By Sebastian Moraga A picture of Lily Gallacher adorned the entrance to a room at the Snoqualmie Ridge Golf Course, where about 200 people gathered to remember the Cascade View Elementary School student who died in late January.

Those who had never met her cried.

Those who had met her and will miss her most laughed.

Lily Gallacher, a Cascade View Elementary School fourth-grader who died Jan. 18, was remembered Feb. 1 as a funny, talented, loving child who charmed everyone she met.

More than 200 people filled a room at the Snoqualmie Ridge Golf Course to reminisce about Gallacher. Boys and girls, adults and children alike, wore pink, Gallacher’s favorite color, as a tribute.

Ron Gallacher, Lily’s father, spoke of the long odds his daughter faced right from the start. She was born with a rare form of bone dysplasia that made it difficult for her to breathe.

For two years, she had to be fed through a tube.

“For a child, especially an ice cream-loving child, it was such a challenge,” Ron said.

Ron spoke of valleys, but also of peaks in his daughter’s life.

“It gave her such a joy to be part of ‘The Nutcracker,’” he said. “It was something that was very special to her.”

Lily participated in an International Ballet Theatre production with her sister Nancy in 2009.

Home-schooled for a few years, Lily’s first day of school was an even bigger occasion than it is for most children.

“When she finally went to school,” Ron said, “she had an explosion of joy.”

While the novelty of school may have faded, the joy Lily exuded never did.

“I believe our students saw her as a giant,” Cascade View Principal Ray Wilson said. “She may have entered that room as the smallest person there, but she packed that room with enthusiasm.”

During lunch hour, Lily liked to sit at three or four different tables, Wilson said. The week after she died, the students at those tables left a seat open for Lily.

“I asked why,” Wilson said, “and they said Lily was there.”

Wilson also referred to Lily’s health struggles, saying her lesson to others was it’s not what happens to you but how you respond to it. Lily responded with optimism and laughter.

Few knew that better than Wilson, who once helped Lily with a stubborn juice box and ended up drenched.

“She looked at me and said, ‘Nice job, Mr. Spill-son,’” Wilson said, as the watery-eyed crowd guffawed.

Nothing was more special to Lily than her family, her father said.

One time, her parents asked her about what kind of car she would like to have if given the chance. Her answer portrayed her better than the sharpest photograph.

“We thought she would say a sports car,” Ron said. “She said a van or an RV, because she wanted something she could drive her family around in.”

Slideshows and videos of Lily singing rap songs through sign language closed the ceremony, as the afternoon turned into evening. Chaplain Martin Redman asked that the phone calls and letters to Lily’s family not stop, because laughs aside, the grieving continues.

“She was my precious little princess,” said Ron, his voice breaking. “She brought so much joy, and our family will never be the same.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.

“I just got really bored in my horticulture class and just started doodling,” Mount Si High School student Sydney Tulip said.

She doodled the profile of an Indian from South America. She had researched the Indians earlier that week, after she — you guessed it — got bored.

“I like to do mindless research,” she said.

By Sebastian Moraga At right, Hannah Granby stands next to “A Little Bit of Heaven,” left, and “Self-Portrait,” right.

Then, she submitted the doodle to the North Bend Library’s teen art contest, and won first place.

Tulip submitted two other pieces, none of which placed, but all of which have something in common to the Indian doodle. They all show a person from the side, including herself.

“Sometimes I really get bored,” she said. “And I draw myself. I like profiles and I like my nose.”

Tulip drew the Indian doodle with pencils and then worked the background with watercolor.

“I’m very surprised I won first place. It feels pretty awesome,” Tulip said.

The contest, in its second year, gathered 88 pieces of art.

Middle schooler Prema Pongrakthai submitted a recycled bag she made from a pair of pants, a sewn hot pad and a painting.

Eighth-grader Nari Emerson submitted a self-portrait made from ripped construction paper. She finished third among middle schoolers.

Brooke Bonner submitted a painting she made from a picture she took.

Bonner finished in second place among high school students. She finished third last year.

“I don’t think I’ll stop painting,” said Bonner, a senior and budding photographer. “But it’s sad that this is my last show.”

Bonner took photos of flowers and made paintings of the photos, mixing a longtime passion of hers and her new one.

“This summer, I saved up money for a nice camera,” she said. “I took my friend’s senior photos. It’s a great tool for painting.”

Her work in the contest depicts plenty of vivid color.

“I like to play with color,” Bonner said. “I like art that is pretty to look at and makes people happy.”

Hannah Granby won first place among middle school students for a sort-of self-portrait. Sort-of because she painted herself with a steaming cup of coffee, something she rarely ever drinks.

So, why did a 12-year-old girl put a cup of coffee in her depiction of herself?

“I just think it’s really cute,” she said.

First-place winners in both categories got a $50 gift certificate to an arts supplies store. Second- and third-place students won $25 gift certificates.

“It’s amazing,” Granby said of her triumph. “So many amazing artists have entered this competition, I feel very lucky.”

Sarah Lynch, teen services librarian for the Snoqualmie and North Bend branches of the King County Library System, praised the group Friends of the North Bend Library for organizing and bankrolling the contest and its awards.

Lynch said the children’s work will hang from the walls of the North Bend branch until Feb. 29.

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.

The academy will occur during the Wintergrass Music Festival, Feb. 23-24, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bellevue. It will feature music educators from Washington, California, Oregon and Ohio.

The winner of the scholarship will receive a four-day pass for the festival, according to a Grange press release.

Applicants for the scholarship must submit a short essay about why they should win. Letters of recommendation are optional.

Applicants must include name, school, grade and contact information, and send the application to the Sallal Grange and Community Hall, P.O. Box 1688, North Bend, WA 98045. They may also email it to info@sallalgrange.org.

The deadline is Feb. 10.

Wallace will receive a $100 gift certificate to the Woodman Lodge, a massage gift certificate from Therapeutic Health and a plaque.

Cascade View Elementary School teacher Calla Kinghorn won the award in November and North Bend Elementary School teacher Alan Tepper won it in September. The October and December awards went to Issaquah School District teachers.

“It’s finally final, it’s written down on paper,” said Josh Mitchell, after inking his letter of intent with Oregon State University Feb. 1. “I’ve been looking forward to it for some time, and it’s nice to have it done with.”

Letter of Intent Day was a big deal for Mitchell, a Mount Si High School senior who wore an orange OSU shirt to the event. Mitchell was one of four athletes signing letters of intent that day. A fifth, George Washington University-bound Maura Murphy, stayed home nursing a concussion suffered while playing her sport, softball.

By Sebastian Moraga Davis Karaica, Josh Mitchell, Reece Karalus and Nate Popp pose after signing letters of intent.

Three more student-athletes — Reece Karalus (Santa Clara), Davis Karaica (Seattle Pacific) and Nate Popp (Western Washington) — also signed.

“This is the first day that we get to know for sure what we will be doing for the next year of our life,” said Popp, a soccer player.

The cap-and-gown graduation waits, still a few months ahead, but for Karalus this was sort of a graduation.

“We grew up playing sports with a lot of these guys,” Karalus said “It’s exciting to have reached this point.”

The foursome offered advice to younger teammates on how to get to the day where they ink their own letters of intent.

