• I'm Back!!

    Posted by Scot McAdoo on 8/16/2019

    Classen SAS High School Family,

    After a wild ride through the summer months preparing our new building for the 2019-20 school year I wanted to start my regular entries into my Comet Tales blog.  This post comes at the end of what I will share was the most successful first week of school in my 28 years as an educator.  When P2G was announced we immediately rolled up our sleeves and began developing a plan for what we believe would lead Classen SAS into a bright new future.  Over the past two decades I've always had a great deal of passion and love for our school and what it has done for students but knew it was important to continue searching for ways to improve our programming.  At the conclusion of this first week of school I had large numbers of students, parents and members of the community share this same excitement.  Several students came to me and shared that they really felt like the teachers cared for them and said that this year is off to an awesome start.  I would ask you to find a way to be a part of our community.  Whether that is in a parent group, volunteer, or as a donor we are always looking for help creating the most amazing experience for our kids.  Thank you guys for being patient with us at both the middle and high schools and always know that we will be Laser Focused to support our kids :)

    #CometCity
    #CometsOnTheMove

    Scot

     

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  • Valedictorian Celebaration

    Posted by Scot McAdoo on 4/11/2019 12:00:00 PM

    Classen Family,

    We have identified and announced our valedictorians for the 2018-19 school year!  This is a very special group of students that have maintained the highest level of academic standards throughout their entire middle and high school careers at Classen SAS.  To be considered for this prestigous recognition, students must maintain a cumulative weighted GPA of 4.0 with no grade lower than a B.  We will be celebrating our vals at a special dinner on April 25th.  Introducing your 2018-19 Valedictorians:


    Summa Cum Laude:
    Samantha Hopper, Giavanna Hoffman and Emily Miller
    Emily Cunningham, Alexander Fulmer, Emily Hamilton, Ryan Harrigan, Ericka Herrera, Giavanna Hoffman, Samantha Hopper, Sadaf Iranpour, McCall McCarty, Emily Miller, Emily Nguyen, Henry Nguyen, Lynn Nguyen, Doanh Nguyen, Vivian Nguyen, Daniel Nino, Nguyet Phan, Riley Sutton, Shelby Tate, Draven Thomas, William Tucker, Austin Wilkie

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  • South West Regional Scholastics Art and Writing competition

    Posted by Scot McAdoo on 2/26/2019

    Shout out to these students for their achievements:

     
    Photography

    12th Grade
    Bella Trachtenberg - 2 GOLD key Awards, 2 SILVER, 3 Honorable Mention
    Maya Shadid - 1 GOLD, 1 Honorable Mention
    Khan Vu - 1 GOLD
    Christine Funk - 1 GOLD, 1 SILVER, 1 Honorable Mention
    Naia Montoya *SILVER PORTFOLIO
    Dennis Hurst - 1 Honorable Mention
    Torin Salter - 2 Honorable Mentions
    Alyssa Wigfall - Honorable Mention
     
    11th Grade
    Gabby Guise - 1 SILVER
    Sam Fields -  1 SILVER
    Long Nguyen - 1 SILVER
    Nadia Rashid - 1 SILVER
    Caden Ballard - 1 Honorable Mention
    Bear Harlow - 1 Honorable Mention
    Lenee Lee - 1 Honorable Mention
    Kaitlin Tran - 1 GOLD
    Noelia Valasco-Rios - 1 GOLD
    Harlea Robinson - 1 Honorable Mention
    Matthew Scrivner - 1 Honorable Mention
    Karen Turcois - 1 Honorable Mention
    Emma Hosington - 1 Honorable Mention
     
    10th Grade
    Isabel Bozarth - 1 GOLD, 1 SILVER
    Penelope Griffin - 1 GOLD
    Xander Hennigh - 1 GOLD
    Alexia Alba - 2 SILVER
    Rachael Blitz - 1 SILVER
    Lola Colletti - 2 Honorable Mentions
    Emma Hosington - 1 Honorable Mention
    Alyssa Underwood - 1 SILVER ,1 Honorable Mention
    Aeddon Wegrzn-Van Zant - 1 Honorable Mention
     
    9th Grade
    Abigail Kindsch, 1 Honorable Mention
    Isabella Perkins - 1 Honorable Mention
    Owen Walker - 2 Honorable Mentions
     
    Gold key winners advance to the National competition!
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  • National History Day Celebrations!!

