inthenews2008

LYNN-Students from Lynn Classical High School joined more than 20 students from Boston Latin, Cambridge Rindge and Brighton high schools this week at the 10th annual Digitas Eternship Program at the company’s Boston office.

The program, sponsored by the digital marketing and media agency, is a week-long marketing boot camp for high school juniors that provides job seeker training and exposure for those interested in the marketing industry.

Led by Digitas employee volunteers, the program introduces new perspectives and marketing opportunities to the students, along with highlighting the fast-paced and energetic marketing industry.

Since its launch in 2000, the program has welcomed more than 250 students and 750 employee volunteers.

Throughout the week, students are exposed to new career possibilities and ways to reach them. They are presented with a client challenge at the start of the week and work on creating a successful marketing campaign.

Students learn about various capabilities such as marketing analytics, media, technology and creative presentation skills needed to put together a successful campaign. Working in small teams, the students are encouraged to work as a team to develop solutions and present their campaign to a panel of judges comprised of Digitas executives.

The marketing challenge this year was presented by Crest Whitestrips, a popular dental product.

“Highlighting potential is one of our most important values and we’re thrilled to celebrate the 10th year of Eternship,” said Glenn Engler, president of Digitas Boston Regional. “We are extremely proud of all our employees who have driven the program over the years and inspired these young minds.”

The program is one of many community outreach programs driven by the marketing organization, including the company’s annual volunteer day June 26.

LYNN-The Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development (LHAND) presented scholarships totaling $20,000 to high school seniors from Lynn .

The scholarships are funded by LHAND employee fundraising events and donations from businesses in the city, according to LHAND Executive Director Charles Gaeta.

“This is our most successful year of assisting Lynn resident high school seniors representing Lynn Classical, Lynn English, Lynn Tech, St. Mary’s and Malden Catholic,” Gaeta said. “This would not have been accomplished without our employees’ donation of time and money, particularly their work with our largest event, the scholarship golf tournament, each year.”

LHAND scholarships are unique in that they look for the all-around student. Academic achievement is not the only factor the scholarship committee takes into consideration when going through the selection process. The committee looks at extracurricular activities, and also asks the student to write an essay about what they like most about their community and their school.

Michelle Lyons was on the scholarship selection committee this year and was impressed with the applications. “There are some students in Lynn who are going to do really well and make a difference out there. The amount of hard work they have put into their education really showed in their application,” she said.

The awards are broken down into three categories: any high school senior who is a Lynn resident; a high school senior who is a past or present participant of any LHAND housing program; or a high school senior who is a Lynn resident accepted into the education field, a scholarship named for past LHAND Board of Commissioners Chairperson and Pickering Middle School Principal Patricia Barton.

In addition to the three categories there is a Director’s Award chosen every year by the executive director. The awards were presented to the students at their school’s award ceremonies. This year’s presenters were LHAND staff members Barbara Morrison, Soraya Abdallah, Catherine Rowe and Lysa Newhall.

LYNN - For the first time in 38 years Classical High School Principal Warren White won't be roaming the halls of a school this September, but he will continue to help the students of Classical through an alumni association scholarship.

The alumni and school faculty have arranged a fundraiser in honor of the retiring White this month, all proceeds to go to a scholarship in his name. The June 16 event is open to anyone in the city who wants to make a donation of any amount to the fund.

"I didn't really want them to do anything for me," said White. "But our alumni team traditionally gives out scholarship money, so this is a great way to get people together and for people to donate to the alumni scholarship.

A Classical graduate and former football standout at the school, White returned to Lynn in 1971 as a teacher at the former Cobbet Junior High School after graduating from Eastern Michigan University.

He credits coaches and teachers like Bob Jauron, Al Conlon and Elmo Benedetto with setting him on the right track at Classical and says he never once imagined being the principal of his former school as a teenager.

"I owe an awful lot to Classical High School, the faculty was encouraging," he said. "I grew up right outside the gates of GE and I didn't think I had a whole lot to offer, I was just going to try and survive."