“For soccer, it’s really important to contact the places you want to attend,” said Karaica, a booter like Popp. “So they know you are interested.”

Hard work is key, Karalus said.

“It’s really about hard work, and not just the field, but the classroom,” he said.

Hard work awaits for all five, as spring sports sit around the corner and Mitchell — barring a complete collapse of his undefeated season — will likely defend his state wrestling title mid-February.

On this day, though, hard work was for another day. Letter of Intent Day was a day to release a great big sigh.

“It takes the pressure off,” Karalus said. “Now you don’t have to impress anyone.”

By Sebastian Moraga Valeria Gamonal, left, and Michelle Riedner brought a collection of Peruvian butterflies from their home nation. Gamonal, Riedner and Renato Cocchella (not pictured) are exchange students from the South American nation, visiting the Valley for about a month.

By his own admission, Snoqualmie Mayor Matt Larson’s Spanish skills need a little, um, ayuda.

Asked if he spoke the language of Cervantes, Larson replied, “Un poquito. I don’t know what the word for ‘very’ is, but very, very un poquito.”

Well, now the mayor and the city have a golden opportunity to refine their skills.

The first delegation of students from Peru arrived in Snoqualmie Jan. 23: two high school students, Valeria Gamonal and Renato Cocchella, and college student Michelle Riedner.

Miguel Velasquez, the Consul General of Peru in Seattle, and Larson reminded students they are no longer just students but representatives of an entire nation.

“We want to let people know about Peru,” Riedner said. “Show people our culture, grow as a people and make sure other people have the same opportunity we did.”

Riedner’s father is a tourist guide who met Snoqualmie’s Tina McCollum, from the Valley’s Sister City Association. They later approached Alfredo Valcarcel, mayor of the Peruvian city of Chaclacayo, about a friend-city relationship with Snoqualmie

Friend-city is the level below sister-city status. During 2012, the two cities will learn whether they have enough in common to become sister cities, Larson said.

For now, the relationship limits itself to student exchanges. After a few years, the two sides may start talking trade and business.

“We are in our fourth year of sister-city relationship with Gangjin,” Larson said of the city in Korea. “And we have just begun to talk about it.”

Chaclacayo Mayor Alfredo Valcarce could not travel with the delegation this time. Larson may travel to Chaclacayo in April and Valley students will travel this summer.

Larson added that the Chaclacayo-Snoqualmie relationship needs community support to succeed.

“This is going to be the seed for more and better things coming,” Velasquez said during a welcome ceremony at Snoqualmie City Hall. “Business is better when you do it with friends and now you are friends of Peru.”

The visiting Peruvian group will stay in the Valley five weeks and are delighting in the water falling from the sky. Only up to five inches of rain a year fall in Chaclacayo. The post-storm downpour the Valley had thrilled the newcomers from the south.

“Michelle just stood there facing up with her arms out,” looking like the pose Tim Robbins took in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” McCollum said. “She just loved the rain.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.

Winters, a student with autism, won first place at the ninth annual Wildcat Idol contest, earning thunderous applause each of the three times she sang during the two-week competition.

Nothing unusual about that, said her family. Nikki’s last name may evoke clouds, but her personality is famously sunny.

By Sebastian Moraga Nikki Winters, a Mount Si High School student, performs during the semifinals of the ninth annual Wildcat Idol. Winters went on to win the competition.

“I attended this school,” her older sister Megan said. “And people knew Nikki. Everyone knew Nikki, and they only later realized that I was her sister.”

During the first week of Wildcat Idol, Nikki earned herself a standing ovation. The second week, she blew the audience away again.

And these weren’t aw-look-at-her-try ovations. These ovations are the kind you give someone who moves you, who charms you.

Who shines.

“I have been singing my whole life,” said Nikki before the Wildcat Idol finals, wearing a pink dress, and speaking in measured, almost clipped cadences.

She stared straight ahead, while her mother smiled.

Then, the lights dimmed, her turn came, she sang “God Help The Outcast,” and the audience took to its feet again.

“It’s a triumph,” her mother Penny Johansen said. “To be told she was going to be in therapy her whole life, that she would not be able to read or write, it’s just so great to see her up there.”

Nikki said she felt excited, but not nervous. Devoid of professional training, she does have two years of experience as a member of the school’s concert choir.

“Sometimes, I feel very proud of my voice,” she said.

To Penny, it goes beyond pride. As a child with autism, Nikki can focus better when singing, because she can block out the world around her, Penny said.

“Being autistic, they don’t have the same filters we have,” Penny said. “She does not know she should be scared.”

Megan agreed. Nikki is fascinated by a sight that turns most brave souls into bowls of Jell-O.

“If there’s a microphone on a stage,” Megan said, “she’s up there.”

She will even offer strangers a chance to do a duet.

“I’d like to go to the Raging River and go to karaoke,” she told a visitor.

Her future for the longer term is a little less clear, but Penny and Nikki said they refuse to worry. As long as there is music around, Nikki will be fine.

“I just want her to do whatever makes her happy,” Penny said.

After the contest, the Valley did not have a resident happier than a certain mother.

“I am so proud of her,” Penny wrote in an email. “She is an inspiration and shows us all that we can overcome anything.”

The academy will occur during the Wintergrass Music Festival, Feb. 23-24, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bellevue. It will feature music educators from Washington, California, Oregon and Ohio.

The winner of the scholarship, a Grange press release stated, will receive a four-day pass for the festival.

Applicants for the scholarship must submit a short essay on why they should win. Letters of recommendation are optional.

Applicants must include name, school, grade and contact information and send the application to the Sallal Grange and Community Hall, P.O. Box 1688, North Bend, WA 98045. They may also email it to info@sallalgrange.org.

The deadline is Feb. 10.

At Western Washington University, Hannah Piper, of North Bend, received a $1,500 Alumni Association Leader scholarship for the 2011-12 school year.

The scholarship awards outstanding students in the university’s College of Business and Economics. Piper has a 3.59 grade point average, while majoring in manufacturing and supply chain management.

At Nebraska’s Chadron State College, Rachel Swamy, of North Bend, qualified for the college’s president’s list, which requires straight As.

At Montana State University, Tucker Kirschner, of North Bend, earned a spot on the dean’s honor roll, which gathers students who earned grade point averages of 3.5 or higher during the fall semester.

At Washington State University, Daionda Davis, Christina Finley, Kevin Gavin, Nicholas Jackson, Cody Lane, Matthew Paauw, Arianne Pulsipher, Krista Reed, Erik Sorvik, Sarah Swamy and Taylor Winslow, all of North Bend, qualified for the fall semester president’s honor roll.

Tyler Lichter, Kassidy Maddux, Frank McLaughlin, Andrew Palmini, Nathan Storrs, Shelby Thomas, Shane Wilhelm and Kelsey Wise, all of Snoqualmie, also qualified.

Students enter the WSU honor roll by earning a grade point average of at least 3.75 while enrolled in nine graded hours in one semester.

They also make the list by achieving a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 after at least 15 cumulative hours and with a current semester’s grade point average of 3 or higher.

Wallace will receive a $100 gift certificate to the Woodman Lodge, a massage gift certificate from Therapeutic Health and a plaque.

