On Thursday night, 140 students and parents along with 20 staff members and teachers – plus 50 pizzas – converged in Sassarini’s multipurpose room for the school’s second annual STAR party.
The event is a kick-off to next week’s STAR testing and is a study in teaching students to do their best.
“The best thing is to see parents bring their children out on a school night to have fun and get ready for STAR testing,” said Mariya Cree, a special education teacher and student council advisor at Sassarini.
Cree is the person in charge of the STAR party and works hard to bring in the crowd, organizing a midday assembly on top of the nighttime event – complete with skits, stations that give information about the test and a raffle. Cree also works with local music teacher Bob Gossett, who arranges original musical numbers like the catchy, “STAR Testing Song,” sung to the tune of the Mickey Mouse Club.”
For students, it’s a fun night out. Jacob Matheson and his sister Rachelle, both second graders, said the best thing about the party is eating pizza. “We also get to have gum during the test to help us relax,” said Rachelle with a big grin.
“Anything that excites the kids and makes them do better on the test is something that we, as parents, are in support of,” said parent Karen Buscher.
Principal Leticia Cruz agreed. “The party is all about motivating students to do their best,” said Cruz. “Last year our scores were up 38 points so it seems that the party was received positively by students. We hope to do even better this year.”
