Rogers cyber teams advance in nationals

The Rogers High School Cyber Patriot teams recently advanced to the national competition. The Air Force Junior ROTC team and the TEConnections team will be among 12 teams competing in the high school cyber defense competition, focusing on careers in cybersecurity or other sciences, including technology, engineering and mathematics.

The AFJROTC will compete in the semifinals of the all services division in Orlando, Fla., from Feb. 17 through Feb. 19. Team members are Chris Crozier, Jacob Thompson, Benjamin Donnelly and Cyrus Soheili. This team began the Cyber Patriot competition against 470 teams nationally.

The TEConnections team will compete in the open division finals in Washington, D.C., in March. The team includes Jonathan Plank, Tu Truong, Jawun Smith, Zachary Baldwin, Petru Vicol and Aleksandr Daranutsa. The TEConnections team initially competed against 190 teams in the first two rounds.

The are the only teams from Washington state in the competition and Rogers is the only school in the nation with two teams in the event.

For more information, call William Patton at (509) 354-6609 or e-mail williamp@spokaneschools.org or Terry Yeigh at (509) 354-6596 or e-mail terryy@spokaneschools.org.

Mead to continue reduced bus schedule

In an effort to save funds for the 2010-’11 school year, the Mead School District will continue the reduced schedule for the activity bus service to students.

The activity bus now runs only for the first two weeks of the middle school sports season schedule for riders for both middle school and high school activities.

The remaining activity bus schedule for the 2010-’11 school year will be Feb. 10 through Feb. 25 and April 11 through April 22.

For more information, call (509) 465-6000.

Ceremony will honor early graduates

Spokane Public Schools will hold a special ceremony on Tuesday for high school students who put in extra hours to graduate early.

Students to be honored in Tuesday’s ceremony for their achievement include Shaun Bavandpouri, of Ferris High School; Hector Aizon, Nicole Ashley Barber, and Deandre Barnett of Lewis and Clark High School; Maxwell Sanders and Trevor McGregor of North Central High School; and Richard Culbreth, Valerie Debleeker, Kristopher Little, Klint Minnameier, Damion Nunnery, Rik Rojas and William Schmitt of Rogers High School.