Christi Wright didn’t know what to say when she learned that she had been named one of Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation’s four educators of the year.

“There are so many other people I can think of and name who are so much more deserving,” said Wright, Mount Si High School principal’s secretary.

The other recipients are Mount Si culinary arts teacher Laura Tarp, Fall City Elementary second-grade teacher Jan Miller and Cascade View Elementary School third-grade teacher Seth Deniston.

Wright, a Mount Si graduate, has worked for almost every school in the district and is almost an institution at the school.

“It’s about the kids,” Wright said. “I like to find out how they’re doing and making sure their day is going okay.”

She said she was surprised to learn she was nominated and flabbergasted when “they snuck up behind me” with balloons to announce her award.

Foundation members said they were delighted to honor the unsuspecting educators.

“It went really well and to such deserving people,” foundation executive director Carolyn Malcolm said.

Another honored educator, Laura Tarp, was equally surprised. Tarp teaches high school students about cooking and the business behind food preparation.

“I was totally shocked and humbled when I learned I was nominated,” Tarp said. “I do what I do because I love it.”

Tarp put herself through college by working in the hospitality business. At age 19, she enrolled in a student exchange and visited 18 countries before returning to Washington. From there, she worked as a manager at the Snoqualmie Falls Lodge, got married after meeting her husband at a pool tournament and worked as a fast food instructor at Renton Technical College.

She took 11 years off to raise her children before applying for the Mount Si position in 1999.

Tarp found her work extremely satisfying as she watched children learn life skills in the Mount Si kitchen.

“They know what the industry is like by the time they leave,” Tarp said.

Across the Valley in Fall City, foundation members surprised Jan Miller with her award. The Portland native said she didn’t begin her career as a teacher. It was only when working with people at a prison release halfway house that she realized her passion.

Miller went back to school to learn about child development and education and then taught around the world, including in Alaska, Montana and South America.

She took her teaching position at Fall City Elementary in 2000.

“I think Fall City Elementary is a real community school,” Miller said. “The staff is amazingly professional and extremely close and supportive of one another.”

She said knowing that the award came from students, parents and teachers made it meaningful, because those were the people she served.

Her students, she said, were happy for her, too.

“They were totally very cute, very excited for me,” Miller said. “They weren’t quite sure if I was famous or if they were. They’ve been sweet.”

The fourth teacher, Seth Deniston, also took a circuitous route to teaching. He majored in journalism and political science at the University of Washington before going into public relations.

“I liked the creative aspect of being able to write advertisements,” Deniston said.

In 2003, he traveled to Africa with Children of the Nations, where a friend told him he was good with children.

Deniston agreed.

“I felt like that was something I was supposed to be doing,” said Deniston, who started teaching at Cascade View in 2004. Once there, he put his journalism skills to use when he started co-advising the student-run newspaper, The Cub Chronicle.

He and his wife still fly to Malawi and Uganda every few years to tutor children there.

Foundation member Rhonda Moorhead praised all educators who were nominated as well as awarded.

“Children wrote beautiful essays about how they appreciate the teachers,” Moorhead said. “Some of these students don’t even have these teachers right now, but they still remember the influence these teachers had on them.”

The educators will be honored at the foundation’s fundraising luncheon from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 25 at the Snoqualmie Ridge Golf Club. Visit www.svsfoundation.org to RSVP.

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation is hosting its third annual spring fundraiser and aiming for the stars with a goal of raising $100,000.

Attending the lunch is free to the public, although the foundation encourages participants to open their wallets as they learn about educational opportunities the foundation would like to spearhead in Snoqualmie Valley.

This year, the foundation plans to supplement and enhance math intervention resources at the middle and high school level, in addition to other projects, foundation President Carolyn Simpson said.

Students have room to improve in math, she said. In 2009, 60 percent of Mount Si sophomores passed the math WASL and 50 percent passed the science WASL.

In contrast, 89 percent of Mount Si sophomores passed the reading WASL and 97 percent passed the writing WASL.

With money raised from the luncheon, Simpson said she hopes the foundation could pay for math teachers to stay after school and tutor students. The Mount Si PTSA pays for math teachers to stay after school two days per week, but Simpson said foundation members wanted to expand the program

“Students might not only have questions on Mondays and Wednesday, they might also have questions on Tuesdays and Thursdays,” Simpson said, noting that most high school math was too complicated for parents to decipher, making it important for math teachers to provide extra help.

She said it was important for the public to continue to support education in tough economic times.

Last year the luncheon raised $65,000, money that went to classroom grants, like a telescope for the Mount Si astronomy class, and district-wide initiatives, like reading intervention and enrichment at the elementary level.

Of the $100,000 the foundation aims to raise, $7,500 of it would pay for science supplies, including microscopes for first-grade students and sieves for kindergarteners learning about dirt and sand, Simpson said.

If enough people or businesses donate money, the foundation would also continue to support and expand the natural helper program at Mount Si, as well as continue its district-wide classroom grant program.

“We want to continue to be able to be responsive to needs in the district as they come up in arts and music,” Simpson said.

The luncheon will feature Twin Falls Middle School jazz ensemble, a student-made video from Mount Si senior Ben Luna and the Educator of the Year awards.

What to know

• What: Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation Spring Fundraising Luncheon
• When: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 25
• Where: TPC Snoqualmie Ridge, 6005 S.E. Ridge St., Snoqualmie
• RSVP at www.svsfoundation.org.

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

An average person might not think much of a penny, but a penny can buy a pencil in Afghanistan, fifth-grader Shelby McCaddon said.

Students at Opstad Elementary School learned that if they collect enough pennies, they could amass enough money to pay for a new school in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

The campaign was started in 1993 by Greg Mortenson, co-author of the bestselling “Three Cups of Tea,” when he was climbing K2, the world’s second highest mountain. He never made it to the top and became lost on the way down, stumbling into the village of Korphe in Northeastern Pakistan.

The villagers saved his life. In return, he promised to build a school for their children. The only problem — he was broke.

It was children who came to his rescue. Students at his mother’s school in Wisconsin raised money with their pocket change. With help from them and other financers, Mortenson’s organization has built 78 schools serving 28,000 students, according to a 2009 USA Today article.

Opstad fifth-grader teacher Ileen O’Leary, whose class does a humanitarian project every year, asked her students what they thought of participating in the Pennies for Peace drive. After watching some YouTube videos and learning about the drive, the students jumped on board.

“I think it’s really cool and I like the places it’s going to build schools,” fifth-grader Betsy Caroll said.

O’Leary assigned each student to an Opstad class where they explained the mission behind Pennies for Peace and picked up the money once a week for six weeks to add to the schoolwide collection bin.

“I learned that little kids can raise a lot of money,” fifth-grader Connor Bunting said. “We told them that it’s for kids that don’t have schools like us.”

The students set a goal of $1,000, but broke it handily, reaching $1,750.60 before the school’s mid-winter break.

They actually collected so much change, the collection bucket burst.

Quinn Madsen reported the tin buckets she picked up from her assigned class exploded. There were pennies everywhere, but her friends helped pick up the coins, she said.

O’Leary’s husband took the money and put it in a coin-counter. There were so many coins the machine broke several times.

Fifth-grader Mason Marenco wrote a play about it for a class assignment.

“He’s counting the money and it’s like halfway, but it gets stuck because of a penny,” Marenco said, recounting his plot.

The drive also inspired a lesson plan for Opstad second-grade teacher Gena Meyer.

“Our kids have to recognize and identify coins and also be able to count them,” Meyer said, talking about the second-grade expectations set by the state.

She said Pennies for Peace not only taught her students about coins but also made them think about children in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“It teaches kids to have empathy for other people,” Meyer said.

Kaitlyn Chow said it was important that everyone have the opportunity to go to school so that they “can get a good job when they grow up.”

McCaddon seconded that thought.

“Who wouldn’t want to be smart when they grow up?” she asked.

