Beverly Hills librarians Susan Jennings and Naomi Macias welcome the news on their mini-grant, delivered by grant sponsor Andy Jones of Shell Deer Park.

  PASADENA ISD EDUCATION FOUNDATION MINI-GRANT 
  Applicant: Susan Jennings
  Mini-Grant Name: Interactive Library
  Abstract: The use of Nooks will help motivate our students to develop a love of reading.  The Nooks would be equipped with grade level e-books. The e-books will be selected by the librarian and reading department. We would also encourage parents to check out the Nooks and become an active reading example to their children. The parent Nooks would have family literacy materials which would be selected by the After school Center on Education (ACE) Family Engagement Specialist.
  Amount: $4,999 
  Sponsor: Shell Deer Park

Celebrating at Beverly Hills: Superintendent Kirk Lewis, Naomi Macias, Rachel Floyd of Bay IBI Architects, A.J. Hernandez of Chef's Produce, Andy Jones of Shell Deer Park, Bill Barmore of the Pasadena ISD Education Foundation and Susan Jennings.

  Bears of the Month for December were named recently with the guideline characteristic being adaptability -- the ability and willingness to change, to put one's self in harmony with changing circumstances and to be ready and willing to adjust as necessary to the changes in people and circumstances that arise in daily life.
  The following students were selected by their academic teams as best representing this characteristic. Students received a special Bear paw-print pin and a Bear of the Month t-shirt to wear proudly.
  Team Compassion: Julian Soto and Ashley Cordova
  Team Initiative: Desiree Sanchez and Jacoby Davis 
  Team Trustworthiness: Brenda Gallegos and Erick Covarrubias 
  Team Courage: Dejanise Pradia and Dante Baines 
  Team Honesty: Howard Hilliard and Selena Hernandez 
  Team Responsibility: Roy Molina and Sabrina Brantner
  January's characteristic will focus on compassion.
  Pictured below are: (front) Erick Covarrubias, Julian Soto, Jacoby Davis and Dante Baines; (middle) Desiree Sanchez, Dejanise Pradia, Ashley Cordova, Sabrina Brantner and Roy Molina;a nd (back) Howard Hilliard.

The 2012 Beverly Hills Spelling Bee was held last month with seventh-grader Diego Tovar Quintanilla emerging as the winner. The runner-up was eighth-grader Nicole Feast. The deciding word was 'linguistically.' Quintanilla will represent Beverly Hills in the District Spelling Bee on Feb. 21 at the Sam Rayburn High Auditorium. Below: Feast and Quintanilla with their certificates.

Debbie Murray, cafeteria manager at Beverly Hills Intermediate for the past 10 years, helps fill lunch trays -- and young minds with some food for thought.

