Alison Boggs

By the year 2001, Spokane Valley high school students could be required to pass a basic skills test before receiving a high school diploma. This spring, fourth-graders statewide will be tested to determine how much of what a state commission says they should know they indeed do know. Next year, teachers statewide will begin assessing first- through third-graders' reading and math competency.

Allan Nauck feels lucky to have returned home. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Trevor Hanson is walking on air after winning an essay contest on what makes a happy family. The grand prize is a trip to Disneyland. Eight other Valley students also won prizes in the essay contest fo their grade levels. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

A small Spokane Valley parochial school is making an international name for itself. St. John Vianney School is singled out for special recognition at the Internet site for the Washington, D.C.-based GLOBE program, in which students gather weather data and record it using the Internet. Photos of students from the Catholic school at 501 N. Walnut also are featured at the Internet site. Worldwide, about 2,300 schools in 28 countries participate in GLOBE, which stands for Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment.

A man who heavily criticized Central Valley schools was winning a seat on the district's school board Tuesday night, defeating an active community volunteer. "One of my basic premises is I'm going to be looking out for the taxpayer and not the school administrators," said George Springer, who espoused back-to-basics views. "I feel the current board says yes to everything." Springer advocates competency tests for teachers and hiring a Spokane-area person as CV's new superintendent. Nine-year superintendent Dick Sovde left this summer for another job.

1. A neighbor and paramedic comfort Monica Wilson, who was burned in a failed attempt to save her son from a trailer fire Thursday. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review 2. Fire gutted the 20-foot trailer that was home to a mother and her son. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review

1. Chris Reed reads a James Thurber story to his alternative education class at East Valley High. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. In East Valley High School alternative education computer room, Brian Hawks studies the Civil War and Jeremy Hamlin learns about Lewis and Clark. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Connie Jo Squires works at Contract Based Education. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

U-Hi students Steve Knowles, Dave Fleck and Ashley Rudolph work on a footing for the house at 15th and Herald. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

The Freeman school board race could earn a spot in the record books as most amicable in election history. The six candidates in all three contested races agree that they or their opponent would do an equally admirable job. One candidate's wife is a childhood chum of his opponent. And the daughters of two opponents are best friends. "My kids are going, 'Why is Doug running against you, Mom?"' said candidate Kathleen Lundy, whose daughter is best friends with the daughter of her opponent, Doug Spruance.

Four positions are open on the East Valley and West Valley school boards, but only one is contested. Homemaker and community volunteer Marie Francis will face off against former East Valley maintenance supervisor Donald Glaser for a spot on the EV school board. Board members Norma Ventris and Karen Loibl from West Valley and Tim Wick from East Valley are running unopposed.

Voters in the Liberty School District will select a new school board member and decide whether to pass a $7 million bond. Two people are running for one position on the board. A 14-year board member is running unopposed for the other open seat. If passed, the proposed $7 million bond will pay for a building to house the cafeteria, library and media center, music, art, drama and gym rooms for high school and elementary school students. Some of the existing rooms that serve those purposes at both schools will be converted to classrooms. A science laboratory at the high school, built in 1961, also will be remodeled.

In the midst of a superintendent search and a $23 million bond proposal, eight people are vying for four positions on the Central Valley school board. Common themes run through the candidates' positions. Increase parental involvement. Focus on the superintendent search. Pass a bond to increase classroom space. But some new ideas, and new twists on old ideas, also have arisen. Candidates go back and forth over local control of the district versus state and federal mandates, and the schools' increasing social service role versus individual responsibility of parents and students.

Decisive. Accessible. A leader. Those are some of the qualities Central Valley School District's community members are seeking in a new superintendent. In a series of meetings Tuesday and Wednesday, the district's consultants solicited input from the community on three issues affecting the search.

Two Spokane Valley school districts with open positions on their school boards will hold candidate forums in coming weeks. Central Valley, which has four of five positions open on its board, will hold two forums. Freeman School District, with three of its five positions contested, will hold one.

Students from Greenacres Junior High dig in a sand lot next to the school. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

Christine Kimball and her dog Bloomer in Kimball's Veradale studio. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

1. East Farms resident Ruth Hicks helps her 10-year-old daughter Taylor with a math problem. Hicks, who home-schools because of her religious convictions, also plans to do the same with her two younger children. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. The dinner table doubles as a work table for the kids in Ruth Hicks' home. Her children, Taylor (not shown), Rachael and Jonathon are home-schooled. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

The school crossing at Broadway and Progress is in good hands with guard Veda Bergam. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

1. Parent Dodie Trimble, seated, assists teacher Teresa Gothmann in a South Pines Elementary school first-second grade class where Trimble's son Dion attends. The SPACE program in Central Valley and SPICE program in West Valley encourage parents to help out in their children's classes. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 2. South Pines teacher Kathy Hinds listens to SPACE volunteer Mike Walsh during class attended by Mike's son Nathan. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review 3. Volunteer SPACE mother Dodie Trimble reads to Teresa Gothmann's class at South Pines Elementary. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review

University High School's MacKenzie Hawley is one of 12 art educators in the country selected to decide what determines excellence in art teaching. She's part of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards committee on art education. The national board was developed by a coalition of teachers, administrators, politicians and reform advocates in 1987 to create a national certification program for teachers. Presently, when a teacher moves out of state, he or she must be re-certified to teach in the new state. National certification could one day change that, Hawley said.

Overflowing enrollment in the Central Valley School District has caused 167 students - mostly elementary level - to be bused away from their home schools. "It's hectic," said Jolene Ackerman, whose two daughters ride one bus from Liberty Lake to Greenacres Elementary, then another from Greenacres to Sunrise Elementary. "They ride better than an hour on the bus."

Voters choosing board members for the Central Valley School District favored two incumbents and a community volunteer in Tuesday's primary. "I'm excited, but I see a challenge in front of me," said incumbent Cheryl Knighton, who garnered 40.5 percent of the vote in one of three CV board races. In a year when board members will choose a new superintendent and try to pass a $23 million bond, four out of five board positions are up for grabs. But only three were contested in the primary.

Julia Postlewait feeds a blackberry scone to her daughter Ellen Rose as husband Jeff watches. Photo by Steve Thompson/The Spokesman-Review