Cascade View Elementary School teacher Calla Kinghorn won the award in November and North Bend Elementary School teacher Alan Tepper won it in September. The October and December awards went to Issaquah School District teachers.

Contributed Twin Falls Middle School eighth-grade teacher Carolyn Phelps, student Amanda Antoch and Dr. Kirby Nelson celebrate Antoch’s contest-winning essay about why Phelps is the best teacher in North Bend. The contest was sponsored by Kirby Nelson Orthodontics.

About every two months, Kirby Nelson Orthodontics holds a contest throughout the Snoqualmie Valley to get its patients involved with the office.

Sometimes it’s as simple as guessing how many pieces of candy are in a jar.

But this winter, Kirby Nelson Orthodontics treatment coordinator Wendy Adams said the office asked a little more of its patients.

Any patient — from preschoolers to high school students, including those who are home-schooled — could enter a contest to write a short essay about how their teacher made a difference in their lives and why their teacher is the best instructor around.

“We just want to acknowledge all the hard work a teacher does, and this also shows our kids how much we appreciate what they do and for taking the time to write the essay, too,” she said.

One teacher was selected from each of the three areas of each of the Kirby Nelson Orthodontics locations: Snoqualmie Ridge, North Bend and Maple Valley.

This is the second year the office has held the contest and office staff members hope to make it an annual tradition, Adams said.

On Jan. 13, office staff provided a pizza party to Carolyn Phelps, an eighth-grade teacher at Twin Falls Middle School in North Bend, as one of the winners of the contest.

“She’s an amazing teacher and explains everything really well,” nominating student Amanda Antoch said. “She makes learning about the Periodic Table fun and interesting.”

Fifth-grade student Elizabeth Lower nominated contest- winning teacher Katie Sharkey, of Cascade View Elementary School. Sharkey and her class will be presented with a pizza party later this month.

“My teacher is the best because she is always funny, and she likes to have fun with her students,” Lower said. “If she accidentally bumps into you, she’ll keep bumping into you like its funny. You can’t help but laugh.”

Adams said the orthodontist office had about 20 entries for the contest.

“I was really intrigued by how many kids said they loved learning when teachers made it fun,” Adams said. “A lot of them talk about teachers who do really hands-on stuff. When the teachers get excited about what they’re teaching, it helps the kids get excited.”

Many of the entries highlighted strong relationships between students and educators, she said.

“We see a lot of essays where kids talk about truly knowing that the teacher cares about them, that they feel appreciated,” Adams said. “A lot talk about how the teachers they have had high expectations of the students, and they want to make the teacher proud.”

Christina Lords: 392-6434, ext. 239, or newcastle@isspress.com.

From its “Ask a Librarian” service to online help, the library system offers numerous types of homework and study help for students of all ages.

That’s a good thing, added Ann Crewdson, the children’s section supervisor for the Issaquah and Sammamish branch libraries.

Studies show the stronger the relationship between local libraries and local schools, the higher the average test scores in those schools, Crewdson said.

The KCLS Study Zone program is one of the more noteworthy local programs aimed at students, said Jerene Battisti, KCLS education and teen services coordinator.

Study Zone provides tutors who visit branch libraries, including the North Bend and Snoqualmie libraries.

“We get calls from all over the country on how to recruit and train tutors,” Battisti said.

In fact, the KCLS Study Zone is the largest program of its kind in the U.S., she added, with some 300 tutors who cover virtually every subject covered in local kindergarten through 12th-grade schools.

Tutors come from a wide variety of backgrounds and include homemakers and Boeing Co. engineers, according to Battisti. Some are retired teachers, while many are employed in the field in which they tutor.

Some high school students also volunteer as tutors, Crewdson said.

Tutors visit the Snoqualmie Library from 3-5 p.m. on Tuesdays and from 4-6 p.m. on Wednesdays. They are in North Bend from 3-5 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays; from 7-9 p.m. on Wednesdays; and from 4-6 p.m. on Thursdays, according to Sarah Lynch, teen services librarian for both the Snoqualmie and North Bend branch libraries.

Times for other libraries are listed on the KCLS website. Like most KCLS programs, the Study Zone program is free, though a KCLS library card may be required for some programs.

The latest figures available showed Study Zone helped some 9,000 students receive more than 12,000 hours of free tutoring during the past academic year, Battisti said.

The program serves 18 school districts and KCLS collaborates with those districts to ensure tutors are teaching appropriate materials.

Probably not surprisingly, math and science tutors are the most in demand.

PSAT tutoring is also available through Study Zone, Lynch said. She added if a student needs help in a subject not covered, he or she can be given lists of online help, if needed.

Besides the Study Zone help with the PSAT, according to Battisti, a tutoring service offering help with standardized tests is also proving popular.

The help is available from 1-10 p.m. seven days a week and covers such tests as the SAT, HSPE and MSP.

The library system contracts with an outside company to provide the service.

One important aspect of the tutoring, Battisti added, is that participants have practice tests available to them.

Again provided by an outside service, kindergarten through 12th-grade students, entry-level college students and adult learners can receive live homework help from online tutors from 2 p.m. to midnight seven days a week. The service is also available in Spanish.

One final notable program is simply titled “Homework Help” and can direct students to various websites on different topics, from animals to math. Crewdson said librarians from around the library system aid in keeping the Homework Help websites up to date.

With the arrival of the Internet and Internet search engines, just how important is library help?

Can’t anyone just Google a topic and find the answers they need?

Lynch said one-on-one tutoring is always going to be more helpful than Google.

Battisti added a major problem with the Internet is that content is virtually unregulated.

Students and adults alike must learn to distinguish between legitimate and not-so-legitimate sources, Crewdson said, adding the URL, or web address, can be one important clue.

Iverson talked about gag sites, such as one for “aluminum foil deflector beanies” that prevent government and alien mind control. Another site purports to be a campaign to save the Pacific Northwest tree octopus.

The latter includes everything from sightings to steps you can take to help the creature.

Both the beanie and the octopus sites look legitimate, but are meant to teach caution when using the Internet, Iverson said.

While Crewdson said the Study Zone program does not attract a great number of students at the Issaquah Library, that’s not the case in Snoqualmie or North Bend, according to Lynch.

“It is used pretty regularly,” she said of the Study Zone service, adding that, importantly in her mind, students do not need to make an appointment; they just need to show up for help.

A retired engineer for Exxon Mobil Corp., Robert Yerkes, is a still new Study Zone tutor at the North Bend library.

Yerkes said he went through a three-hour orientation in order to become a tutor.

That training covered such topics as how to deal with parents who might try to get involved with tutoring.

About a week ago, Yerkes had attended one tutoring session and said no students sought his help.

He seemed confident that would change. Yerkes said he will help with virtually any subject, but given his background, he hopes to concentrate on math and science.

Tom Corrigan: 392-6434, ext. 241, or tcorrigan@isspress.com.

Charter schools are public schools that operate independent from a district board of education.

Voters in Washington have repeatedly rejected charter schools.

More than 30 states have them.

According to the Washington House Republicans website, Anderson said it’s time to inject greater innovation and energy into the state’s underperforming and failing schools.