    Posted by Scot McAdoo on 2/20/2019

    We had a great website competition!  High quality and well-researched projects made for a very tough competition.  Congratulations to our incredible winners below!

    Junior Individual Documentary

    1st Place – Jody Hollins – Claudette Colvin
    2nd Place – Jenna Chan – Lowell Mill Girls
    3rd Place – Saxon Neal – D-Day
    4th Place– Carina Chen – The Opium War
    5th Place – Luella Gray – Library of Alexandria?
    6th Place – Sabrina Smith – Mayan Civilization

    Junior Group Documentary

    1st Place – Jahaan Stetson, Ishmail Chowdhury, Donovan Cook & Reiner – Blood Diamonds
    2nd Place – Jackson Alexander, Grayson Holley Compton & Thayer Dycus –  South Sudan Civil War
    3rd Place – Adam Curran, Ian Oswald & Vivian Smith – Oklahoma City Bombing
    4th Place – Peyton Harris, Zavior Wright & Reagan Riley – Salem Witch Trials?
    5th Place – Anneliese Brown & Chayla Williams– Library of Alexandria


    Junior Individual Website

    1st Place – Amelie Paugh – Ludwig Van Beethoven
    2nd Place – Rebecca Zewdie – Italo-Ethiopian War
    3rd Place – Danny Ly – Tragedy of Korea’s Colonization
    4th Place– Ria Sachdev – Nelson Mandela
    5th Place – Aubrey Fudge – The Berlin Wall

    ***Honorable Mention:

    Jessica Nguyen – Technology in WWII
    Anny Hua – South Korea’s Education Fever
    Kateri Barrios – Cesar Chavez
    Ava Sachdev – Creation of Atomic Bomb
    Brietta Chen – Smallpox and Inoculation

    Junior Group Website

    1st Place – An Vu, Petermung Khual, Joseph Radecki, Joshua Aguilar & Nathan Nguyen – Smallpox Inoculation
    2nd Place – Anh Nguyen, Angelina Nguyen, Ricky McCullough & Diego Castrejon –  Jackie Robinson
    3rd Place – Thomas Pham, Kasra Iranpour, Bryan Nguyen, Nathan Cao & Angelo Dindoyal – Cultural Revolution in China
    4th Place – Jack Steel, Brayden Tran, Gavyn Giese – Apollo 11
    5th Place – Nityant Chandopatla & Alexander Hawkins – 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami


    ***Honorable Mention:

    Krish Patel & Luke Alexander – Amritsar Massacre
    Cait Prough & Elizabeth Ting – Challenger Shuttle Disaster
    Xavier Vongpakdy, Issac Ruiz, David Salomon-Sierra, Arjun Reddy, & Samuel Cortez – Amelia Earhart
    Kyle Haggard & Quan Lu  – 3/5ths Compromise
    Thomas Cheek and Sonny Lee – 1st Battle of Bull Run

    ***All Ranked winners and honorable mention entries have qualified for the Regional NHD contest.

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  • Next Steps

    Posted by Scot McAdoo on 1/24/2019

    Dear Classen Family,

    For the last year, OKCPS has been moving forward on our "Pathway to Greatness" as we follow through on our commitment to reinvent our District.  The highest priority defined throughout this process has been to serve our students equitably and to ensure access to more educational opportunities and support services. I believe our work will enable our students to achieve the OKCPS vision of every student graduating ready to fulfill their unique purpose in a healthy, vibrant community.  On January 22nd, Superintendent McDaniel presented information that Classen School of Advanced Studies will expand to two campuses beginning next school year.  Classen Middle School will include 5th-8th grade students and be housed in our current building.  Classen High School will include 9th-12th grade and will move to the Northeast High School building.

     

    I have invested a large part of my career at Classen working to build and support a rigorous curriculum of advanced studies in both academics and the arts.  I believe that the unique combination of high expectations and access to these programs have created amazing experiences for our students.  As we embrace an expansion of our current programs to even more students we will look to leverage new resources to deliver even more programing options in addition to the International Baccalaureate, Advanced Placement, and Fine Arts programs.  Classen is a unique experience and I look forward to working with our staff and families to take the next step and build something truly amazing for our community.