His career took him back to Classical on several occasions, where he worked as a physical education teacher, guidance councilor and assistant principal before replacing William Frost as the school's principal in 2005.

At the time of his hiring, White was working across the street as principal of Breed Middle School, which made for an easy transition back to Classical.

"Coming here was a homecoming in a lot of ways, the faculty had changed and it was a different building - there was a lot of talk in the 80s about building a new school and to actually be a part of a new facility is really rewarding," he said. "When I came here from Breed it was interesting because a lot of those kids I had from sixth grade on, they had the same principal. To me it is all about making a personal connection with the students."

That goal of a making a personal connection is a big part of why White considers himself a students' principal, aiming every day to get students on track and realize their potential.

"We have to work like we are going to reach every single kid, and we know we can't reach all of them, but we don't know which ones we are going to be able to reach," he said. "We have to make sure that we give every kid a shot."

White's tenure at Classical has been both successful and stressful for both school and city officials. While the school has achieved its accreditation and continues to improve academically each year, the facility itself has been facing extreme structural problems and has been undergoing a renovation for several years.

White said when he started at the school there were some who said he should put the school's accreditation on hold to concentrate on the renovations, but putting the academic success of his alma mater on hold was not an option.

"When I started here we had two issues, the physical condition of the school and the accreditation process," he said. "I felt strongly that the educators that came to evaluate our school could tell the difference in the physical construction they were performing and what we were doing academically."

White thanked both the faculty and the school's parent community for helping to make the accreditation a success and for helping to create a close community at the school.

"The parents here are fantastic, there are always concerns that a school does not have enough parent involvement, but what I found is when the school needs support, the parents are here," he said. "We are a well knit, tight community and we see our diversity as a strength."

With the school year coming to a close, it would be easy for White to start counting the days to retirement, but with a host of cuts coming this summer and an unknown successor waiting in the wings, the principal says he still has a lot of work to do before leaving for good at the end of August.

"There is too much work to be done to start counting days," he said. "We have some cuts that are going to force the realignment of staff and then you have grade reports, summer school, so there is a lot of work to be done."

The scholarship fundraiser will take place June 16 from 4-7 p.m. at Gannon Municipal Golf Course. The event is open to anyone who wants to attend as long as they make a donation of their choice to the scholarship fund.

Michael Zarba, 22, Classical Graduate, Dies of Injuries from Hit-and-Run Accident

LYNN-Michael “ Mike” S. Zarba, 22 years of Lynn died on Wednesday, May 20th in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston as a result of injuries he received in a hit and run accident. Mike was born in Lynn, the son of Philip Zarba of Lynn and Annemarie (Sutherland) Zarba of Gardner. He was raised in Lynn and was a graduate of Lynn Classical High School. He has lived in Lynn all of his life.

Mike liked to watch wrestling with his friends. He enjoyed music and played guitar. He liked playing video games especially “Guitar Hero”. He was a good uncle and was devoted to his nephew and nieces. He was a fun loving, out-going and helpful young man. He will be missed by his many friends. Mike has worked for this past year and a half at the Home Depot in Salem as a cashier and clerk.

In addition to his father and mother, Mike is survived by; his grandmother Rose (Chiappini) Zarba of Lynn, his sister Krystina (Sutherland) Tejeda and her husband Luis of Lynn, his brother Louis Zarba of Lynn. He also leaves his nephew Aquino Loayza, his nieces, Aeriana Loayza and Mariah Velazquez, his many friends and his cat, Meg. He is the grandson of the late Philip Zarba, and Joyce Sutherland.

Peter Rondeau, a student at Classical, talks with his teacher Frank Grealish during the annual Law Day ceremonies at Lynn District Court Thursday. Item photo / Owen O'Rourke

LYNN - City lawyers have joined counterparts from Lowell and other communities in challenging a court bid to overturn youth curfews.

