Por Elizabeth Gillingham

PHAME is coming soon

The building that will house the Patrick Henry Arts Media and Entertainment (PHAME) Academy has a roof and will be ready for the fall semester 2016. Construction at PHHS has been fast and furious but we’re beginning to see that all the noise and inconveniences are beginning to pay off in that the building is getting closer and closer towards completion.

For those who live near Henry, thanks for your patience and for putting up with the extra cars. We are close to adding more than 100 parking spaces on the southwest corner of the campus, which should ease the stress created by this project.

PHAME looks amazing with its new footprint on the campus taking shape and casting a view of what a modern 21st century performing arts center should look like. The next few months will be devoted towards installing the walls, adding furniture and chairs, finishing the electrical components, adding fancy lights, and completing the classroom spaces.

When the building is complete, we will have a full-size stage, orchestra pit, 508 seats, a ticket booth, and a two-story glass wall for the main entrance. We will also have four new classrooms that will be used for our video production pathway, allowing students to learn about how to broadcast information in a variety of forums.

This is the first phase of three major construction projects that are scheduled for PHHS in the next three years. Just as the modernization and PHAME project is wrapping up, we will be starting Phase 2, where we’ll be adding a new two-story, solar-powered building in the southeast corner of our property. A 24-classroom building will break ground in July and continue construction for the coming school year. Once it is completed, we will remove the old bungalows that currently sit behind PHAME and add more parking, which will fully restore our parking lot to our original design prior to the construction of PHAME for student and staff use.

PHHS student of the month

Congratulations to Anthony Gonzalez, who was selected as the Kiwanis and PHHS Student of the Month for January.

Gonzalez earned the respect and admiration of the PHHS administrative team for putting together the December Powder Puff game played between the seniors and the juniors. Organizing this game meant finding students who were willing to play in an exhibition game of flag football where the girls play against each other with the assistance of PHHS football team captains. In addition, the varsity cheerleading captains helped coach the male students on cheers to entertain the crowd.

Gonzalez found players to sign up and participate in practices; secured free chaperones to support the game (so they could make more profit on the game); established rules and regulations to keep everyone safe; and reported his progress on a weekly basis to our administrative team.

The game was held on a rainy Friday night and was a huge success, helping our senior class raise over $2,500 for their upcoming prom. Thank you Anthony for an outstanding job!

Henry student selected for Honor Band

Kudos to sophomore student Noah Krasner, who passed a rigorous audition and was invited to play his instrument with approximately 100 other students from across the region in the All Southern California Honor Band.

Students received the music beforehand, and rehearsed tirelessly for two days. They had one dress rehearsal and were expected to play flawlessly in concert the next day at Arcadia High.

Krasner said that he got good advice about music and college life from the director Dr. Travis Cross, who is a professor at UCLA. Cross wrote one of the four pieces performed by the Honor Band. Auditions were held in Glendale in December and the rehearsals were from 7:30 a.m. — 4 p.m. for two days at the Hyatt in Anaheim.

“There were four bass clarinets in the section, including me, and I was placed third chair,” Krasner said. “It was plenty of fun, I learned lots, made new friends, and I hope to do it again next year.”

––Elizabeth Gillingham is the principal of Patrick Henry High School.