March 2017 - Issue #3
New Principal Coming To Decatur
By Zoe FixZalkind, Josh Lee, Ananya Nanda,
Shea Perkins, and Yasmyn Sutherlin
Big changes are coming for
Decatur!
Starting this summer, Yolanda
Luna-Mroz will become the new
principal at Decatur, taking over for
Ms. K, who has been principal for
the past 12 years. Ms. Luna-Mroz,
who prefers being called Ms. Luna,
is currently the assistant principal at
Hamilton Elementary School.
The Local School Council, which is a group of
parents, teachers, staff, and people from the
community, chose Ms. Luna from about 20
applicants to be the new Decatur principal. Tim
McCaffrey, a parent who is on the LSC, said that the
LSC chose Ms. Luna because “she was the best
candidate for the job!” Mrs. Sharping, who is also
on the LSC, said that she is happy with the choice
because Ms. Luna “has a lot of potentially good
First Dolphin Press interview!
ideas that could help the kids and teachers at
Decatur.”
Dolphin Press reporters recently interviewed
Ms. Luna for an hour at Hamilton Elementary
School.
During the interview, Ms. Luna said that she has
some ideas that she will try to do once she gets to
Decatur. “I’d like to make sure Decatur is a fun
(Continued on page 9)
Meet Our New Literacy Teacher
Third Grader Goes to City Spelling Bee
By Grace Grieme, Josh Lee, Richa Sharma, and
Aubree Stephens
If you go into the Decatur library, chances are
you’ll see a new face. It is Ms. Chueng!
Lynn Chueng is the new literacy
teacher, hired in January to replace
Ms. Drake, who left in October.
Members of the newspaper
recently asked Ms. Chueng how she
feels to be the new teacher. “I love
my new job!” she said in an interview.
Ms. Chueng also was asked why she came here
for the job, with all the other good schools in CPS.
She says that she heard Decatur was a great school
and she wanted to work with gifted children. She
By Sabine Garcia
Third grader Aryan Thapa-Chhetri won the
schoolwide spelling bee on January 13 and then
progressed to be the youngest
contestant at the citywide spelling bee
on March 10!
On March 10, Aryan and his
parents went to Lindblom Math and
Science Academy for the spelling
competition. Aryan was the youngest
contestant there and represented Decatur very
well. Aryan stood his ground and made it to the
fourth round, but misheard the word “piccolo” as
“pickelhaube,” another word on the given study list.
He was even featured in an article about the city
(Continued on page 4)
(Continued on page 3)
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Decatur Wins at State Latin Convention
By Noelani Siharath and Maya Strong
In February, Decatur students took part in the
Illinois Junior Classical League convention,
competing against junior high and high school
students in academic tests and arts competitions for
the first time ever. The seven amazing participants
were Faiyaz Khan, Esme Pelton, Joey Giambrone,
Owen Strong, Mika Mayfield, Cameron Steelberg,
and Micah Kohng.
On Friday 16, 2017, Faiyaz Khan gave the
beginning speech encouraging Latin and telling the
story of how he came to love Latin.
“Here we are students of the Classics keeping a
dead language alive,” he said. “IJCL isn’t just an
opportunity for learning, it’s a time to make
friends.”
During roll call, some of the Decatur Classical
team members performed a handwritten rap based
on the musical Hamilton.
Even though this was Decatur’s first IJCL
convention, Faiyaz Khan won 10th place in the state
of Illinois. He won first place in sculpture, modern
myth, dramatic interpretation, and classical art and
architecture, and did well in many other
competitions and tests!
Another key player was Joey Giambrone, who
placed first in Grammar, Mottos, Latin Derivatives,
and Roman Literature!
Roll Call competition
Roman banquet toga night
Owen Strong’s second-place winning entry for the
Graphic Arts: Drawing competition
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Decatur K-3 Chess Team Wins!