The second bill, introduced Jan. 12, would include performance into hiring decisions and allow teachers with poor evaluations to lose tenure.

“Excellent teachers are the proven solution to dramatically improve our children’s learning,” Anderson said. “We cannot continue to leave 30 percent of our children behind and allow many more to graduate without essential basic skills to attend a four-year university or a community college without some remedial coursework.”

Anderson is a co-sponsor of the bills. He is retiring from the Legislature to run for lieutenant governor in November.

Campbell, who graduated from Mount Si in 2010, was recently named to the dean’s list for the university’s school of engineering.

Looking at a map got a great deal more fun this year for middle school students. District teachers now use StrataLogica, a software that allows students to create maps, charts and presentations about any place in the world throughout history. By Sebastian Moraga

With the click of a mouse, the world comes alive at middle school classrooms.

Students in social studies classes from sixth to eighth grades have begun using StrataLogica, a mapping and layering software that allows students to create custom maps of any place in the world at any point in history.

“It’s as if each of us has our own Google Maps,” Chief Kanim Middle School student Jake Brady said.

The software, in its first year of use at Chief Kanim, has the double virtue of teaching students more about the planet while teaching them 21st- century skills, according to Renee Gray, a teacher using it.

“We learn right along with them,” said Karen Waters, another teacher who uses the software.

Students using StrataLogica can create a map on a computer screen of places as diverse as their neighborhood, Africa or the Holy Roman Empire. Then, they can click on spots on the map and enter information about each spot.

They can access 2-D and 3-D depictions of the world’s geography. They can access a thorough atlas on their computer. They can make presentations about their maps.

The work that StrataLogica lets students do used to be done with paper and pencil, which look downright medieval in comparison.

“This keeps them engaged,” said Waters, pointing at StrataLogica while holding a book with a black-and-white map printed on it.

“They used to have to do this by hand,” she added. “Draw the map and enter the information.”

The students love the change.

“This is lots more fun,” said Chief Kanim student Donavan See.

Google Earth powers StrataLogica’s mechanics, but the real power comes from the students, who buy in more to the lesson when it is taught to them via technology.

Other teachers in the Valley, like Twin Falls Middle School’s Shawn Lawrence and Snoqualmie Middle School’s Tom Burford, have also used StrataLogica.

At Chief Kanim, Gray said, students from grades six to eight get a chance to use it, with the learning personalized at every level.

“It can be set at an individual level,” she said. “The student can create a program at whatever level they are.”

Like with any novelty, students at first struggled with StrataLogica, feeling frustrated at times.

“It was kind of hard at times,” said Zeke Barden, a student at Chief Kanim.

Now that they have become proficient, students share horror stories about those first days.

“Don’t forget to hit save,” student Garrett Halseth said.

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.

Seeing the success of places like Monroe, Bellevue, Kirkland and Edmonds led Snoqualmie Valley School District officials to consider the idea of an Alternative Learning Experience, which would mix home-schooled education with some classroom time.

The Parent Partner Program is the result of those considerations, and Tom Athanases, alternative programs planning coordinator for the district, said that once the program was unveiled it would be anything but news to some families in the Valley.

“People in our area are somewhat familiar with these programs,” he said. “Some families take their children to them. The main idea was to start our own.”

Nominations are open for the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation’s annual Educator of the Year awards.

Four winners will be picked, one each from grades kindergarten through five, six through eight and nine through 12, and another award for classified staff.

An educator can be nominated by students, parents, educators or other members of the community.

A nominee must inspire students from all backgrounds and abilities to learn.

He or she must have the respect and admiration of parents, students and colleagues. He or she must be a leader and must play an active and useful role in the scholastic environment, according to a press release from the foundation.

Nominations must be postmarked by Feb. 6 and include two letters of support, at least one from a student and none from direct supervisors of the nominee.

The winners’ names will be unveiled March 22 at the foundation’s annual spring luncheon.

Go to the foundation’s website, www.svsfoundation.org, and then click on “Today’s Funding Needs,” and then on “Educator of the Year” to find the nomination application.

Mail the application to the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation, Attn. Lorraine Thurston, Educator of the Year Program, P.O. Box 724, Fall City, WA, 98024.

Email Thurston at lorraine@northernwall.com.

The dean’s list honors students with a grade point average of 3.6 or higher, a cumulative GPA of 3.2 or higher and enrolled in 12 or more credit units. About 26 percent of Biola students earned dean’s list status last year.

At Oregon State University, Shanna L. Howland, of North Bend, made the university’s honor roll, with a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Students in the honor roll had to earn 3.5 GPA or higher over 12 graded hours of course work. About 16 percent of Oregon State students earned honor roll status.

MSHS to host cheer minicamp for grade schoolers

The Mount Si High School Cheer Squad will hold a cheer minicamp for children grades kindergarten through five from 9 a.m. to noon Jan. 21 at Mount Si High School.

“This year, unlike all the other years, it’s going to be just one day,” said Carmen Villanueva, parent of Chloe, one of the team’s cheerleaders. “We do it to kind of minimize the disruption in people’s schedule.”

Head Coach Jessi Stevens will be there, but the team’s cheerleaders will teach the camp. Members of the minicamp will perform at a girls’ home basketball game Jan. 27. The fee is $45. To enroll your child, email Stevens at raisioj@yahoo.com.

By Sebastian Moraga Cathi Woolley, nurse at Snoqualmie Middle School, received the Western Washington March of Dimes’ School Nurse of the Year award for 2011.

The teenager walked into the nurse’s station at Mount Si High School with a cut on his finger. He bellowed for a particular nurse to tend to him. Alas, she was not there.

Still, the award was the nurse’s to keep, no matter how much the boy complained.

The Washington March of Dimes named Snoqualmie Valley School District nurse Cathi Woolley the 2011 Western Washington School Nurse of the Year, much to the amusement of her teenage child.

Woolley graduated in 1980 from the University of Puget Sound, moved to the Valley in 1995 and took her first job as a school nurse in 2007, the same job she has now.

“This is very amenable to family life,” she said. “We have the same calendar, the same schedule, sometimes even the same school.”

Not that autumn day, when her teenager got hurt on a kiln in ceramics class.

“The nurse of the year,” the boy joked. “And she’s not here to take care of her son.”

Motherly absence aside, Snoqualmie Middle School Principal Vernie Newell and SMS counselor Heather Kern nominated Woolley for the award.

They called her a true asset to the school and an ideal candidate for the prize.

“In collaborating with Mrs. Woolley, our school has witnessed a very positive change for the ‘image of nursing,’” their nomination letter stated.

This is Woolley’s first award in her school nursing career.

“I feel deeply honored to have received it,” she said.

A mother of two children, Woolley said her job entails very little first aid. Being a school nurse deals with how health impacts a child’s access to education.

“It’s about implementing a system,” she said, “so children who have health needs can attend school.”

A school nurse in the 21st century has to be ready to be flexible in all areas, she said.

“You have to be able to give and accommodate very different things,” she said.

That rings true particularly when dealing with middle-schoolers.

“The issues are different, they have different health needs,” said Woolley, who splits her time between Snoqualmie Middle School and the high school. “These are pre-adults, though others are still children.”

When she was a child, Woolley said, she wanted to be a large-animal veterinarian.

