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Pilot program gives students jump-start on foreign language
Bienvenidos, estudiantes. Esto es la clase de español para el grado ocho. Until this year, that phrase – “Welcome, students. This is eighth-grade Spanish” – was foreign to Spokane Public Schools’ middle school students.
Parents can soon use plastic to pay Spokane school fees
Fees for school students, especially teenagers, can really pile up. With parents strapped for time, fewer people carrying cash or checks and more using plastic to pay even routine expenses, accepting credit cards was inevitable, school officials say.
Region’s best, brightest receive Chase Youth Awards
Children and teenagers from throughout the region were honored for their achievements Sunday at the Chase Youth Awards. The annual ceremony, named for former Spokane Mayor Jim Chase, spotlights the best and brightest young people in the region and honors their creativity, diversity, courage, leadership, community service and citizenship.
On-Track Academy enters its first state robotics competition
When 19-year-old Jessica Joy learned her alternative school was putting a robotics team together for a statewide competition, she checked into it. She’s “artsy,” she said, and learns best when the project is hands-on.
Shared classrooms: Tight budgets may force more schools to combine grades
First-grader Bobby Best worked independently in the rural North Idaho classroom, diligently making her way through an activity book. A short distance away, teacher Sara Butler instructed a reading group in Priest Lake Elementary’s K-2 class. Other students sat at their desks and read to each other or went across the hall to help kindergartners with spelling.
Spokane Public Schools administrators agree to furloughs
Spokane Public Schools administrators – including all principals and vice principals – have agreed to take two unpaid days off to help put a dent in the looming budget shortfall for 2010-’11, enabling the district to avoid drastic mid-year cuts. The reductions are coming after what schools officials are calling an “unprecedented move” by the Legislature. After the district’s budget had been set and faculty hired on contract for the school year, the state retroactively cut funds to public schools throughout Washington to stabilize the state’s budget, and more trims could be on the horizon.