  By AL CARTER
  Pasadena ISD Communications
  Debbie Murray isn't prone to making long speeches on the connection between proper nutrition and a healthy appetite for learning. Talking tummies, she says, tell no lies.
  Murray, who manages the cafeteria at Beverly Hills Intermediate, is in a unique position to know. For 10 years, she has ruled the Beverly Hills kitchen and regulated students' meals with a persona blended from the best parts of Mother Teresa and Betty Crocker. She is part teacher, part counselor, part cook, part coach -- and all heart when it comes to tender stomachs.
  She hungers to help for good reason. Her childhood was spent in deprivation. Her formative school years were often a study in starvation.
  "I think of all the times my stomach would start growling in class because I hadn't had anything to eat," Murray says. "I'd sit there and the other kids would stare at me. I couldn't concentrate on anything, except the fact that I was hungry and needed something to eat."
  Murray's commitment to the task of feeding 1,000 students at the Pasadena ISD's largest intermediate school has won her a full plate of praise -- from kids, to administrators, to the media.
  Earlier this fall Channel 2 sent a news crew to Beverly Hills to spotlight Murray's cafeteria -- a prime example, the news report said, of the cleanliness to be found in public-school dining facilities.
  Murray wouldn't have it any other way.
  "She always goes the extra mile in whatever she's asked to do," Beverly Hills Principal Alyta Harrell says. "At our school, the kitchen is not a separate entity. She helps us run the school."
  "I'm here to feed the kids," Murray says proudly -- and often emotionally.
  "I love this job. This is where my heart is."
  And often -- some of her pocketbook.
  For Murray, a school cafeteria is more than a dining hall. Often, her facility reflects a carnival-like atmosphere. Students sometimes participate in taste tests to help pick new food items. Last year she sponsored an essay contest to emphasis the importance of nutrition. She bought the prizes herself. The champion essayist took home a new iPod.
  She's just as quick to tend to apparel needs as an untended appetite. A few years ago, she took note of siblings wearing clothes that were suspiciously too big.
  "The family was living out of a motel room," she recalls, "and the kids were wearing their daddy's clothes to school. I went out and bought them new things -- shirts, pants and a belt. But I never saw them wear those clothes to schools. Maybe the parents went out and sold them, I don't know."
  Murray can certainly relate. She grew up in Baytown, one of six kids. She fell in the middle of the first five, all born six years apart. Murray's father battled depression and had difficulty keeping a job. Often, there was no food in the house, nothing to fix for breakfast, nothing to take to school.
  Murray recalls in great detail how she was often greeted in her school cafeteria.
  "The lady would scream at me," she says.
  "Lunch was a quarter and I didn't have a quarter, so she'd scream at me. I'd say, 'Go ahead and scream. But let me go through the line. I'm starving!'"
  Murray said her mother -- when she could find a friend with a car -- would go up to school late in the day and write a check for $1.25 to pay for the lunches of all five kids. Pride, she said, kept her mom from enrolling her kids in the school's free lunch program.
  "We went to school without breakfast, with holes in our clothes," Murray says. "We would just pray that my mom had done the wash so we could wear clean clothes to school."
  Murray's father earned extra money delivering newspapers. Often, Murray says, customers would pay him with items to help the family.
  "Once he brought home a heater and another time two chickens," she says. "Usually, it was a box of bananas. We got so sick of bananas!"
  For Murray's parents, Christmas arrived with the extra burden of providing presents for the kids. Murray's mother would earn extra cash during the holiday season by helping her sister with her newspaper route, Murray says.
  "She would make a little money and then go to the Goodwill store and buy some clothes for us, or maybe a Barbie doll that someone had given away," Murray says.
  When Murray was old enough to get a job, she went to work at the Dairy Cone in Baytown for 50 cents an hour, "enough to buy lemon shampoo and shoes," she says.
  That launched her career in food preparation. She married right out of high school, had two kids and became a teacher's aide when the kids started school in Baytown. Later, she applied for a full-time job with the school district. The only opening at the time was in cafeteria work.
  "I took it and ran with it," she says. "It opened my eyes to a lot of things. About people. And kids. About the haves and the have-nots."
  She left the Baytown district for La Porte, and then 14 years ago came to Pasadena. She served as assistant cafeteria manager at Williams Elementary and cafeteria manager at South Shaver Elementary becoming moving to Beverly Hills.
  There, Murray manages 11 food workers. Bilingual, she gives English lessons to staff members and even prepares tests. But her primary job, as she sees it, is to look out for the welfare of students at the school.
  "This district is far and away the best one I've worked for," she says. "The people here work tirelessly to make sure we have food products that are both delicious and nutritious."
  Still, Murray said, the quality of food doesn't matter to a child who has no opportunity to eat it.
  "I think we should serve meals to every student free of charge," she says. "We allow them to use the bathroom free of charge. We give them air and electricity -- everything they need to survive. So what's wrong with giving them food?"
  And with that her emotions rise and her sentiments roar.
  "It's not our food anyway," she says. "It's a gift from God."
  Who better to know than the angel of contented tummies?

Murray chats with Beverly Hills students at the end of another satisfying meal.

  The Beverly Hills orchestral group "Giving Bach" performed a Veterans Day concert for the residents of The Terrace/Clear Lake. Songs included "The Star-Spangled Banner," "You're a Grand Old Flag," "America," "Honor and Glory" and many others.
  The residents joined in singing some of their favorites and provided lots of toe-tapping. Students expressed their appreciation for those who served in the armed forces or had family members who served.
  "Giving Bach" students are under the direction of Ana Payne and Sandra Shaffer.
  (Below left) Orchestra members perform for the residents; (below right) Group members Angelica de Jesus, Catherine Thai, Jesus Tijerina, Vincent Gutierrez, Kathrina Villanueva, Karina Gutierrez and Heidi Tran.

  Several Beverly Hills students participated in the All-City Band on Oct. 29. Pictured below are participating students from Beverly Hills and Morris Middle School.
  Front row: Armando Montelongo, Garrett Barrientos (Morris), Adam Padilla, Michael Noschese, Alfredo Santoscoy, Albert Luu, Dante' Baines; second row: Emerson Cerrato, Aaron Cosse, Stephanie Bonilla, Macy Williams, Marie Rodriguez, Cecilia Lopez, Michael Peavy, Luis Cabeja, Tyler Myers; third row: Gabriel Perez, Selena Hernandez, Giselle Landa, Oscar Armenta, Roberto Zavaleta; fourth row: Mauro Lerma, Sandra Gonzalez, Jenny Le, Melissa Thomas, Michelle Thomas, Gabriel Unica; fifth row: Adam Boswell, Zachary Zarate, Michael Chivira, Oscar Maldonado and Josh Dobbs.

  The "Giving Bach" orchestra group at Beverly Hills supplied patriotic music to voters as they arrived at the school on Tuesday morning. School board member Fred Roberts stopped by to listen.
  "Giving Bach" is a select group of students who travel around the community and perform in various venues. The group's purpose is to enrich the lives of the people in the community by providing opportunities for student musicians to perform in a real-world setting. On Wednesday, Nov. 9, "Giving Bach" will travel to The Terrace on Bay Area Blvd. to perform a Veteran's Day program for residents there.
  Below: Board of Trustees member Fred Roberts listens to "Giving Bach" performers(clockwise from upper left) Vincent Gutierrez, Catherine Thai, Angelica deJesus, Karina Gutierrez, Kathrina Villanueva, Heidi Tran and Jesus Tijerina.