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

Tanner Electric Cooperative is offering a training scholarship to residents in its service areas to learn about a career in the electrical industry.

Applicants for the cooperative’s $4,000 Allan Billett Memorial Lineworker Scholarship must be at least 17 years old, live in the upper Snoqualmie Valley or on Anderson Island, have a valid driver’s license and be a U.S citizen.

To apply, submit an application form, employment experience, references, a transcript of grades and a résumé detailing education. Completed applications must be submitted to the cooperative’s North Bend office by April 1.

For more information and application forms, visit www.tannerelectric.coop or call 425-888-0623.

The Snoqualmie Valley School District is facing a difficult fiscal year and in a worst case scenario, would have to lay off up to 26 teachers, business director Ron Ellis said at the Feb. 25 school board meeting.

Many of the layoffs are due to the discontinuation of Initiative 728 funds. In her proposed budget, Gov. Chris Gregoire cut I-728 funds, which helps schools hire more teachers to reduce class sizes. I-728 money also pays for professional development.

It would be difficult to maintain current class sizes if the reduction went through, Snoqualmie Valley School District Superintendent Joel Aune said.

If all of Gregoire’s cuts go through, the district could lose about $1.8 million, about 3.6 percent of its total budget, Ellis said. Other proposed state cuts include taking money away from the highly capable learners program and changing teacher-student ratios in kindergarten through fourth grade.

Interestingly, the state house budget would maintain student-teacher ratios for those grades, while the senate’s budget would not. If the house’s budget passes, it could save a handful of teachers’ jobs, Aune said.

The school district’s reserve is also lower than usual. Officials are still waiting to receive insurance and FEMA money from the 2009 flood that damaged several schools. Of about $1.7 million the district spent repairing flood damages, it has only received about $369,000 so far.

Counting only the insurance money it has already received, the district has about $3.3 million in its unreserved ending balance, about 6 percent of its total budget.

It was important to have a healthy reserve, Ellis said.

“If we had not had money in the bank when we had the flood, we could have been up the creek without a paddle,” Ellis said.

He is also keeping an eye on enrollment, and predicted it would grow 0.7 percent in the 2010-11 school year. More students equates to more money from the state, he said.

“Thank goodness we’re growing,” Aune said. “That’s a good thing.”

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

A group of parents and teachers led a heated discussion about how the school district should expand during a comment period held by the Snoqualmie Valley School Board Feb. 25.

Their complaints included a litany of items, including the price tag of the expansion project and the feasibility of annexing Snoqualmie Middle School.

At the last school board meeting, the Long-Term Facilities Committee recommended Mount Si High School annex Snoqualmie Middle School for the 2012-13 school year, when Mount Si’s student population is projected to exceed the building’s capacity.

In the meantime, the district would spend two years building a new, $50 million middle school on a 40-acre parcel it owns on Snoqualmie Ridge.

The committee looked into another long-term facilities option — the modernization and expansion of Mount Si — but said the $99 million to $104 million project would be too expensive and too difficult to coordinate during construction.

The school board is scheduled to accept or reject the recommendation at the March 11 meeting, but many said that was too fast a timeline.

For starters, even if Mount Si annexed Snoqualmie Middle School, Mount Si would still need to be renovated. Such a renovation would cost about $60 million, said school district spokeswoman Carolyn Malcolm.

“I think to tell the public that one option is $50 million and the other is $100 (million), which includes all of those necessary remodels, is somewhat misleading,” Snoqualmie Elementary School parent Geoffrey Doy said. “Seems to me that we’re not comparing apples to apples on the construction.”

He and other parents cited other problems with the annexation model. Now, students have five minutes between classes at Mount Si. Since it would take longer than five minutes for students to travel to the annex from Mount Si’s main campus, it only made sense that the school day would have to be lengthened, Doy said.

He asked the school board if members were prepared to give teachers a pay increase for the extra time they would be working.

Doy added that he wanted to know what kind of program, be it math, science or a ninth-grade campus, would be housed at the annex before the school board approved the plan.

He wasn’t the only one who wanted answers.

“I want to see some research,” Snoqualmie Elementary School teacher Aimee Fentress said.

She asked that the committee examine other ninth-grade academies or magnet schools before moving forward. Fentress noted that Mount Si’s sophomores were lagging in math in state testing, and recommended the annex become a math wing for the high school.

Parent Kim Arellano focused more on the safety of adapting the annex, as her two young children would be entering Mount Si after the annex would be in place.

“This plan directly affects me and my family,” Arellano said. “It scares me to death to even think about either one of my children being anywhere near highway 202 to walk to school.”

Not only would busing students to and from the annex be bad for the environment, but also the district would have to pay for bus drivers to take students between the buildings every 55 minutes, she said.

Snoqualmie Middle School teacher Jerry Hillburn told the board he favored expanding and modernizing the high school as opposed to annexing the middle school.

“I would choose to remodel the high school, no question,” Hillburn said. “We’re going to have to spend a bunch of money to remodel the high school anyway. If we build another middle school, don’t we still have to remodel the high school?

“I’m afraid we’re playing checkers here,” Hillburn said. “We need to be playing chess. We need to be thinking four or five moves ahead.”

Both he and Arellano said voters would not approve a bond to build a second middle school. Instead, they favored the second option of expanding and modernizing Mount Si.

Board vice president and committee liaison Dan Popp said the comments would be taken into consideration. Hillburn thanked him and all present.

“I cannot not tell you how much it pleases me to hear what people think,” he said. “Folks, it’s America. Speak up.”

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

Fifth-grade band concert, 6 p.m. March 4.

Second-grade concert, 7 p.m. March 4.

Fifth-grade Camp Seymour trip, March 10-12. 

North Bend Elementary

Read Across America event, March 5.

Haiti coin and shoe drive. Drop off donations at the front office. 

Opstad Elementary

Fifth-grade Benaroya Hall field trip, March 10-11.

Bingo Night, 6-7:30 p.m. March 12.

PTA general meeting, 6:50-7 p.m. March 12. 

Snoqualmie Elementary

Second-grade concert, 7-8 p.m. March 11. 

Chief Kanim Middle School

PTSA meeting, 6:30 p.m. March 10.

PTSA Dance 7-9 p.m. March 12.

Pennies for Patients fundraiser, an annual monthlong fundraiser for the Leukemia Foundation. Accepting cash and checks.

Snoqualmie Middle School

Choir concert, 7-9 p.m. March 9, in the gym. 

Twin Falls Middle School

Internet crime prevention assembly 9-10 a.m. March 5.

Middle school solo ensemble, March 6.

Music Boosters meeting, 6:30-8 p.m. March 8.

Seventh-grade science fair, 6-7 p.m. March 11

Mount Si High School

Spring musical, 7 p.m. March 3-6 with a matinee at 2 p.m. March 6.

Local scholarship meeting, 9:45-10:45 a.m. March 10.

Key Club Relay for Life parent dinner, 6-7:30 p.m. March 10. 

Snoqualmie Valley School District

Classified School Employees Week, March 8-12

School Bus Driver Appreciation Day, March 11

Snoqualmie Valley School Board meeting, 7:30 March 11 in the district office.

What’s black and white and read all over Cascade View Elementary School?

The Cub Chronicle, of course.

This is the third consecutive year that teachers Seth Deniston and Dyame Lemming have advised students at the student-powered paper.

Cascade View is not the only school in the district to have a student-run newspaper, but it is the youngest age group to have one. Twin Falls Middle School students write the Twin Falls Times while the Mount Si High School wildcats have Cat Tales.

They may be young, but Cascade View’s fifth-graders take their newspaper seriously. This year, 14 fifth-graders meet on a weekly basis to think of story ideas, do research and interviews, take photos and write articles for The Chronicle.

Katia Lucas said she had looked forward to applying for almost a year.

“I saw it in earlier times and I thought it would be cool, because I like writing and I like sound bites,” she said.

