In order to discuss the end of the 2011-2012 school year, PTA held its final meeting on Monday, June 11, at 6 p.m., in the B-building theatre. The meeting reviewed the past events, plans for graduation, and next year’s renovations.
The meeting was called to order at 6:03 p.m. and began with the usual honoring of the flag. The minutes from the previous meeting along with the senior activities were read out loud before Principal Tom Houts got up to speak. Houts explained the plan for the new Viking Link, a program where during the summer, next year’s seniors will introduce the freshmen to the campus, clubs, and all other things that DHS has to offer. He then gave away extra graduation ceremony tickets to PTA members that are parents of seniors. It appears AP, CST, and CAHSEE results have all increased this school year and Downey High is now ranked among the top seventy percent of schools in the country.
“I have the APR results that don’t actually hit news for another week,” Principal Houts said. “We were ranked six out of ten, which is the same score of last year, but we were only three points away from a seven.”
Downey was ranked nine out of ten when race, income, and other minority status was taken into
account and Mr. Houts assures that the result is all because of the improved test scores of the Special Education students and the English-learners. Downey High School beat all high schools in the area.
The Treasurer’s report was then read out loud and the motion to pay the bills was approved by the members of the meeting. It was also announced that the swap meets will no longer be held in the parking lot on Saturdays due to the renovations that are going on with the administration building. Parking will be closed and bungalows will be placed for the counselors while construction is going on. The buildings will be demolished on July 2 and July 3 and the construction team that will do the job is the same that worked on the previous projects at Downey High. Houts shared his hope of holding the underclassmen’s graduation at Cerritos College since this year’s ticket sales were incredibly high. If the graduation ceremony were to be held at Cerritos College, each student would be able to bring as many people as they wanted.
“If we held it at Cerritos then students can bring twenty people, but there would be no fireworks,” Houts said. “When we held it there about seven years ago there was as many as ten to twelve thousand people present.”
The student activities that were held since the last PTA meeting were discussed by Gordon Weisenberger and ASB members including Senior Awards, staff appreciation week, athlete signings, the blood drive, and several upcoming activities.
“I’m really impressed with the ASB kids and how they continue to go out of their way to plan activities and better the school,” Mr. Weisenberger said.
Parents were eager to know about plans for senior graduation and the accommodations with food and schedules. There was also a reminder about the play Starmites on Wed., June 13 where tickets will be sold for eight dollars at the door.
The meeting was concluded by the announcement that the 2012-2013 school year will begin on Sep. 5 and that there are only better things to come for Downey High. With the new administration building, improved test scores, higher attendance rate, and lower suspension rate it appears next year will be successful and will only go up in subsequent years.
