7th Grade Boys Basketball Team Wins Regional

Congratulations to our 7th grade boys basketball team who won their regional last week and have now advanced to the sectionals. They will play against Metamora this Wednesday, February 1, at Chiddix Junior High. Please put on your wildest purple and white outfit and come to cheer them on! The game begins at 6:00 PM, so you may want to arrive by 5:45. Thank you for your support.

2005 Spelling Bee Winners

Congratulations to Spelling Bee champion Max Nelson and runner-up Patrick Dieghan, the winners of our all-school competition held Tuesday, January 24th. Max will represent BJHS at the McLean County Spelling Bee at Illinois Wesleyan University on February 23rd. For more details about the local and regional competition, visit this Pantagraph web page. The official site of the Scripts National Spelling Bee is http://www.spellingbee.com. Go to the Advanced Study link on this site to download the list of 23,413 words (ouch!) used in this competition.

New Art Show at Borders Cafe

Enjoy a cup of coffee while you view some work by outstanding BJHS artists. Works in linear perspective, pastel portraits, painted landscapes and pencil drawings are on display. Congratulations to the following artists:

Andrew Boden, Jose Borolla, Arin Calamari, Kendall DeBoer, Tray Frank, Will Frank, Marcus Gracia, Martina Harris, Mary Irwin, Kyle O’Daniel, Tegan Larke, Stephanie Yoder, and Sarah Youngs.

National Board Certified Faculty at BJHS

Seventh grade Language Arts teacher Mrs. Suzanna Hutton recently achieved National Board Certification, and she joins seven other BJHS faculty who have earned this designation. Our school is proud to have one of the highest number of NBC faculty per capita in the state of Illinois. To view a photo of our NBC faculty and learn more about National Board Certification, visit http://www.district87.org/bjhs/national_board.htm in the Good News section of our school website.

7th Grade Students Win Essay Competition

Congratulations to Mrs. Brumme's seventh grade students who wrote winning essays on the topic "Who are Today's Patriots?" sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The following students will now advance to the state competition, with an awards program on January 14th:
Christie Duffer, Max Nelson, Jacob Snodgrass, Kylor Sorenson, Catie Comella, Matt Varney, Taylor Haeffele, Mary Irwin, David Pelo, Jen Ficek, and David Schemerhorn.

Wrestlers are Champions at BJHS Invitational

On Saturday the Bloomington Junior High Wrestling team captured its 4th Team title in 5 attempts at their own invitational. The Knights captured first place with 297.00 points followed by Edwardsville Liberty in 2nd place with 236.00 points and in 3rd place was Dekalb Huntley with 216.00 points. Capturing individual titles for Bloomington were Kylor Sorensen at 90 pounds, Jacob Erdman at 95 pounds, Alex Bee at 100 pounds and Armand Ontiveros at 126 pounds. Bloomington also had seven individuals place 2nd. Christian Cedeno at 75 pounds, Parker Johnson at 80 pounds, Alex Alvis at 85 pounds, Caleb Wissmiller at 100 pounds, Justin Brooks at 135 pounds, Luke McAvoy at 167 pounds, and Kyle McAvoy at 215 pounds. In all Bloomington earned 21 individual medals. Complete tournament results can be found on the team website at http://wrestling.district87.org The Knights look to improve upon their 60-0 dual meet record this week when they travel to Olympia on Tuesday and are at home on Thursday against a very tough Mahomet-Seymour team.

Chess Club Tournament Champions

The BJHS Chess Team participated in the 2005 Illinois State All Grade Chess Tournament on November 12 in Joliet,Illinois. There were several individual and team accomplishments! Curtis Wiese tied for third place in the 6th grade section. Dylan Johnson was the Co-Champion for 7th grade. Aaron Barton tied for second place in the 8th grade section. The 7th grade team of Dylan, Johnson, Max Nelson, Michael Reilly and Eric Schmidt were the 7th grade championsof the state. This is the second year in a row this class has been Illinois State Champions! The 8th grade team comprised of Aaron Barton and Karthik Patel finished in third place. Chess Club meets regularly on Wednesday after school from 2:50 to 4:00 p.m.

BJHS Chorus Members Accepted into IMEA Honors Chorus

Congratulations to members of the BJHS Eighth Grade Chorus who were accepted into the IMEA District III Honors Chorus! All students in this chorus were chosen from over 40 participating schools! They attended numerous after school rehearsals in preparation for the event. They presented a concert in the Braden Auditorium on November 19 to an enthusiastic crowd of nearly a thousand people.
Chorus members chosen were: Jenny Amburgey- Soprano, Kelsey Reynolds – Soprano, Taylor Reynolds – Soprano, Jeremiah Brittin – Tenor, Luke Sorensen – Tenor, Daniel Boitnott – Baritone, David Blume –Baritone, Lucille McCaffrey – Alto, Reyhana Pippins – Alto, and Maggie Watkins – Alto.

Art News

Several students have exhibited their work in the community. Congratulations to the following students:
First and Second Quarter Exhibits
McDonald's in Bloomington
8th Grade: Jonathan Gremaud, Annie Manns, Dylan Bess, Stephany Trader, Cameron Jones, Frantara Turner, Brooke Foley, Elizabeth Hartzler, Mike Bradford.
7th Grade: Alex Beutow, Shaun Wolfe, Nick Von Holten.
Borders in Bloomington
7th grade - Pastel Self Portraits: Jessi Alvis, Mercedes Gleghorn-Falls, Harini Madheswaran, Jace Mortimer, Morgan Schaub, Jenny Trowitch, James Turley.
6th grade - Still Life Drawing: Lynna Briggs, Katie Blumenshine, Lindsay Byers, Carol Gu, Travis Hogsett, Andy Johnson.
6th grade - Watercolor Landscape Paintings: Alex Alexander, Joey Ebey.

BJHS Teacher Wins $1000 Grant

Congratulations to Mrs. Aurelius-Muir, our vocal music teacher and director of our Show Choir. She was awarded this morning with a WHOI Kids Count One Class at a Time $1000 Grant. The presentation of her grant and a video of Mrs. Aurelius-Muir with her class will be broadcast on WHOI TV on January 11th at 5,6, and 10 p.m. and on January 12th at 5 and 7 a.m. For more information about this grant, visit this link from the WHOI TV website: http://www.hoinews.com/home/headlines/580882.html

L to R: Gretchen Wirtz of WHOI TV, Mrs. Aurelius-Muir, and BJHS Principal Dr. Silvey

Welcome to the New BJHS News Blog

Bloomington Junior High School welcomes in the 2006 year with their new website and weblog of latest news. The address of our new site is the same as our old one - http://www.district87.org/bjhs. Comments and suggestions are welcome; email our webmaster at mcdonaldl@district87.org.