Incline High School Celebrates Its AP Capstone Diploma Recipients
September 12, 2023 | Mary Danahey
Over 2,500 schools participated in the AP Capstone Diploma program, a project-based learning experience valued by colleges and universities across the U.S. and around the world.
Incline Village, NV – At Incline High School, three students from the class of 2023 have earned the AP Capstone DiplomaTM, and two students from the class of 2024 have already qualified to receive the AP Capstone Diploma. Additionally, eight students have earned the AP Seminar and Research CertificateTM during the 2022-23 school year. The AP Capstone Diploma program helps students develop the critical thinking, research, collaboration, and presentation skills that are crucial for academic success.
“We proudly recognize the achievements of students who participated in the AP Capstone Diploma program,” said Principal Cahill. “Our AP Capstone students and teachers displayed exceptional dedication to this impactful, multi-academic-year program where they got to explore their passions through scholarly research. This is a meaningful college readiness program that will serve our students well after high school.”
To receive the AP Capstone Diploma, students must earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar, AP Research, and on four additional AP® Exams of their choice. To receive the AP Seminar and Research Certificate, students must earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research. Students are increasingly participating in the AP CapstoneTM program. The program has reached a milestone of over 100,000 students participating during the 2022-23 academic year, representing over 2,500 schools worldwide. Approximately 15,800 students earned the AP Capstone Diploma, and 9,600 students earned the AP Seminar and Research Certificate.
Unlike traditional APsubject exams with a single end-of-year assessment, AP Seminar and AP Research assessments are project based and evaluate skills mastery through group projects, presentations, and individual essays completed throughout the year. Instead of focusing on one specific academic discipline, AP Seminar and AP Research are interdisciplinary: students are encouraged to create research projects based on topics of personal interest. Students are assessed on the critical thinking, research, collaboration, time management, and presentation skills needed to complete their projects.
“It is remarkable to witness students—and even educators—rediscover their passion for learning through the AP Capstone program,” shared Bianca Peart, the global lead of the AP Capstone Diploma program. “The constant fascination stems from the array of subjects students explore, all while cultivating essential skills—as if witnessing the creation of a masterpiece.”
“I’m thrilled to congratulate these motivated students, who worked hard to earn the AP Capstone Diploma and AP Seminar and Research Certificate,” said Trevor Packer, head of the Advanced Placement® Program. “These students have enhanced the foundation for their future academic and professional careers by honing their ability to manage long-term projects, collaborate with teams, and deliver effective presentations on topics they’re passionate about.”
Of the students who participated in the AP Capstone Diploma program at Incline High School:
3 graduates from the class of 2023 were awarded the AP Capstone Diploma by earning scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar, AP Research, and on 4 additional AP Exams, and 2 seniors in class of 2024 have qualified. Class of 2023: Ivy Batmale, Shannon Hugar, and Josue Salas. Class of 2024: Sarah Moore and Jesse Santina.
10 students were recognized as AP Scholars with Distinction. This honor is granted to students who receive an average score of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. Scholars with Distinction: Paloma Akiwenzie, Alexander Beaulac, Quinn Cafferata-Jenkins, Abbygail Duckworth, Shannon Hugar, William Jones, Adelina LaForge, Sarah Moore, Jesse Santina, and Annie Stembridge.
6 students were recognized as AP Scholars with Honor. This is granted to students who receive an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. Scholars with Honor: Luciano Casini, Sequoia Denton, Catherine Kerrigan, Parker Mirzayan, Nicholas Suter, and Katherine Wechsler.
22 students were recognized as AP Scholars. This designation is granted to students who receive scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP Exams. AP Scholars: William Arrison, Ivy Batmale, Emily Brubaker, Hoswaldo Cabrera, Anna Cecchi, Gianna Damato, Liam Ellis, Molly Ellis, Anthony Eppolito, Ginna Eppolito, Auri Fernandez, Tate Gitchell, Lainey Lowden, Alexander Macdonald, Preston Nilles, Kira Noble, Elanor Ogden, Josue Salas, Elissa Sano, Samantha Stephens, Rebeka Sussman, and Kyler Thompson.
8 were awarded the AP Seminar and Research Certificate by earning scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research: Emily Brubaker, Auri Fernandez, Kimberly Lara, Lainey Lowden, Parker Mirzayan, Kira Noble, Samantha Stephens, and Kyler Thompson.
The College Board’s Advanced Placement® Program (AP®) gives students the opportunity to take challenging college-level courses while still in high school. A 3 or higher on an AP Exam has multiple benefits for students, including earning college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on AP Exams, saving them time and money. Research shows AP students are better prepared for and more likely to enroll and remain in college, do well in classes, and earn their degrees on time. Each exam is developed by a committee of college and university faculty and AP teachers, ensuring that AP Exams align with their high standards.