It wasn’t until she was a freshman in college, a little younger than her 21-year-old daughter is, that she decided to go into nursing.

Woolley’s son may kid her about the award, but her daughter gives her nothing but props.

“She said, ‘Way to go, Mom,” Woolley said.

If given the chance to start over, Woolley would shelve the dream of tending to cows and horses for good, she said.

“I would stay here,” she said. “I enjoy the kids. They are fun, they are awesome, they are uplifting to be around, even when they are not well.”

For Erin Townsend, Renae Tawney and Marisa Carlson, success looks like a meal, like a trip to the grocery store, like a safe mosey down the hallways of a serpentine building.

Townsend teaches life skills to students with disabilities and Chief Kanim Middle School. Tawney and Carlson are the class’ instruction assistants.

“We do some academics,” Townsend said. “But we teach them to be as independent as they can be.”

By Sebastian Moraga Camden Quinn (left) finishes a jigsaw puzzle under the gaze of teacher Erin Townsend.

The road to independence includes learning how to read a schedule; how to make a grocery list; how to follow a recipe; and how to get in, around and out of buildings safely.

Children’s conditions include things like autism, Asperger’s disease, cerebral palsy and Down’s syndrome.

“We have children with conditions ranging from severe to moderate,” Townsend said. “It’s challenging because no kid is the same, so you have to tailor it to their needs.”

Students’ ages range from 11 to 14 years old. Their classroom sits alongside other classrooms in the main Chief Kanim building.

“For us, it’s about a lot of inclusion,” Townsend said, “being around their peers as much as they can.”

She later added, “We try to get them involved with the general-education children as much as possible.”

This includes bringing able-bodied children to serve as peer tutors, or getting the children in the Associated Student Body to come read to the students.

Principal Kirk Dunckel said Life Skills students have access to the same technological advances the rest of the student body does.

“They are really doing some great technological stuff with their kids,” he said, mentioning the use of ActivBoards as an example.

“All of our kids are getting that, but the Life Skills kids are there, too,” he added.

Townsend, a teacher of the Life Skills class for two years, preaches patience and passion when teaching students with disabilities.

“Sometimes it’s not going to be easy, sometimes it’s not going to go your way,” she said.

Parents are supportive for the most part, she said, although difficult circumstances always arise.

“Parents may have a different idea,” she said. “Or may wish their kid learned something faster.”

The special-education students’ attitude is unparalleled, Townsend said — they are always eager to learn. She also lauded the behavior of general-education students toward the special-education students.

“You never see any of the kids picking on our kids,” she said. “The school is great like that.”

The biggest payoff for her, she said, comes when she sees students take strides forward.

“I love to see them make progress on whatever it is they are doing,” she said. “They are always so happy to learn new things.”

Seeing the success of places like Monroe, Bellevue, Lake Washington and Edmonds led Snoqualmie Valley School District officials to consider the idea of an Alternative Learning Experience, which would mix home-schooled elementary education with some classroom time.

The Parent Partner Program is the result of those considerations, and Tom Athanases, alternative programs planning coordinator for the district, said that once the program was unveiled it would be anything but news to some families in the Valley.

“People in our area are somewhat familiar with these programs,” he said. “Some families take their children to them. The main idea was to start our own.”

Under the Parent Partner Program, families remain the primary educator, but the district takes on an active support role in some areas, according to a press release from the district.

Those areas, Athanases said, will initially include science and the arts.

“A certified teacher can help guide them,” he said, adding that certification will be required.

Another goal of the program, Athanases said, is to form a network of families with home-schooled children.

“We want to have a community-building network of families, enriching the experience by coming together,” he said.

Athanases said the program has proven very popular in other places. About 400 children participate in the Edmonds program. In the Riverview School District, more than 100 children split their time 80-20 between home and school, Athanases said. The one day at school changes by grade each day.

The Snoqualmie Valley program is expected to start in September. It’s unknown how many children will participate, Athanases said, but he remains optimistic that it will catch on in the community. Parents have already shown interest, he added. An informational meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Feb. 1 at the district office.

“It’s like that saying goes, ‘If you build it, they will come,’” he said. “That’s difficult in tight economic times, but the interest is there.”

At-hanases, formerly principal at Two Rivers School for almost a quarter-century, said he likes having another way to reach children in the district.

“Twenty-five years ago we started Two Rivers, two to three years ago we started the Virtual Academy,” he said referring to the online classes service. “This is a different way to offer support to our families and communities.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.

Mount Si High School junior Aaron Tevis during the winter concert last month. By Sebastian Moraga

It’s a great time to be a musician at Mount Si High School.

Students flock to the younger ensembles and bands. More experienced groups have hit the big time. Bands work as a group and individuals have added extra luster.

It translates to a busy second semester for band director Adam Rupert.

“We are busy and that’s good,” Rupert said before winter break.

Jamming with the stars

The elite ensemble of the program is making the most noise. Next semester will bring big names and bigger venues to the band known as Jazz 1.

Jazz 1 will first travel to a festival at Central Washington University Jan. 20. The Ellensburg-based university is Rupert’s alma mater.

On Jan. 20, Jazz 1 will audition for New York’s Essentially Ellington Jazz Band Competition. The ensemble will record three pieces for it.

In February, the band will travel to a jazz festival in Poulsbo. Last year, the band won it.

From March 27-30, the band will travel to the Swing Central Jazz Festival in Savannah, Ga.

“That’s the biggest one,” said trombonist Matt Bumgardner, a member of Jazz 1 and the wind ensemble.

Aaron Tevis, trumpet player for the band, said more than 100 bands auditioned and only 12 made it, including Mount Si. Essentially, Ellington and Swing Central are the nation’s top jazz festivals for high school bands, he added.

In return, Swing Central clinician and renowned trombonist Wycliffe Gordon will teach at the high school for free.

Students will love the experience, Rupert said, but that should not be all.

“There’s still a competition at hand,” he said. “You want to make memories, but we also want to improve as musicians.”

The gem of the trip, Rupert said, will be listening to the other bands play live.

Listening is a huge part of jazz, he said, and Swing Central will gather the best in the nation.

All in symphony

Rupert knows about gems. The symphonic band, for incoming freshmen and other beginners, carries many future virtuosos.

The band has its largest freshman class ever. Fifty-three ninth-graders joined.

“It’s the result of hard work that stems back from fifth-grade band,” Rupert said. “and getting a good, solid foundation at the middle-school level.”

The band has 70-plus members. A room with six dozen ninth-graders may qualify as torture in some circles, but to Rupert it’s great. The children want to be there.

“Classroom management is less of an issue when the kids have bought in to what they are doing and are invested in what they are doing,” he said.

Feeling the rush

The wind ensemble carries more experienced players — 52 in total, no freshmen, mostly juniors and seniors.

Like all the other groups, the ensemble requires long hours, a deep commitment from both the students and the teacher, he said.

“It’s difficult to build a successful program without a substantial investment from you and your family,” said Rupert, whose wife is a music teacher in the Tahoma School District.

“Being a music teacher,” Rupert said, “you never leave music at work. Music goes home with you.”

Rupert said he wants to create appreciators of music, not professional musicians. Playing opportunities abound, he said, for players not seeking a major or a minor in music.

