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Sara Leaming

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News >  Spokane

Private school finds a home at old U-Hi

The Central Valley School Board has agreed to lease space to a homeless Spokane Valley Christian school. At its regular meeting Monday night, the school board unanimously approved a 23-month lease agreement between the district and Valley Christian School for space at the former University High School.
News >  Voices

Project-based high school opens this fall

Students with an interest in doing things a little differently, like getting out of the classroom and into the real world more often, are encouraged to apply to the West Valley School District's new project-based high school opening this fall. The district is hoping to attract about 40 students to the new school, which will have an outdoor and technology focus. Students will complete hands-on projects in lieu of traditional classroom work.
News >  Spokane

WV won’t renew coach’s contract

The head girls softball coach at West Valley High School will not return next year amid an ongoing investigation into allegations he had a sexual relationship with one of his players. West Valley School District officials said this week that the one-year coaching contract for Dana Schmerer, 41, was not renewed.
News >  Spokane

Raises for CV principals mean shifts in staffing

An increase in principals' pay in the Central Valley School District will result in fewer assistant principals at middle schools next year. District staff decided not to fill two vacant assistant principal positions at two of the district's five middle schools. Instead, two vice principals will each oversee two schools, a move that has caused some concern among staff.
News >  Spokane

Mormons re-create trek

After helping to push a handcart loaded with 170 pounds of gear through the forest between Spirit Lake and Twin Lakes, Fawn Carey and Cheryl Ulrich got right to work preparing stew. Wearing floor-length dresses like the pioneers wore, Carey, 18, and Ulrich, 17, both members of the Spokane Valley Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, kneeled on the ground Friday, using a stump as a cutting board for potatoes and carrots.
News >  Spokane

Valley Christian secures homes

The building may be empty, but the sign hanging on the chain-link fence outside Valley Christian School says "now enrolling." Despite having lost the lease on the school building that has been home to the small Spokane Valley private school for more than 30 years, school officials announced this week that two buildings have been secured to accommodate all 300 students in grades kindergarten through 12 in the fall.
News >  Voices

Bids for further WVHS remodel to be accepted

The remodel of West Valley High School is on track and moving forward. At a special meeting Tuesday the board of directors approved a request to accept bids for the final phases of the remodel.
News >  Voices

Car winner set goal for herself

Randi Albertson is used to driving a 1988 Pontiac Bonneville. Now, after months of hard work and a little stroke of luck, the 18-year-old Spokane Valley High School graduate will be cruising around town in a brand new yellow sports car.
News >  Voices

Contract to place portables at CV schools awarded to sole bidder

The Central Valley School District Board of Directors awarded the bid Monday night to place portable classrooms at three of the district's buildings to a Davenport, Wash., construction company, despite a price that was thousands more than budgeted. Halme Construction was awarded the contract for $285,000 to place one portable with two classrooms each at Greenacres and Liberty Lake elementary schools, and at University High School to ease overcrowding.
News >  Spokane

CV to delay $55.2 million bond levy vote

The Central Valley School District Board of Directors voted Monday night to place a $55.2 million construction bond proposal before voters in March instead of November as planned. "We want more time to get information out to the voters," Superintendent Mike Pearson said. "There is not enough time to communicate."
News >  Spokane

Kids catch up during summer

Mariah Langley wishes public school was year-round. Her daughter, Caitlyn, 7, is struggling to read at grade level, and three months off isn't going to help.
News >  Spokane

New school district considered

If voters in the Central Valley School District don't approve a $55.2 million bond in the fall to build two new schools, a group of citizens in Liberty Lake will be ready to take action. Citizens for Liberty Lake Schools, a nonprofit organization created in May, is laying the groundwork to break away from Central Valley if the proposed bond issue fails.
News >  Voices

The perfect reward

How much is not missing a single day of school worth? To senior students from more than 20 Spokane area high schools, perfect attendance is worth about $20,987; the sticker price of a brand new Hyundai Tiburon.
News >  Voices

CVSD board approves contract

The Central Valley School District Board of Directors approved a three-year contract Monday with the district's teachers. Members of the Central Valley Education Association ratified the contract June 10 with a 94 percent approval.
News >  Voices

Bringing the world to students

Opportunity Elementary School student Chet Doan became a world traveler Friday. "I got to visit the Caribbean and Switzerland, all before lunch," said Doan, 9, who just arrived in Japan. "And I still get to go to Australia and Spain."
News >  Spokane

East Valley selects interim leader

The East Valley School District Board of Directors selected an interim superintendent Tuesday with 32 years of experience as an educator in Western Washington. Christine Burgess was offered a one-year contract with the district to fill the position left vacant by Michael Jones, who accepted a superintendent post in Michigan last month.
News >  Spokane

New school boundaries put on hold

As a resident of the oldest neighborhood in Liberty Lake, Sharon Carlson can't imagine her children going to any other school than the one just down the road from her home. So when the Central Valley School District proposed an enrollment boundary that would bus her children away from Liberty Lake Elementary, she rallied with other parents and residents to prevent that from happening.
News >  Spokane

West Valley will start projects-based school

High school students who have trouble sitting through the traditional classroom lecture may feel at home next year in the West Valley School District. The district was awarded a $150,000 grant from a Minnesota-based education cooperative funded by the Gates Foundation to start a project-based high school next year.
News >  Voices

Final play

West Valley High School drama students are ending this school year with a bang, and possibly some fireworks. The students will perform an adaptation of Harper Lee's classic novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" tonight, Friday and Saturday at the school. Admission is free, but donations are welcome.
News >  Spokane

Learning Holocaust’s lessons

In 1986, Central Valley High School teacher Steve Bernard took a group of teenagers on a tour through a Nazi concentration camp. He never expected that what he saw would become his life's work.
News >  Spokane

Stevens County teacher charged with rape of teen

A Stevens County high school teacher and boys' basketball coach was arrested Friday amid allegations he had sex with a female student. Robert M. Swalstad, a teacher at Columbia High School in Hunters, Wash., made his first appearance in Stevens County District Court in Colville Monday on charges of third-degree rape of a child, said Stevens County Prosecutor Jerry Wetle.
News >  Spokane

All-nighters keep grad weekend safe

The Mead community has already shelled out about $30,000 to keep its graduates safe after the long-awaited high school graduation ceremony for Mead High School on Friday night. The money will pay for what is known as the senior all-nighter or grad night.
News >  Spokane

Seniors to commence debate

University High School valedictorian Chris Jackson won't be giving his speech at his high school commencement next Sunday. Instead, he'll take his lingual prowess 3,000 miles away.
News >  Voices

New superintendent

When Polly Crowley was a child growing up in Moscow, Idaho, there was no question about her chosen profession. The West Valley School District superintendent had painted a mural in the basement of her home depicting herself as a teacher. "My mom was a home economics teacher, and I always admired what she did," Crowley said. "I guess I always saw myself that way."
News >  Voices

Parents object to proposed school boundary changes

Upset about the possibility that their elementary school children may have to attend school outside of the Liberty Lake area, parents turned out in force Tuesday night to a hearing on the proposed attendance boundary changes in the Central Valley School District. Under boundary changes currently being considered by the district, about 40 to 50 children who live on the west side of Liberty Lake would be moved from Liberty Lake Elementary to Greenacres Elementary.