Like a competitive sports team, only about half of the students who applied for the club made the cut. The advisors realized they would be better able to teach a smaller group of students, so they evaluated students based on a personal essay and an article.

“The kids just have a great time,” parent Jim McCall said. “It’s really been a cool experience for them.”

The students have so much fun, and they do almost everything on their own, Lemming said. Plus, the students know what their audience wants — all they have to do is think of what they and their classmates would like to see in the paper.

At a Cub Chronicle meeting Feb. 23, fifth-graders Graysen Kaess and Sarah Bosworth found inspirational poems and quotes and prepared to write an article about Kaess’ 6-year-old brother, who recently placed seventh in state for wrestling in his weight division.

“We’re going to interview him and possibly his coach,” Kaess said.

Michael McCall worked on the game page, while Kelly Keene and Lucas wrote book reviews.

Keene’s favorite part is “getting my name in the newspaper and having people read it,” she said.

Fifth-graders Kallin Spiller and Scout Turner interviewed teacher Heather Anderson for a spotlight article they were writing about her first-grade class.

Turner deftly took notes on a yellow Post-It note, writing down Anderson’s words verbatim. Anderson said her children would be beside themselves with excitement once they saw themselves in The Chronicle. She reads aloud to her class every day, and once per month she reads The Cub Chronicle.

“They get really excited and say, ‘Oh, that’s my brother’ or ‘I know that girl,’” Anderson said. “It makes the community seem a little smaller.”

The Cub Chronicle received $500 from the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation in 2007-08 to help it get started, giving students money to buy a camera and notepads. Revolution Marketing in Seattle provides free printing.

Revolution Marketing President Jim McCall said he enjoyed helping his children’s elementary school publish a newspaper.

“What’s really cool about it for me is it’s something that’s nonsports for them to do after school,” he said. “All of my kids play sports, but we rely too much on sports for keeping our kids busy and teaching them more about the world.”

Both of The Cub Chronicle advisers said they had high hopes for the future of the paper. This year, they taught students the main elements of writing an article — the who, what, where, when, why and how — before students published their first paper in February.

“That got them looking at an article from a writer’s perspective,” Lemming said. “They do a really good job for 10 and 11 year olds.”

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

Mount Si High School recycles paper and plastics, but it has a way to go on other environmental fronts, at least according to the Green Team.

For starters, the school could allow students to compost their leftover lunch food, senior Colin VanSlyke said.

The school could also have reusable plates, instead of Styrofoam ones, which clog landfills, senior Craig Hauser added.

Mount Si 2009 graduate Daisy Frearson started the Green Team last year, encouraging students to care for the environment.

They went on fieldtrips across Meadowbrook Way Southeast, picking up trash in the swamp, now next to the tennis courts.

This year, the Green Team is on their way to achieving new goals.

“I think it’s about doing research and finding out ways we can save money for the school,” VanSlyke said.

The team is already working with Cedar Grove Composting, which picks up compost from Snoqualmie Casino. Cedar Grove administrators said they would look into adding Mount Si High School to their pickup list, and in the meantime, invited the students to tour their facility, VanSlyke said.

Student engagement

The Green Team is busy educating their peers about the environment. They invited Engineering Economics branch manager Jeff Nichols to speak about the school’s new geothermal system after school Feb. 10. Before an audience of 20 students and teachers, Nichols explained how pipes would use ground water to help heat and cool the school.

The system would save about $300,000 per year and reduce annual energy usage by 75 percent, Nichols said. Plus, it could grow along with the high school.

“It sounds interesting. It could help the school a lot,” junior Emery Swain said.

She and junior Stephanie Rehm noted the current heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system doesn’t connect with the choir room, making it sweltering in the summer and freezing in the winter.

“If you don’t have a jacket, you’re sitting there shivering,” Swain said.

By attending the geothermal presentation, she and her friends learned the new HVAC system would completely replace the old system, meaning the choir room would have a more stable temperature after the system’s completion this fall.

Nichols answered student questions about the geothermal unit — yes, it would be operational during most floods and yes, it would have a backup boiler in case the unit failed for some reason — and then took them outside to show them the construction scene.

The Green Team’s next guest, Doug Smith, serves on the United Nations Environmental Committee and has worked for the Environmental Protection Agency for more than 30 years.

Though Smith’s presentation on climate change needs to be authorized by the high school’s Controversial Issues Committee, Green Team advisor science teacher Andrew Rapin said the talk would probably take place during Earth Week in April.

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

Snoqualmie Elementary School fifth-graders got a dose of hot tea along with their history lesson Feb. 11.

They learned, for instance, that the Seventh Duchess of Bedford helped start the tradition of afternoon tea. The Duchess, whose appetite could not wait for the traditional 9 p.m. dinner, began secretly ordering snacks of breads, tarts and tea. Her secret spread until tea became a common occurrence in the 1840s, said fifth-grader Signe Eaton.

Of course, tea was a nicety before that. For their history lesson, the fifth-graders dressed as colonists living in Jamestown, the first English settlement in the New World.

“I really didn’t know that Jamestown went through such hardships,” Claire Olde Loohuis said.

She learned how the colonists sailed about 3,700 miles from Great Britain and how they had to build houses and trade for supplies. Each student, assigned to a colony, learned mapping skills as their colony sailed across the Atlantic.

The class also learned a thing or two about tea and manners expected during its consumption.

“You’re supposed to take your tea softly and set it down after every sip,” fifth-grader Kara Klock said.

“I didn’t know it was impolite to serve yourself,” fifth-grader Teresa Eichler said. “You can ask or wait for them to offer.”

Manners abounded as students said, “Please” and “Thank you.” Some talked in mock British accents and fifth-grade teacher Cindy Hodgins played classical music to help set the scene.

“They had such fun at tea parties, I can see why they did it,” Olde Loohuis said. “You get to be with all of your friends and eat things and act all royal.”

Most girls wore dresses and white cloth hats, while boys wore collared shirts and tricorn hats. Many sipped cups of Perfect Peach or Lemon Lift and nibbled on scones, salmon sandwiches and cookies.

“I think I like the scones with the lemon curd,” fifth-grader Emily Webb said, though her classmate Eichler said she preferred the tuna sandwiches.

Hodgins did have to remind students not to eat their sugar cubes whole, but rather dissolve them in the hot tea.

Fifth-grader Nathan Horn had a gustatory ball, putting two sugar cubes, milk and lemon in his peach tea.

He looked regal in his white wig, sipping politely from his teacup.

Many students brought their families’ own fine china, but Hodgins brought in some of her wedding cups and saucers to help students feel more like colonists of the 1600s and 1700s.

“It’s more important to me that they have the experience than lose a teacup,” she said, noting how carefully they were handling the cups.

Students also learned how the Sons of Liberty dressed as American Indians in 1773 for the Boston Tea Party.

Next, they will learn about the American Revolution and then the constitutional documents, Hodgins said.

“It gives them a good, hands-on experience to see what that time period was like,” Hodgins said. “They’re really engaged. It’s wonderful.”

The grade ends the school year with a performance of the Broadway musical “Rise to the Revolution.”

Parent volunteer Dana Massey praised the fifth-grade department for putting together the hands-on unit.

“It allows them to experience some of the things that they’ve been learning about in class,” she said.

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

Snoqualmie Elementary School third-graders (from left) Matthew Wittress, Lili Pflug-Tilton, Jordan Gatewood and Jack Barrett parade their cultural posters through the school. (Photo by Laura Geggel)

A brown boat made of construction paper sat on blue construction-paper water. Using a little glue and a lot of research, Halle Westerlund had created a poster for the Snoqualmie Elementary School third-grade cultural parade.

She chose the Vikings “because I am related to the Vikings,” Westerlund said. “I learned that they were very good navigators of the sea.”

Her Viking boat had a detailed sea monster head on its mast, and Westerlund also invested a lot of time on the boat’s rowers. On her poster, Vikings surround a group of crying slaves. One of the guards has longer hair.