Reaching for the stars

Jazz 2 gathers the students still learning “the language of jazz.”

“Music is of course a language,” Rupert said. “But even within that, jazz is so specific. We focus on music not written on the page.”

A jazz band solo, Rupert said, is more of a road map than a note-by-note guidebook. Performers get a symbol and a letter and that tells them which way to go, he added. Students in Jazz 2 still are feeling their way around the idioms, he added.

Bumgardner, a senior, sees plenty of potential in the younger band.

“They took second in their division at the Bellevue festival last year,” he said. “There’s a lot of really good promising young players.”

Bumgardner never played for Jazz 2. Tevis did.

“It was really good for me,” he said. “It increased my motivation to go up higher and it made me a better player.”

Like Rupert, Bumgardner said he believes that promise extends to the middle school performers who will join once in high school.

Rupert predicted the jazz ensembles at Mount Si High School will grow so much in a couple of years that the school will have a Jazz 3.

The third jazz band will add to Rupert’s workload, but he said he loves what he does.

“The long hours aren’t as long when you work with great kids,” he said.

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.

Another has all the ideas. A fourth one has all the answers.

And the fifth one is the builder.

From left, Hari Rathnam, Peter Bastedo, Rahul Chaliparambil and Vishnu Rathnam, four of the five members of the BrickBusters team. The team will compete in the state tournament of Lego robotics. Not pictured is Grant Baker. By Sebastian Moraga

Not the A-Team. More like the A-plus team. After all the A-Team only had four members; this one has five.

The quintet of children grades four through eight will represent the Snoqualmie Valley students in the state Lego robotics competition organized by the First Lego League this month.

If the Valley team wins state, it enters a pool to qualify for the world championships.

“The judges will pick from the pool the teams that best showcase what the competition is all about,” said Ram Rathnam, one of the team’s three coaches.

What the contest is about can be summed up in a word that is succinct, concise and totally made-up: Coopertition. Cooperation within competition. In other words, play hard but play nice.

This team knows about playing hard. They have worked since September on a robot that can help guard food against gluten contamination, said Rahul Chaliparambil, the builder. They starred at regionals with it and will take the robot to state.

“It takes a video of what happens with the food” while they make it and transport it, said Peter Bastedo, the troubleshooter.

Gluten is a protein found in things like rye, wheat and barley that can cause serious trouble with some people’s digestive systems.

Gluten intolerance , also known as celiac disease, affects about 3 million people in the U.S, including Grant Baker, the answer guy, and co-coach Nancy Baker, Grant’s mother.

The team and future teams like it want to play a role in the districtwide push for science, technology, engineering and math classes, known as STEM, Nancy Baker said.

“What’s happening here are the building blocks of what will be happening in our school district,” she said.

Coaches don’t have to be experts at robotics to help, Rathnam said.

“The coaches don’t have to know about programming, don’t have to know about robotics,” he added. “They are there mostly for adult supervision.”

The children do the bulk of the work. Then, the robot keeps an eye on how products, in this case cheese balls and pizza, are produced.

“Maybe a product with gluten was spilled on something, or leaked on something,” said Hari Rathnam the all-around guy and Ram’s son. “Maybe a nongluten-free product was placed on the same plate as a gluten-free product.”

Or maybe, said Vishnu Rathnam, Hari’s sibling and the idea guy, a rat ate from both.

“Of course, if you got a rat in your restaurant, you’ve got bigger problems than gluten,” Ram said.

The team has had a ball building the robot. Literally.

“The most fun about this has been being a team,” Hari Rathnam said. “And eating cheese balls.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.

Karen Rudd, left, and Ava Ristow during the weekly Museo Art Enrichment class at North Bend Elementary School. Rudd, co-vice president of the school’s PTA and mother of a student in the class, holds a picture of a bag of popcorn as depicted by pop art great Burton Morris. By Sebastian Moraga

Hard to know if Andy Warhol ever got hungry while doing his iconic cans of soup. Or if his fellow pop artist Burton Morris ever craved some munchies while painting a bag of popcorn or redesigning the Pop-Tarts logo.

What we do know is that such art had a profound effect on Lydia Brooks.

Brooks, a grade-schooler at North Bend Elementary School, saw slides of Warhol’s soup can and Morris’ bag of popcorn Dec. 16 after school and let her instructors know how she felt.

“I’m getting hungry,” she said.

Brooks and about a dozen other elementary school students attend “Journey With The Masters,” an after-school enrichment class taught by Issaquah’s Museo Art Academy.

Instructors do more than simply passing out crayons, instead teaching children about different art forms and about their top innovators.

Through the semester, students have learned about icons of art within their own techniques: Warhol and popular art, Rene Magritte and surrealism.

For the week on Magritte, they drew their own version of his “The Son of Man,” where a hovering green apple covers a man’s face.

They also learn things like color theory and how to make a mosaic.

Students used media such as paint, rolling ink and markers.

“You get to learn something new every time,” said Kaitlin Rudd, one of the students, whose mom helps teach the class.

Karen Rudd said her daughter and other students can gather their artwork, put it in a portfolio “and keep it forever.”

Parents pay for the students to be in the class, but the instructors provide all of the materials. Classes last 90 minutes once a week.

“What they like to do at Museo is give you a sheet for the parents to see what the children did that week,” she said.

The goal for the class, Karen Rudd said, is to promote creativity. Instructors tell children to close their eyes, think about what they feel and then put it on the draft paper.

“Works really well with some of them,” Karen Rudd said. “Some of them just go, ‘I’ll just do this.’ Depends on what side of the brain they are.”

In the last class before winter break, students learned about pop art and as an assignment they had to draw things that made sudden, exploding noises — they came up with things including water pouring from a pitcher, bubbles popping and a flash of lightning.

Despite the impending vacation adding an extra layer of antsy to the already energetic children, they behaved and shared crayons, paper and even advice.

“The great thing is that they don’t have to be here,” Rudd said. “They want to be here.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.

These four Snoqualmie Middle School seventh-graders earned accolades for their writing. Back row, from left: Lindsay Sydnor, Sarah Bosworth and Graysen Kaess. Front row: Courteney Carr. By Sebastian Moraga

Four Snoqualmie Middle School students earned accolades for their essays about why they felt proud of America.

Seventh-graders Sarah Bosworth, Graysen Kaess, Lindsey Sydnor and Courteney Carr earned the top four places in a Veterans Of Foreign Wars-sponsored competition of middle schoolers from Redmond, Bellevue, Issaquah and Snoqualmie.

Bosworth took first, Kaess came in second, Sydnor placed third and Carr finished fourth.

“I feel really honored that they chose four people from our school, out of five spots,” Carr said.

Kaess agreed.

“I’m just really happy about having the chance to move on to districts,” she said. “It was pretty amazing.”

The first three girls’ essays qualified for districts. Bosworth’s essay won districts and qualified for state. The results of state will be revealed this month.

Carr wrote that she felt proud of America because of its brave veterans, and “because we are one of the most caring countries.”

Sydnor wrote about how America has endured ups and downs, “but we still are who we are because of our country and our freedom.”

Kaess wrote about the impact the United States has had in the world, thanks to technology and politics.

