Barry Goldwater High School

Template:High School Infobox Barry Goldwater High School is a public high school located in Phoenix, Arizona, named after 1964 presidential candidate and well-known Arizona resident, U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater. It is part of the Deer Valley Unified School District. The school offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme that has sent alumni to highly competitive universities such as the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University, Princeton University, Stanford University, and University of California, Berkeley and has produced five National Merit Semi-Finalists in the class of 2007. In addition, the school is noted for a regional champion chess team for the year 2006-2007. It is an excelling school (top 15% of the state) and maintains an extremely high 68% AIMS pass rate and 99.7% AIMS attendance rate. The current principal is Mike Andersen, Ed.D.

Peace Pole

a picture of the peace pole

The peace pole is a major element of the Barry Goldwater Campus. Located outside of the Lecture Hall in a planter, the peace pole stands tall, boasting phrases of peace in multiple languages. In 2005, the peace pole was damaged, but was soon repaired, restoring hope to students who looked to the peace pole as a refuge from their stressful lives. The area around the peace pole has come to be a place of congregation for many students, between classes, during lunch, and before school. Sometimes, students will be late to class just to meet their peers at the pole.

The International Baccalaureate programme

There are currently eleven IB schools in Arizona. Barry Goldwater High School received its IB charter in 1999, graduating its first IB class in 2002. Presently, the IB class of 2007 at this school includes 27 students, with each grade below that containing progressively more students each striving for the IB Diploma. The counselor for the IB Students is Ms. Speranta Klees.

Barry Goldwater IB students in their freshmen and sophomore years are considered pre-IB and usually take honors or AP classes for the four core subjects (math, science, history, language arts) and regular classes for two electives. They enter the actual IB program in the junior year and usually take all IB classes except for AP Calculus.

Recently students from Barry Goldwater exceeded world standards in Mathematics, Chemistry, Psychology, and Visual Art. The Barry Goldwater IB students have also exceeded world standards in the achievement of the IB diploma.

Classes Offered

• 20th Century World History
• Biology SL/HL
• Chemistry SL
• English HL
• French SL
• History of the Americas
• Physics SL/HL
• Psychology SL
• Spanish SL
• Studio Art SL/HL
• Theory of Knowledge

SL = secondary level HL = higher level

Calculus AB/BC is taken in place of a true IB math course, but students usually take the Math Studies SL test in May after their junior year.

Chess Team

2003 - 2004

The chess club was founded by an aspiring student named Matt Schultz who graduated in 2006. His philosophy was that all students should have the opportunity to experience the game of chess sometime in their life. He was quoted to have said during an intense chess match: "If I were to die today and never see my mother again, the sight of a mahogany queen would suffice..." His idealism was reflected through his strong passion for chess, his never say die attitude, and dedication to the club.

The chess club's humble origins consisted of meetings every Friday. In contrast with the strict policies of the chess program today, students freely played games "for fun" and did no formal chess study. The club in the beginning was plagued with lack of experience and dedication from its very few members. Most of them hadn't even heard of everyday chess terms such as forks, pins, kibitzing, or the USCF. However, with the arrival of its first coach named Rich, the club commenced its metamorphosis into becoming a disciplined team. Under Coach Rich's wing, students were encouraged to participate in USCF chess tournaments throughout the state of Arizona. Most chess members played the under-1000 division (for low-leveled players) at this stage.

2004 - 2005

Rich left the Barry Goldwater Chess to coach the Sandra Day O'Connor High School's chess team. However, a new coach named Dave Small volunteered to manage the team. Unlike Rich, Small's teaching philosophy was more strict, and forbade casual playing during chess meetings. During practices, chess members formally studied chess and memorized games as homework. Practices lasted two to three hours, which consequently resulted in the filtering out of less dedicated members and the retaining of students who truly wanted to improve. The team also used the "Chess Tactics" computer chess training programs which were installed onto the members' home computers. This chess training software, as Small emphasized, was a program not created by him, but by Russian Grandmasters. He constantly told this to his students to encourage them to do chess training for at least 30 minutes everyday. With this method, the members of the team dramatically improved, with some players reaching USCF ratings of 1400+.