     

    If you were unable to attend or view the Board of Education Work Session, I encourage you to visit the district's website, or attend one or more of the community meetings being held around the District:

    • January 24 at US Grant High School | 6 pm *Presented in Spanish
    • January 28 at Star Spencer High School | 6 pm
    • January 29 at Douglass High School | 6 pm
    • January 30 at NW Classen High School | 6 pm


    Thank you for your continued support of Classen School of Advanced Studies.

    Scot McAdoo
    Principal
    Classen SAS

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  • Lunch & Learn

    Posted by Scot McAdoo on 1/9/2019

    L&L

    Classen Family,

    I'm very excited to share information about our new Lunch & Learn program with you!  This program will feature brief sessions that deliver a wide variety of exciting and engaging topics to students during lunch.  These topics focus on grade appropriate activities connected with character development, growth mindset, college & career planning, and much more.  Students that attend a Lunch & Learn will receive a FREE piece of pizza and be able to play games and win prizes in each session.  If you have ideas for topics or would like to support this program please email or give us a call.

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  • November Teacher of the Month

    Posted by Scot McAdoo on 12/13/2018

    Classen Family,

    Over the past month we've celebrated two great members of our staff!  Sam Waldrop was nominated by the Faculty as our 2018-19 Teacher of the Year and Johnny Delucia was nominated as the KOCO & Quail Creek Bank November Teacher of the Month.  I love working with these amazing teachers and am so excited about everything they do for the Classen community.  I want to invite everyone to reach out and give them a pat on the back for this well deserved recognition!

    Sam & Johnny

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  • Security Camera Update

    Posted by Scot McAdoo on 11/9/2018

    Classen Family,

    I wanted to provide everyone with an update on our Security Management Plan.  We have been working closely with our district Safety team on a couple items in the plan and I am happy to announce that the installation of our new state of the art security camera surveillance system will begin on November 26th.  This project will take a couple of weeks and should be completely finished before we leave for the December break.  Our new system will provide 24/7 surveillance of our campus with high definition playback capabilities.  We are also collecting quotes for the replacement of the two gates in the rear of the campus that will limit outside access to our buildings.

    If you ever have any questions or would like to support our efforts to improve our campus please feel free to email me any time.

    Thanks,

    Mr. McAdoo
    Principal

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  • Financial Aid & FASFA Night

    Posted by Scot McAdoo on 10/31/2018

    Senior Graduation Series

    All senior families are invited to join us in the Classen library on November 8th from 6:00PM-7:30PM for our Financial Aid FASFA information night.  We will be providing information on the following topics:

    $ College: Getting There From Here
        Edward D. Jones

    $ College Financial Aid
            OCCC Admissions

    $ FASFA Assistance
         OCAP

    Pizza Pizza Pizza Pizza Pizza
    FREE PIZZA AND DRINKS WILL BE PROVIDED

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  • Student Safety

    Posted by Scot McAdoo on 10/23/2018

    I previously commented on our plans to implement several projects targeting student safety and wanted to share some additional thoughts that will work to achieve our shared commitment to create a welcoming and safe school:

    • Extracurricular Activities. We love student participation in extracurricular activites and strive to offer a holistic instructional program that addresses the needs of our students in and out of the classroom.  Participation in these programs often require students to arrive early or stay late.  To maximize student safety in these settings we require all participants to report directly to their activity sponsor.  Students should remain with their sponsor until they receive permission to leave.
    • Student Pickup. Classen's final bell rings at 4:00PM.  We ask that parents or guardians arrive for pickup no later than 4:30PM.  Arrangements to pick up students must be made in advance to avoid safety issues.
    • Lunch Time.  Classen follows a closed campus policy.  Students are not permitted to leave campus at any time without permission.  Food deliveries by oustide vendors create potential safety issues and are also not permitted.  We do, however, fully encourage parents or guardians to come up and join us for lunch!
    • Be Vigilant. We ask that all our members of the Classen family remain vigilant and notify the administrative staff if they see anyting that seems out of place.
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