Excel grant being used for bird sanctuary project

If all goes as fourth-graders at Hayden Meadows Elementary School plan, the school will be home to an official bird sanctuary.

Students painted wooden birdhouses last month, and fourth-grade teacher Vern Harvey set up several totem poles around the school’s greenhouse, to which the birdhouses will be attached.

The greenhouse is another brainchild of Harvey’s. Through grants and donations, he was able to set up the 20-by-48-foot greenhouse last summer. Students in all grades have been using it to grow a variety of plants and share a number of tasks to keep the place running.

Harvey had been spending his own money on landscaping around the greenhouse but realized he probably could get grants to cover the costs. He applied for a $2,100 Potlatch grant from the Excel Foundation, a local nonprofit organization dedicated to fundraising for Coeur d’Alene schools, and got the money.

His students spread out on the lawn near the greenhouse last month to paint some of the birdhouses.

“It’s one of the few hands-on things we get to do,” Harvey said.

The project is part of the class’ science unit. Kids learned about the types of birds the different-sized birdhouses attract.

“One’s for the violet green swallow; one’s for the chickadee; one’s for the mountain bluebird. Then there’s this other bird we forgot the name of,” said 10-year-old Madison Miles.

Added classmate Jack Harris, 9: “It’s pretty fun to have the only school with a greenhouse.”

The wooden birdhouses were made by Dan Breeden, a carpenter whose wife is a kindergarten teacher at Fernan Elementary School.

The Excel grant also paid for digital cameras, which Harvey’s students will use to document the bird sanctuary project over the weeks and months. It also covered the cost of trees that will join the totem poles around the greenhouse.

Harvey’s students plan to apply for the site to be a nationally recognized bird sanctuary.

The project has been dubbed “Birds Gone Wild.”

Student art show opens

Art by local students will be displayed in North Idaho College’s Boswell Hall beginning Monday.

The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays with no admission charge. The art will be on display in the corner gallery and in the upstairs art wing through May 11.

An opening reception will be held Monday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Spots open on boards

Civic-minded high school students can make their voices heard in Coeur d’Alene city government by becoming a student representative on one of 10 committees.

Committees are the cemetery board, recreation and parks commission, urban forestry committee, child care commission, pedestrian/bicycle advisory committee, arts commission, CDA-TV committee, library board, sign board and planning commission. Seats on the sign board and planning commission are advisory roles only without a vote.

For applications, call Victoria Bruno at 769-2204 or e-mail her at victoria@cdaid.org. Applications should be returned by May 28.

Service on these boards gives students an unprecedented opportunity to learn about city government and special projects and to become involved in their community, according to a news release from the city.

Charter’s prom moved

For those of you who stayed up late last week worrying about the scheduling conflict facing the charter academy’s scholastic quiz bowl team, there’s good news.

As mentioned in this column last week, the team earned a trip to the national tournament in Washington, D.C., by winning the state championship. But the tournament was scheduled the same weekend as the school’s prom.

Lots of other scheduling conflicts also arose, so the prom was bumped to the next weekend.