“My favorite part was this is a girl,” Westerlund said, pointing to the feminine Viking.

Westerlund is one of 109 third graders at Snoqualmie Elementary School who made a poster for the school parade Feb. 4.

This is the first year the third-grade teachers have instructed a cultural unit using a new curriculum called Storypath. They decided to time it within two weeks of the third annual schoolwide cultural fair to help get their students excited about studying and learning about other cultures, teacher Natalie Campbell said.

“It was a good way to learn about culture because it was very hands on,” Campbell said. “Students could choose the culture they wanted to study, which required a lot of creativity and art.”

Gene Covert came to watch his daughter Brianna Covert present her German poster and sing “It’s a small world after all,” with her classmates. He said Brianna’s older sister took German at Mount Si High School and had given Brianna several German vocabulary words for her presentation.

“There are so many cultures and it’s important for kids to understand we’re not all the same,” Gene Covert said.

Most children chose their ancestral cultures for their projects. Ayush Sharma did a poster about India where his family is from, Charlotte Sorenson concentrated on Italy, the country of her grandfather and Alyssa Kennedy studied Ireland for her project because she “is mostly Irish,” she said.

Teacher Gretchen Hinds’ class presented their posters after the parade. Students in Campbell’s class celebrated the end of their parade with a multi-cultural potluck.

One group in Hinds’ class chose a culture they found fascinating. For their Egyptian project, third-graders Seva Schlaer, Ethan Edwards and Skyler Bratton used construction paper to make a pyramid complete with booby traps, just like the ones in Egypt, Hinds noted. Such traps make it difficult for grave robbers to steal the treasures buried within the tomb.

Several students focused on America for their posters. Third-grader Karlee Kellogg did a poster showcasing the states of Washington and California, the latter the state her parents were from. Her classmate, Isaiah Willhight, made a diorama of a car wash, much like the carwash his grandma owns in North Bend.

“The students taught each other about their different cultures which was great, it added a lot of motivation,” Campbell said. “Often times we don’t have time, or neglect the ‘celebration’ part of teaching and learning. This was a great way to have the celebration incorporated within the unit.”

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext.221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

A Two Rivers School student watches the lid of the kiln lift, revealing the baked Raku pottery, as he waits to remove the crafts with a pair of metal tongs. (Photo by Laura Geggel)

Though it was cold, rainy and dark outside, a crowd of about 30 people circled a kiln at Two Rivers School, waiting for their Raku creations to crack.

Students from both Two Rivers School and Snoqualmie Middle School had molded clay creations for the firing. At Snoqualmie Middle School, students made clay medallions, while students at Two Rivers made incense burners called censors.

A hush fell over the crowd. Two Rivers teacher Joe Burgener prepared to lift the lid of the kiln with a counterweight to reveal the crafts inside.

“We have an east wind tonight,” Burgener said, warning students to be wary of smoke. “When the kiln gets lifted, you’re going to feel a wave of heat.”

He pushed the counterweight and the lid lifted, revealing a rack of crafts, campfire-orange from the heat of the kiln. Students excitedly told their parents which one was theirs. A few students used metal tongs to transfer the clay pieces to a bed of sawdust where they would cool.

Some pieces were so glowing hot, they ignited small lumps of sawdust. Students quickly put out the fires.

With the clay safely cooling outside, parents, students and younger siblings filtered inside Two Rivers to eat bowls of student-made chili.

“It’s pretty exciting to see something new,” said Fern Price, whose grandson attends Two Rivers. “He kept on telling us about it, but it’s hard to understand until you finally see it.”

Her grandson, Jacob Husman, had been talking about Raku for months.

He explained Raku’s uniqueness; as soon as the kiln’s lid lifted, the change in temperature caused the clay to crack into hairline fractures.

“It will cool down too fast and crack,” Husman said. “It’s supposed to crack a little bit for the design.”

His censor had been baking in the kiln for six hours. This was its second baking, and its glaze had a deep green and blue sheen.

Burgener required his students research Raku pottery, making the unit into an all-encompassing social studies, literature and hands-on event.

“We had to do an essay about the difference between Eastern and Western Raku designs,” Two Rivers student Bradyn Rutledge said. “It took forever.”

He said the Japanese Eastern Raku style is usually colored with red and black glaze. Eastern style artists put Raku ware into water instead of sawdust after taking it out of the kiln, he added.

“This is a little more flashy than the Eastern,” Burgener observed. Snoqualmie Middle School teacher Ruth Huschle thanked Two Rivers for inviting them.

“I did Raku firings when I was in school and I wanted the kids to learn about another type of firing other than an electric kiln,” Huschle said.

She added it was important to unite Two Rivers with other schools.

“We are a community, but sometimes this school ends up feeling separate,” Huschle said.

Burgener thanked the community for support of the Raku project.

In 1996, he received an $800 grant for the Raku kiln from Citizens for Better Schools, the precursor of the Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation.

It took him and his students more than two months to build. Snoqualmie Middle School teacher Jerry Hillburn let them use the school’s woodshop space to piece it together.

“We’ve always done it at night because it’s so dramatic,” Burgener said. “When you open the kiln, it’s such a brilliant orange.”

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

North Bend’s Amy Elizabeth Grantham made the president’s list at Mississippi College for the 2009 fall semester.

To be eligible for the president’s list, a student must maintain a 4.0 based on a 4.0 system. The student must take a full course load of at least 12 semester hours of undergraduate credit with all academic courses impacting their grade point average.

• Fourth-grade field trip to Rattlesnake Lake, Feb. 23-24.
• Kindergarten packet pick-up, 1-2 p.m. or 5:30-6:30 p.m. Feb. 23.

North Bend Elementary

• PTA general meeting, 6:30 p.m. Feb. 24.
• Haiti shoe and coin drive. Leave donations at the front office.

Opstad Elementary

• Third-grade ITBS testing for Hi-C qualification, 12:45-2:15 p.m. Feb. 25.

Snoqualmie Middle School

• Progress report update, Feb. 22.

Snoqualmie Elementary

• Encompass program, 4-5:30 p.m. Feb. 23-24, room 17. 

Chief Kanim Middle School

• Carnival fundraiser reward bowling field trip, 9 p.m. Feb. 26.
• Auditions for “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” 2:30-4:30 p.m. Feb. 22-23 and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Feb. 27.

Twin Falls Middle School

• Raven Night, 7-9 p.m. Feb. 26.

Mount Si High School

• Parent Visitation Day, Feb. 25. Register online at www.snoqualmie.k12.wa.us/schools/mshs.

Snoqualmie Valley School District

• There is no school during mid-winter break, Feb. 16-19.
• Snoqualmie Valley Schools Foundation meeting, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at Cascade View Elementary School.
• Snoqualmie Valley Hospital Foundation Prescription Drug Forum, 7-8:30 p.m. Feb. 24 at Mount Si High School.
• Public comment for the Long Term Facilities Plan, 6:30 p.m. Feb. 25 at the district office.
• Faculty recital, Feb. 26 at Mount Si High School.

Cheolmin Kim, 16, of Gangjin, South Korea, came to Washington to improve his English skills and experience American culture. With limited English ability upon arrival, he found it difficult to make friends, he said. But he was up for the challenge.

During his four weeks shadowing students at Eastside Catholic, he took initiative, approaching people he didn’t know to polish his English speaking skills.

Kim got help from fellow students like sophomore Matt Leist, of Sammamish, and host student Kevin Stone, of North Bend, and making friends became easier, he said.

“(It was) awesome. During my stay with (Kevin), I learned a lot of kinds of American culture,” Kim said. “I broke the language barrier.”

The Korean exchange program is different than traditional school exchanges.

It’s a program of the Snoqualmie Sister Cities Association, but it began at Eastside Catholic after Stone, a North Bend resident, spent five weeks in Korea in 2009.

Kim and Han-ey Lim, 16 of Gangjin, shadowed Leist, Stone, freshman Madi Hurley and sophomore Kenta Keleher Jan. 11-Feb. 5.