“Even though it’s not a perfect country, we strive to help others along the way,” she said.

Bosworth’s essay described how America has remained united and strong through the years. She also wrote about how the Statue of Liberty is “kind of the symbol of our country,” she said.

If she wins state, Bosworth will qualify for nationals.

The winner of nationals wins a $10,000 savings bond, said Rene Peterson, the girls’ language arts teacher.

The four girls agreed that experiencing success will help their self-confidence as writers.

“This is really huge,” Bosworth said. “I never really had something like this happen before. I feel like anything I write is almost easier.”

Kaess added that it would also help their confidence as students.

“It made me think about what is possible in academics,” she said. “It’s not just about the grade, but about how much effort you put in and about what really matters to you.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.

School bus driver Chuck Smith in what he calls his 'office.' Smith has become a celebrity of sorts among his student-passengers, who love how Smith gives his safety lecture as a rap song. By Sebastian Moraga

Portly and with a long white beard, Chuck Smith resembles someone he’s quite familiar with, Santa Claus.

Add his red cap to the picture and he resembles Denver Pyle, the actor who played Uncle Jesse in the old “The Dukes of Hazzard” TV show.

Twist that cap to the right and he becomes someone else entirely: He becomes Chuck Smith, the school bus-driving rapper.

“He’s really funny and cool and stuff,” said seventh-grader Julia Carroll at Twin Falls Middle School, where Smith begins his route early every morning.

Standing behind Carroll at the lunch-break line were classmates Cody Longwell, James Bent and Quinn Madsen.

“He’s awesome,” all three said in unison.

Smith has become a hit with students, thanks in part to a song he performs on the bus to tell them what to do in case of an emergency. Smith wrote the song to keep children interested while he gave his safety talk.

“My wife sent me a video of a Southwest Airlines steward named David Holmes, and he did it for the airline passengers,” Smith said. “When I watched it, it was funny and it was cute, but what struck me was, when the camera panned down to the aisle, everyone was paying attention.”

That’s not normally the case with safety drills, in a school bus loaded with children wearing headphones and iPods. Smith, a onetime glazer and book salesman, wrote the lyrics to a song of his own, OK’d it with his supervisor, and then showed it to the children.

“They loved it,” he said of his first performance, almost two years ago. “It was just me a capella, no music, no nothing.”

The children loved the song so much that Smith had to do the song twice a day for two weeks, until he told them he was getting tired of it. Smith then searched online for a royalty-free rap beat. Step two was mixing the beat with a recording of his voice. Step three was laying the complete track and a track with just the music onto a CD.

“Once I did that, the kids loved it even more because it had music,” he said.

Step four was taking the song to the stage, at a talent show at the school. Step five was adapting the song to the different ages of children he drives. The song changes when he drives children from elementary or high schools.

When he’s not getting in touch with his inner Jay-Z, Smith has another child-friendly gig: he plays Santa. And he’s so good at it, some of the children in his route have sat on his lap and talked toys with him on Saturday and not recognized him on the bus the next Monday.

“Once you’re in a suit and you’re in costume, you take on a whole different aura,” he said.

His Santa job has taken him to places like Safeway and Encompass.

Not bad for a guy who still describes himself as shy and whose only regret seems to be he did not start driving a bus sooner than five years ago.

“This is the best job that I’ve ever had in my life,” he said.

Emily Dann (left) listens as instructor Kimberly Houde teaches her and the rest of her after-school Spanish class about the solar system and the universe. Dann joined a handful of grade schoolers at Cascade View Elementary School to learn the basics of the language. By Sebastian Moraga

Some things don’t change, even if the language does.

Seven grade-schoolers played bingo in Spanish. Dec. 14 at Cascade View Elementary School.

The mechanics of the game stayed the same. Listen for the number to get called and drop a marker on your card.

The mechanics of the children also stayed the same.

After losing the first two games, second-grader Jordan Raybon asked instructor Kimberly Houde, “Can we play until I win?”

The group did play two more games, with Raybon remaining winless.

By the time she went home, though, Raybon could count and recite the names of the planets in Spanish.

For fourteen weeks, Raybon and about 11 other students from grades kindergarten through four have studied Spanish under the guidance of Houde, founder of North Bend’s Spanish Academy.

“The children arrived here speaking a few words,” said Houde, for whom Spanish is a second language. “Now they are combining words to make phrases.”

Houde learned Spanish in Argentina, so the children are learning Spanish with an Argentinean flavor. Tú (the word “you”) becomes “vos” (“ya.”) “Yo” (the word “I”) sounds like “Sho.”

“I had the option of being an exchange student in Argentina my junior year of high school,” she said. “I lived in Argentina for a year.”

She highly recommends that children travel abroad to learn a language during their teen years.

“Go to a Spanish-speaking country for a summer and just be immersed,” she said. “It makes a huge difference.”

The academy is 100 percent immersion, but their programs at public schools have to be more lenient.

“We only have the kids for an hour and a half, once a week,” she said. “So we have to be more flexible to help them understand what we are talking about.”

Homework is optional during the lessons.

Students who did any homework received a tiny plastic swan.

The student with the most swans received a gift at the end of the last class, Dec. 14.

Bailey Cornell had 12, Emily Dann had 13.

A long-faced Cornell watched as Dann received a multitude of presents, including a sombrero. After the fuss died down, Dann walked to Cornell’s seat and quietly gave Cornell some of her loot.

Such behavior is common in the class, Houde said. Not only do the students get along, but they teach each other.

“The older ones always help the younger ones,” Houde said. “It’s beautiful.”

They may have mature moments, but children know well how to be silly.

They interrupted a lesson to ask for song requests (Jose Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” is a favorite this time of year), and snickered when a visitor talking about planets mentioned Uranus.

Still, it worked. They put phrases together and tried hard to spell the planets’ names.

And when they got something right, nobody looked happier than Houde, who extended the palm of her right hand toward her students and shouted “Dame Cinco!” (DAH-may SEEN-coh)

Dame Cinco is “give me five” in Spanish.

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221 or smoraga@snovalleystar.com. Comment at www.snovalleystar.com.

The students in Mount Si High School’s Speech and Debate team represent the school in competitions as far away as Walla Walla and Tacoma. Students at Mount Si may letter in Speech and Debate. By Sebastian Moraga

Call it an occupational hazard.

“My stepdad wishes I had never joined the debate team,” Mount Si High School student Douglas Knox said.

Once he joined, he began winning arguments. To his stepfather, Knox has become, in Knox’s own words, a pain in the butt.

The 20-plus students in the Speech and Debate team at Mount Si can relate, in a way.

They also have become pains for several opposing teams around the Northwest.

Success in recent competitions at Whitman College in Walla Walla and the University of Washington has built their reputation, which seemed all but unthinkable two years ago.

Jeremy Knight is a junior and the longest-tenured member of the team. His freshman year, he had five teammates.

“We were OK,” he said. “We were never an embarrassment, but we weren’t as good as we are today.”

The team competed Dec. 2 and 3 at the University of Washington against Northwest and Canadian high school teams.

Brothers Andrew and Ryan Hartman won the Novice category. Ali Raphael and Lydia Petroske made it to the semifinals.

