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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

District mulls late Mondays

Students in the Coeur d’Alene School District will have to wait until after the June 7 school board meeting to find out if they get to sleep in Monday mornings during the 2010-’11 school year.

According to a letter from the district, the district committee has been working on a “job-embedded collaboration” that will enable the “school week to include regular time for teachers to gather to discuss and plan best practices of instruction.”

If the plan passes, Monday classes will begin at 10 a.m. and the school day will end at 3:30 p.m. Elementary students will attend classes Tuesday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The new schedule would add 15 minutes to each school day to make up for “instructional minutes lost” on Monday mornings.

Middle school students would also be affected by the new schedule. Classes would begin at 9:10 a.m. and end at 2:40 p.m. on Mondays and classes Tuesday through Friday would be from 7:55 a.m. to 2:40 p.m.

Some of the elementary schools in the district have jumped the gun, already posting the proposed change on their school websites, although the new schedule will not be voted on until next month’s meeting. The school district sent a letter home with students the week before the meeting and received 30 parent responses: 12 in favor of the new schedule and 18 against it.

For more information, call the Coeur d’Alene School District at (208) 664-8241.

Seniors finish NIC work

Local high school students who are also enrolled in the WIN by getting a Good Start, or WINGS, at North Idaho College will graduate from NIC on Friday, before getting their high school diploma.

Students graduating from NIC on Friday include Brianna Espeland and Emily Wyatt, both of Lake City High School; Keith Lloyd-Davies, Jocelyn Bills, Samantha Martin and Katya Myers, all of Coeur d’Alene High School; Emily Howlett of Post Falls High School; and Chelsea Benson of Lakeside High School.

Science grants awarded

Three North Idaho teachers were recently awarded grants from the Idaho National Laboratory to improve science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in their classrooms.

The laboratory’s “Mini Grant” program provides teachers up to $2,000 per proposal for classroom equipment, materials and professional development projects.

Teachers who received grants from INL are Salvatore Lorenzen, the vocational technologies teacher at Post Falls High School, who was awarded $1,997 to purchase equipment allowing students to design, analyze, fabricate and test 3-D models; Kellie Rhodes, of Timberlake High School in Spirit Lake, received $1,700 for equipment for a “Survey of Science” class focused on hands-on, real-life application labs; and Crystal Silvers, of Ramsey Elementary School in Coeur d’Alene, was awarded $1,969 to purchase junior First LEGO kits for students to build, sample and analyze transportation projects in Ramsey’s Club Think! STEM enrichment class.

Honor students named

Lakeland High School recently announced students selected for the National Honor Society for the second semester for the 2009-’10 academic year.

New Honor Society students include David Bethke, Nicole Boyer, Elizabeth Campbell, Josie Coder, Dustin Hannawalt, Amanda Haug, Devin Hobbler, Autumn Schorzman, Brianna Tollackson, Aaron Wagoner, Megan Whitney, Josh Allred, Ryan Allred, Olivia Sparks, Gina Titterington, Sarah Watson, Kaitlyn Whitesitt, Levi Bischoff, Emilee Engle, Brian Hann, Latecia Howell, Sarah Jacobsen, Cheyenne Lawrie, Shane Maland, Taylor Marsh, Taylor Patik, and Malia Parker.

The students were recognized for their excellence in the areas of scholarship, leadership, service and character.