The state Supreme Judicial Court hears the challenge today. At issue is a 20-year-old Lowell man’s claim that Lowell police violated his constitutional rights four years ago when they arrested him and jailed him overnight for walking on city streets after midnight.

The man and another individual arrested in 2004 are asking the state’s highest court to strike down Lowell’s 15-year-old curfew, saying it illegally restricts their right to free movement.

Lynn city attorneys last week signed onto to the legal document filed by Lowell attorneys in support of the curfew.

“We support the city of Lowell. The curfew is an effective tool to keep crime down,” said Assistant City Solicitor Richard Vitali.

Like Lowell, Lynn introduced a curfew in 1994 in response to shootings and stabbings that occurred across the Greater Boston region in the summer of that year.

The local curfew bars anyone under 18 from local streets between midnight and 6 a.m. There are exceptions to the curfew, including circumstances in which teens are accompanied by a parent; traveling to or from religious activities or standing on a sidewalk next to their home or a next-door neighbor’s home.

Attorneys for the men bringing the case, whose names were not made public because they were juveniles at the time, say there is no proof the curfew has accomplished what its supporters said it would do: curb crime and protect juveniles.”

It’s just kind of a shot in the dark but when you are restricting someone’s constitutional rights, that’s not good enough,” said Boston attorney James Sultan.

Lowell is one of more than 200 cities and towns across the country that passed curfews in the 1990s in response to concerns about gang violence and juvenile crime.

Legal challenges to the curfews have had mixed results. Curfews in Dallas, Washington, D.C. and Charlottesville, Va. have been upheld by courts, but curfews in Vernon, Conn., Rochester, N.Y., and San Diego have been ruled unconstitutional.

Teen curfew violators in Lynn are brought to the police station and their parents are called down to the Washington Street station.

“This is a chance to put parents on notice about their kid’s behavior. It’s an effective tool; it’s not an arrest. It takes people who are essentially children out of harm’s way,” Lynn Police Chief John Suslak said.

According to police statistics, 103 juveniles were in violation of the curfew last year compared to 117 in 2007 and 95 in 2006.

“We see it all the time: 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds out at one or two in the morning. It’s troublesome,” Suslak said.

The challenge to Lowell’s ordinance is the first time the Massachusetts high court has been asked to rule on the constitutionality of a curfew.

Sultan said the boy who was held in jail overnight was not causing a disturbance when he was approached by a police officer who was on routine patrol. The boy, who was visiting from Somerville, told police he was on his way to see a friend.

Lowell police say they usually don’t arrest teens they find out during the curfew hours, but instead drive them home or to the police station, where their parents are called and asked to come pick them up.

From 2005 to 2007, 28 juveniles were arrested for curfew violations in Lowell. Last year, only two were arrested.

Supporters say curfews give police a useful tool.”We had some serious gang issues. It was almost constant, calls about five, six, seven or eight teenagers walking down one of the main streets at 11:30 at night,” said Lowell Mayor Edward Caulfield, a supporter of the curfew.

Opponents also say it has a disproportionate impact on minorities, particularly Cambodian youth, who may not understand why they are being stopped by police. Lowell has the second-largest Cambodian immigrant community in the country.”

Many of them have parents and grandparents who are refugees of the Khmer Rouge, and that experience results in fear of authority,” said Cecilia Chen, a staff attorney at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

(Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.)

Five-hundred pounds. That's the size of Anoki, the female polar bear in the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. It's also the amount of weight lifted by Lynn Classical sophomore Buddy Ford at a Peabody gym last Saturday, and it just so happens to be a Massachusetts state record.

Ford, the son of Lynn City Councilor Rick Ford, set the state mark in the deadlift in the 16-year-old category during a competition at Gym Warriors on Foster Street. He and three classmates from Classical were among those competing.

"He put everything he had into it," said gym owner Paul DeSimone. "The crowd got behind him. It was pretty good."

In a deadlift, the weight-lifter places the bar in front of him or her, stands straight up with the weight, and lifts it to waist level.

