Youth Briefs
Party for retiring Argonaut teachers
Parents of current and former Argonaut Elementary School students will hold a retirement party for Yuki Kato and Carol Kummerer, two longtime Argonaut teachers. Those who are organizing the party invite families to come and wish the teachers well at Wildwood Park on May 31 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Kummerer, a Saratoga resident who began teaching at the school in 1989, initially taught as a science aide before she taught second grade. Kato, also a Saratoga resident who teaches second grade, began as a kindergarten teacher at Argonaut in 1966.
Those who are organizing the party are collecting photos taken over the course of both teachers' careers and are making the teachers memory books.
To contribute a photo or find out more information about the party, call Rose Baden at 408.867.4223.
Supervisors honor SHS' Kevin Skelly
Kevin Skelly, principal of Saratoga High School, received a "unity in diversity achievement" award from the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. The board recognized Skelly for creating ways to help students and parents adapt to the increasingly multicultural environment at Saratoga High.
Skelly instructed graduate students at UC-Berkeley and was assistant principal at Tamalpais High School in Oakland. In 1986, he spent a year helping and educating impoverished communities in Quito, Ecuador.
The board recognized Skelly on May 9 at the County Government Center.
Chu's paper wins science honors
Allan Chu of Saratoga High School became the first high school student to have his research appear next to that of college professors and renowned researchers. Chu's paper, LZAC Lossless Data Compression: A Novel Approach to Minimum Redundancy Coding, appears in the April edition of the Proceedings of the IEEE. IEEE is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
Chu's goal was to determine a better data compression method for the Internet, as well as wireless and handheld devices.
At a regional science symposium, Chu's paper was also deemed the best out of those written by 15 high school science finalists. The symposium was the 40th annual Northern California/Western Nevada Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, which took place in Reno March 21-23.
Chu received a $4,000 scholarship and an invitation to present his paper at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium.
Chu placed second at the national symposium, which took place in San Diego on April 27.
Contact Rebecca Ray at rray@svcn.com with school news.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
