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Perfect scores puts Lathrop principal in sticky situation
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Lathrop School Vice Principal Karen Olsen gets drenched with chocolate sauce and other sweet stuff used to make an ice cream sundae at last Tuesday’s Standardized Testing and Reporting rally held at the school multi-purpose building. - photo by VINCE REMBULAT

LATHROP – One of the benefits of achieving a perfect 600 score in the California Standards Test at Lathrop School is the opportunity of putting administrators in a sticky situation.

It didn’t matter that David Lund and Vanessa Valdez Macias were currently freshmen at Lathrop High. They came back to their old stomping grounds last Tuesday for the STAR – or Standardized Testing and Reporting – rally.

Lund and Valdez Macias along with Scott Angele, Francisco Corona, Adrian Hedrix, Benjamin Jex, Jared Holzer, and Daniel Raya Ruiz – they, too, scored 600 in the CST individual subject areas consisting of English / language, math, science, and history / social science – were given the honor to drench Principal David Silveira and first-year Vice Principal Karen Olsen with chocolate sauce, caramel, marshmallows, chopped nuts, whipped cream, cherries, sprinkles and even breakfast cereal.

Both administrators wore tie-dyed shirts prior to becoming living ice cream sundaes by the perfect STAR-testing students.

“We look like rainbow sherbet (ice cream),” Silveira jokingly said.

What’s hardly a laughing matter is the goal he set for his students.

Silveira is encouraging them to shoot for the API standard score of 800.

“We’re all going to shine and get 800 on the test,” he said.

But Lathrop School administrators are also encouraged by improvement of any kind on the STAR.

The school is coming off a 40-point improvement from the previous year, scoring 741 in the API.

“We’re shooting for 800 but 770 would be a good step in the right direction,” Silveira said.

As living ice cream sundaes, he and Olsen served as reminders for “Evening with the STARs” planned for Thursday, April 15, from 6 to 7 p.m.

This time, however, students can indulge in a 10-foot ice cream sundae made possible by Dean Foods, distributors of Baskin-Robbins.

In addition, some students received STAR cards during the school-wide event, thus, making them eligible for prizes such as a Razor scooter or brand-new bicycle, with each validated card to be placed in a drawing.

“Teachers can punch or initial STAR cards based on your best effort,” Silveira said to those students.