Woodbridge High School’s drama department is inviting families with young children to attend “The Trials of Robin Hood” on May 9 and May 10, and there may even be an opportunity for some little ones to take the stage.

Both shows will start at 6:30 p.m., but they’ll be preceded by a special Renaissance Fair for kids, featuring games, a costume parade and food trucks, according to Woodbridge theater teacher Cassandra Gaona. The fair starts at 5 p.m.

Gaona says she’s hoping many of the district’s elementary students will be able to catch a performance, and she says some children may even get a chance to sit on stage with the actors as they perform during the show.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for students with ASB cards and $6 for children under six. For more information, visit the Woodbridge High website. To purchase tickets, click here.

A Northwood High School senior was recently surprised with some good news in his computer lab, learning he had earned a $7,500 scholarship from the Disneyland Resort.

Homin Kwark was in fact one of 10 Orange County students visited by a contingent of Disneyland Resort representatives, who announced the winners of the Disneyland Resort Scholarship Program on April 16. The awards are annually granted to seniors “who demonstrate excellence in volunteerism, exceptional leadership within their communities and academic merit,” according to the official news release.

That description would seem well-suited for Homin, who has logged more than 1,385 volunteer hours and founded a nonprofit organization called “Imagiscience,” which inspires scientific interest among young people through student-led programs, campaigns, challenges and competitions.

“Volunteering empowers us as agents of change,” Homin said in a statement released through the scholarship program. “It drives individual creativity, community unification and global revolution as we identify solutions to worldly problems through the lens of innovation. … I hope to grow as a leader who has the vision and skills to bring about change, particularly in the field of engineering.”

The Disneyland Resort Scholarship Program has now awarded $425,000 in scholarships to local seniors since 2006, furthering opportunities for Orange County students to attend college or professional trade schools.

For those who can access YouTube, here’s a video showing this year’s surprise announcements.

Two years after introducing a new districtwide homework policy, IUSD is encouraging students, parents and teachers to weigh in on the policy’s impact by taking brief online surveys.

Students in grades four or higher can take their survey by clicking here, while parents can share their perspectives here. (A separate link is being sent to all Irvine teachers.) The deadline to participate is Friday, May 10.

Adopted by the Board of Education in May 2011, the revised policy called for school-specific plans based on nine foundational principles to ensure that homework was purposeful, reasonable in scale and aligned with the educational objectives and needs of each student.

The revisions were based on the work of the district’s Curriculum Council, which surveyed thousands of parents, students and staff about home studies and later engaged in two daylong sessions before developing its recommendations.

The public is invited to attend a general meeting of the Community Advisory Committee for Gifted and Talented Education, featuring a special guest speaker, at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14.

Educational consultant Cindy Muchnick will lead a presentation titled, “Steps to Success: Middle School and Beyond” at the session, which will be held at IUSD’s Administration Center, 5050 Barranca Parkway in Irvine.

For more information on IUSD’s Gifted and Talented Education program, click here.

Two University High School students recently turned popular footwear into pieces of art for the Vans Custom Culture art contest, and we’ve just learned that their collective entry has placed them among 50 national semifinalists.

Now it’s up to you, the public, to decide who makes it to the next round by voting here.

Uni junior Aki Barbar and senior Katherine Wang – they’re pictured from left to right – customized four pairs of shoes for the fourth annual contest, which is billed as a way to promote creativity while drawing attention to the importance of art in schools. In all, teams from 1,500 public and private high schools from throughout the U.S. had a chance to redesign their own Vans kicks, which, per contest rules, had to represent one of four themes: action sports, music, art or local flavor.

Participants uploaded photos of their projects from Feb. 25 through April 5, and Vans staff narrowed the field down to 50 semifinalists, or 10 from each geographic region. Uni was the only Orange County school to make it into California’s top 10.

“It wasn’t until a week or two before the deadline that Aki and I really came together and became serious about this,” Katherine told us via email. “Our ideas flowed extremely well together and our four pairs of shoes ended up having an Oriental theme. We also made sure to incorporate a variety of styles in our shoes: the ‘music shoes’ are classical, the ‘art shoes’ are elegant, the ‘local flavor shoes’  are graphic and the ‘action sports shoes’  take on a mix of traditional art with a modern twist.”

“The support we have been receiving has been awesome,” she added, “especially from (art teacher) Ms. Kramer, our friends, and the UHS community.”

