested in them. That investment provided our graduates with the opportunity to be welcomed as freshmen at Brown, Columbia, Cooper Union, Cornell, Harvard, Penn State, Northeastern, Rensselaer, the New York State University system, and schools all over the country that value student achievement. Many of them have already earned college credit as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate scholars. A first-rate faculty, loving families, and caring community partners all helped shape the impressive profile of this class. Our students took every opportunity to pay it forward by contributing to the well being and future of others at school and in the community through Habitat for Humanity, food and blood drives, and volunteering at houses of worship, hospitals, nursing homes, and children centers. Among our students are national and state SkillsUSA medalists, NASA sponsored US FIRST robotics team champions, New York State Public High School Athletic Association scholar/athletes and an elite Bezos Scholar. The members of the Class of 2009 have reached a milestone on their educational journey and
we are inspired by their success. Their younger brothers and sisters also inspire us. They are making tremendous strides in their performance in Mathematics and English Language Arts, increasing their scores during the past two years by 21.5% and 18.6% respectively. All of them are encouraged to think of themselves as future college students and have opportunities to participate in many college awareness programs, such as College Access Centers and an Early College High School. Even our youngest prekindergarteners, the Class of 2022, were encouraged to see that “College is in My Future.” These students are as engaged as the pacesetting Class of 2009, taking full advantage of the opportunity to explore, create, and innovate. As Yonkers graduates chart their course, they have the benefit of a solid education that prepared them to meet the challenges before them. They are being greeted by an imperfect and uncertain world that will challenge their resourcefulness and their resolve. May the compass we have given them always point them in the right direction.