BHS & the BHS PTSA

• · Berkeley High School
• Mission Statement of Berkeley High School: It is our mission to educate and inspire all students in a safe, respectful and supportive environment.
  Berkeley High School is a comprehensive four-year school serving approximately 3000 students. BHS is unique in that it is the only public high school in a community of over 100,000. Drawing from a diverse racial, ethnic and socioeconomic status, the student population embraces a broad spectrum of people and ideas.
• · Berkeley High PTSA (Parent Teacher Student Association)
• Berkeley High often seems big, tumultuous and confusing - especially to first-year parents. It's not really tumultuous but it is big and confusing. It does take energy to figure the school out. It is, however, energy worth spending. If you know what's up, you are better able to help and advise your student.
• · Berkeley High School e-tree
• The PTSA at Berkeley High School has organized an e-mail list serve that passes on the Student Daily Bulletin, the College Advisor's Bulletin, news, notices, and volunteer opportunities. The etree works with the Berkeley High administrative team to ensure accuracy.
  To subscribe automatically send an email to bhs-request@idiom.com with one word ony in the subject line: subscribe. When you want to remove your name from the list, do the same with "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Parents Kathryn Capps and Janet Huseby are the e-tree facilitators. All e-tree messages come from them. If you have trouble subscribing, please call Janet at 527-1130.

• · Mexico Exchange Project
• CAS is sponsoring a unique language study, home-stay, and service learning summer program in Morelia, Mexico for twelve outstanding CAS 'student ambassadors'. This important program has the potential for long-lasting impact both in Morelia and in our community. This is the third year CAS has sponsored international educational exchanges with students of Mexico. The CAS Mexico Exchange presents an opportunity for us to share the media literacy and social justice work we are doing in CAS on an international scale. What we learn in Morelia will also improve our work together here in the CAS Program at Berkeley High School.

• · Pacific Film Archive
• The mission of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive is to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through art and film. The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive is the visual arts center of the University of California, Berkeley. Through art and film programs, collections and research resources, we aspire to be locally connected and globally relevant, engaging audiences from the campus, community, and beyond.
• · Youth Radio
• Youth Radio promotes young people's intellectual, creative, and professional growth through training and access to media. Through hands-on practice, working relationships with industry professionals, and production of award-winning programming, Youth Radio students learn the basics of broadcasting. In the process, they're exposed to a broad spectrum of media-related careers. But technical training is only part of the picture. Through their journalism education, Youth Radio students also strengthen their foundation in basic "life-skills": verbal expression, writing, computer technology, critical thinking, conflict resolution, and more. What about life-after-Youth Radio? Graduates emerge with a new confidence and hope for creating a positive professional future for themselves, and with concrete skills and contacts to get them there. Youth Radio contributes to the empowerment of teenagers by giving them tools they'll need for success. We also bring youth perspectives to the airwaves, shedding light on the concerns and interests of our young people.
• · Berkeley Poetry Slam
• This is no ordinary, ho-hum open mic! Just ask our audiences - we draw 100-300 people every week to our show! In addition to the finest spoken word features around, our vibrant poetry scene spawns some of the best local talent in the nation! At every show, we also host a live improvisational band or DJ!

• · BUSD web page BHS Small Schools Advisory Committee
• Superintendent Michele Lawrence formed an advisory committee to address the small schools issue at Berkeley High School in December 2002. This committee is comprised of communityand parent volunteers, teachers and administrators, union representatives, and BHS students. The agenda at the 4/2 meeting included a presentation on the CAS program; a group review of the draft RFP prepared by Kalima Rose; and a timeline for getting Board approval of the SSAC's recommendations for establishing small schools at Berkeley High School.
• · BayCES "Schools by Design" commentary by Rick Ayers
• > There is a righteous simplicity to being always the opposition, always at the barricades, but never winning the struggle for real change. If the committee was being challenged to start new small schools under the superintendent's proposal, why not jump in and make them successful, doing the concrete work to attack the achievement gap and to make schooling more humane, more engaged and more successful for all students?

• · UC Berkeley Parents Network CAS discussion (not particularly up to date)
• Althought I am no expert on race relations, I did want to put in a plug for the Communication, Arts, and Science, CAS Small School program at BHS. This is the fourth year my son has been in CAS under the leadership of Rick Ayers, Bill Pratt, and other very talented and dedicated teachers. Students in this program take their core English/History classestogether and share some required electives. They do communityservice, short retreats, and longer trips, (Cuba, Vietnam), together.
• · Start your own discussion at our generous temporary host site: BerkeleyHigh.org (thanks Brandon!)
• You shall know the truth and it shall set you free.

• · Berkeley High School Slang Dictionary
• This book will fascinate cultural anthropologists, who already know that language is highly flexible. And parents, teachers, and even grandparents will be interested to learn exactly what their teenager is saying at the dinner table when she exclaims, "Rigoddamnediculous!" Language is an excellent lens through which to view changing cultural trends. In this sense, Berkeley High School Slang Dictionary - and the Communication Arts & Sciences Program - are at the cutting edge. As Berkeley High School students might put it: "This book is da bomb, fo sheazy."