Online voting for the next round started this week, with one vote allowed per IP address, and May 13 is the deadline to choose your favorite. Five finalists will be selected the following day, and each will get a travel budget to fly to New York, where celebrity guests are expected to announce a grand prize winner.

That team will earn $50,000 for its school’s art program, while the four runners-up will be awarded $4,000 each for their programs. The Journeys shoe and apparel company also plans to present a separate award of $10,000 to the school with the team that produces the best “Local Flavor”-themed shoe.

To learn more about the contest, or to cast your vote, click here.

Registration is now open for current seventh-graders planning to take the optional Otis-Lennon School Ability Test, or OLSAT, in July.

The OLSAT helps identify students for the district’s GATE program, and IUSD will administer the test at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 16 at Vista Verde School.

Students who score at the 95th percentile or higher on the OLSAT can qualify for IUSD’s Gifted and Talented Education program, though that’s not the only way to be identified for GATE enrollment. Alternative identification methods can be found here on the district’s website.

Again, the OLSAT is optional. To sign your child up for this exam, click here and submit your online registration form by the July 1 deadline.

A half-dozen IUSD educators will be recognized at next month’s Orange County Music and Arts Education Awards program.

Patricia Goheen, a sixth-grade teacher at Eastshore Elementary School, will be honored as the top educator for Elementary Visual Arts during a special ceremony on May 6, while Henry J. Miller, the instrumental music teacher at Sierra Vista Middle School, will be presented with the Irene Schoepfle Award.

Goheen and Miller are also set to be recognized as Outstanding Art Educators for 2013, along 35 others including Rancho San Joaquin Middle School art teacher Sue Anello, Sierra Vista art teacher Colleen Cosgrove, Northwood High TV and video production teacher Tina M. Murphy and district music teacher Hee Jeong Przytulski.

Presented by Orange County Music and Arts Administrators, the Orange County Music and Arts Educator Awards annually spotlight exemplary teachers and administrators who oversee instrumental, vocal, theater, dance and visual arts programs at schools throughout the county. This year’s ceremony will be held in the Samueli Theater, located at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

IUSD announced this week that Laguna Beach administrator Mike Modeer has been selected to serve as the next principal of Rancho San Joaquin Middle School. His expected start date is July 1.

An innovative leader who is well-versed in educational technology and the new Common Core curriculum, Modeer has served the past seven years as an administrator at the middle school level, and he has an extensive background with college-readiness support systems as well as the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support program.

At Rancho, he’ll succeed Scott Bowman, who was tapped to serve as principal of the new Jeffrey Trail Middle School, which opens in September.

“Though we had a number of highly qualified candidates to choose from, Mike emerged as the No. 1 choice for Rancho, embodying the characteristics that were articulated in the collective feedback from staff and parents,” Superintendent Terry Walker said. “Most important, he is committed to the long-term success of Rancho.”

Modeer began his career as a teacher of math, college readiness and technology in the Rowland Unified School District in 2002. He most recently served as assistant principal at Thurston Middle School in the Laguna Beach Unified School District.

A graduate of IUSD’s Woodbridge High School, Modeer earned his bachelor’s degree in managerial economics from U.C. Davis and his teaching credential from Cal State Fullerton. He later earned his master’s degree in educational leadership and administration from Chapman University.

Think your child is too young to join the Irvine Unified School District? Well, maybe not.

Registration started Monday, April 15 for IUSD’s brand new fee-based preschool, as well as its state-funded preschool for children of income-eligible families. The programs are open to kids ages 3 to 5 and administered by the team of professional educators at the district’s Early Childhood Learning Center.

Established in 2002, the Early Childhood Learning Center has worked collaboratively with local families to build a world-class learning community to support each child’s social, emotional and pre-academic needs.

The ECLC campus is located at 1 Smoketree in Irvine. To learn more, visit the center’s website, or call 949-936-5890.

We just learned that a limited number of tickets are still available for the 31st annual Donald Bren Honors Concert, which will be held at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24.

Considered a signature event for the Irvine Unified School District, the showcase is once again being presented by the Irvine Public Schools Foundation, and it will feature nearly 700 of Irvine’s finest young musicians in grades three through 12.

Over the years, more than 18,000 IUSD students have participated in the concert, which generates funds to support music education in Irvine. Performers are selected based on their ability and level of dedication.

Those who still hope to catch this year’s show better not wait too much longer to book their seats as organizers are anticipating a sold-out performance.

To purchase tickets, contact the Segerstrom Center for the Arts by phone at 714-556-2787 or online at www.scfta.org.