Program thriving thanks to parents, businesses

It started as a simple idea from a parent at Canfield Middle School. Give kids a reason to get A’s – something more immediate than the “you’ll benefit from it down the road” reason they’re so used to hearing.

Now, more than six years later, parents and businesses all over Coeur d’Alene are helping make Canfield Middle School’s Pays to Get A’s program the booming success the parents who organize it say its become.

When Chris Anderl took over the program six years ago, just one student with an A on his or her report card was selected each semester to win a prize.

“I decided, you know, one kid in a school of 800 isn’t going to make a huge incentive for kids to get A’s,” she said.

With the help of other parents and local businesses, Canfield’s Pays to Get A’s program now rewards hundreds of students each semester who get an A on their final report card.

For every A earned, the student gets one entry in a drawing for prizes like iPods, candy and soda, clocks, black lights, lava lamps and other items that surely rank high on a middle-school student’s list of cool.

“There are lots of times where kids just get one A and they win a prize,” Anderl said.

More than 25 percent of Canfield students – 219 of about 775 students – won prizes during the school’s end-of-the-semester Pays to Get A’s assembly last week. And the prizes will continue to be awarded through the school year – parent-volunteers hold drawings each week for smaller prizes.

“In middle school, it’s really easy to say this doesn’t matter,” Anderl said. “We keep the program kind of going all year so kids are reminded every week, yeah, it pays to get A’s.”

Domino’s Pizza donated pizza coupons to every student who won a prize.

Math competition

Middle school students from across North Idaho took place in the Mathcounts math competition last week at North Idaho College, and the top winners were from Kootenai County.

A four-student team from Canfield Middle School took top team honors, and Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy student Lewis Ellis took the top individual honors for the second year in a row.

Terry Harwood, who helped organize the competition for the Idaho Society of Professional Engineers, said he calls the competitors “math-letes” instead of athletes.

“What’s neat about it is kids at these little tiny schools can compete against these teams from the great big schools and win,” Harwood said.

This year’s competition was the largest since it started in the 1980s, Harwood said. The top four teams and the top 10 individuals will go to the state competition in Boise in March.

They are:

“Team competition: First, Canfield Middle School, coach Teena Roberts, Nick Induni, Tevis Dryden, Alex Gunderson and Jordan Wise; second, Sandpoint Middle, coach Stephen Coffman, Gerhart Suppiger, Brita Olson, Mason Foster and Finan Adamson; third, Coeur d’Alene Charter, coach Tisha Putz, Lewis Ellis, Brandy Rinaldi, Adam Crandall and Raul Mondragon; fourth, Timberlake Jr. High, coach Jim Crump, Devin Olmstead, Ben Odell, Brianne Shirts and Zach Malloy.

“Individual winners: First, Lewis Ellis, Coeur d’Alene Charter; second, Nick Induni, Canfield Middle; third, Brita Olson, Sandpoint Middle; fourth, Taylor Tompke, Boundary County Middle; fifth, Alexander Awbrey, Boundary County Middle; sixth, Ben Odell, Timberlake Jr. High; seventh, Mason Foster, Sandpoint Middle; eighth, Devin Walker, Woodland Middle; ninth, Jodie Davaz, Post Falls Middle; and 10th, Silas Domy, Kellogg Middle.

Last-minute NIC scholarship

North Idaho College students have until March 1 to apply for NIC scholarships.

The application is crucial for scholarship-seeking students because the college recently changed its application process. Applications must be filled out on an annual basis instead of every three years.

NIC Vice President for Student Services Eric Murray said in an NIC news release that he would like to see an increase in the number of students who apply for scholarships at NIC.

“Many students don’t apply for scholarships because they believe that they need to have a high (grade-point average) or be low-income in order to be eligible, but that is just not true,” Murray said. “There are scholarships available for a variety of different students, some without GPA or income limitations. We want to be able to put more scholarships in the hands of deserving students.”

The NIC Foundation will award approximately $350,000 in scholarships in the 2007-08 academic year.

All departments on NIC’s main Coeur d’Alene campus and outreach sites in Kellogg, Bonners Ferry and Ponderay have the new application form. One can also be downloaded at www.nic.edu/financialaid/ scholarships/application/ scholapp.pdf.

For more information,call 769-3370.