The school chose the four to show Kim and Lim around because of their leadership abilities, said Patti Finley, Eastside Catholic marketing and communications director.

Leist said one benefit to having Kim, a math whiz, shadow him at school all day was that he helped him with math work.

In return, Leist helped Kim with English assignments. Kim even helped present a project in front of class with Leist, they said.

“It was just a fun experience,” Leist said. “He taught me a lot of Korean. I learned to say ‘good morning.’”

Leist said after a week of showing Kim around school, he appreciates a new perspective on being a global student — part of Eastside Catholic’s focus.

He said he’s considering talking to his parents about hosting a student at his home next time or traveling to Korea for an exchange.

“We just had a ton of fun. It was cool to have a different experience,” Leist said. “School can get so monotonous sometimes, so with Cheolmin, it was different.

Both Kim and Lim said the experience was tiring at times as they soaked in American culture, lived with an American family and went to school full time. But they expressed interest in possibly returning some day.

The most important thing they learned was the customs and the language, Kim said.

“He pretty much goes wherever I go,” Stone said.

The exchange experience didn’t just benefit Kim and Lim. Leist, Stone and Hurley seemed to say they learned just as much about Korean culture. Or at least it opened their eyes to life outside the Eastside.

“It really makes you think of someone for once,” Hurley said. “It was a matter of focusing on someone besides yourself at school.”

This is the first year the school has offered to host students from Gangjin, South Korea, said Greg Marsh, the high school principal. The program stems from earlier efforts by the Snoqualmie Sister Cities Association to connect people from both countries.

Eastside Catholic had more reason to do it after Stone reported on his experience living with Kim’s family in Gangjin in August 2009.

“I found it very valuable, so I wanted to bring it back to school,” Stone said.

Going forward, Marsh and Stone said they hope to set up a legitimate program to send small groups of Eastside Catholic students to Korea.

“The idea would be that our kids go there for five weeks,” Marsh said.

“Any opportunity we can provide kids to travel,” Marsh said. “I’m a really big fan of this.”

Christopher Huber: 392-6434, ext. 242, or chuber@isspress.com.

Sunlight catches a Mount Si student during lunch in the high school’s new Wildcat Court, which opened Feb. 8. The airy space provides a common area for students, two storefronts for student groups and a view of the school’s rocky namesake. (Photo by Laura Geggel)

NEW — 2:37 p.m. Feb. 10, 2010

Mount Si High School students celebrated the opening of the Wildcat Court by filling the sunlit room with lunches and chatter Feb. 8.

Mount Si Principal Randy Taylor patrolled the court, giving students high-fives as he walked past.

“You like it?” he asked. “It’s cool, isn’t it?”

The court has a capacity of 335 and has two storefronts — one for DECA Cafe, run by DECA and culinary students, and the other for the Sandwich Center, run by food services.

DECA juniors Jordy Smith and Kassidy Maddux said they couldn’t wait to sell hot dogs and other meals in the Cafe and school supplies in their new store.

“It’s bigger than our last store,” Smith said. “It’s got more storage space. I’m so excited. We’ve been waiting for months.”

Construction crews left two outdoor patios at the end of the court, so students can eat outside in the sun, protected from the wind.

The horticulture club will landscape small rectangles of earth on the side of the patios, Taylor said.

The court also has stage lights and a projector with a giant screen, which is open to students and the community.

Plans for the court took off as school officials saw the school’s hallways and common spaces become harder to navigate as the student population grew. They proposed enclosing an outdoor courtyard within the school and using it as a second commons, Taylor said.

School district administrators decided to build the court, which was designed to relieve overcrowding that forced some students to eat lunch in the hallways, after voters passed the $27.5 million bond in March. Part of the bond paid for a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit at the high school, meaning construction workers could connect the new courtyard to the school’s HVAC system.

Construction company Kassel & Associates completed the 5,035-square-foot project for $1.8 million, according to a representative from the company. The state provided $442,000 for the project in matching funds.

Students had varying opinions of the court. Some liked it, while others said it had too much echoing. A few said they appreciated its spaciousness, while others said it was too open.

“I like it. I guess it’s different,” junior Tabby Rollins said.

A classmate noted how crowded it was and said it would only grow in popularity.

“It’s even better than the regular cafeteria,” senior Kelly Besmer said. “A lot of people are just coming in and looking.”

Many wondered why it had gold paneling instead of red.

“We need red, not yellow,” senior Tasha Lynch said.

Clint Marsh, construction program manager for the school district, cleared up the mystery. They did not choose red or gray because, “the fine-art-educated architect who picked the color said it would pull the room in too much and make it feel like a den or a dungeon,” Marsh said.

“That’s why we put the light panels up top,” Marsh said. “He wanted to capture the light and make it feel like sunshine, because that building is fairly enclosed and it doesn’t have any open spaces.”

Now that the court is open, students will no longer be able to eat in the hallways. Seniors Breanna Myers and Michael Gregory ate their lunch in the hallway by the library, the last time they would be able to do so.

“I like to see everyone walk by,” Gregory said. “You can see your friends and start talking, but it does get crowded. Sometimes, people get messy.”

Where would they eat lunch the next day?

“Probably the old commons,” Gregory said. “Everyone will be in the new commons and it will be too crowded.”

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com

Throngs of students filled the doorway to St. Joseph School’s cafeteria.

It’s the lunch rush and the third-grade girls manning the table hollered out the names of delectable treats for purchase like the best of auctioneers.

“What do you want?” third-grader Celeste Veitch shouted over a sea of younger students. “We have cookies, brownies, cupcakes. Let me know when you’re ready.”

For 50 cents each, the endless buffet beckoned to nearly every student, preschool to third grade. Unfortunately for the students, there was a three-item limit.

Last week, Catholic schools across the nation celebrated Catholic Schools Week, meant to celebrate Catholic schools and faculty. Among them, St. Joseph Catholic School’s Issaquah and Snoqualmie campuses and Eastside Catholic High School.

The schools have many local residents from Snoqualmie, Issaquah and Sammamish.

More than a sweet treat for students, the bake sale at St. Joseph’s was also a fundraiser for Haitian children.

“We’re doing it for Haiti because of the earthquake,” said third-grader Rachael Goodwin, “to help the children of Haiti, because they don’t have as much as we do.”

They need “food, water and medical supplies,” Celeste added. “We want them to be able to buy strong stuff and live in places that don’t fall down.”

Between the two campuses, the students raised more than $1,000 for one of their favorite organizations, Friends of the Orphans, which operates in Haiti and several other South American countries, said Vice Principal Jackie Olund.

For several years, the school has also collected loose change during Lent, Feb. 17 – March 28 this year, for the organization.

The organization provides housing, food and education for orphans and children whose parents can’t afford to support them. However, the organization doesn’t promote overseas adoption, Olund said.

“Their goal is to educate and make them strong citizens for their country,” she said. “We’ve been making donations every year, for about the last seven years.”

The organization’s volunteer dormitory collapsed Jan. 12 during the 7.0-magnitude earthquake; its epicenter was about 12 miles from the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince. In that collapse, Molly Hightower, a Port Orchard woman and volunteer, died.

The school made the bake sale a special event of Student Appreciation Day during a weeklong celebration.

At Eastside Catholic High School, students collected shoes for the Haitian people, in memory of Hightower, said Father William Heric, of Eastside Catholic.

“We’ve collected 5,000 pairs of shoes at this point,” he said.

The school’s drive culminates in a memorial procession in honor of Hightower as the shoes are collected from classrooms and boxed up to send to Haiti Feb. 17, he said.

The week started in 1974, as an annual, national celebration of the important role that Catholic elementary and secondary schools play in providing a values-added education, according to a press release from the National Catholic Educational Association.

At Eastside Catholic and St. Joseph’s, students participated in a variety of activities, including an all-school Mass and assemblies, and student, faculty and parent appreciation days.

