Get Inspired! New Futures Benefit Breakfast recently awarded $1500 scholarships to three teenagers to use to pursue higher education. Julio Gonzales Ortiz, an eighth-grader at Sylvester Middle School, was one of those recipients.

New Futures provides a place where young people are acknowledged and nurtured for the strengths and skills they bring to their community. The scholarships given at the New Futures Benefit Breakfast will enable three teens in this program to continue their development as role models.

The 2008 Get Inspired! New Futures Benefit Breakfast was held on Thursday, May 8, 2008, at the Sheraton Hotel, in downtown Seattle. (Read more at www.newfutures.org.)

More high school students took Advanced Placement exams this spring than ever before in Highline. 411 tests were given this May, compared with 308 last year.

Five Highline students were recently presented the prestigious Washington Vocational Education scholarship. This award entitles the recipient to two years of resident tuition at any Washington college or university. Winners are: Uyen Le (HS3), Nicole Sowers (Highline), Lou Vargas (Global Connections), Nicole Lamp (PSSC), and Raymond Quitugua (PSSC). In attendance to make the awards were several of the Washington State legislators who annually fund these awards. Winners attended the event along with their parents, teachers, and principals.

Photo:
(l-r) front row: Nicole Lamp, Nicole Sowers, Uyen Le, Lou Vargas, Raymond Quitugua

(l-r) back row: Senator Joe McDermott, PSSC instructor Miguel Marquez, Highline High School principal Mike Fosberg, Superintendent John Welch, HS3 teacher Vicki Potter, Global Connections teacher Alana Vinther, PSSC instructor Carol Scharnikow, Representative Sharon Tomiko Santos

Des Moines Elementary music teacher Rodney Olsen led students in a musical celebration of math on May 27 at the Highline PAC. Third- through sixth-grade students from Des Moines performed an original musical production composed by Mr. Olsen based on the children's book The Math Curse. The music and lyrics written by Mr. Olsen included parts for vocals, recorders, mallet instruments, guitar, and dramatic narration.

Highline Council PTSA is pleased to announce four Washington state awards and one National recognition award to students in our local PTA Reflections Program. The annual K-12 Reflections art program is open to PTA units across the nation. Each year, participants are asked to respond to a theme in an art form that includes literature, photography, visual arts, music, film/video, and choreography. This year's theme was, "I can make a difference by...."

Tell us what's on your mind!

All Highline staff members are encouraged to respond to the district's annual employee survey. Your feedback helps the district improve. The survey will be active until June 13. Click on the appropriate link to respond. All responses are strictly confidential.

Classified Staff Survey

Instructional Staff Survey

Highline faces a $3.5 million budget shortfall for 2008-09 due to increased fixed costs such as fuel, and increases in staff salaries and benefits granted (but not fully funded) by the state. Employees are invited to a briefing on proposed cuts on Wednesday, June 18, 4:00-5:00 p.m. at Puget Sound Skills Center in the Yormark room.

The employee meeting will be followed by a briefing open to the public. The public meeting will be held Wednesday, June 18, 6:30 p.m. in the Boardroom at Highline Public Schools offices, located at 15675 Ambaum Blvd. SW in Burien.

Alex Friedman, chief financial officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, visited Big Picture May 12 with colleague Casey Owens. Students Casey Morrison and Matt Marble interviewed the guests as they spoke to students and staff about the Foundation's projects around the world and how they use math and quantitative reasoning in their work. In addition to overseeing finance and financial planning and analysis for the Foundation, Mr. Friedman is also responsible for assessing and improving the impact of the Foundation's work. He confessed to not liking math in high school and stopped taking it after 10th grade, but stressed that it's never too late to get good at something if you are passionate about it. Prior to working for the Foundation, Mr. Friedman was an investment banker in New York and served in the Clinton White House.

The "best of the best" - that's how Director of Recruitment and Retention Nancy Pappas Barnhart referred to the teacher candidates who attended the recent two day Teacher Fair at Highline. Candidates, pre-qualified using phone interviews, traveled from as far away as California, Utah, and Montana to participate. Invitees heard from Superintendent Welch and others about the district, enjoyed a bus tour of the district, and met one-on-one with principals for interviews. Those selected will join the 2008 teacher cadre from which vacancies will be filled. This strategy has worked well by ensuring Highline contracts with the top candidates early in the hiring process.

Photo: Nancy Pappas Barnhart welcomes the teacher candidates.

Recently, 32 students from Cascade Middle School participated in the NIKE 5K for Kids. This event took place in downtown Seattle with the start and finish at the Westlake area. The course included Fifth Avenue and parts of the Interstate 5 express lanes. All runners enjoyed this great experience. Everybody finished the race and received a medal.

Seventh-grader Christian Tinoco was the first from Cascade to cross the finish line, placing 22nd overall and 7th in his age group. Congratulations!

Submitted by Claudia House, Cascade

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is sponsoring two four-day trainings, one in late June in Spokane and the other in Tacoma in late July-early August, during the agency's Summer Institute.

Get the letter...>>

Every spring, we like to take the time to acknowledge educational accomplishments of staff members and their families. We will include the Bragging Rights column in the June 13 eHighlights. If you have educational information to share, please email the following information to Judy Balko (balkojl@hsd401.org):

For staff member recognition, please include employee name, worksite, school, and degree.

For a family member's recognition, please include employee name, worksite, family member, school, and degree.

Last day to submit Bragging Rights is Tuesday, June 10.