Last year, San Marino Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Alex Cherniss told the audience at the Association of California School Administrators’ Golden Apple Awards breakfast that receiving the honor was akin to winning the Heisman Trophy.
This year, he showed them.
Shortly after presenting San Marino’s Karen and Bob Wicke with their well-deserved Golden Apples, Cherniss reached under the podium and pulled out two prototype Heismans, adorned with the heads of Karen and Bob, to accompany their Apples.
“Karen and Bob are the superheroes of the San Marino Unified School District,” said Cherniss. “They have been amazing supporters.”
Cherniss then did his best to summarize the contributions of the longtime residents, though each presenter was subject to time restrictions.
Karen Wicke is the incoming President of the San Marino High School PTSA. She currently serves as the vice president of the San Marino Public Library Foundation. Her other credentials include past president of the Huntington Middle School and Valentine Elementary School PTAs, former President of the PTA Council and past chair of the Hauntington Breakfast and Valentine Fair.
Karen is also a past president of the San Marino Junior Alliance and also served as benefit chair. She also put in time as a Cub Scout Den Leader.
“It’s a privilege to be part of this amazing community,” she told The Tribune.
Bob Wicke chaired the successful 2015 SMUSD Parcel Tax campaign and served as president of the San Marino High School football booster club in 2015, the same season the Titans won the CIF championship and advanced to the State title game.
He is a longtime Grad Night volunteer and past member of the SMUSD’s Technology Advisory Council. Bob served as president of the San Marino Tennis Center in 2014, is a former San Marino Community Athletics Association basketball and San Marino National Little League coach and is the current Eagle Advisor for Boy Scout Troop 359.
“I have very much enjoyed being a volunteer for the schools, which have been so good to our three sons and so many other students in San Marino,” Bob Wicke told The Tribune.
Those “three sons” are twins Arthur and Mark, who are freshman in the United States Coast Guard Academy; and Christopher, a sophomore at San Marino High School.
The Golden Apple Award is sponsored by the Association of California School Administrators, or ACSA, and Wednesday’s ceremony, held at Dave & Busters in Arcadia, was hosted by the Northwest San Gabriel Valley Administrators Association, which encompasses ten local school districts.
The award is presented to volunteers for their service to the school districts.
San Marino High School Principal Mary Johnson was also presented with the Leadership Award by the Association of California School Administrators’ Region XV Northwest San Gabriel Valley Charter at the beginning of the ceremony.