By Jenna Cinco
On February 4th, 18 Decatur students
participated in the Greater Chicago Chess
Tournament at McCormick Place, and the K-3 junior
varsity team won first place!
The K-3 Jr. Varsity section includes: Siri
Chennareddy (overall individual champion in this
section, with a 5-0 score), Lily Meegoda (3rd place
with 4.5 points), Brandon Wilken (6th place with a 41 record), and Jack Murphy (who won the special
trophy as a non-rated new player). Also included in
the team were Benjamin Mellinger, Kyle Hurney,
and Ivanka and Emmie Guo.
We also had three players in K-3 Varsity Section
who fought hard against another team who has
complete players: Yuvraj Chennareddy, who finished
3rd, Josephine Swan, who finished 5th place, and
Enkhjin Namuunbayar.
During this year’s tournament, Coach Chris tried
hard to balance our players in the K-6 sections and
split the group between Junior Varsity and Varsity
Teams. The first group contains Anujin
Namuunbayar, Jacob Hansen, and Tyler Weigand.
The second group was Jenna Cinco, Ethan Ding,
Journey Jackson, and John Seward. Both of these
groups did quite well in this very competitive
sections.
The K-6 Junior Varsity Team got the 8th place
out of 22 teams; while K-6 Varsity finished 4th.
Watch out, we’re coming back next year!
Finally, to top it all off, Avi Kaplan competed
alone in the K-9 section. It was not until his last
game against the section winner that decided his
overall standing. Still, Avi got a very good showing
with 3 points and was placed 7th.
Congratulations Dolphins!
New Literacy Teacher
Choir Performs Downtown
(continued from page 1)
also liked that it was small.
Ms. Chueng started teaching in 2014 at
Pershing Elementary School, and also taught at
various city colleges. She started reading as early as
kindergarten, and likes non-fiction books best.
Outside of school, Ms. Chueng likes to travel,
watch movies, read books and art. Her favorite
book is Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck, and,
yes, she does prefer books over movies. She does
not speak any other languages, though she has
learned Spanish, Korean, and German.
So if you see her in the halls, make sure to say
hi to our new teacher Ms. Chueng!
Approximately 60 Decatur students from the
choir sang at the Chicago Cultural Center to
celebrate Black History Month. The kids sang “We
Shall Overcome,” “Lift Every Voice,” and a Michael
Jackson medley. About 2,000 kids performed in
total.
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Third Grader in City Spelling Bee
(Continued from page 1)
spelling bee in the Chicago Sun Times!
Aryan made it to the citywide spelling bee because he won the
Decatur Classical schoolwide spelling bee on January 13.
Participants in the schoolwide spelling bee were chosen after
participating in each classroom’s spelling bee. The top four
students in each grade got to compete in the schoolwide spelling
bee, and there were twenty-four participants in total. The entire
school gathered in the multi-purpose room to watch the
spellers. After about six rounds of increasingly harder words, five
students (Aryan, 6th grader Faiyaz Khan, and 5th graders Jacob
Hansen, Laerdon Kim and Josh Lee) reached the challenge words
that they had not been able to study beforehand. When the
competition got down to Aryan and Faiyaz Khan, Aryan spelled two
challenge words in a row to win the schoolwide bee. His final word
was “predominant.”
The third grader was not surprised that he made it to the
schoolwide spelling bee and was only a little surprised to win the
entire competition.
But winning a spelling bee comes at a fairly big price. When
asked how long he studied for the
schoolwide spelling bee, Aryan
replied, “Multiply 31 x 30,” which
totals 15 and a half hours.
Aryan then had to take an online
spelling bee to qualify for the
citywide spelling bee.