“In our high school and middle school divisions, we had our students celebrate Catholic Schools in our prayer services,” Heric said. “We asked them to reflect on the dividends they’ve received from their catholic education and our four areas of focus: faith, knowledge, discipline and morals.”

Students at each school have a variety of other community service lessons throughout the year, which include fundraisers for animals, food and clothing drives, and providing hot meals to homeless people.

The week also serves to market Catholic schools and education to families, so the schools were open for a variety of open houses.

“Catholic schools are all about outreach and how to get ourselves involved in our community,” said Ann Shikany, a spokeswoman for the schools. “This is a wonderful opportunity to get involved with that at a time we’re celebrating nationally.”

Chantelle Lusebrink: 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com.

King County Superior Court Judge John Erlick ruled Feb. 4 that the state isn’t adequately funding public schools as required by the state constitution. He ordered the Legislature to determine the cost of giving a basic education to the state’s 1 million school children, and then pay for it.

“State funding is not ample, it is not stable, and it is not dependable,” he wrote in his decision, which followed a six-week trial in September and October.

Erlick did not specify how or when the Legislature should decide how much more money to give to schools. But the state must show “real and measurable progress,” he wrote.

The state could also appeal Erlick’s decision.

The Legislature did pass a bill last year, House Bill 2261, which would increase money for public schools by 2018, and it expanded the state’s definition of “basic” education.

The Washington Constitution sets funding basic education as the state’s “paramount duty.” The state’s definition of basic education was challenged in the 1970s by a similar lawsuit, which Erlick cited in his decision.

Snoqualmie Valley School District Superintendent Joel Aune commended the judge’s decision.

“It’s really good news for K-12 public schools. We’ve maintained for years that the state is not meeting its obligations to fund education,” Aune said. “We were really pleased to see the judge’s decision reinforced our belief in that respect.”

A recent letter from the Legislature discouraged the state from appealing the decision. Rep. Glenn Anderson, R-Fall City, signed the letter, something which Aune endorsed, saying an appeal would cost both sides money and delay necessary funding for schools.

Aune also said he hoped the judge’s decision would give legislators pause when considering education cuts.

“The governor’s budget is proposing another round of deep cuts to education and that budget proposal is 180 degrees contrary to the judge’s decision,” Aune said.

Students who are not fans of standardized testing may be happy to know that such tests in Washington are about to change.

Mount Si High School senior Zac Pearlstein called the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, better known as the WASL, a “distraction.”

“Overall, you’re stuck in a room for four hours, filling in bubbles, and we don’t like that,” Pearlstein said. “I understand that standardized testing is important, but the WASL is a little long.”

While Washington officials cannot do away with standardized testing completely — after all, they still has to comply with federal No Child Left Behind laws requiring state testing — State Superintendent Randy Dorn decided to modify and rename the WASL when he took office last year.

“The thinking was we’re going to do away with the WASL. That’s a misnomer,” Snoqualmie Valley School District Deputy Superintendent Don McConkey said. “We’re not doing away with it. We’ve renamed it.”

The new tests will be shorter and will give students the option of taking them online.

This spring, students in grades three through eight will take the Measure of Student Progress and 10th-graders will take the High School Proficiency Exam.

Students in grades three through five grade taking the MSP will see a substantially shorter test. The reading, math and science sections were each reduced from 140 minutes to 75 minutes. Only the writing section will remain the same length — 120 minutes.

The same goes for students in grades six through eight, whose testing time will drop from 180 minutes to 90 minutes in reading, math and science. Their writing session will also remain the same at 120 minutes.

“The previous WASL took up a lot of instruction time. It really did,” McConkey said. “I think this one narrows it down a little.”

Students will take the MSP later in the year. Instead of testing shortly after spring break in April, students will take the test in May.

Sophomores will take their tests in March and April. Like the MSP, the sophomore HSPE test is shorter. Last year, WASL reading, math and science portions each took two days. This year, those three areas are scheduled for only one day each.

The sophomore writing test remains unchanged at two days.

Both MSP and HSPE test takers will not encounter four-point problems seen on the WASL. Doing away with these questions will save the state money, because they took longer to score.

In another development, students will have the option of taking tests online. This year, all Snoqualmie Valley middle school students will take the reading portion and some will take the math portion of the MSP online. By 2012, all schools will be required to take standardized tests online, with a few exceptions. Special-needs students will have the option of using pencil and paper, McConkey said.

Online testing would use fewer materials and would be more accurate and organized, he said.

Meanwhile, test designers are still formatting the MSP and HSPE.

“We’re learning (about it) on a daily basis,” McConkey said. “It’s a moving target.”

Laura Geggel: 392-6434 ext. 221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

The school district could transform Snoqualmie Middle School into a satellite campus for the high school. Or, it could modernize and expand Mount Si High School to make room for its growing student population.

The Long Term Facilities Committee will present its options at 6:30 p.m. work session and make a recommendation to the Snoqualmie Valley School Board at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11.

Citizens can comment on the recommendation at the Feb. 25 school board meeting. The board is expected to make its decision March 11.

All school board meetings are at 7:30 p.m. at the district office, 8001 Silva Ave. S.E., Snoqualmie.

Teacher on special assignment Jan Formisano (standing) exchanges ideas with Cascade View Elementary School second-grade teachers Kellie Smith (left), Marilee Carter and Joyce Delurme while they meet to discuss their GLAD training. (Photo by Laura Geggel)

Snoqualmie Elementary School teacher Natalie Campbell has a new way to teach vocabulary to her students.

“Segregation,”Campbell said, standing at the front of the room.

The third-grade class needed no more prompting.

“Segregation,” they repeated as they held their hands close together and then moved them apart. “To keep separate.”

The word, a lesson from Martin Luther King Jr. Day, is one of many the children have recently learned. When she introduces a new word,Campbell breaks her class into small groups and asks them to guess its meaning. Once they determine the word’s definition, she teaches them an accompanying action.

The actions helps the children remember the words,Campbell said.

Her vocabulary strategy came straight from a new teaching strategy administrators are implementing in Snoqualmie Valley School District.

The strategy is called GLAD — Guided Language Acquisition Design — and is making its way through Snoqualmie Valley elementary schools. Of 145 elementary teachers, 100 have already received training.

Two California teachers began GLAD in the early 1990s as a solution to help struggling learners, many of who were not fluent in English. The teachers developed 28 strategies for teaching students at any level, but especially struggling students.

Karen Schotzko, an English language learner teacher at Mount Si High School, emphasized she can teach English Language Learners English literature, but she has trouble teaching them areas outside of her expertise. GLAD gives all trained teachers strategies for how to better teach students, she said.

“Our ELL numbers are growing, but we don’t have ELL teachers,” said Jan Formisano, a Snoqualmie Valley School District teacher on special assignment and GLAD trainer. “The teachers really need to have the tools in their toolbox.”

Snoqualmie Valley schools administrators are implementing GLAD’s equivalents at the middle and high school levels, Schotzko added.

Of the methods, one strategy has children learn through song. Another has children organize information into charts and diagrams before they assemble the information into paragraph form.

This repetition helps the students better learn and retain the material, Formisano said.

“Personally, I like the idea of the chants and helping kids learn that way,” substitute teacher Jill Waskom said. “If you put it in a song, I know I’ll learn it.”

GLAD employs strategies with highly visual components and uses multiple ways to present the information, Formisano said. It also allows teachers to present lessons in a fast-paced yet supportive environment and has shown results — students tend to remember more information as compared to traditional methods in research-proven studies, she said.

Campbell said the strategies have invigorated her classroom.

“For the units I’ve incorporated the GLAD strategies into, there is more student involvement and more engagement just because of the way the information is presented,” she said. “With other ones, it creates a situation where they need to use a lot more teamwork and cooperation with each other in their table groups.”

