Eva Casias

Ursula Romero

Casias and Romero honored for outstanding educational achievement

—JENNIFER CHAVEZ, BERNALILLO PUBLIC SCHOOLS SPOKESPERSON

Two members of the class of 2008 from Bernalillo High School have received the High Schools That Work (HSTW) Award of Educational Achievement. High school seniors who complete a challenging and focused program of study and demonstrate readiness for employment and for college studies receive the award. Award recipients receiving personalized certificates and congratulatory letters from the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) are Eva Casias and Ursula Romero.

“These students are to be commended for their efforts,” said Superintendent Barbara Vigil-Lowder. “By taking challenging courses in high school and performing well on rigorous exams, they have demonstrated they will be successful in the workforce and in their further education.”

Students qualify for the award by completing a college-preparatory course of study in at least two of three subject areas (English/language arts, mathematics, or science); completing a concentration in a career/technical area, mathematics/science, or the humanities; and meeting readiness goals in all three subject areas on the HSTW Assessment.

HSTW, a SREB initiative, is the largest high school improvement effort in the United States, with more than eleven hundred school sites in thirty-two states. HSTW is supported by member states and grants from organizations such as the Wallace Foundation, Goldman Sachs Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, Whitehead Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. SREB was founded in 1948 as America’s first multistate compact for education.

Maia Kueny of Mother’s Day Out trains for the Toddler Olympics.

MDO Toddler Olympics welcomes participants

The Placitas Mothers’ Day Out (MDO) program will host the third annual Toddler Olympics on Saturday, June 7 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon at the Homestead Village parking lot in Placitas. The free event, which will give younger children the opportunity to show off their keen motor skills, is part of Placitas Appreciation Day.

This year’s Olympics features lots of fun races, including a tricycle/bicycle/scooter race, an orange-in-a-spoon race, a three-legged race, and a potato sack race. Other activities will include bubble-blowing, jumping jacks, and face painting. “The little ones love the challenge and excitement of the races,” says Debbie Stueber, Director of the MDO program.

All kids between the ages of eighteen months and six years are invited to show off their talent in this fun activity. Every child who participates will receive a ribbon, says Stueber. All equipment will be provided by the MDO program, so children just need to show up ready for fun.

Placitas Mother’s Day Out (MDO) is a nonprofit, cooperative childcare program which provides local children with a safe and caring environment in which to play, share, and be children. As the only organized childcare option in Placitas, the program also offers a much-needed respite for moms and dads with pre-school aged children, says Stueber.

“This is our biggest fundraiser of the year,” says Stueber, adding that the event is made possible by the generous support of local sponsors. “In addition to our corporate sponsorships, we are raising funds by offering several gift baskets for raffle,” says Stueber. The baskets include a variety of items, such as behind-home-plate tickets to an Albuquerque Isotopes game, 2008 Women Lobos season tickets, beauty salon and spa gift certificates, restaurant and bakery gift certificates, a fun kids’ basket, and gardening goodies.

For more information about the event, contact Debbie Stueber at 867-5718 or Jennifer Delaney at 867-8015.

Village Academy says goodbye to eighth-graders, welcomes new students

The Village Academy Charter School’s eighth-grade MESA group placed eighth in the state in their math competition. The proud recipients are Corrine Lewis, Taylor Maley, and Derrick Valdez. Ms. Leigh Ann Leigh is very proud of her MESA students, especially as this program is in its first year of operation, and as approximately fifty schools participated in this statewide event. Taylor Maley also earned an honorable mention at the New Mexico Science Fair and was named MESA Student of the Year for the Village Academy Charter School.

This year began the first part of an equestrian series, courtesy of Romero’s Thunder, Inc., which will continue next year. In it, students learn how to ride and care for horses, and also learn about the physiology, anatomy, and psychology of horses.

Village Academy will miss its graduating eighth-grade students, but welcome new students. If you are interested in enrolling your child, lotteries are held every Thursday. For more information, contact Renee Arriola at 867-2871.

Bernalillo High School registers for one-day youth football camp

On June 6 from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m., boys and girls ages seven to fourteen are invited to register for a one-day YAFL football camp in the Bernalillo High School (BHS) gym lobby. The fee is $25 for early registration (call ahead and get your name on the list to receive the discount; see phone numbers below); $30 for those registering the day of camp. Lunch and a t-shirt is included with registration.

Participants will receive instruction from Bernalillo Head Football Coach Ken Noel, BHS football staff, and players. This is a great opportunity for players to improve on individual skills. There will be position work with BHS coaches and players, stressing basic fundamentals and proper techniques for blocking, tackling, catching, and throwing.