All the Classroom Spelling Bee Winners
1st GRADE:
Allison Lee, Christa Lariosa, Simona Arsic, Bella Blankenberger
ALTERNATE: Haroon Mandur (102)
2nd GRADE:
Calvin Bucher, Kyle Hurney, Enrique Morales, Miles Weber
ALTERNATE: Siri Chennareddy
3rd GRADE:
Emma Strong, Charlie Duggan,
Aryan Thapa-Chhetri, Liam Minkov
ALTERNATE: Tom Greenwald (107); Susan Tang (105),
4th GRADE:
Michael McCaffrey, Isla Gard, Peter Xu, Zoe FixZalkind
ALTERNATE: Ryder Page (109); Gaya Garapaty (106)
5th GRADE:
Laerdon Kim, Marinel Workman-Mandell,
Josh Lee, Jacob Hansen
ALTERNATE: James To
6th GRADE:
Faiyaz Khan, Esme Pelton,
Amelie Sanchez, Owen Strong
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Students Win School
History Fair Awards
By Josh Lee
The History Fair Awards ceremony was hosted
on March 10th. History Fair is an annual project run
by 6th grade teacher Mrs. Sharping. Both 5th
graders and 6th graders participate in History Fair,
with the winning 6th graders going on to represent
Decatur in the citywide Chicago History Fair.
The projects were a mix of websites,
documentaries, and even one performance!
The theme for History Fair projects this year was
Taking a Stand. Some of the winning 6th grade
project topics were the Japanese-American
internment, in which Japanese-Americans were sent
to concentration camps after the Pearl Harbor attack
of 1941; the Chicago Defender, a famous black
newspaper in Chicago; and Ben Hecht, a former
reporter who became a screenwriter in Hollywood.
The 5th grade winners were Hannah Glassman,
Maya Strong, Jane Bazzell, Isai Balamurugan, Lily
Meyer, Marinel Workman-Mandell, Josh Lee,
Sammy Shin, and Richa Sharma.
6th Graders Attend Archeology Dig
Students Push For Expansion
The 6th grade winners were Ariana Rashid, Chloe
Symons, Eleanor Corken, Neha Rishi, Annika Nelson,
Amelie Sanchez, Zoe Barilla-Deuschle, Charlynne
Ligo, Micah Kohng, and Faiyaz Khan.
By Anujin Namuunbayar and Grace Grieme
On February 22, students Michael McCaffrey and
Jacob Hansen gave speeches to the Chicago Board of
Education about expanding Decatur (see speeches
on next page).
Michael is in 4th grade and he wanted to do this
because he wants an actual cafeteria and more gym.
Michael said that he wrote about the things he was
mad about, and that he put his ideas into paragraphs
and installed proper grammar. Michael said he was
not even nervous at all.
Jacob is in 5th grade and wanted to do this
because he would like to go to school here for 7th
and 8th grade. Jacob said that he made the speech
with his mom’s help.
At the end of his speech, Michael invited Frank
Clark, the Chairman of the Chicago Board, to visit
Decatur. Mr. Clark said that he would come and
complimented Michael and Jacob. “Both of you
young men represented your schools, your
institutions your parents very well,” Mr. Clark said.
Both Michael and Jacob thought that the Board
of Education took the issues at Decatur seriously and
that they were appreciated.
By Maya Strong
The Archeology Dig was held on January 23rd,
2017 for the 6th grade and was organized by
Magistra Cohen, the Latin teacher at Decatur.
Retired Latin teacher, Dr. Judith Hayes, visited
Decatur to speak to the 6th grade students. She
brought along four portable archeology digs with
items hidden in sand, and the students dug through
the sand to recover items such as mosaic tiles,
seeds, bricks, bones, and a necklace to experience a
“dig” first hand.
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Student Speeches for Expansion at Board Meeting
By Jacob Hansen
Hi. My name is Jacob Hansen and I'm a fifth
grader at Decatur Classical School. I'd like to tell
you about the difficulties the kids at our school face
because they don’t have a place to go for 7th and
8th grade. In fifth grade, kids at my school start to
get worried and stressed out. They are only 10 or
11 years old and they are very worried about
getting good grades and taking tests to get into 7th
grade.