Incline High School is an AP Capstone school that is constantly looking to offer a wide range of AP courses. Current offerings are as follows: AP Seminar, AP Research, AP Computer Science Principles, AP Pre-Calculus, AP Environmental Science, AP Government, AP US History, AP Human Geography, AP Literature, AP Eng. Language, AP Spanish Language & Culture, AP 2 D Art, AP 3 D Art, AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Physics 1, AP Physics C – Mechanics, AP Physics C Electricity and Magnetism.
New Principal, Dan Lediard welcomes 2 new additions to IMS:
Robert Riley – librarian & computer science teacher
Crystal Preciado-Ramierez- CLS
IMS falls sports teams (Cross Country and Girls Basketball) have started their seasons and Homework Club is in full swing, meeting M-Th right after school.
Incline High School is excited to announce that they are now offering on-site College Counseling!
Seniors will have first dibs (for obvious reasons) at access to services during their first period ADVISORY.
Watch this column for more detailed information next week.
Hispanic Parent Night is TODAY, Wednesday, 9/6 at 6 p.m. in the Duffield Theater
Back to School night was a great success! There was a huge turnout as parents got to meet their students’ teachers and lots of school spirit was on display.
Don’t forget to join the BOOSTERS -if you haven’t already- so that you can attend any/all sporting events for free! https://inclineboosters.com/join-us/
Football, Soccer, Tennis, Volleyball, Cross country, Girls Golf, and Cheer are all in full swing. Check out the IHS website for game schedules. Volunteers are always needed to help at the games.
Schools Settling into the Groove – School Update with IEF
August 30, 2023 | Mary Danahey
Now that the shock of being back in school is over, it’s time to settle into the groove. There is a LOT going on so here’s a quick list to keep you in the know:
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHTS AT EACH SCHOOL: Incline Elementary: Thur, 9/12, 5-7:30
Incline Middle: Tues, 9/15, 5:30-7:00
Incline High TONIGHT, Wed, 8/30, 5:30 – 7:30
Lake Tahoe School: Thur, 9/7 6:00-8:00
OTHER SCHOOL NEWS:
Incline Elementary Schoolis proud to now be recognized as a “Nevada Governor’s STEM School”. This designation is proof of the evidence-based, high-quality STEM education students receive at IES. The Reno Aces are hosting a fundraiser for IES on Sunday, September 3rd at 6pm. IES gets a percentage of each ticket sale purchased with the QR code below. It’s Family Sunday, meaning $1 hot dogs and lots of family fun – including kids getting to run the bases between the game and postgame fireworks. Use the QR code below to buy your tickets.
Incline Middle School is excited to continue offering “Wednesday Exploratory” where students get to choose between a number of options to spark their curiosity and learn about potential careers. Offerings this quarter include: entrepreneurship, podcasting, environmental stewardship, cooking, and 2 sport options. They are also engaging students through the MATHCOUNTS enrichment program and of course, the IMS robotics program (now in it’s second year).WATCH this column for the interview with Dan Lediard as he talks about his vision for IMS and their plan to also become a Nevada Governor’s STEM School.
Incline High School has a LOT going on…. The remodel funded by the Dave and Cheryl Duffield Foundation is underway and most of the demolition is already complete. Stay tuned for updates. And just to show that students are starting the year off right: several of last year’s engineering students entered an MIT competition and have made it into the second round, and SEVEN of our students have been honored in the College Board’s 2023 National Recognition Program. Oh, and IHS is also proud to now be recognized as a “Nevada Governor’s STEM School”. Proof of the solid education provided by IHS.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Community opportunities are all around. Schools are always looking for substitute teachers and coaches (paid positions) and volunteers are needed for the Read With Me program at IES. For more information, please reach out to: maryd@inclineeducationfund.org.
EVENTS:
There is the Reno Aces Game this Sunday to benefit IES. And the Wine & Food Tasting event at Aspen Grove on 9/23 to support the local Boys & Girls Club and Incline Middle School. See the flyers below.
Good News! While the possible closure of Incline Middle School is still on the table, WCSD has announced that they will definitely NOT be closing after this 2023-24 academic year.
The earliest possible date would be June of 2025, meaning that there will be at least one more year of instruction at the current IMS site – through the 2024-25 school year.
Stayed tuned here for future updates.
Count Day is August 25, so please make sure your student is in attendance that day as schools receive funding based on how many students are enrolled on specific dates and 8/25 is one of them.
Now that school is back in session, please consider joining your specific parent group (PTA, Jr Boosters, and Booster emails are below). Schools serve their students better when parents are involved.
Here are some important dates to put on your calendar.
It’s hard to believe, but Labor Day is right around the corner – which means it’s time for all of our local kids to go BACK TO SCHOOL!
