Get your athletic shoes ready; you’re going to be busy walking this week.

Fundraising Walkathons are nothing new to WG, but a strange convergence has many of them taking place this week across the neighborhood.

Things kick-off Saturday, October 4, with the 6th annual Walk’n Wag fund raising event benefiting the Silicon Valley Humane Society. To be clear, you probably shouldn’t take your pets to the other events.

Kids at three local schools have their walkathons next week, too, including the granddaddy of them all, the Booksin Walkathon on Saturday, October 11. Students at the school are strolling around campus for the 21st year in a row, hoping to raise more than the $150,000 they raised last year.

The kids at Galarza Elementary School (and the co-located Hammer Montessori School) will also be circling their field on October 11 for their walkathon.

Schallenberger students get a bit of a head start on their walking, with the modest hour-long strutting set for Tuesday, followed by the huge Harvest Festival on Friday, October 10. The Home & School Club has posted a list of their Silent Auction items online, to whet your appetite. Booksin’s list is coming soon.

If you wanted to walk to all four of the fund raising events, by the way, you’ll need good shoes … and a little help from Google’s Walking Directions (currently in beta).

The trip would be a modest 7.7 miles (10.1 if you want to make it a full loop), both of which are far shorter than the average participant will walk in any one of those Walkathons!

Good luck, everyone!

WG High School continues to produce outstanding Cross Country athletes this year, with the latest recognition coming from the SJ Mercury News, which named senior Nohe Lema its “Athlete of the Week” today:

For most of his high school career, Lema ran behind talented teammates Mohamed Abdalla and Marcos Corona. On Saturday, Lema emerged as an elite runner, winning the Division III race at the Stanford Invitational. Lema covered the 3.1-mile course in 15 minutes, 38 seconds, the best time by a CCS runner in any division. “After running in the shadow of Marcos and Mohamed the last few years, Nohe needed a breakthrough race like that to build his confidence and help him reach his true potential,” Willow Glen Coach Victor Santamaria said. After tiring and falling back to third with three quarters of a mile to go, “he seized the lead and took it home,” the coach said.

Congratulations, Nohe!

The Solar Power may not be ready … but the WGHS Football Team is ready to turn on the Ram Power anyway!

The Rams Varsity Football Team kicks-off its home season tonight with a game against visiting Del Mar High School. Yes, it’s a night game … complete with the premiere of the new stadium lights! Finally.

Willow Glen High Rams will Turn on the Power!

SAN JOSE, CA- Friday, September 26, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. the WGHS Rams will be the second in a series of San Jose Unified’s High Schools turning on the power on their long awaited stadium lights. Willow Glen High School, 2001 Cottle Ave., San Jose, 95125, is the second school of the season to flick the switch on their new stadium lights, as they prepare to host Del Mar High School. …

San Jose Unified’s Board of Education president and Willow Glen resident, Pam Foley, commented, “Football and night games are a perfect combination. This is a great way to continue to build community. Let’s invite the neighbors for a tailgate party and to join us in cheering on our team. WGHS has planned a long time to host night games. We are prepared and the team is ready to go. I know what I’ll be doing on Friday night.”

Stadium lights have been installed at all of San Jose Unified High Schools, with San Jose High Academy being the first to play under the lights in 2007. Schools will be allowed 10 night events, 5 of those can be football games. Lights are to be off at 10:00 p.m.

Pioneer High School was the first SJUSD school with lights on this year, for their game back on September 12.

It’s either the secret hideout for the next James Bond villain … or something really cool happening on the WG Middle School and High School sports fields.

The co-located campus for grades 6-12 hosts all of the obvious sports-related activities, but over the last few years, the San Jose Unified School District has been adding fancy electronics, too. In addition to revamping the playing surface, the space also boasts stadium lights and even a fake tree that doubles as a cell phone tower.

Next up: construction of Solar Panels. As part of its green initiative announced last year, the District is installing solar panels all around the campus in Willow Glen:

California’s San Jose Unified School District is joining the green movement by unveiling what it says may be the largest solar power and energy-efficient programs in U.S. K-12 education.

The program … includes the construction of solar arrays on the school roofs and parking canopies, and will initially generate two megawatts of power, eventually rising to five meagawatts. Over the 25-year lifespan of the project, the district expects to save $25 million in energy costs and reduce its utility power demand by 25 percent. Overall, the district estimates it will cut the equivalent of 37,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

The panels installed at WGMS will produce 765kW in elctricity, and offset 49% of the total electrical consumption on site with its solar power. District wide, it’ll be a 25% reduction in the demand for utility power, and the 37,500 tons of reduced emissions is equivalent to planting 400 acres of trees.

The project will eventually include curriculum enhancements, too, including focus on solar power and engineering. And teachers from local elementary schools are looking forward to installations at their sites, too.

One of the finest social events of the Fall Season is the annual Willow Glen Foundation Wine Tasting Fundraiser, the primary fund raising event for the WG Middle School & High School Foundation (Website by WGx).

