Spokane Public Schools end year on Friday
No more pencils, no more books.
The last day of school for most Spokane County school districts either has passed or is nearing.
Here’s a list of closing dates:
Today: West Valley and East Valley.
Friday: Spokane Public Schools, Mead, Cheney, Medical Lake and Central Valley.
Tuesday: Nine Mile Falls.
Already out: Deer Park, Riverside, Freeman and Liberty.
Film a winner
Lewis and Clark High School students Ian Petrofski, Sophia Lawhead, Nora Taylor, Anya Klyukanova and Amanda Edwards, along with Crosswalk graduates Jessica Hammil, Zac Kelty and Stephanie Cooper, have won the regional 2007 National Student Television Award for a film they made, “The Circle Documentary,” through the Inland Northwest Community Access Network(TINCAN).
The film deals with Spokane teenagers who have become parents and public attitudes toward those teens.
The student filmmakers accepted the award during the Northwest regional Emmy Awards ceremony in Seattle on June 2.
The film and other works the students have completed were shown Tuesday at TINCAN in downtown Spokane.
Student ambassadors
Kate Hellenthal, a junior at Lewis and Clark High School, and Anna Shives, a sophomore at Shadle Park High School, will serve as student ambassadors to the Spokane Public Schools’ board of directors.
The two will be nonvoting members who will provide board members with a student perspective. The pair will serve for the 2007-2008 school year.
Miss Spokane’s Outstanding Teen
Ferris High School junior Tori Lynn Johnson, Miss Spokane’s Outstanding Teen, was first runner-up at the Miss Washington’s Outstanding Teen pageant over the Memorial Day weekend in Auburn.
Johnson, who was selected as Miss Spokane’s Outstanding Teen in January, will be eligible to compete again next year.
Winner of the state pageant was Genay Tucker of Clark County.
Eighth-grade grads
Fifty-eight eighth-grade students at Northwest Christian Middle School graduated in a ceremony on the school’s Colbert campus on June 7.
Valedictorians Kelsey Chase, Amelia Fairburn, Ashley Graham and Janae Maple spoke and received an engraved medal.
Many students were given awards for character.
Alumni awards
North Central High School recently honored four distinguished alumni.
They were Logan Olson, of Logan Magazine, for being an inspiration to people with disabilities; Bill Diedrick Jr., a football coach; and Dr. Stephen Boswell, chief executive officer of Fenway Community Health and professor of medicine at Harvard University. David Sandberg, honored posthumously, was a wrestler and coach.
Teacher, students honored
Gisela Hanks has been named one of the top German teachers in America by the American Association of Teachers of German.
Hanks, who teaches German at Ferris High School, received the award because seven of her students placed in the top 15 percent on the association’s National German Examination 2007.
Hanks will receive a certificate and a book award from the Duden Publishing Co. of Germany.
Four of her students – Sani Vrbanjac, Andrea Chapin, Doug Coulson and Christine Viveiros – placed in the top 9 percent in a German competition sponsored by the association and the German government.
Morning Star Boys’ Ranch awards
Six high school students from Morning Star Boys’ Ranch have received the Rose Phelps Award for community service.
The students, who are Independent Living Skills residents, provided more than 120 hours to projects such as volunteering at the Veterans Affairs Hospital on bingo night, the Toys for Tots campaign and the Marine Corps League Auxiliary’s annual veterans picnic. They also served breakfast at the Veterans of Foreign Wars.