Here's your chance to recognize that person you work with who consistently amazes you with what they do or how they do it.

The Highline Schools Foundation is accepting nominations for this year's Gold Star Awards. Nomination forms are available here and must be postmarked by April 1, 2008.

High school classes will start at 10:00 a.m. April 15-18 for students not taking the WASL. This will provide for an appropriate test-taking environment, since the majority of high school students will be in testing that week. Ninth graders who are not testing and students who have already passed the WASL have the option of coming to school at 10:00.

Buses will run on regular schedule. Students who ride the bus but are not testing will have supervised activities available to them. Options may include opportunities to work on senior projects and portfolios, online college research, and study time in the library.

A group of 25 Pacific Middle School students recently participated in the Expanding Your Horizons event at Highline Community College. Expanding Your Horizons is a day of career exploration in math, science, and technology through hands-on workshops for 7th and 8th grade girls. The workshop is sponsored by the American Association of University Women and Highline Community College. This conference provides role models in math, science, and technology careers. Participants may pick from a menu of 21 workshops ranging from biology, chemistry, coaching, computers and technology, and ecology/environmental science, to engineering and physics, fire services, math and finance, medical technology and health sciences, and zoology.

Des Moines Rotarians visited Parkside Elementary this month to deliver children's dictionaries to third-graders. The Rotary Club provides a new children's dictionary to every third grade student in the city of Des Moines each year.

"Research shows that third grade is the prime time for a child to receive a good dictionary," said Club President Jane Ipsen.

The dictionaries are for the students to keep, so they take them home after school dismisses for the summer.

Odyssey students participated in a school-wide Unity through Diversity Day that celebrated the many cultures represented at the school. Many students taught workshops on their own cultural traditions and heritage for their classmates and staff. The day ended with cultural performances by students.

Two Parkside sixth-graders were semi-finalists in the Letters about Literature Contest sponsored by the Secretary of State's office and the State library. The contest asked students to write a letter to an author explaining how the book made a difference in their lives. State wide, 2,500 students entered the contest.

(photo caption): Heather Young (left) and Kelin Doner (right) were semi-finalists in a state-wide literature contest.

Three teams from Aviation High School recently participated in the 2008 NW Regional Science Olympiad held at Everett Community College. Two dozen teams of up to 15 students from schools around the region competed in 23 different events, ranging from stars to rocks to remote sensing, from ecology to food science to cells, from electric vehicles to rubber-band powered planes to homemade instruments.

On March 6 - 8, a 15-student delegation from Global Connections (GC) DECA joined the 2,000 DECA students from around the state in Bellevue for the Washington DECA State Career Development and Competition.

Highline Homeschool sixth grader Garth Ball, Parkside sixth grader Shilo Reasch, Pacific Middle School seventh grader Zach Ford, and Sylvester Middle School seventh grader Kyra Sutherland are finalists in the 2008 Regional Spelling Bee for King and Snohomish counties. On Sunday, March 30, 12:30 - 2:30 p.m. at Town Hall, 8th and Seneca in Seattle, the finalists will compete for the right to represent our area at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

Meet the rest of the finalists and their alternates...>

New Futures has many energetic and successful programs that are supported by the funds raised through United Way.

One of these is Leamos, a family literacy program offered at the Vintage Park site. This is an English-based program for Spanish-speaking preschool-aged children and their families, with children learning skills that will prepare them for school while giving their parents a chance to improve their own English skills and build relationships with other families in the community.

Beverly Park Elementary School and the African American Cultural Center recently hosted a potluck family dinner night for the school's African American families. AACC and Beverly Park have formed a connection to work with students during the school day on academic and social needs.

Who wants to go on a cruise? How about a seven-day cruise on Holland America Cruise Line? Does not cooking for an evening appeal to you? We can help you there too. Please join us for our annual DECA Italian Dinner and Auction on April 2, 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the Tyee Complex cafeteria.

Right now, the largest number of children placed in Foster Care in King County comes from within Highline Public Schools' boundaries. There is a shortage of foster homes within district boundaries available to care for these children - forcing foster children to switch schools, often multiple times, throughout their education. Often siblings are torn apart; a sister moved to Olympia, a brother moved to north Seattle, and their education is put at risk. Statistics show a significant achievement gap for highly mobile children. By volunteering to foster children in your home, you support not only their ability to retain a relationship with siblings; you offer them opportunities to gain academically. By becoming a foster parent, you can change a life.

Revised state math standards are now in the hands of the state Board of Education for review and approval. The new standards are expected to be final late this spring. "Once our new math standards are implemented, our students will be able to compete with the best students in the nation and in the world," said Washington State Superintendent Terry Bergeson.

Ever wonder what happened to the Highline area track stars of years past? Well, on May 2 you'll have an opportunity to see some of those alumni athletes in action. This will be the second year that the Highline City Track Championships will present an alumni 400x400 relay. Race Director, Jerry Bamburg, expects alumni teams from Mount Rainier, Evergreen, Highline, Tyee, and yes even Glacier High School. Actually, last year Glacier High School, which closed in 1984, surprisingly won the event.

Our new student information system, eSIS, was successfully launched at Seahurst Elementary this week. Seahurst is piloting the new system, which replaces our current student database, SASI.

Seahurst staff was trained on eSIS earlier this month and all student information was converted from SASI to eSIS. The transition has been a smooth one.

In the fall, other elementary schools will be converted to eSIS. The target date for conversion for secondary schools is February 2009. All schools should be operating on eSIS by September 2009.

The sixth annual Latina Health Fair will be held on May 17, 2008, at North Seattle Community College. "We expect over 500 Latinas and their families will receive free medical exams and preventive screenings, individualized health report cards, and referrals for care," said Director Giselle Zapata-Garcia of the Washington Health Foundation.

The local Better Business Bureau (BBB) is taking steps to launch fundraising efforts for its Minutes for the Military (M4M) program in local schools across western Washington. Being home to several military bases, western Washington communities have many loved ones serving overseas. The cost of calling internationally is very expensive, and the M4M program was created to help with these costs by raising funds to purchase calling cards for deployed soldiers.

Evan Richter, a senior at Highline High School, has signed a letter of intent with the Cal Poly men's soccer squad. Cal Poly is a nationally ranked, comprehensive, four-year university with an excellent academic reputation.

Through the Sprint Ahead for Education grant program, the Sprint Foundation will award grants to school districts and individual schools to fund the purchase of resource materials, supplies, equipment, and software that facilitates and encourages character education among K-12 students. With a national reach, the program is open to all U.S. public schools (K-12) and U.S. public school districts.