It's hard to escape news about the economic crisis facing our state and nation. Many individuals, families, and businesses in our community are struggling. State revenue forecasts look bleak.

The vast majority of school funding comes from the state, and with the state budget headed for a shortfall of $8 to $10 billion, schools are bracing for unprecedented cuts. Highline Public Schools will have to cut $5 to $8+ million from the budget for the next school year. This will mean substantial reductions in programs and services to students.

Highline Public Schools will host four High School Fairs for all middle schools students and their parents to hear about small school options for high school. Eighth graders are encouraged to attend their neighborhood school's event. Families considering other district schools as an option are welcome to attend any of the fairs. There will also be daytime events featuring booths for each small school or small learning community.

Please click here for a flyer listing all of the locations, dates, and times.

Marisol Rosado has received a $100,000 scholarship to Whitworth College from the Act Six scholarship fund. Marisol, a senior at Highline High School, has participated in the Achievement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program all four years at Highline. AVID promotes study skills, college awareness, and academic goal-setting for students who might not otherwise be aiming for college. The program helped Marisol successfully complete the application process, essay, and interviews involved in the scholarship competition.

How do you keep a glider aloft?

Brian Hawkins, an Aeronautic Education Specialist from NASA, can teach you the principles of flight. On February 3, he taught STEM - science, technology, engineering, and math to intermediate students at Midway Elementary School.

Diana Martinez, a sophomore at TEC High School on the Evergreen campus, has been selected by the National Academy Foundation to participate in its upcoming Board of Directors meeting and gala in New York City. Diana is one of just seven students from the western region to be invited to attend. In addition to the opportunity to meet and discuss issues with the National Academy Foundation board members, who are respected CEOs and company presidents, students will also be attending a reception at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and a benefit concert by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

The 5th/6th Grade Explorer class at Cedarhurst recently created a newspaper to share all the ways their school is environmentally friendly. The publication is part of a grant application prepared by the students. They are hoping to get funding to build a greenhouse at the school.

Crediting mentorship and the support he got from a favorite professor, former Highline High School student James Rosser has identified all the genes required to survive on nitrogen, something that had never been done before.  Read the story in the Seattle Pacific University publication:

http://www.spu.edu/depts/ugadm/etc/professor-never-forget.asp

Applications are now being accepted for the 2009 Summer Institute in Life Sciences (SILS), June 29-July 24 at the University of Washington. This seminar is free for teachers in grades 3-8. SILS is a four-week, hands-on program for teaching investigative life science.

We often hear parents say they aren't able to help their children with math homework because it has changed so much since they were in school. Now, there's help available!

We have added Parent Math Guides on our website for Connected Math, CMP2, and Investigations. Links to these guides can be found at:

http://www.hsd401.org/parentinfo/resources/mathparent.htm

Puget Sound Skills Center students were one of three teams selected to compete at the International Construction Challenge Championships to be held in Knoxville in May. Student team members are Jordan Simpson, David Barber, Kevin Jones, Scott Valbush, James McConnon, and Kasey Asbury.

Sylvester is in its fifth year with a TechREACH club, this year funded exclusively by grants through the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. This is a club designed to increase interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) among at-risk girls. At- risk can mean: no computers at home, limited exposure to computers, low grades in science and/or math, quiet or reserved in a co-ed classroom, a minority, or low income.

Pacific students will showcase their work and demonstrate the skills they have learned In Design and Engineering on February 24. This will be an opportunity for them to share with parents and staff the design and creation of little people furniture, a game they created, "Crazy Puzzles," scale drawings, and other work.

More than 400 students in Highline Public Schools PTAs created art for this year's Reflections Arts Program and shared their interpretation of what the theme "Wow!" meant to them. Reflections is a National PTA program that encourages students in grades K-12 to create art in any of the six categories of literature, visual arts, photography, music, film/video, and dance.

A team of students representing Aviation High School has been named a finalist this week in the annual "Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards." The honor went to Lamond Le and Sam Swan for their project, Seattle Instruments.

Burien Art Gallery is hosting a show that features work by several TEC High students. Check out the details here:
http://www.highlinetimes.com/articles/2009/02/03/news/local_news/news06.txt

Cristina Roberts' fifth-grade class held a food drive at Marvista Elementary School this month to donate food to the White Center Heights Food Bank. As a school, Marvista gathered over 2,000 canned and boxed goods. This all came about when the "Helpful Team" in Mrs. Roberts' class wanted to make a difference in the community and decided to hold an all-school food drive. They motivated the other students by promising popcorn party for the class that could bring in the most food.

Each year, the Burien/White Center Rotary Club gives a children's dictionary to every third grader in the city. Here, Rotarians distribute dictionaries to students at Hazel Valley Elementary.