Riley Dirks and Kevin McLaughlin reached the Novice quarterfinals.

Will Richards and Knight made it to quarterfinals in the Open division, the highest level of Public Forum debate.

“To see people go to UW, and face teams from Oregon and Canada, and see the team win, I could have never imagined that as a freshman,” Knight said. “I’m so proud of everyone in this room.”

The success has a price. Team members must prepare before a debate, and be ready to argue both sides.

“My weekends have gotten a lot shorter,” Scott said.

The topics are not favorite colors or the best Lady Gaga song. Students debate issues like income disparity and rate hikes in college tuition.

“Instead of discussing facts, you discuss concepts,” teammate Liam Crozier said.

Sometimes, the topic choice leads to unusual situations, like debating in America about American democracy, but against Canadian students.

Speech and debate is more competitive and harder than people realize, Andrew Hartman said. It’s also more important.

“It’s not just an extracurricular activity,” teammate Vanessa Scott said. “It’s something you put in a college application.”

Diana Young-Blanchard, the team’s adviser, teaches five Language Arts classes before she trains 20 debaters.

“It’s a curse and a blessing,” she said. “But as long as they are committed, I will keep doing it.”

A win is always a thrill and a loss is always devastating, Mathew Scott said.

“For every case, we spend a couple dozen hours preparing, and to go to a debate and have someone rip apart what you create,” Mathew said, “it kind of sucks.”

A win, on the other hand, is a big deal, considering how far the team has to travel —Walla Walla, Tacoma, Auburn, Seattle — and the level of competition.

Schools that may be expected to excel at debate teams don’t. Speech and debate powerhouses tend to come from smaller schools like Gig Harbor and Mount Si, Knight said.

The phenomenon of smaller is better surpasses the Puget Sound area.

“There’s a lot of research that shows that debate teams in impoverished, urban schools thrive,” said Young-Blanchard. “Because you are giving them a voice.”

The Mount Si Speech and Debate team has a voice, but its members would like it to be louder.

“I would really like more membership, more recognition,” Hartman said. “Have kids know and be excited about Speech and Debate as they are when the football team wins.”

As teammates exchanged looks, Hartman replied, “Hey, I can dream.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.

And the little grade schoolers,

Watched the teens read them stories

Mount Si High School sophomore Abby Nelson captures the attention of a handful of grade-schoolers during the weekly Lead2Read session at Cascade View Elementary School. By Sebastian Moraga

Thinking, “This can’t get cooler.”

Normally rambunctious, the second-graders became an enraptured audience for eight students from Charlie Kinnune’s leadership class at Mount Si High School.

The Nov. 9 session of the weekly program dubbed Lead2Read enchanted the little ones and the older children alike.

“It’s so awesome to see the smiles on their faces,” said Ethan Waud, one of the students who reads to the grade schoolers.

This is the first year of the program, which long-term substitute teacher Rhonda Mitchell said will go year round.

“There’s another grade level that wants in,” said Mitchell, who replaced Katie Williams as second-grade teacher while Williams was on maternity leave. “But we want to get the program established first.”

In January, once the program gets a few weeks older, teachers will consider expanding it to other elementary schools, Mitchell added.

Mitchell is the mother of Josh Mitchell, the football and wrestling standout at Mount Si who attended the first week of the Lead2Read program. Mitchell showed up wearing his football jersey. Days later, one of the second-graders recognized him outside of school and tried to get his attention.

“He shouted, ‘Number 63! Number 63!’” Rhonda Mitchell recalled.

Mitchell’s classmates have also received their share of love.

Senior Maddy Schwabbe received a big hug Dec. 9 from a second-grader who remembered her from last week. And all the students got a big chorus of “thank-yous” at the end of the program.

“You try not to mess up,” said Hayley Koellen, another senior, “but it’s great to see them so interested.”

Teenager Abby Nelson agreed.

“Kids look up to older siblings and parents,” she said. “It’s great to see them have someone new to look up to.”

Koellen and the other teenagers can only wish that a program like this existed when they were in elementary school.

“It probably would have made class more fun,” Koellen said.

It sure did for these second-graders, who gasped with excitement when they learned that the teenagers would escort them to the lunch room.

Teenagers headed to the lunch room, watching the second-graders lead the way and whispering things like, “They are so adorable” and “I want one.”

The younger children were just as enchanted to have such tall companions.

“It’s almost a status symbol in a way,” Rhonda Mitchell said. “They are like, ‘Look who I brought.’”

John Varga, a third-year law student at Seattle University and a Mount Si High School grad, talks to Snoqualmie Middle School students about the law, the Army and ‘ancient’ movies like ‘A Few Good Men.’ Varga told the students that talent without a good work ethic often results in a struggle. By Sebastian Moraga

The trick worked every time. Students either gasped or needed a ladder to bring their eyebrows back down.

“How long was your last test?” third-year law student and Mount Si High School alum John Varga asked the eighth-graders in Janice Wintermyer’s class at Snoqualmie Middle School.

Without fail, a student would say 30 minutes, or 20 minutes or 40 minutes.

“Well,” Varga replied, “The bar exam is two and a half days long.”

Besides shocking students out of ever wanting to be attorneys, Varga shared some of the ups and downs of a career that took him from the United States Army Reserve to a bachelor’s degree to law school.

And next year, to the shocking bar exam.

“Two and a half days long?” a student asked. “You mean, 60 hours?”

After explaining that the exam was not two and a half full days, Varga talked about some of the teenagers he has met this semester while working at the juvenile detention center in Seattle.

He told them about the consequences of teenage misbehavior, from stints in jail to hard-to-erase records. He advised students not to live off just their talents but to work hard.

“If you’re smart and you don’t have good work habits,” he said, “you will struggle a little bit.”

He talked honestly about some of his past decisions, like his major in college.

“My degree in college was in Southeast Asian studies,” he said. “Employers weren’t knocking down my door to hire me.”

He mixed stern warnings with gentle ribbing, like when student Max Puff asked him for his card.

“You plannin’ to get in trouble?” Varga asked.

Puff shook his head, but got in “trouble” anyway. When talk turned to the latest book Wintermyer made the students read, Varga asked “Did anybody read it?”

The class responded “Yeah!”

“Did anybody not read it,” Varga asked.

“Max!” a student peeped.

Puff smiled.

Varga, who earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Washington, fielded questions about whether he liked the result of this year’s Apple Cup, whether he had ever been on “Judge Judy,” and whether he realized he looked just like eighth-grader Dante Angerame.

“Really?” Varga said, turning to Angerame. “You know, Dante, you’re a good-looking guy.”

The temperature never rose above the 30s that day in Snoqualmie, but when Varga took a break and stepped outside, he was not the least bit cold.

“That was difficult,” he said, after talking to three classes. “I like to think of myself as a humble guy and I don’t like to talk about myself, and it’s always hard to overcome that. I hope I was interesting.”

It was interesting, he said, to see Wintermyer, a former classmate at Mount Si High School, turned into a full-fledged teacher, commanding the attention of an entire room.

“It was pretty neat,” he said. “I feel like the last 10 years have been a blur.”

Sebastian Moraga: 392-6434, ext. 221, or smoraga@snovalleystar.com.