Catch CVHS marching band Tuesday night
An award-winning Central Valley High School Marching Band and Color Guard will give its final home turf performance on Tuesday.
The music will rise starting at 7:30 p.m. in the Central Valley High football stadium, at 821 S. Sullivan Road in Spokane Valley. Senior members of the band and color guard will be recognized, and dessert will be served after the performance.
The group will continue its Northwest tour by traveling Friday to Vancouver, Wash., where members will compete at the annual McKenzie Classic at Evergreen High School. For this year’s competitive season, the group has already garnered two Class AA Championships as well as awards for Best Marching, Best Color Guard, and two awards each for best general effect and best music.
CVHS drum majors (student conductors) are Erin Headlee and Randi Wilson. The color guard captain is Cassie Molloy.
The band’s theme this year, “The Gifts of Freedom,” reflects the ideals shared in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s congressional speech in January 1941, less than one year before the U.S. officially entered World War II. The band uses music and colors to express FDR’s four simple freedoms: freedom from want, freedom of speech, freedom to worship and freedom from fear.
The Shaker Hymn “Simple Gifts” is quoted throughout the band’s seven-minute production.
Horizon teacher honored
Horizon Middle School teacher Kathy Schab recently joined 24 teachers from around Washington state, including Diana Chapman from North Pines, to cheer the Mariners at Safeco Field. Schab was selected as a Teacher of the Week by WSECU and KOMO News Radio last spring.
She joined fellow educators at the Sept. 16 game against Tampa Bay, enjoying the baseball action from a luxury box above the field. In addition to tickets to the game, Schab also received $500 for her classroom.
The sixth-grade math and science teacher was nominated for her philanthropic efforts last year to help the family of a Horizon student recover from a head-on automobile collision. Schab made and sold pillow cases to help the family with its expenses. She also helped organize a spaghetti feed and auction that raised more than $20,000 to benefit the family. Schab has been a teacher in Central Valley schools for more than 25 years.
Progress teacher served on WASL committee
This summer, Progress Elementary School teacher Stephanie Morkert served on a statewide committee to determine mathematics scoring for the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.
Morkert, a fourth-grade teacher, was among a selected group of educators who reviewed a series of pilot items, which appeared on the WASL but did not count against student scores, along with the student responses. The committee developed scoring rubrics and revised the pilot items, and their findings will shape future WASL exams and their assessment.