Formisano and Campbell observed GLAD training in the Highline School District south of Seattle before bringing it to Snoqualmie Valley. Since spring, Formisano has trained teachers at all five elementary schools in voluntary three-day workshops.

Teachers received $195 if they completed all three classes.

Teachers are not normally reimbursed for training time, Formisano said, but the need to better teach struggling students was so great, the district wanted to offer a financial incentive for teachers.

During the training, Formisano sent the teachers to their rooms so they could devise lesson plans with the GLAD strategies fresh in their minds. The second-grade team at Cascade View Elementary School immediately began making a large picture book to help students learn about Africa.

Formisano said GLAD has gotten off to a good start.

“If they’re learning things and they’re having fun, they’re going to remember it better,” Formisano said.

Laura Geggel: 392-6434 ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

Fifth-grade Museum of Flight Hi-C field trip, Feb. 5.

North Bend Elementary

Fifth-grade Museum of Flight Hi-C field trip, Feb. 4.

Family night and book fair, 5:30-7 p.m. Feb. 4.

PTA Board meeting, 4-5 p.m. Feb. 10.

Teachers are asking for donations of tissues and hand sanitizer for classrooms.

Opstad Elementary

Evening of Fine Arts, 6-7 p.m. Feb. 11.

Snoqualmie Elementary

Fifth-grade colonial tea party, 1-2:10 p.m. Feb. 11.

Jump Rope for Heart, Feb. 8-12.

Chief Kanim Middle School

PTSA dance, 7-9 p.m. Feb. 5.

PTSA board meeting, 6:30 p.m. Feb. 10, in the library.

Snoqualmie Middle School

Student artwork is on display at Isadora’s Bookstore & Café in Snoqualmie through Feb. 11.

Learn a Latte with Principal Vernie Newell and Counselor Heather Kern, 9 a.m. Feb. 5 in the library.

Twin Falls Middle School

Viking Jazz Festival, Feb. 4, at Poulsbo Junior High.

Rock Band-a-thon, 5-9 p.m. Feb. 5.

Visit www.tfmsmusicboosters.org.

Music Booster meeting, 6:30-8 p.m. Feb. 8.

PTSA general meeting, 6:30-8 p.m. Feb. 9.

Mount Si High School

Counselor applications for the fifth-grade camps are in the career center and due Feb. 5.

“How Big is a Hormone? The Art and Science of Parenting an Adolescent,” 7-8:30 p.m. Feb. 8, in the Mount Si auditorium. Free. Visit www.greatconversations.com.

Snoqualmie Valley School District

Childfind Screenings, Feb. 5. Screenings are for preschool aged children whose parents have concerns about their development.

Call the preschool coordinator at 425-831-8088 to schedule an appointment.

National School Counseling Week is from Feb. 8-12.

Snoqualmie Education Association Dinner, 4:15-7:15 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Wildcat Café.

Election ballots for the school levies must be postmarked by Feb. 9.

NEW — 10:47 a.m. Feb. 3, 2010

Opstad fourth-grade students (from left) Rebecca Garland, Jacob Randall, Payton Barnett, Christian Holler and Clayton Waltz explore tidal pool creatures in the touch tank at the Seattle Aquarium. (Photo contributed)

The otters were swimming on their backs, lying lazily on top of one another in the tank at the Seattle Aquarium.

Around them, 85 Opstad Elementary School fourth-graders grinned like crazy, eager to see their school animal get a shrimp snack.

“It was fun seeing our school mascot,” Hannah Buzard said. “It was fun seeing them get fed.”

Her favorite part was watching sea life flit through the water behind the aquarium’s thick glass tanks.

“It’s fun to watch how they move and stuff, how they interact,” Buzard said.

After a unit studying invertebrates, Opstad Elementary’s fourth-graders took a daylong field trip to the aquarium Jan. 26.

Aquarium staff gave them a tour of touch tanks and took them through the aquarium, showing them fish, puffins, otters, sea horses, harbor seals and more.

The aquarium fits into the fourth-grade unit covering structures of life and ecosystems.

“A lot of the kids have never been to the ocean and seen a tide pool,” fourth-grade teacher Karen Eddy said. “They may have been to a beach, but they haven’t seen tidal-pool animals.”

Some sea creatures look different, like the sea anemones with their tentacles waving in the current. Many children expect animals to have eyes, something the sea anemone lacks, Eddy said.

“The kids were all about animals and living creatures and guessing, ‘Is that a plant or an animal?’” Eddy said. “It’s really neat for them to look at sea life, because it’s such an important part of Puget Sound.”

Quinn VanBuren said she liked the sea anemones.

“It was cool because when you touched them, their little suckers would grab your finger,” VanBuren said.

An eight-legged lady named Buster held their attention when they passed by her tank.

“They were fascinated by the octopus,” Eddy said. “She put on quite a show.”

Baylor Sherril remembered how Buster changed color, from white to red and then orange, as she ate her meal. Christian Holler said the octopus had 1,600 suckers total on her many arms.

“Everyone was expecting to see fish, not harbor seals and starfish,” Amanda Acker said.

Sherril agreed.

“We got to touch starfish and sea anemones,” he said. “There were also shrimp and crabs and flat fish. The crab, I thought it was a rock. I didn’t know it was a crab until it moved.”

Acker said her favorite animal — the cowfish — was a yellow hue and had horns much like its namesake.

Holler favored the wolf eel, though it is neither a wolf nor an eel.

“He’s a fish,” Holler said.

Students filled out a scavenger hunt work packet during the field trip and were helped by chaperones, whom Eddy thanked for their support.

Even with smaller budgets this year, Opstad teachers made sure the trip happened. Normally, Opstad’s PTA pays for transportation for the annual aquarium field trip, but it had to cut back this year when a walkathon didn’t raise enough money.

Instead, students paid $13.50 for the bus and their aquarium ticket. Scholarships were available for students in need, Eddy said.

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

School will start and end earlier in the year for the next two years. At the Snoqualmie Valley School Board meeting Jan. 21, the board approved calendars for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years.

Visit www.svsd410.org and select “School Calendar Dates Approved” to view the calendars.

2010-11 school year

Start/end day: Aug. 31/June 14

Winter break: Dec. 20-31

Mid-winter break: Feb. 21-25

Spring break: April 4-8

2011-12 school year

Start/end day: Aug. 30/June 8

Winter break: Dec. 21-30

Mid-winter break: Feb. 20-24

Spring break: April 2-6

The Snoqualmie City Council agreed to give $7,500 to Two Rivers School this school year, although the council has yet to approve the amount.

Once the money is available, school administrators will use it to provide mental, physical and dental health services as well as drug and alcohol counseling to their students.

The money will come from the city’s Human Services budget.

North Bend’s Debby Peterman wrote the grant application and said Two Rivers School Principal Tom Athanases said he was very excited when he learned about the grant at the council’s Dec. 14 meeting.

“Finally we can help some of these kids,” Peterman said, recounting stories of one student who was living in his truck when he had the flu and another student who needed dental care but could not afford it.

Third-grader Eva Millan (right), gives her friends Kyla McNamara (left) and Keira Mix a dose of Hawaiian culture at the third annual Snoqualmie Elementary School culture fair. (Photo by Laura Geggel)

Passers-by may have stopped at first-grader Finnley Andrie’s station for the Alaskan king salmon samples, but they stayed to learn about her culture.

The Snoqualmie Elementary School student had put together a poster highlighting her Alaskan heritage for her school’s third annual cultural fair Jan. 22. Andrie had much to share, showing photos of Alaskan wildlife and the Alaskan flag, its deep blue background contrasting with the bright yellow stars forming the Big Dipper and North Star.

Andrie’s great-great uncle Benny Benson designed the flag for a 1926 contest when he was 13.

Andrie’s mother prompted her daughter to share more about her heritage.

“Remember what tribe you’re from?” Genesa Andrie asked.

“The Aleutian Tribe,” Finnley Andrie said, pointing to a map with the Aleutian Islands dropping off in a curved swoop from Alaska’s southwestern side.