"It was a shocker to everyone," said Lynn resident John Flynn, who brought the four Classical students - one of whom was his son, Cody, a freshman -- to the competition.

The previous record of 450 was set by Nick Smith of Danvers in 2003.

Other Classical students who participated included sophomores Daniel Omoreggie and Tyler Alicudo.

"I would like to work with all the Classical kids to help them with their strength training techniques, which I did find flaws in," DeSimone said. "But they did show a lot of emotional fortitude to show up big at the contest. The judges were blown away with how well behaved and mild mannered all the teenagers were."

Between 35 and 40 people competed on Saturday, and their ages ranged from nine (Flynn's son J.J., the youngest in New England to compete) to 70. Seventy-five people watched, Flynn said.

Brian Kolodzief and Miguel Castro to be Honored by New England Patriots

The Daily Item, 2/20/09

LYNN -- Two Lynn Classical student-athletes will get to make a trip to a dream destination for New Englanders next Saturday.

Classical junior Miguel Castro and senior Brian Kolodziej will visit Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, on Feb. 28, where they will meet team member Tedy Bruschi in a private event honoring the winners of the Game Time Winner Contest.

"We're really excited," Classical athletic director Bill Devin said on Thursday. "It's just a positive reflection on the school."

The contest recognizes 25 student-athletes from across Massachusetts, and Devin said the school is "pretty lucky" to have two selections.

Castro's success came on the soccer field. This past season, he was the Northeastern Conference Large Player of the Year and earned a spot on the Eastern Mass. All-Star Game. He helped the Rams qualify for the state tournament. Kolodziej, meanwhile, served as a captain for Classical in football. He has applied to Boston College and is waiting to hear from the Heights.

Devin needed to complete entry forms for both Classical athletes, listing information such as their grade-point average.

Good news from the contest came when Papa Gino's honored Castro and Kolodziej with a dinner at the franchise on Boston Street, treating the players and their teammates to free pizza, sodas, and bread sticks. The franchise also entered both players' names into a grand prize drawing. Each got selected for the trip to Foxborough.

"To have two of them go down to Gillette Stadium is an honor," Devin said. "I'm very proud of both."

At Gillette, both players can bring one guest, and each player will get to speak individually with Bruschi. They will also have a photo taken with the Patriots star and will get an item signed by him.

"They're both role models in the school," Devin said. "Not only are they good athletes, they do a good job in the classroom, and they're good citizens."

Rittershaus' mother, Jamie, said Thursday that her son has always been very interested in politics, and was an Obama supporter despite having worked on former Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign during the early part of the election.

The Classical grad is also working as an intern on Sen. Thomas McGee's staff in Boston.

"He has supported Obama despite working with Mitt Romney during the election," said Jamie Rittershaus. "It is definitely his niche."

LYNN - Lynn English and Classical high schools can enjoy 12 more months of bragging rights as the U.S. News and World Report has once again named the two schools among the best high schools in the country.

For the second straight year, the two schools enjoy bronze metal distinction on the nationally respected magazine’s list of the top public high schools in the country, joining Lynnfield High School and Manchester Junior Senior High School in Manchester-By-The-Sea as the only other institutions representing Essex County.

U.S News and World Report surveyed over 21,000 high schools in 48 states over the last year — nearly 3,000 more than in 2007 — once again teaming up with School Evaluation Services (SES), a K-12 education data research business run by Standard & Poor’s.

SES has developed a comprehensive methodology that judges how well high schools serve all of their students, not just those who are college- bound. The process examines college preparation, various test scores and the education of disadvantaged students.

The schools studied were based on information available from recent state tests and the College Board’s Advanced Placement exams.

English and Classical were among 1,321 bronze metal winners across the country who are “performing better than statistically expected for the average student in the state.” In all, 45 schools in Massachusetts were chosen for a gold, silver or bronze metal.

Overall, Boston’s Latin Academy scored the best of any school in the state, coming in 27th on this year’s list, which was once again topped by Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Va. Latin’s ranking is actually down from 2007, when the magazine ranked the high school 19th in the country.

