For those of you who are unaware of the district's annual Academic Olympics, it is a competition between middle and high school teams of students. It is an awesome event where students vie in writing, speaking, interviewing, and tests of knowledge for medals and awards. Our school usually takes 3 teams; one 7th grade team and two 8th grade teams.

The competition begins at about 7:30 a.m. during March and finishes by noon. Observers can listen to speeches, proctor exams, interview students or grade essays. Don't hesitate to come by. You will be very surprised at the quality of competition.

To join an Academic Olympic team at Kerr a student must write a short essay on why he/she wants to be on the team. Students are chosen based on their essays and their grade point average. Each team must be composed of students whose grade point averages fall within the following ranges:
Honors (3.75-4.0), Scholastic (3.0-3.74), and Varsity (2.0-2.9). A student is dismissed if they earn any failing grades (Kerr Activities Policy).

Academic Olympic Competitions contain five events:
Essay
Speech
Interview
Multiple Choice Assessment
Super Quiz

All students on each team must set aside time to practice for every one of the events. Advisors meet a minimum of six times with their teams after school before the competition. The most successful teams, however, often meet on their own. The only material which must be prepared ahead of the competition is a three minute speech.

Kerr middle school teams have taken the middle school trophy four times in the past ten years! Our students have also taken many runner-up and third place awards. Many of our students fare well in the medal round with two achieving the "Golden Apple", the top middle school student of the entire competition. Our Golden Apple winners the last two years were Patrick O'Connor and Sid Kulkarni.