Finnley Andrie was one of 126 students who made posters for the cultural fair.

Principal Cori Pflug and a group of teachers started the fair after parent surveys indicated the school needed to be more celebratory of culture and diversity.

“I think it’s really important that the children learn the children they hang out with every day have different cultures and upbringings at home,” Eric Pedilla said as he watched his son hand out Mexican candy to classmates. “This allows them to not only see them as friends, but as citizens of the world.”

Third-grader Stevie Pedilla visits Mexico most summers to see his abuela — his grandma Rosie.

Last year, Stevie Pedilla did a poster about the Scottish side of his family, and he was happy to report on his Mexican side, as well.

“I got a lot of information,” he said. “It was so much fun.”

Stationed side by side, fourth-grader Julia Crumb and her younger brother, first-grader Jackson, showcased their family’s heritage.

Julia Crumb’s poster detailed how her ancestors lived in Campbell, Scotland, while Jackson Crumb’s poster explored the English side of their family.

Through family research, the Crumbs found they may be descendants of Edward Longshanks, who ruled England in the 13th century.

The English king is known for starting a bloody war with the Scots, something the Crumb family found interesting, given that they are part Scottish.

Jackson Crumb said he enjoyed putting together his poster for culture night.

“My dad helped, but I did most of the gluing,” he said, pointing to various pictures and maps on his poster.

Students danced in the middle of the gymnasium as AlpenFolk and Snoqualmie Strings played songs from Bavaria, Ireland and Hungary. Families snacked on desserts, courtesy of Mount Si High School culinary students.

Third-grader Ava Coleman researched Denmark and learned that one of her favorite authors, Hans Christian Andersen, came from the same country as her ancestors.

Across the gymnasium, third-grader Eva Millan gave people fried Spam, a favorite food in Hawaii, and told them about the hula.

“They hula because they have a big feast and they thank their gods for all of their good luck,” Eva Millan said. “Hula is the soul of Hawaii expressed in motion.”

Her mother, Kimberly Millan, laughed when Eva had her friend try on a Hawaiian mask.

“It’s so neat, especially for her. It gives her an opportunity to learn about her culture,” Kimberly Millan said. “It gives her classmates a chance to see what their cultures are, too.”

Laura Geggel: 392-6434, ext. 221, or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

First-grade concert, 7-9 p.m. Jan. 28, in the multipurpose room.

Fifth-grade Museum of Flight Hi-C field trip, Feb. 5.

North Bend Elementary

Book fair, Jan. 29 to Feb. 4.

Grandparents Tea, 3:30-5:30 p.m. Feb. 2, in the multipurpose room.

Dads and Donuts, Watch D.O.G.S., 7-8 p.m. Feb. 3.

Fifth-grade Museum of Flight Hi-C field trip, Feb. 3-4.

Teachers are asking for donations of tissues and hand sanitizer for classrooms.

Opstad Elementary

Book fair, Jan. 25-28.

Book Fair Family Night 3:30-7:30 p.m. Jan. 28.

Fifth-grade Museum of Flight Hi-C field trip, Feb. 3.

Snoqualmie Elementary

Book fair, Jan. 25-29.

Spaghetti feed, 6-8 p.m. Jan. 28, in the gym.

Book Fair Family Night, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Jan. 28, in the library.

Muffins for Moms, 8:30-9 a.m. Jan. 29, in the gym. All school mothers, grandmothers, aunts and any other special ladies are invited for doughnuts, milk and coffee.

“Share Bears,” the musical, 7 p.m. Feb. 2, in the gymnasium.

Chief Kanim Middle School

PTSA dance, 7-9 p.m. Feb. 5.

Snoqualmie Middle School

Student artwork is on display at Isadora’s Bookstore & Cafe in Snoqualmie through Feb. 11.

Twin Falls Middle School

Pacific NW Music Festival, eighth-grade band field trip to the University of Washington, Feb. 1.

PTSA board meeting, 1-2:40 p.m. Feb. 2.

Rock Band-a-thon, 5-9 p.m. Feb. 5. Visit www.tfmsmusicboosters.org.

Mount Si High School

First semester ends Jan. 29.

“Wildcat Idol,” 7-9:30 p.m. Jan. 29, in the auditorium.

PTSA meeting, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Feb. 1, in the library.

Parent Advisory Group meeting, 7:30-8:30 p.m. Feb.1, in the library.

Counselor applications for the fifth-grade camps are in the career center and due Feb. 5.

“How Big is a Hormone? The Art and Science of Parenting an Adolescent,” 7-8:30 p.m. Feb. 8, in the Mount Si auditorium. Free. Visit www.greatconversations.com.

Snoqualmie Valley School District

Election ballots for the school levies must be postmarked by Feb. 9.

Snoqualmie Valley School Board meeting at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11.

After weeks of study parties and nervous excitement, Mount Si High School DECA students competed at an area conference Jan. 12. Of the 25 Wildcats who attended, five placed in the competition.

“We did better than we did last year,” junior Lindsay Masters said. “This year, we took home about twice as many medals and we had a team place, which is the first one in a long time.”

Masters is the DECA chapter president at Mount Si High School and the vice president of communications for area four, the largest DECA area in the state with 27 schools stretching from Seattle to Snoqualmie.

Masters helped come up with the theme of metamorphosis for the conference.

Mount Si DECA teacher and advisor Elaine Marie Berg said the theme captured the essence of the DECA conference.

“Every year I have done DECA, at the end of the area competition, there are changes —metamorphosis of my DECA marketing students. They leave with more self-confidence. They may have found their career (and) decided DECA will be their world,” Berg wrote in an e-mail.

For Masters, DECA, a student organization that allows students to learn business skills, has real-world applications.

“I enjoy DECA, because I can be a leader and my mentors and my peers encourage me to be a leader,” Masters said. “It gives you great opportunity to learn hands on in an environment that is positive for your future.”

In preparation for the conference, Masters and her classmates organized study parties where they reviewed for a 100-point, multiple-choice exam and role plays.

“We had study groups and we went over everything,” junior Austin Rillos said. “We actually had key terms and performance indicators we answered beforehand. It helped us a lot.”

Both Rillos and Masters received medals for scoring well on their tests.

The test was difficult, Rillos said, but the role playing was fun.

At the beginning of the year, DECA students choose a concentration, such as business management or automotive services. During the role playing, judges gave students a scenario in their concentration and asked them to create a solution.

Masters did her role playing in hotel and lodging.

“I had to come up with a promotional theme while my hotel was being renovated,” Masters said. “I also had to come up with a rewards program for my customers for my other hotel.”

After some thought, Masters delivered her award-winning response.

She said she would let hotel customers choose between a point system — the more they spent, the more points they would earn. Points would be applicable at places like the hotel restaurant or more hotel stays.

“For that role play with my rewards system, I was awarded a medal for being in top five out of about 70 competitors,” she said.

Rillos also placed in the role-playing portion with an idea about how to manage inventory at a deli at a gas station, and on the test.

Garret Rohan won the spotlight award for Mount Si’s DECA chapter and two seniors on a role-playing team placed fourth. Though she said she was proud of the winner, Berg commended all of her students for their work.

“We went as a team and came back as a team,” Berg wrote. “I am proud of my sports and entertainment team of Morgan Myers and Dyson Fowler, who will be moving on to state career development conference in March. But all of my students gave their best and everyone in my mind is a winner.

“I would give them all metamorphosis medals if I could.”

Laura Geggel: 392-6434 ext. 221 or lgeggel@snovalleystar.com.

Eight students from Snoqualmie Valley have been named to Eastern Washington University’s dean’s list for the fall 2009 quarter. To qualify, an undergraduate student must earn at least 12 credit hours and receive a 3.5 GPA. The students are Leah Ketchum, Jessica Marley, Logan Ratcliffe, Jo Ray, Margot Schuller, Krystal Shields-Gianni, Michael Smart and Zachary Whetsel.