Waterford Today

The Birmingham Public School District Board recognized some of its exceptional students during a meeting held on March 21.

First, the district's elementary school principals were called in front of the board to recognize their students who participated in the Oakland County Scripps Spelling Bee. The top students from each school are as follows: Claire Fulton (Beverly Elementary), Eddie Denome (Bingham Farms Elementary), Lucy Andrews (Greenfield Elementary), Adam Sesi (Harlan Elementary), Lowell Storm (Pembroke Elementary), Amy Jiang (Pierce Elementary), Georgia Baldwin (Quarton Elementary) and Ava Gioannini (West Maple Elementary).

The board then recognized the Groves High School Men's Swim and Dive team, which competed in the MHSAA Division State Championship in early March and won first place. The victory completed their triple crown for the season following their wins in the Oakland County Invitational and the OAA League Championship. Board members commended team coaches Ricky Forrest and Bill Thompson for supporting their athletes. The board congratulated senior captains Ian Duncan, Emerson Mousseau and Chase Richardson for leading an excellent season, expressing excitement to see the younger team members competing in the 2023-24 school year.

"I got to attend their banquet on Sunday evening, and all of this is very, very impressive," Superintendent Embekka Robenson said. "But what was equally as impressive to me is no one ever talked about individual results. Every single one of you spoke about how great it was to be a part of this team, how great your coaches were, how wonderful your parents are, which they are. And so that's just really impressive, as well as the stats that you see up here in front of you. So I couldn't be prouder. This is a wonderful group of young men. We have wonderful coaches."

The board recognized the Bloomfield-Birmingham Unified "Black Hawks" Girls' Hockey team. The Black Hawks won the Division II State Championships after defeating Grosse Point North 5-4 in a second overtime win, marking the first-ever state title for the program. Seniors Molly Levin, Jessica Rebock, Elizabeth Culbertson and Reese Hentgen were applauded for their efforts on and off the field.

The final student to be recognized during the meeting has Seaholm High junior Ian Weinberg, who started the Birmingham Schools Investing Club. Weinberg recently wrote and published his first-ever book, "Invest Early to Grow Your Wealth." The book details various investment tactics and strategies for young people and is currently available on Amazon. Weinberg partnered with Youth Tank Detroit for the project, and portions of the proceeds will go to Detroit Public Schools.