Beatty students honored after national pentathlon success; coach credits staff support

The Buena Park School District board meeting on June 10 included a standing ovation for Beatty Middle School’s Academic Pentathlon team after a run of regional, state and national competition success.

Roxanne Bogart, a sixth-grade Academic Pentathlon coach at Beatty, told the board the season began with 36 dedicated sixth graders and culminated in the team’s invitation to the national competition in Nashville, Tennessee. Bogart said the team took second place statewide and finished second nationally while bringing home the sixth-grade super‑quiz national championship. "We were able to compete and took first and second place in Orange County with 49 individual medals," Bogart said, thanking staff who staged last‑minute support when a regional testing outage threatened students’ ability to compete.

Bogart credited campus and district staff — including Mrs. Wong, Jonathan Magbu, Dr. Valdez, Mr. Carbajal and Mr. Kim — plus IT staff who prepared and charged Chromebooks and arranged hotspots so students could complete objective testing. Several student champions spoke from the podium to thank the district. Julian Park said: "This was a team effort ... without you guys we truly wouldn't have made it." Student speakers Alvin Park and Joshua Lee echoed thanks to coaches and support staff.

Assistant coach Rebecca Bissell, who also addressed the board, said the program has been a "joy" to coach and noted tokens of appreciation the team would distribute to district staff.

The board paused the agenda to let students pose for photos and be recognized publicly. Trustees praised the team and district employees for the support that enabled students to compete at the national level.

Provenance: the coach’s presentation and student remarks were delivered during the meeting’s recognition segment and are on the public record.