Montwood High School heads the El Paso delegation going to the Texas Academic Decathlon State Meet in Katy Texas on February 23 and 24, 2007.  The school scored a team total of 38,533 points for the entire contest to place 1st in the large school division. The nine-member team was among the 23 high school teams that competed in the annual Academic Decathlon held January 22, 2007 at Ysleta High School. 

The Montwood team also won several individual awards including several first place wins in the various categories.  Team members are Ana Arellanos, Erika Duran, Arturo Escajeda, Don Fenton, Jesus Loya, Jeffrey Richards, Tiffani Torres, Alexander Velasquez, and Ryan Wu. The team is coached by Richard Helmling and Beth Leffler.  

“I’m absolutely ecstatic,” says Helmling. “They worked very hard and I am very proud of our students.”

Two other SISD schools placed in the top five. El Dorado High School placed fourth and Socorro High School placed fifth. Montwood will advance to the state Academic Decathlon contests next month and may have a chance to represent Texas in the national competition. The high school team with the most points after the state meet — regardless of school size — will travel to Hawaii in April.

The competition is divided into two categories, large and medium schools and is based on the school’s enrollment. The students are tested in a number of academic areas such as art, economics, essay, interview, language/literature, mathematics, music, social science and speech.  In addition students take part in a seven-minute interview, and deliver two speeches (four minutes prepared and two minutes impromptu). The final event is the Super Quiz relay in which each team member is given five questions.  After nine rounds that allow each team member to participate the scores are tallied for first, second and third places. The Academic Decathlon is designed to include students from all academic backgrounds. Each nine-member team consists of three A students, three B students and three C students.