2005 - 2006

This year marked the beginning of Goldwater's participation in interscholastic play; Small continued to coach, pushing the players to improve even more. The interscholastic play format consisted of five varsity players ranked 1st to 5th who played the respective 1st to 5th best players from the other schools. The Barry Goldwater chess team proved to be one of the best teams in the region, rivaling the equally skilled Alhambra High School(Phoenix, AZ). Despite this success, the school administrators refused to provide adequate funding, and most of the equipment was purchased using money from tax donations and out of the coach’s own pocket. During the region championships, Barry Goldwater tied Alhambra with a score of 2 1/2 to 2 1/2. The winner was decided by whoever won more games in previous matches against other schools. As a result, Alhambra was declared the winner to the dismay of the hard-working Goldwater chess team. However, as put by the chess team sponsor Mr. Dumitrache, "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger." The Barry Goldwater chess team's loss only enlarged their desire to win.

2006 - 2007

This year marked a year of prosperity and success. The chess team purchased fifteen Chronos 2 chess clocks and personalized chess sets and bags. With the consistent improvement under the command of Coach Small, Barry Goldwater dominated the other schools of the region, including Alhambra, and won the region championships on October 7, 2006. Barry Goldwater's members were just too powerful. On November 3-4, Barry Goldwater competed in the Arizona Interscholastic State Championship and placed in 2nd, behind Catalina Foothills.

Rumor: There is currently a 7th grader rated around 1900 who plans to attend Barry Goldwater High School. If this is true and the player continues to improve, Barry Goldwater will have a 2100+ rated player for the 2008 - 2009 year, making it one of the top chess schools in the state.

Robotics club

Founded by Kris Maros in 2005 during his sophomore year, the club was merely a group of two fanatics meeting together every Friday in the library. Although its popularity was lacking, Maros continued to be dedicated, devoting his time and efforts into the club. After spending hours on the club's constitution and allowing his grades to suffer, Kris Maros was finally able to propose something tangible, and the physics teacher, Mr. Sean Denny, quickly took the position as sponsor. However, even as an official club, with advertisements around the school and on the announcements, the club was only able to draw in only a few more members.

As 2006, rolled around, Maros received information of the FIRST Robotics Competition and immediately signed up. He then single-handedly applied for a $10,000 grant from NASA. Unfortunately, after the club received the grant, there were still no dedicated members other than the founder. With no one to work on the robot, the club seemed destined to not even make it to the competition; however, Mr. Denny, seeing the club's distress, began to recruit students from his own class through incentives such as extra credit and community service hours. Having all this motivation, the population of the club soon reached a massive number of 10 participants, 7 being IB candidates.

Although the club had a solid work force, finding enough members took two weeks, leaving only three weeks to build the robot. Maros, fearing a total and complete loss, immediately sent out a distress signal among internet forums. Only one week later, the club received aid from a local robotics team, TEAM CAUTION, along with hands on instruction from Mr. Dan Puffer, a professional engineer.

After three long weeks of spending hours on school campus, the robot's construction and programming were completed. Only until the end of its completion did the club finally receive recognition and support from students and administration. Later, the robot was sent to the competition and three days were allocated from the lives of the sponsor and members of the team to participate. At the end of the competition, the BGHS team achieved the rank of 29 out all the participants in the club's first year.

Athletics

Barry Goldwater participates in AIA Region V athletics. The school offers sports during the fall, winter, and spring seasons.

