Students run for fun, grant
Around 200 students and their parents from Skyview Elementary and the Continuous Curriculum School in the East Valley School District gathered last week to learn about physical activity and have some fun, too.
“The whole purpose was to bring the kids together,” said Patti Kelly, the treasure of the PTSA at Continuous Curriculum School. The two schools share a building in the district, but don’t do a lot of activities together. The students and their parents participated in a fun run to show the kids how much fun exercising can be.
Kelly said the run was part of a couple of days of activities in the schools to promote exercise and also to apply for a $10,000 grant from NFL Play 60, a campaign that is fighting childhood obesity through physical activity. Kelly said if the schools get that grant the funds will be used to purchase fitness equipment for the gym.
The students paid $1 to participate which paid for the water bottles students received for running one lap around the school yard. Kids who ran more received plastic running shoe pendants that students can string together on a necklace.
“Everybody that runs is going to get a prize,” Kelly told the kids before the race.
The parents cheered the runners on while the theme from “Rocky” blasted through the sound system. Third-grader Sydnee Reed predicted she was going to run about 10 miles that night.
“I like it,” she said about running.
The parent groups from both schools laid out deli sandwiches, orange slices and vegetables for the kids after their run. The students kept running laps until the parents ran out of sandwiches.
Semifinalists up for National Merit
Eleven students from Spokane County are semifinalists for National Merit Scholarships.
They are: Benjamin Whitfield, Mt. Spokane; Grant Nielsen, Ferris; Teddy Brow, Lewis and Clark; Nripendra Acharya and Taylor Coles, Mead; Sydney Lewis, Oaks Classical Christian Academy; Jackson Kerschen, St. George’s School; Caitlin Hess, University; and Shannen Kuest, Ivvie Shellhorn and Penny Zhang of Central Valley.
New Freeman plans ribbon cutting
Freeman High School will present a ribbon cutting ceremony Sept. 24 at 5 p.m. to celebrate its new school.
The ceremony will be in conjunction with the school’s homecoming football game against Kellogg High School.
The school opened Sept. 7 after a little more than a year of construction. The new building was designed by ALSC Architects and the general contractor was Levernier Construction.
Four teachers named grant recipients
The West Valley Education Foundation recently presented grants to four teachers in the district for special projects.
Darrell Urlacher of Contract Based Education received $500 for the college eligibility project; Eric Groshoff of West Valley High School received $500 for the Student Invention/Innovation projects; Katie Owens of Orchard Center Elementary received $500 for the Cougar Connects Robotic Club; and Bill Bauman of West Valley High School received $250 for the cadaver lab and the College Tour Experience.
CVSB to put bond in February ballot
The Central Valley School Board discussed how much property owners can expect to pay if the bond the district is putting on the ballot in February passes.
Superintendent Ben Small told the board the bond will be for $69.61 million, and the district expects to receive $32.8 million in matching funds from the state of Washington.
Jan Hutton, executive director of finances for the district, said taxpayers would see a 65 cent increase per $1,000 of assessed property value. That means that in the year 2012, taxpayers would pay $2.30 total per $1,000 of assessed property value. An individual homeowner with a house valued at $100,000 would expect to see an increase of $65 a year, or $5.42 a month.
The projects on the bond include modernizing and expanding Evergreen Middle School, construction of a new elementary school at Mission and Long, modernizing and expanding Opportunity Elementary, modernizing Ponderosa and Greenacres elementary schools, modernizing and expanding Chester Elementary and improving building safety at all schools in the district.
To help inform voters of the needs of these projects, the district is producing videos of each school scheduled for remodeling which will be posted on the district’s website, www.cvsd.org.