West metro school briefs: West schools dominate in debate

West schools dominate in debateWest-metro schools dominated the policy debate portion of the state debate tournament Jan. 13-14 at the University of Minnesota. Seven of the eight schools that made it to the quarterfinals were from the west metro.

Mimi Sergent-Leventhal and Erin Sielaff of Edina claimed the championship, winning the finals over Michael McGrath and Kentucky Morrow of the Blake School.

The five other west-metro teams that made it to the final eight were Dustin Meyers-Levy and Jon Yang of Edina; Alex Bahls and Meghna Sohoni of Wayzata; Clay Carlson and He Li of Eden Prairie; Oskar Tauring-Traxler and Cole Johnson-Jensen of Minneapolis South, who advanced to the semifinals, and Lillie Ouelette-Howitz and Jacob Boucher of Minneapolis South.

In the Lincoln-Douglas debate, Andrew Urevig, a sophomore at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School, placed second behind Ashesh Rambachan from Eastview High of Apple Valley. Juliet Nelson of Blake School also made it to the quarterfinals in the event.

Nominees named for ExCEL programBloomington's Jefferson and Kennedy high schools have announced their 2012 ExCEL and Triple "A" awards program nominees.

The ExCEL, or Excellence in Community, Education and Leadership, program nominees are Jefferson's Morgan Hinton and Patrick Koob and Kennedy's Leah DeSchepper and Eddie Pribyl.

ExCEL recognizes 34 high school juniors who are leaders in their school and work as volunteers in their community. The award is sponsored by AAA Minneapolis and the Minnesota State High School League. Winners will be named in February.

Technology forum held for parentsBloomington's middle schools -- Oak Grove, Olson and Valley View -- will host a Technology in Schools Parent Forum from 7-8 p.m. Feb. 13.

The event at the Oak Grove Auditorium, 1300 W. 106th St., will be open to all Bloomington middle-school parents. It will include an overview of technology used in middle schools, classroom tech tools and Internet safety information.

Parenting expert speaks at BlakeWendy Mogel, an internationally acclaimed clinical psychologist, parenting expert and author of the New York Times bestseller parenting book, "The Blessing of a Skinned Knee," will speak at the Blake School on Thursday.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place from 7-8 p.m. at the upper school at 511 Kenwood Parkway in Minneapolis. Mogel's new book, "The Blessing of a B-Minus," will be available for purchase. For more information, call 952-988-3405.

Student newspaper receives top ratingHopkins High School's student newspaper, the Royal Page, was recently recognized as among Minnesota's top student newspapers, earning an All-State Gold ranking from the Journalism Educators of Minnesota.