Decatur is a testing school. Kids come from all
over the city to go there, and we work 1 or 2 years
above grade level so we do the 7th grade
curriculum in 6th grade, which makes it harder to
go back to a neighborhood school for 7th grade, so
most kids try to test into another selective
enrollment school or an academic center.
In 5th grade, we think a lot about having to
leave Decatur. We worry that we will not be able to
continue at the same kind of education and classes
that we've had here at Decatur.
The kids who go to Decatur are very interested
in learning. I've learned so much from my
classmates. Because it's such a small school I know
all the kids there and the teachers know all the kids
very well. My grade has only 29 kids total, and most
of us have been together for most of our grade
school. We are sad that our class will be all split
apart. Whatever school we go to for 7th or 8th
grade, we are usually not with more than a few of
our classmates from Decatur. It’s very hard to
change to a new school where you hardly know
anyone in 7th grade. It’s hard to think about
splitting up from my friends and starting
somewhere new especially because I will have to do
it again two years later when we go to high school.
It also means we are spending a lot of time
thinking about grades and tests from 5th grade on
rather than just learning which is what we want to
do. If Decatur could have a 7th and 8th grade,
these problems would be solved.
Out of more than 480 Chicago Public School, just
a handful only go to 6th grade. All the rest have 7th
and 8th grades. I think that Decatur deserves to
have one too. Thank you.
By Michael McCaffrey
Hello. My name is Michael McCaffrey and I am a
fourth grader from Decatur Classical School. Thank
you for listening to what I have to say today.
I would like to ask for your help improving some
things at Decatur. I think the place to start is
improving the gym. The problem is we do not have
a gym at Decatur. On rainy days, we either have
gym in our small multipurpose room or in our
classroom, which means no exercise. And I don't
think it is fair that kids at other Chicago public
schools are able to have a nice big gym while we
have to pay money that cannot be used for other
things and get a contract signed to play in a gym for
only once a week for six weeks a year.
Listen to this upsetting fact. That is only 2,100
minutes for a student who stays at Decatur from k
through 6th grade. If we had our own gym, students
will get an average of 25,900 minutes in K to 6th
grade.
Also, we don’t have a cafeteria at Decatur. This
means that we have to eat lunch at our desks and
we can't eat with our friends. If we had a cafeteria
we could eat wherever we want. also, kids from
different classes like to eat with each other and can't
because we eat at our desks.
When you were a kid, having lunch with your
friends is important. Kids get to socialize with one
another and chat.
The way to fix this would be turning the multipurpose room into a cafeteria.
I would really appreciate it if we could work
together to make Decatur a better place.
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Meet Your Student Congress Representatives
MATHIEU DIAZ
By Zoe FixZalkind
Q: Why did you run for
Student Congress?
A: I wanted to be a part of
something at school.
Q: Have you been in Student
Congress or something like it
before?
A: Yes, 3 times (at old school).
Q: What’s your favorite part
about Student Congress?
A: Working with other people.
Q: What do you want to
accomplish because of your
position in Student Congress?
A: I want to be a role model for
other people.
Q: What’s your favorite color?
A: Neon green.
Q: What’s your favorite thing
to do?
A: Play sports.
Q: What’s your favorite food?
A: Tacos.
Q: What did you do for winter
break?
A: I went to Ecuador.
Q: What’s your favorite book/
series?
A: I don’t have one.
Q: Do you like Decatur better
than your old school?
A: I don’t know.
EVAN RYDING
By Ananya Nanda
Q: Why did you run for
Student Congress?
A: I wanted to be part of a
change at Decatur.
Q: What is your favorite part
of Student Congress?
A: I like helping with school
events like the Holiday Bazaar.
Q: What is your favorite
color?
A: Black and grey.
Q: What do you do in
Student Congress?
A: I help decide the
decorations in the window, sort
items for the Holiday Bazaar, and
so much more.