Beverly Hills eighth-grader DeVaughn Pennamon darts 13 yards for the game's first score.

  Beverly Hills running back DeVaughn Pennamon scored touchdowns in each of the first two quarters Tuesday night to lead the Bears to a 20-0 victory over neighborhood rival Thompson Intermediate and the Pasadena ISD's eighth-grade championship.
  Pennamon ran 13 yards for a TD that capped a marathon opening drive for the Bears. Thompson's offense wasn't able to run a play until the final two minutes of the quarter.
  The Bears took a 14-0 lead midway through the second quarter when Pennamon scored from nine yards out.
  Beverly Hills added an insurance score in the third quarter on a 25-yard burst by Jauan Bracey.
  Both teams finished with 8-1 records. The Bears' only loss was a 14-6 regular-season setback to the Lions.
  Bondy Intermediate won the seventh-grade championship with a 30-6 victory over Thompson. Quarterback Sam Zuniga scored two TDs for the Patriots as did teammate Donovan Payton.

Pennamon scores from nine yards out in the second quarter.

Beverly Hills quarterback Isaiah Chaney is stopped short of the goal-line by Thompson's Adan Solis (79) on the final play of the first half.

Beverly Hills defensive back James Washington (9) cuts in front of Thompson receiver Michael Rose to make an over-the-shoulder interception in the fourth quarter.

  Christopher Harris, assistant choir director at Beverly Hills Intermediate, has been selected as a finalist in the Ithaca Conservatory of Music Choral Composition Competition.
  Two of the four compositions submitted by Harris were selected. The titles of the chosen pieces are "He's Able" and "Slumber On" for mixed chorus.
  Harris's works will be published by the Lorenz Publishing Company and premiered at a concert in Ithaca, N.Y. Both pieces are in the final six being considered for the grand prize.
  Harris will travel to New York to lead a clinic for those who will be performing his works. He will attend the final concert where the grand prize will be awarded.
  Only two pieces per composer may be considered in the final round of judging. The other two pieces Harris submitted were chosen by the director of choral activities at Ithaca Conservatory of Music, Lawrence Doebler, for a performance by the Ithaca Chorale later in the year on the group's national tour and for the group's Martin Luther King tribute concert in January.

  Bears of the Month have been named for September. The theme for September was respect. The following students were selected by their academic teams as best representing this characteristic. Each one will receive a special Bear paw-print pin and a Bear of the Month T-shirt.
  Team Compassion: Diego Quintanilla Tovar, Greysi Contreras
  Team Initiative: Torrey Tapper, Jazmyn Drumgo
  Team Trustworthiness: Rashad Benton, Denisse Alanis
  Team Courage: Audra Anderson, D'Vaughn Pennamon
  Team Honesty: Ivonne Gauna, Rigoberto Fuentes
  Team Responsibility: Reagan Ellis, Manuel Mendez
  Next month's focus will be on responsibility.
  (Below) Recognized students include (front) Manuel Mendez, Rashad Benton, Audra Anderson and D'Vaughn Pennamon; and (back) Rigoberto Fuentes, Diego Quintanilla Tovar, Denisse Alanis, Greysi Contreras, Reagan Ellis, Jazmyn Drumgo and Torrey Tapper.

About 50 Beverly Hills students gathered recently for the national "See You at the Pole" worship gathering before school. Below, "Bears For Christ" leaders Emily Rios and Audra Anderson with sponsor Ronnie Thomas.

Beverly Hills students participated in a four-day drive to raise funds and school supplies for central Texas wildfire victims. Students were instructed to bring school supplies, gift cards and/or cash and donate them to the relief effort. Students raised over $500 in cash, donated six gift cards worth about $40 and contributed an abundance of school supplies from pencils to folders. (Below) Students Zach Copeland, Sandra Gonzalez, Audra Anderson, Katrina Herazo and Louis Mendez go over donated items with (back row) Officer Larry Bogany, Coach Ronnie Thomas and Officer Michael Lenting.

Students and faculty at Beverly Hills will don pajamas on Oct. 6 to join with an anticipated two million others around the world who will read the children's book, "Llama Llama Red Pajama," by Anna Dewdney. The joint reading project is an attempt to set a world record and raise awareness about American's early education achievement gap.

Principals Toni Lopez of Thompson and Alyta Harrell of Beverly Hills compare notes during the two schools' collaborative planning session.

  The administrative teams from Beverly Hills and Thompson met this week at the new Carmen Orazco Professional Development Complex to map strategies for the coming school year.
  The collaborative planning session helped each staff develop its "Year at a Glance" plan.
  Additional collaboration efforts are planned for the two South Belt schools.
  Participating were Beverly Hills' administrative team of Alyta Harrell, principal; Jorly Thomas, assistant principal,;Stacey Barber, assistant principal; Christina Serna, assistant principal; Jamy Smith, counselor; and Rhonda Lewis, counselor; and from Thompson Toni Lopez; principal, Dan Hoppie, assistant principal; Darby Hickman, assistant principal; Erin Richardson, counselor, and Prudencio Reyna, counselor.

Assistant principals Stacey Barber of Beverly Hills and Darby Hickman of Thompson swap planning ideas.