Incline schools head back to classes next Monday, August 21st. (If you are a parent, please make sure that you have registered your child(ren) and PAID YOUR FEES before Monday.)
Now is also the time to sign up for each school’s parent group (PTA, Jr Boosters, Boosters) so that you know what’s going on, get involved, and can stock up on some swag to show your Incline spirit.
Congrats again to both Incline Elementary and High Schools for receiving their recent STEM School Designations from the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation, and Technology. Both schools will be expanding those programs and entering competitions throughout the year, so stay tuned!
Incline Middle School welcomes an exciting new addition, Principal Dan Lediard. (You can read more about him in next week’s SnapShot) and IMS Students can expect to see some exciting options in both the Wednesday Exploratory period and great after-school options like – robotics, sound lab, music and potentially, a mountain bike team!
Side note: Incline Education Fund will be working with IMS this year on their application for the same STEM School Designation so that Incline has the first – and only – K12 STEM School system in the state!
Construction has started at Incline High School for the remodel funded by the Dave and Cheryl Duffield Foundation. The new building will include collaborative spaces for students and teachers, a new JROTC facility, and a professional culinary kitchen. Keep reading the weekly SnapShot for updates.
And as always, if you have some time and care about education, volunteers are always needed for – reading buddies with the Read With Me program, substitute teachers, coaches, internships, mentors, and industry speakers. Contact Mary at maryd@inclineeducationfund.org for more information.
What better way to drink in the last days of summer than going to a baseball game on family day ?!
Watch the Reno Aces battle El Paso and celebrate Labor Day on Sunday, September 3rd at 6 pm.
It’s also a FUNdraiser for Incline Elementary School as IES will get a percentage of each ticket sale purchased with the QR code below. If we get 100 tickets sold (via that QR code), IES will receive a $500 dollar bonus.
It’s the only Sunday night game featuring postgame fireworks – and there’s no school on Monday!
It’s also Family Sunday, meaning $1 hot dogs and lots of family fun – including kids getting to run the bases between the game and fireworks.
Hi I’m Mary with the Incline Education Fund, a local nonprofit that support students, educators and parents here in Incline. Through our programming, advocacy and fundraising, IEF helps to ensure academic achievement and skill development across generations of Incline students. We have some exciting updates to share from each of the schools:
INCLINE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
IES is hosting a Summer Kick-Off Event on June 6th from 4-6pm
This is a Summer Reading Kick-Off Assembly in conjunction with the Washoe County Library System.
INCLINE MIDDLE SCHOOL
There are two collaborative events with Incline Middle School and Lake Tahoe School this week:
Drive carefully this Friday, June 2nd as it’s BIKE TO SCHOOL DAY! There will be prizes for kids who bike to school.
It’s COMMUNITY CLEAN UP DAY for 6th & 7th graders. 6th graders will be heading to Sand Harbor and 7th graders will head to Diamond Peak to collect trash as part of the community-wide TRASH to TREASURE project.
Monday, June 5th at 5pm is the IMS OPEN HOUSE.
This event is a school showcase of all of the wonderful programs happening at IMS. There will be a presentation at 5:30.
Parents and community members are invited to attend.
LAKE TAHOE SCHOOL
LTS Track and Field Bobcats Cap Historic Season with Three Team Titles
The Lake Tahoe School track & field team finished another highly successful track season at the Tah-Neva championships in Carson City on May 16. On a beautiful sunny afternoon, 22 different middle schools from the Tahoe Basin, Carson City, Reno, and other parts of Northern Nevada and California met to battle it out, all determined to achieve individual glory and team championship trophies.
The LTS Bobcats dominated the meet and were rewarded for their efforts by claiming three D1 team championships – 7th grade girls, 7th grade boys, and the 8th grade girls. The 7th grade boys not only won the D1 title but also were the number one school in the entire Tah-Neva League.
As most of you know, the Washoe County School District (WCSD) recently held 2 community meetings here in Incline to discuss their Facility Modernization Plan (FMP). The FMP is a proposal to “guide and inform (WCSD) facility use and capital investment decisions for the next 5-10 years”. The first meeting became quite heated when the plan presented the potential closure of Incline Middle School due to declining enrollment. The second meeting was meant to be a listening opportunity for the district to hear our community’s concerns and assure us that no decisions have yet been made. The take-away was that WCSD would put together and share a list of FAQ’s by the end of the school year.
School enrollment is a complicated matter that is plaguing many school districts across the country. It’s a convoluted mix of national and local trends that include declining birth rates, the impacts of the pandemic, recent inflationary concerns, and for us here in Tahoe, a continuing struggle with local housing issues.
While we all understand that you can’t continue to run a business if your customer base is shrinking, we also know that schools can’t and shouldn’t always be run like a business. There are human minds at stake.