Q: What is your favorite
book series and/or video game?
A: Boxboxboy.
Q: What is your favorite
food?
A: Sushi.
Q: When did you come to
Decatur?
A: I came in 2012 in
Kindergarten.
Q: Do you have any siblings?
If so, how many?
A: I have one 16-year-old
brother.
Q: Have you been in student
congress before?
A: No.
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VINCE PARENTE
By Maya Strong
Vincent Parente is a fourth
grader at Decatur Classical
Elementary School. He said in his
speech that he ran for Student
Congress because he wanted to
make a difference in the
school. Vince is experienced as he
was in Student Congress before in
second grade. His favorite part of
being in Student Congress is the
Holiday Bazaar.
OWEN STRONG
By Sammy Shin
Owen Strong is 12 and is in 6th
grade and has Mrs. Sharping as a
teacher. He likes chocolate-chip
cookies. His favorite color is blue,
and when he grows up, he wants
to be a chemical engineer. One of
his hobbies is coding, his favorite
subject is science, and his favorite
sport is kickball. Over the summer
Owen went to Cape Cod,
Massachusetts, and he went to
the beach with his family.
Movie Reviews
By Mina Chung-Hawke
Hidden Figures is about three African-American
women who helped get the first American into space
successfully.
Katherine Goble Johnson (Taraji P. Henson) is a
math genius with three daughters and only her
mother there to help her. Dorothy Vaughn (Octavia
Spencer) supervises the “Colored Computers” department at NASA, but is not being promoted to supervisor. Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) wants to be
an engineer, but can’t be one until she takes more
classes on top of her college degree.
Katherine Johnson helps figure out the calculations for these flights, but her partner doesn’t feel
like an African-American woman should get credit
for these important calculations. Meanwhile, Mary
Jackson is arguing for a court case so that she can
take night classes and become an engineer, and Dorothy Vaughn wants to be promoted to supervisor,
but the woman in charge of the women’s department all together still won’t promote her.
I think this is good for kids because it teaches
them about the hidden, and by some, forgotten story of how girl power got men into space.
By Anujin Namuunbayar
First, I would like to say that this movie gave me
tears. It was so sad! Yet beautiful at the same time.
There was this dog named Bailey. In his second
life, his owner is Ethan. A friend of “Ethan” starts a
fire in his house and when Ethan tries to save
everyone, he hurts his leg. Some people may think
that dogs are smart but what are they really
thinking? They think about food and that their butt
itches. In his third life, he gets killed by getting shot.
But I’m only going to give you one spoiler. I
think I cried a trillion times. I’m not kidding! Go
watch it yourself! This movie is about a dog who
wants to figure out what is the meaning of life. One
more spoiler: In his third life, he fights crime with
his owner. But was his purpose to sniff, track, and
find? So, what is the meaning of life? And how does
he keep being born all over again? The only way to
figure that out is to watch the movie. The movie is
about an adventurer who wants to make everyone
happy. It is also funny. Bailey calls kissing “face
licking”. I did not mean to gross you out there. Also,
he calls a donkey a “horse dog.”
At the end, he finds out what a dog’s purpose is.
Sort of. Every life, when he dies, he asks himself if
he learned what a dog’s purpose is. And every time,
he gets closer and closer to finding out what a dog’s
purpose is and finding Ethan. But how will Ethan
know that the dog is really Bailey? Is there a special
way to find out if Ethan remembers Bailey? But you
got to remember that Bailey looks completely
different now. But what does Bailey look like now?
By Brady Leonard
The Lego-Batman Movie is fast-paced and just as
funny as the original Lego Movie from 2014 but also
a little darker. In this movie Batman has a seemingly
great life being an adored super hero but we learn
that sometimes it takes a village, not a Batman.
There are lots of action scenes, hilarious jokes,
surprising guest stars and, according to my mom
and dad, plenty of inside jokes for the adults seeing
the movie. I give this movie 3 and 1/4 stars out of 5.
