No Pie-In-The-Sky Caper - It Was Pie In The Face

Horizon Junior High School’s principal scrubbed shaving cream out of her hair after a school assembly Friday.

Glenna Smith had come to the assembly wearing a catcher’s chest protector, hospital mask, bicycle helmet and red safety glasses.

When she removed all her protection, her students cheered. Then one beaned her with a shaving cream pie.

“I was just wondering if she was going to hit me hard enough for me to go over backwards,” Smith said.

That student won the once-in-alifetime chance to hit her principal with a pie after the school raised more than $1,300 for the Oklahoma City bombing victims.

Two other students nailed their ninth grade adviser, Skip Eagle, who dressed for the occasion in a green rain slicker and a tie to clash.

Smith and Eagle had told several of the students that they could hit them with pies if they raised a certain amount of money.

After a rousing song by Horizon’s band, the two victims stood on a blue tarp in the middle of the gym, in front of their cheering and whooping students. Cameras snapped as the students let the pies fly.

Two weeks ago, several students told teacher’s aide Christine Callihan they wanted to do something for the bombing victims in Oklahoma City.

Callihan organized a fundraiser in which the students sold ribbons to commemorate the disaster. Students and parents also donated money.

“It just took off,” Callihan said. “I had to roll a ton of change.”

The money was donated to the Red Cross on Friday during the assembly.

They call him the Birdman

East Valley High School science teacher Bill Bartlett has a thing for pheasants.

For seven years, he’s been raising the wild birds and releasing them into the woods. For the past three years, he’s been teaching his students to do the same.

“A lot of them have never had a gerbil,” Bartlett said of his students. “None of them has ever had a wild bird.”

This year, eight student groups - from seniors to fifth graders - in seven schools are raising the birds. Each group has 25 chicks, for a total of 200.

Each year, about 12,000 birds are raised by private citizens and released into the wilderness, said Bob Panther, executive director of the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council.

The wildlife council receives pheasants eggs from the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. When the eggs hatch, the chicks are distributed to people interested in wildlife, Panther said.

“The total purpose is to get people involved and interested,” said Bob Osborne, who chairs the council’s pheasant chick raise and release program.

Bartlett has received grants from the school district, Eastern Washington University and private companies such as Washington Water Power to develop a program for raising the wild birds.

His program, which includes instructions on the proper care for the birds, has been sent to about 20 other schools across the state for possible use.

“I think the schools are the route we should go to provide super care at no cost,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett and his students plan to release the birds in early July.

A million minutes of reading

When Spokane Valley teacher Barbara Cruise suggested last November that her students read for 1 million minutes, she had no idea it would take so long.

But through a joint effort of teachers, students and parents, Otis Orchards Elementary went over the top seven months later.

On May 8, the school officially tallied 1,000,075 minutes of reading.

For months, each of the 470 students brought in a time sheet with the minutes or hours they and their parents spent reading that week.

“It was predominantly studentread,” Cruise said.

To celebrate, the school invited celebrity readers in on Friday, May 26, and principal Sigrid Brannan dressed up like a book.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: Education Notebook is a regular feature of the Valley Voice. If you have news about an interesting program or activity at a Valley school or about the achievements of Valley students, teachers or school staff, please let us know. Write: Education Notebook, Valley Voice, E13208 Sprague, Spokane, WA 99216. Call: 927-2166. Fax: 927-2175.