Fall Sports

• Swimming
• Cross Country
• Football
• Golf
• Volleyball (girls)

Winter Sports

• Soccer
• Basketball
• Wrestling/Wrestlerettes

Spring Sports

• Baseball
• Softball
• Tennis
• Track and Field
• Volleyball (boys)

Athletic Eligibility Requirements

In accordance with the Arizona Interscholastic Association and the Deer Valley Unified School District eligibility rules, the following items must be on file in the athletic office prior to any athletic participation, including tryouts and/or practices:

• Physical Exam and Acknowledgment Form (required each year)
• Emergency Information Form (required each year)
• Copy of your Birth Certificate (required only once in your career)
• Athletic Informed Consent Form (required only once in your career)
• No current "F" grades in any classes

Boy's tennis

In its early development, the tennis team could be considered anything but strong, with poorly trained students playing on poorly developed courts. When the school first received funding, $300,000 was allocated to building tennis courts; however, the administrator's made a foolish decision in picking an untrustworthy contractor. The contractor was paid the first half of the $300,000 before construction began, but unfortunately, he stole the funds and fled to South America. With the remaining $150,000, the administrators were forced to build substandard courts with chicken wire and fencing for the nets and no actual hard court pavement.

Starting with the 2004 spring season, a promising foreign exchange student, Javier Valdenebro, arrived from Spain. He quickly rose to the top, leading the team as #1 varsity. Under him was a sophomore Bosnian immigrant, Rijad Dizdarevic. Together they formed a powerful team allowing them to attain rank of #2 in their region. Sadly, in the 2005 season, Dizdarevic resigned from his position as #1 varsity, placing Ken Wilmoth in charge. With the lasting idealism from Valdenebro the previous year, the team was still able to maintain its #2 in region status. For 2006, another powerful school was placed into its region, North Canyon High School, and the team was forced to chomp on rank 3 in region. Currently, for the 2007 spring season, the players are hopeful in obtaining better results; the top 4 players are seniors led by a powerhouse who has been a varsity member during all his years in high school. The team's coach is Jackie Hale.

Girl's tennis

The girl's tennis team's drastic growth can be seen as each season passes by. First coached by Ms. Roberts in early 2000, the team was ruled by a strict emphasis on training so players would maintain a strong physical body for tough matches; however, coaching position for the team would be passed along causing some instability and inconsistency among the players. After her reign, Coach Roberts left the school taking on a position at the newly developed Boulder Creek High School. The position was left to Ms. Lokken whose tennis ability came from her past experiences on her high school team. Unfortunately, Ms. Lokken resigned in 2004 due to her pregnancy. Mr. Dessenburger took charge of the team with his assistant Steve, hoping to stabilize the team. Though the first few years of coach changes have been rough on the girls, up and coming players such as Sarah Sawtelle, Rebecca Nguyen and Sheryl Mumme hope to rebuild from scratch and salvage some pride.

Clubs

Barry Goldwater offers many clubs that meet both before and after school. Some of these clubs include:

• Art Club
• Bowling Club
• Band Council
• Chess Club
• Dance Council
• Fashion Club
• Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA)
• French Club
• Hip Hop Club
• Humane Education Club
• Interact (Key Club)
• Mock Trial
• Mu Alpha Theta (offers math tutoring)
• National Honor Society (Stellar Chapter)
• Physics Club
• Project Respect
• Robotics (not currently for the year 2006-2007)
• Science Club
• Science Olympiad
• Spanish Club
• Spanish Honors Society
• Theater Club

Library

The Barry Goldwater library is open from 7:30 - 3:30 during regular hours and from 7:30 - 4:30 during extended hours on Wednesday.

Recently, the school upgraded the library computers with Dell desktops computers, mainly due to vandalism from students sticking magnets to the monitors and CPUs, and the inevitible burn-in of computer CRTs after years of displaying the same login screen. However, the new computers still sport 15" CRT monitors. In addition, a ten cent per copy charge was placed on computer printing due to some students printing out entire textbooks, pictures, or other non-educational material.

Computer specifications:

Dell

Windows XP

Novell Network

USB Keyboard

USB Optical Mouse

Pentium 4 2.80GHZ CPU

248 MB of RAM

2x80 GB HDDs

15" Dell CRT Monitors

External links

• Barry Goldwater School website
• Deer Valley Unified School District website
• Barry Goldwater alumni website
• Student-run forums for IB and regular students