8
New Principal to Start This Summer
(Continued from page 1)
place for students so that you like coming to school
and you enjoy your time here,” she said.
One idea that she’s considering is using the multi
purpose room as a cafeteria so kids can eat lunch
there instead of in their classrooms. She'd also like
to have lots of different special activities every day
and after school. She will try to get more art and
creative activities at Decatur. She also wants kids to
have recess outside every day.
Ms. Luna thinks that expansion is important
especially if the school gets a middle grade. “It
sounds like we really need it,” she said. Ms. Luna
said she was surprised at how small Decatur was
when she visited, especially since Hamilton is much
bigger.
Ms. Luna is interested in using novels more in
teaching about reading. For the older kids, she
believes in a novel-based curriculum because if she
has a class read a book you can explain what the
story is about and what you are learning from that
story. She also wants to make math more about
centers and processes, where kids come up with
solutions any way that they can. She thinks kids
should have choices about how they learn.
Some of you may have heard of Hamilton's NO
HOMEWORK policy. They do not have homework
until the 5th grade in part so kids have more time for
after-school activities. When they do have
homework, they do not have daily homework but
portfolios which they get weekly. Ms. Luna wants to
talk to parents and teachers and get their input as to
whether this might work at Decatur too.
Ms. Luna said she wants to utilize the playground
and the grassy areas more because when she drove
by she was amazed by how much land is near
Decatur. She may try to have more classes outside.
Ms. Luna said that her ideal teacher is caring and
energetic, and really loves kids.
As a child, Ms. Luna wanted to be a doctor and
then a lawyer, but she became a teacher instead
because she wanted to work with kids. She grew up
in Chicago and has never lived anywhere else in her
life. She went to Burley Elementary, Franklin Fine
Ms. Luna with Student Reporters
Arts, and Lane Tech. She went to DePaul for college
and also went to National Louis University.
Ms. Luna started teaching in 2004 and was
initially a 4th grade teacher. She taught at Stockton
Elementary School in 2010, then later started
teaching at Hamilton and became the assistant
principal there.
Her favorite book is To Kill a Mockingbird. She
said that she has probably read it 30 times and that
she likes the themes of the book. She said that it
gives her perspective and hope when she reads it.
Ms. Luna likes documentaries and historical
movies, especially about World War II. She said that,
for fun, her favorite movie is Zootopia.
Ms. Luna’s favorite singers are Michael Buble and
Tony Bennett, and her favorite song is Ain't Too
Proud to Beg by the Temptations. Ms. Luna plays
piano and sings, and thinks that these are important
parts of her even if she does not do them
professionally. She has performed with kids at
Hamilton and hopes to do so at Decatur!
If she could be any historical figure, she would be
Abraham Lincoln or author Maya Angelou.
Her favorite color is blue.
If she was not a teacher, Ms. Luna would love to
be a food critic.
Along with English, Ms. Luna speaks Spanish,
understands a little bit of Italian, and has always
wanted to speak French.
Ms. Luna and her husband have two children,
Caleb, who is in 8th grade at Hamilton, and
Abraham, who is in preschool and was adopted
about two years ago.
9
4th Graders: Mina Chung-Hawke, Jenna Cinco,
Zoe FixZalkind, Sabine Garcia, Grace Grieme,
Brady Leonard, Michael McCaffrey,
Anujin Namuunbayar, Ananya Nanda,
Domi Norborg, Shea Perkins,
Aubree Stephens, Kelly Suh, Yasmyn Sutherlin
5th Graders: Shumei Gong, Josh Lee,
Lily Meyer, Richa Sharma, Sammy Shin,
Noelani Siharath, Maya Strong
Thanks to Ms. K, Mrs. J, Mrs. Sharping, Mrs.
Regalado, Mr. P, and all the parent volunteers
for your help!
10