The first schools tour event with the superintendent occurred last Wednesday, Feb. 22 and five community members signed up to personally see learning and students in action.

Dr. Amy Beth Cook commented, “I’m so proud of our schools and the work of our teachers and staff members- I want our community members to have the opportunity to experience the great learning that is occurring in our classrooms. “
After a brief meet and greet with Amy Beth Cook, Superintendent of Schools for Lake Stevens, the group boarded a school van and was off to see Skyline Elementary School. 

Greeted by Principal Dave Bartlow, the group visited Mr. Kustler’s kindergarten class and followed along as children honed their skills at writing the letter G.  Interaction and practice including air-drawing the letter was aided with the help of familiar puppets.

As the group moved on to primary classrooms the class sang “Thank-You,” led by Mr. Kustler on the guitar.
Next up was music and guests were invited to sing along to familiar Beatles’ songs as students prepared for an upcoming spring concert. 

While difficult to move away from the fun and toe-tapping to “Here Comes the Sun,” work awaited in third grade.  There students were reading and writing and community members had an opportunity to talk to students about their work.
Arriving at Lake Stevens High School at 11 a.m., the group was met by school leaders and welcomed into the Keith Morgan Conference Room. 

Principal Eric Cahan, ASB President, Lorin Vandergrift, and Senior Class President, Navpreet Kaur shared information about student life at LSHS and an overview of the upcoming tour — guaranteed to be at a fast pace.

English class with Mr. Alderson, COVE Student Store and DECA class with Mrs. Morton, AP chemistry with Mrs. Aubol, Spanish with Mrs. Arcos, trigonometry with Mrs. Horn, Video  Production and V-TV with Mr. Furoy, Electrical Engineering with Mr. Davis,  art with Mrs. Panamaroff, and Engineering with Mr. Schanholtzer.

While apologizing in advance to the group for taking up too much time, Mr. Schanholtzer’s presentation included demonstrations by two students.  

Colby Henderson, a junior,  is well  on his way to completing  a quarter scale recreation of the WWII vintage P51 airplane and explained the equipment, materials and engineering work involved in the project. 

All the while senior Andrei Arevalo was at his two computers emerged in creating a magnet-motion project that is a particle accelerator.  Arevalo shared that he is teaching himself this modeling design and has learned from his mistakes, he shared, “You have to be able to handle failure to do this work.”

Wow — a lot of information, and lunch was next up!  Into the cafeteria where the last student lunch period of the day was winding up. 

Mollie Langum, Manager of the district’s Food and Nutrition Services, greeted folks and welcomed them to school lunch.  Lots of choices.  Salad bar, soup,  boxed salads, made to order sandwich or wrap bar, hot lunch, fresh fruits and vegetables, and milk. 

Langum shared information with the group about nutrition regulations, meeting students’ nutritional needs, and a variety of menu changes that has occurred over the past year.

As the tour completed Superintendent Cook thanked folks for their time and interest and promised that there would be more to come in the future.
 

blog comments powered by Disqus