Sara Leaming

Cheney Public Schools hired additional staff members and transferred existing staff to fill positions left vacant by retirements, an increase in enrollment and changes to programs. The following buildings had staff changes:

For her 13th birthday, Danielle Foster received her most-prized possession: a Motorola cellular phone with a hot pink cover. "Some people will declare you a geek if you don't have a cell phone," the Salk Middle School eighth-grader said.

Eighteen more students from Spokane Public Schools performed well enough on their PSAT college-entrance exam to be named National Merit program commended students, the district said. The students are listed by school as follows:

Art students at Rogers High School learned last week that art doesn't happen only in museums. Students in Tom Pettoello's creative drawing class spent two mornings spraying graffiti on 6-foot-by-6-foot pieces of butcher paper taped to the walls outside the school.

A former Spokane Valley private school teacher and coach accused of mistreating students is appealing a recent state decision to suspend his teaching license. Steve Altmeyer, the former boys basketball coach and teacher at Valley Christian School, had been the subject of a two-year state investigation into allegations that he physically and verbally abused students and athletes.

Seven seniors from St. George's School were recognized by the National Merit Scholarship program on the 2005 Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, the school announced last week. Two students, Elisabeth DeLeeuw and Sam Wagstaff, were named National Merit semi-finalists. DeLeeuw and Wagstaff will go on to compete for some 8,200 Merit Scholarship awards next spring, worth about $33 million.

With the future of public education in Washington state on the line, more than 80 people from across the Spokane area turned out Wednesday night for a chance to help influence the coming changes. The standing-room-only crowd at Gonzaga University included superintendents, members of teachers and classified school employees unions, and parents. Dozens took the podium to provide recommendations for Washington Learns, a study commissioned by Gov. Chris Gregoire to overhaul the public education system in Washington and turn it into a "world-class, learner-focused education system."

Former and current John R. Rogers High School students can cast their name in stone during construction under way at the North Side school. A "Wall of Remembrance" in the Pirates' Cove courtyard will be built with 3,132 bricks engraved with the name and graduation year of alumni and students who choose to take part.

WASL scores released Friday show significant gains for 10th- graders, who must pass the test to graduate, but troubling declines in seventh-grade reading scores. Only four of Spokane County's 24 middle schools showed increases in the number of seventh-grade students meeting the standard for the reading portion of the WASL – as the Washington Assessment of Student Learning is generally called. Students took the test – the state's answer to the federal No Child Left Behind law – before summer vacation.

Shaw Middle School students will get free fruits and vegetables again this year through a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The $60,000 grant will pay for the delivery of fresh produce to the school from local growers, available to students twice a day.

Eight Spokane County schools have been placed on a watch list of schools identified as "needing improvement," or those with students who are not meeting federal education standards adopted under the No Child Left Behind law. A preliminary report from the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction released Thursday shows that schools in the Spokane, West Valley, Central Valley, Mead and Nine Mile Falls school districts did not make "adequate yearly progress," or AYP, for at least two consecutive years.

A statewide parents group is threatening legal action against the state for refusing parents' requests to view their children's WASL test booklets this spring. Spokane attorney Jeffry Finer has been retained on behalf of the Parent Empowerment Network to address "alarm at OSPI's failure" to provide redress to families, children and school districts affected by failing scores on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, the state's answer to the federal No Child Left Behind law.

When it was time for her youngest daughter to enter first grade, Margo Sargent asked if she could observe a classroom at the public elementary school in her South Hill neighborhood. She was told no by school officials.