This year’s version will be hosted on Sunday, November 2, benefiting the Foundation and the event’s host, the new Willow Glen Library.

Each year, local wine makers and merchants donate their products and services to raise funds to improve Willow Glen Middle and High School. This year, our goal is to raise $30,000 to be used directly to improve student literacy, including:

• Refresh and update books in both school libraries;
• Expand the individualized reading program in the middle school;
• Put more books in language arts and literature classrooms; and
• Fund 8th Grade literature circles.

The check you write today will help make these things a reality!

And new this year, you can buy your tickets — or make any donation — online from the Foundation’s website.

If you don’t normally read the SJ Mercury’s editorial page, you might have missed a great story about an athletic award presented to a WG High School student.

Willow Glen’s Taylor Lundquist was honored with a “Triple-Impact Competitor Scholarship” this past Saturday from the Positive Coaching Alliance, based in Palo Alto.

Ten Northern California high school seniors, including two in the South Bay — Taylor Lundquist of Willow Glen High and Jose Ramirez of Sequoia High School — received $3,500 scholarships. No award better celebrates the values of sport that get lost in the statistics of wins and losses, and points scored.

The triple in Triple Impact refers to players who personally excel and make their teams and their sport better through leadership. Athletes like Lundquist, who “has the ability to get her teammates to work harder because they don’t want to let her down,” her soccer coach wrote in a testimonial.

The Mercury’s article lauds Lundquist’s leadership on and off the field — and celebrates her toughness by noting she was sporting 34 stitches and a broken nose at the award ceremony. She had sustained the injury at the Field Hockey Jamoree in WG.

But for the record, you have to visit the PCA’s website, where Taylor’s injury is proudly on display!

Way to go Taylor!

Oh, sure … that big NFL thing starts this weekend, and the WG Rams Football season kicks off too, but the big party at Willow Glen High School is actually for the 29th Annual WG Field Hockey Jamboree.

The young women might be facing off in record heat, but they don’t care. Games start Friday afternoon, to be played on five different fields at the High School, with 30 girls high school teams from around the Bay Area participating.

Stop by if you can handle the heat!

The State of California’s Department of Education released its annual report on student progress today, sharing statistical analysis of local students’ strong performance on standardized tests.

Overall, the results for most WG schools are quite promising. Only Canoas Elementary failed to reach its targets, and some schools made significant jumps. The highest overall increase was made by Hammer Montessori @ Galarza, which jumped 41 points to score 835. The highest-performing WG schools were Booksin (890) and Bagby (903), although both schools (along with Schallenberger) still have student subgroups that are not reaching their performance goals.

Here are the top-level numbers for local schools:

Complete San Jose Unified School District Results.

• Booksin Elementary: 890 (up from 876 last year) - Full Report
• Canoas Elementary: 744 (down from 756 last year) - Full Report
• Galarza Elementary: 726 (up from 711) - Full Report
• Gardner Academy: 697 (up from 670) - Full Report
• Hacienda Elementary: 848 (up from 830) - Full Report
• Hammer @ Galarza: 835 (up from 794) - Full Report
• Schallenberger: 837 (up from 821) - Full Report
• Willow Glen Elementary: 787 (up from 767) - Full Report
• River Glen Immersion: 813 (up from 775) - Full Report
• WG Middle School: 740 (up from 717) - Full Report
• WG High School: 704 (up from 692) - Full Report

Complete Campbell Union Elementary School District Results.

• Blackford Elementary: 737 (up from 715 last year) - Full Report

Complete Cambrian Elementary School District Results.

• Bagby Elementary: 903 (up from 893 last year) - Full Report

If you are curious about other schools in the state, the Department’s website is well-structured to help you find them. From any individual school report, you can compare similar schools or other schools within a district. If you know the name of the specific school, you can also search for any public school.

Booksin’s 21st Annual Walkathon

WillowGlenExtra is pleased to bring another great “weblog” to the Willow Glen community … once again hosting and sponsoring the official website for Booksin School’s 21st Annual Walkathon.

Scheduled for Saturday, October 11, this year’s Walkathon promises to be more exciting than ever … with the standard array of fundraising activities, a Silent Auction, food booths, great music, and lots of fun!

It may be a shocking headline … but the enemy is us.

Following the tragic death of a middle school bike-rider last June – run over by a parent picking up her own child from the same school – this year’s school opening week comes with an urgent safety message: Slow down!

The full court press comes from many sources, including the SJ Mercury News, bicycle safety training from SJPD, this week’s WG Resident, and SJUSD Superintendent Don Iglesias. Iglesias used a prerecorded voicemail message to remind parents to slow down and be safe:

I want to ask you to make safety a high priority for your child and all the other children who attend your neighborhood school. School zones are busy and hectic particularly at beginning and end of the school day. Please model safe behavior, so that all of our kids can have a safe journey to and from school
… There’s nothing more precious than the life of our children.