To be eligible, schools must have “significant grade 12 enrollment,” meaning that the study touched the majority of the state’s high schools.

Scores on the MCAS exams have been steadily improving at each school in recent years, especially Lynn English, and the number of students who received the state’s John and Abigail Adams scholarships for scoring well on the MCAS has swelled to near triple-digit numbers in the last year at both schools.

The study does not look at test scores alone, it also examines the school’s ability to educate underprivileged and disadvantaged students who may not be headed for college after graduation.

Both high schools succeed with extensive college preparatory programs, along with programs to help immigrant students and those struggling to pass the MCAS test.

With an increased focus on passing the state exam, each institution has also bulked up tutoring and support programs for students and bolstered efforts to help students excel in core subjects.

LYNN - From hours volunteering in the kitchen to taking up collections from classmates, students across the city have teamed up to make the holiday season a success at My Brother's Table.

The weeks leading up to Thanksgiving brought aid from several schools in Lynn, but some of the largest donations of both food and volunteer time came from the city's high school students.

At Lynn English, students from the Jobs for Bay State Graduates program once again took up a collection from students and teachers this year, using the money to purchase nearly 120 turkeys for the shelter's kitchen.

The situation at English is also unique because two of the school's students, seniors Dylan Ross-Girard and Lauren Scully, have recently been added to the organization's Board of Directors to provide a student perspective.

Executive Director Ilia Stacey says it is too soon to tell what type of difference having students on the board will make, but she is hoping that it will help bring even more young people to the organization to volunteer.

"They are both assertive young people with good observations," she said. "I could see them getting more of their peers involved and providing a younger person's perspective of what is going on in Lynn."

Students from Lynn Classical's Key Club have also been volunteering at the shelter, coming in on their own during vacations and time that they are off from school, while Lynn Tech students regularly donate time in the kitchen.

LVTI students also stepped up and donated the most money of any school during the annual walk-a-thon in late October, generating the third highest donation amount of any participating organization.

Stacey said St. Mary's High School and many of the city's middle and elementary schools also donate, with many of the students doing it on their own time without the direction or order from teachers.

"School kids in Lynn do a lot, and it is not just the top athlete on the team - a lot of these kids were not born in the United States," she said. "It is just such a diverse group of school kids that come in, I really can't say enough good things about them and what they do."

Stacey says it is too early to tell whether donations will be down this holiday season, but the donation of food and volunteer time has been in abundance thus far.

"I am optimistic so far, but we won't really know for another month," she said. "I know things are tough for a lot of people, but at the same time we have a lot of new donors this year, too. Most of our donations are in the smaller range, $25-$50, and we are hoping the people who give that kind of donation can keep giving this year."

ANDOVER - Three former Lynn Classical football players have had rewarding seasons for Merrimack College this fall.

Freshman Tony Johnson and senior Wilson Perjuste, were named to the Northeast-10 all-defensive Team last week.

Johnson earned first-team honors while Perjuste was named to the second team.

In addition, Quivari Jackson earned all-rookie honors, along with Johnson.

Johnson leads the nation with 1.25 sacks per game and is fourth overall, first in the conference, with 11.5 sacks.

He is a two-time NE-10 Freshman of the Week honoree. He finished eighth on the team with 32 tackles and also intercepted a pass against the NE-10 Champion AIC Yellow Jackets and returned it 46-yards for his first collegiate touchdown. Registering three sacks in three different games this season, he also forced four fumbles leading the Warriors in that category.

Perjuste did his part on the defensive line, finishing 10th on the team with 29 tackles, including two for sacks. He recorded both

of his sacks in a 30-28 win over Assumption early in the season.

Perjuste totaled eight sacks in his career after leading the team with six last season.

Jackson was impressive late in the season, catching 20 passes, three for touchdowns, including seven catches for 587 yards and two touchdowns against Assumption in the season finale.