It is recommended that the participants wear shorts, football cleats, t-shirt, and sunscreen. Water will be readily available during the camp.

The tentative camp schedule is as follows: 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. Registration; 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. Offensive skills and drills; 11:00 to 11:30 a.m. Lunch provided by Sonic; 11:30 a.m. to noon “Heads Up” video and BHS highlight film; Noon to 2:00 p.m. Defensive skills and drills; 2:00 to 2:30 p.m. Seven-on-seven games.

For more information, contact Ken Noel at 404-5231 or Wayne Longley at 319-8808.

J-Birds

—GREG LEICHNER

• jackleg (1850)—characterized by unscrupulousness, dishonesty, or lack of professional standards: The peasants could no longer tolerate the king’s jackleg regime.

• jacquerie (1523)—a peasant revolt: An overload of backbreaking toil, constant grief, and tasteless gruel triggered jacquerie.

• jactitation (1665)—a tossing to and fro: The king fled the city in his chauffeur-driven limousine and on rough rural roads the jactitation within his padded cell dealt him a bloody nose.

• jake leg (1932)—a paralysis caused by drinking improperly distilled or contaminated liquor: In the beginning, the peasants swallowed the king’s propaganda and promises and for years, it was as if the whole country suffered from a lingering case of jake leg.

• jeremiad (1780)—a cautionary or angry harangue: This was a time in the country’s history when a hearty jeremiad delivered from the pulpit or the soapbox served as education, entertainment, and as training wheels for the political soul.

• jerkin (1519)—a close-fitting hip-length, usually sleeveless jacket: The king’s driver, a peasant working undercover, wore, under his stolen uniform, a tattered leather jerkin.

• jerkwater (1888)—remote and unimportant: The king believed he was being driven to the Loyalist hideout in some hapless jerkwater village.

• jerry-built (1869)—carelessly or hastily put together: Ned’s jerry-built crop duster cost him his life.

• jeté (1830)—A springing jump in ballet made from one foot to the other in any direction: The jeté originated in the village with the early firewalkers.

• jeunesse dorée (1830)—young people of wealth and fashion: The photos in the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing catalog are designed to appeal to America’s jeunesse dorée.

• jiggery-pokery (1892)—trickery: The king’s reign had proven to be just as the village seers had predicted, an irksome onslaught of jiggery-pokery.

• jim-dandy (1887)—something excellent of its kind: “These here vice-grips make one heck of a jim-dandy nose hair puller.”

• jingoism (1878)—extreme nationalism marked especially by a belligerent foreign policy: Aghast and impotent, the king’s father watched his son sink further and further into the mire of jingoism.

• jo (1529)—sweetheart: At the A&W, Jo and her jo ordered jojos and two small root beers.

• Joe Blow (1924)—an average or ordinary man: The king’s driver, Joe Blow, drove the limousine hard across the shallow river crossing.

• Joe Six-Pack (1975)—a blue collar ordinary man: Joe Six-Pack wrote in Adolph Coors for President, went back to his trailer, popped a cold one, and laughed his butt off.

• John Barleycorn (1620)—alcoholic liquor personified: At the poker table of life, John Barleycorn saw my eighty-proof and raised me 151.

• jongleur (1779)—an itinerant medieval entertainer proficient in juggling, acrobatics, music, and recitation: The jongleur of today is alive in the street theater found globally in any vibrant city.

•judder (1931)—to vibrate with intensity: In the village tavern, the priestess juddered as she sprinkled rooster beaks around her hungry rabid poodle.

• jug band (1933)—a band that uses primitive or improvised instruments to play blues, jazz, and folk music: What rock & roll licks were first brought to life by Depression-era jug bands?

• juicehead (1955)—alcoholic: In the village, the king’s limousine pulled up at the tavern where the priestess, the seers, the firewalkers, Partisan troops, and angry juiceheads awaited the king’s arrival.

• jumbo (1883)—a very large specimen of its kind: At the long table near the jukebox, the priestess carefully placed the rooster beaks and her teacup poodle Jumbo into the king’s pine coffin.

• jump cut (1948)—an abrupt transition: The short film jump cuts between Melanie smashing the crockery in her kitchen and Godzilla destroying downtown Tokyo.

• jumpmaster (1941)—a person who supervises parachutists: High above the village, thirty Loyalist soldiers lined up at the open door of the cargo plane and the jumpmaster yelled, “Go! Go! Go!”