Sepulveda School Fields Academic ‘A’ Team

When the eight members of Sepulveda Junior High’s Academic Pentathlon team accept their award today for winning the junior high battle of the brains, the lid will come off one of the best-kept education secrets in the San Fernando Valley.

For years, Sepulveda Junior High has had one of the most respected academic programs in the Valley, according to officials of the Los Angeles Unified School District. However, for some reason, the school gets very little attention.

May Be in Spotlight

All that may change with the recognition that usually follows when a school fields a championship academic team.

The Pentathlon is a junior high version of the Academic Decathalon, a scholastic competition for high-school students. In both competitions, students take individual tests in subjects that range from essay writing to math. The only public event is the Super Quiz, a test relay in which all members of the team participate.

Beat Out 78 Schools

In the four years of the Los Angeles school district’s Pentathlon, Sepulveda has always finished in the top five. This year, with only five weeks’ preparation and a rookie coach, Sepulveda won over teams from 78 other district junior high schools.

Out of a possible 1,800 points, Sepulveda’s team scored 1,098.5 and squeaked past Griffith Junior High of East Los Angeles, which finished with 1,097.5 points. Sepulveda’s victory also dethroned Reed Junior High of North Hollywood, which had won the Pentathlon crown the last three years.

Sepulveda’s overall victory was helped by its second-place finish in the Super Quiz. That competition was won by Markham Intermediate School of Watts.

Since taking the Pentathlon championship, team members have become celebrities among the school’s 2,000 students and their black-and-white team sweat shirts are now worn like badges of honor.

“Sepulveda deserves this kind of recognition,” said Tony Rivas, regional superintendent for the southern part of the Valley. “It is long overdue for a very special school.”

Offers Unusual Classes

Curriculum is one of the things that makes Sepulveda special. At a time when many junior highs have had to cut out electives because of increased academic requirements and lack of financing for extras, Sepulveda has kept many of these programs, in part by relying on the versatility of faculty members who can teach more than one subject.

For example, the school is one of a handful of junior highs to still have a horticulture program. Students can select a variety of courses, including landscape design, a class that Sepulveda Principal Joan Elam said gives even seventh-graders “the ability to landscape a backyard.”

About 650 Sepulveda students are enrolled in a “gifted magnet” program, which has brought a number of advanced academic classes to the school. Because the gifted students attend most of their classes alongside 1,350 students in the regular program, courses such as geometry, advanced algebra, advanced foreign languages, marine science and aerospace science, are open to everyone on the campus.

Maintains Art Gallery

The school boasts an orchestra, a band and a choir. It has the only oil-painting class in the district and its own community art gallery that features a wide range of works, including those of well-known contemporary artists such as painter Sam Francis.

There is an internship program in which students work with younger, handicapped students at nearby public schools. Students also work with geriatric patients at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Sepulveda.

Sepulveda students are the only junior high students in the nation that the Veteran’s Administration will allow to work with its older patients, according to Principal Elam.

And, in one of the quietest but highest accolades a school can receive, Sepulveda is the school many district administrators want their children to attend.

“As a parent, I felt that Sepulveda’s program was a wonderful experience for my son,” said Ronald Berz, principal of Taft High School in Woodland Hills. It has an “in-depth program that covers all the bases. I felt my son got a good foundation at Sepulveda Junior High.”

Sepulveda Principal Elam credits the school’s success to a “special chemistry” between the 150 staff members, parents and students. Parents are frequent guest lecturers in classes, giving students insights on their careers or in special interests such as Baroque music.

“This is like the schools we used to have years ago,” said Elam. “You know, the kind that offered subjects in depth. We offer a qualitatively different program here.”

Diverse Backgrounds

Sepulveda is not a school where the classrooms are filled with youngsters from affluent, white families. About 45% of the students are Latino, 30% are white, 12% are Asian, 10% are black and 2% are American Indians. Except for many of the magnet students, all Sepulveda youngsters come from the neighborhood.

The relatively high percentage of American Indian students makes Sepulveda one of the few district schools with a federally funded program for American Indian students. This program provides enrichment and tutoring for students who need extra academic help.

There are about 250 students in the English-as-a-second-language program. Spanish is the most common language; however, native languages run the gamut from Vietnamese to Korean to Arabic or Hebrew.

The diversity of the school is reflected in the Pentathlon team. Two of the students are from the magnet center. The rest are from the regular school program. One of the students was born in Korea and has been in the United States only three years.

And not all the Pentathlon team members are A students. The team is equally divided among youngsters who bring home report cards with straight A’s, those with B averages and those who earn C’s.

Crammed for 5 Weeks

Team members said the five weeks before the Pentathlon competition were spent cramming. Lunch time was spent with science and math teachers. After school, there were team meetings preparing for the Super Quiz. Weekends were devoted to more studying.

“At first they thought it was a monumental task that they could never conquer,” said Todd Tyni, team coach and a first-year computer science teacher. “But this is a very motivated group, and, by the end, I didn’t need to do much pushing. They were motivating each other.”

Would the Pentathlon team members do it again?

In unison, the eight “brainiacs” answered with a resounding “YES!”