We (IEF) believe consolidation of our schools is short-sighted and could have a detrimental impact on our kids and our community for a number of reasons.
1. Combining preteens and high schoolers is unwise and unhealthy.
Most parents would agree that putting pre-teens on a campus with older, more physically mature teenagers can create a negative environment for the academic and social development of both groups of students. Developing adolescents are just learning how to become independent and are highly impressionable. They do not need the distractions created by high school students who are juggling their own new-found independence.
2. More local, reliable data is needed.
While national data can paint an overall picture of school trends, it is imperative to understand how collecting and using that data to make decisions can impact an entire community and the education of its children. Especially when those decisions could potentially create negative outcomes for students, families and teachers.
Many long-time Incline residents point to previous population fluctuations and believe that the current trends may very well reverse themselves over the next several years. In fact, if one looks at the current waiting lists at local preschools, it seems that it would be short-sighted to close IMS when space might very well be needed again in the near future.
Additionally, Incline Village, like many other US resort communities, has seen an influx of new, younger residents over the past three years. At the same time, however, with inflation at its highest peak since the early 1980’s, and the aforementioned housing crunch here in the Tahoe basin, many residents were forced to move ‘down the hill’ and either change jobs or endure a lengthy commute. Again, it’s a complicated issue that needs accurate data.
3. IEF believes that our schools are well positioned to attract new students
Incline Education Fund has been working closely with each of our schools to create a K12 STEM Pathway. In the last 2 years, we have funded the IES Makerspace, the IMS Robotics program, and the IHS Engineering and Entrepreneurship program. Last month, both Incline Elementary and Incline High Schools were awarded the prestigious Nevada Governor’s STEM School Designation for those programs and are now considered models for schools around the state. IEF is working to get Incline Middle School added to this prestigious group next year (their robotics program was just launched this year). This would make the Incline schools the ONLY K12 STEM Pathway in the state (see related article on the OSIT STEM award).
Additionally, we are funding a number of other unique programs, including:
-academic support to help struggling students regain covid learning losses
-the Exploratory program at IMS which gives students an opportunity to explore areas of interest and re-engage them in the learning process
-a resiliency building program at IES to help students learn how to challenge themselves and be adaptable to stressors
-college and career prep programs
In short, Incline Schools deliver an excellent education.
With the support of the Incline community, we believe that the current enrollment decline can be reversed and that we can prevent WCSD from moving forward in their closure plans. WCSD has not made any final decisions regarding our schools yet, but it will take continued community involvement to prevent a consolidation of some sort.
Please read the weekly SnapShot and check the IVCBA event calendar for up-to-date information regarding our schools, or contact Mary Danahey at: maryd@inclineeducationfund.org
Great Win for Incline Education Fund – OSIT Designations for IES and IHS!
May 17, 2023 | Mary Danahey
On May 16th, 2023, both Incline Elementary School (IES) and Incline High School (IHS) were awarded the Nevada Governor’s STEM School Designation by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT).
The Governor’s STEM Advisory Council is charged with identifying and awarding recognition to not more than 15 schools in the state, annually, that demonstrate exemplary performance in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Designation as a Governor’s STEM School denotes that the school meets the highest standards of STEM instruction and is a model for schools around the state.
Incline Education Fund is working with Incline Middle School (IMS) on their OSIT STEM Designation application for next year as their robotics program was just launched this past fall.
When IMS receives their OSIT STEM Designation, the Incline schools will be theFIRST AND ONLY K-12 STEM Pathway in the state of Nevada.
Staytuned for more information next week!
LTS News:
There are still a few tickets left to the annual Lake Tahoe School Fundraiser, the Celestial Ball.It’s this Friday, 5/19 at 6pm at the Hyatt, in the Lakeside Ballroom.
If you can’t make the entire event, but are looking for a little musical entertainment and dancing later in the evening, scoop up an “After Dark Ticket” at the same link above.
IMS News:
There is no new news on the potential changes for Incline Schools. The Washoe County School District is assuring everyone that “no decisions have been made” and are encouraging people to get involved and be a part of the process. You can email our School Board of Trustee members: Jeff Church and Diane Nicolet at:
Elizabeth.Smith@WashoeSchools.netWCSD has committed to provide FAQ’s from the last meeting to the Incline community by end of school year. I will make sure to post those here in the SnapShot as soon as they are available.
NSEA It’s Time for 20 Rally:
On a similar, but different note, there is a rally today (!) to support some of the education bills being brought to the Nevada Legislature.The Time for 20 Rally is petitioning to increase funding for public education. More information about the rally can be found here:
The event is Wednesday, 5/17 from 4:30-6:00pm outside the Nevada State Legislature at 401 S. Carson St. in Carson City.
If you can’t attend but would still like your voice to be heard, or you agree with the message created by the Nevada State Education Association, you can do so HERE.
