March 2010 Staff Newsletter - Kennewick School District

KSD Connection
Staff Newsletter
Education...the bridge to the future
March 2010
City Officials Visit Eastgate Elementary
Kennewick City Mayor, Steve Young and City Manager,
Bob Hammond recently visited Mrs. Berna and Mrs.
Robledo’s second grade classrooms at Eastgate
Elementary. The officials talked about their role in city
government and engaged the students by having them
participate in a mock city council meeting. The visit was
prompted when the teachers contacted the Mayor Young
and City Manager Hammond to answer questions their
students had about their jobs.
The two classes had just finished a story about city
government, the different departments in city hall, and
the purpose for those departments called “Out and About
in City
Hall.” Mayor
Young and
City Manager
Hammond
both
responded
with offers to
answer the
students’
questions in
person. Mrs.
Berna said the two did a great job with the kids.
Crystal Apple Award Winning Teachers
We are bursting with pride! KSD’s own Christy Holand,
who teaches
Family and
Consumer
Sciences
classes at
Southridge
High and
Michael
Parker, who
teaches band
(and math)
classes at Park Middle School have been selected to
receive Crystal Apple awards this year!
Christy and Michael were first selected from districtlevel
nominations by the KSD Cabinet as our entries for
this year’s
awards. Their
entry packets
included four
letters of
support from
students,
administrators,
teachers,
parents, and
community
members. A regional panel met last week and selected 11
teachers from entries throughout the Mid-Columbia,
including Burbank, North Franklin, Finley, Pasco,
Kennewick, Richland and Kiona-Benton school districts.
Christy and Michael will be honored with the other nine
award winners at the Crystal Apple Award Ceremony to
be held Thursday, March 18 at Columbia Basin College.
They will receive an amazing prize package and a check
for $1,000. Congratulations to these two outstanding
educators. We are proud to have you representing the
Kennewick School District this year.
Our Mission:
To send our youth into the future ready to reach their potential
as adults through a lifetime of learning.

KSD Connection ~ Staff News, Notes, and Events
Kennewick High Knowledge Bowl
Team Heading to State
Kennewick High’s Knowledge Bowl Team has
qualified for the state tournament, taking first place
in the regional competition last month. This is the
eighth straight year that the Lions have qualified
for State. The team this year is comprised of
Akshai Baskaran (Captain), Erick Kohan, Jason
Byrnes, Lexy Stewart, Katy Roosendaal, Jon
Schrattenholzer, and Phill Dron (Coach).
At the competition, teams of students compete with
each other by answering questions covering topics
students are likely to study during their high school
careers, such as math, science, history, language
skills, literature, music, and geography as well as
other topics of a general nature or current events.
The state tournament will be held at Hanford High
School on Saturday, March 28. Good luck!
Lincoln Wins Battle of the Books
Mrs. Earley’s 4 th grade class from Lincoln won the
first-place trophy at last Saturday’s Battle of the
Books! Nine
teams
competed
from Pasco,
Kennewick,
and
Richland.
Great job!
KSD Artists to Show Work at ESD
Regional Art Show
March 2010
Artists from Southridge, Kamiakin and Kennewick
High School will participate in the ESD 123
Regional Art Show this month.
The exhibit is an annual event, held at Columbia
Basin College in the Byron Gjerde Center. This
year’s show will run from March 8 through March
18, Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 8:30
p.m. and Friday 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Usually there are over 500 pieces of student
artwork on display that include photography,
painting, mixed media, and ceramic artworks. The
Esvelt Gallery at CBC will be running their annual
Art Faculty’s Exhibit concurrently with the student
art show. This is a great opportunity to see topnotch
artworks—well worth attending.
Check out images from last year’s show (Note, the
PDF file takes a minute to load.)
Southridge Chemistry Students Make
the Cake for Mendeleev's Birthday
As they would say in the Royal Society of
Chemistry, it was a smashing success! Southridge
High AP Chemistry students are pictured here with
the Periodic Table of Cupcakes they assembled in
honor of the 176 th birthday of Dmitri Mendeleev,
L to R: Cristian Torres, Zje Seely, Kylie
Scherbarth, Christian Wingle, Chloe Scott

KSD Connection ~ Staff News, Notes, and Events
Kennewick High’s Performance at Mock
Trial Competition Earns a Trip to State
A team of Kennewick High School students put
their legal skills to the test, arguing a mock
criminal arson case in front of volunteer district
and superior court judges in Benton County
District Court. Kennewick was selected as the
winning team of a field of six that included teams
from Wenatchee and Spokane as well as Tri-Cities
Prep, Richland, and Southridge locally.
In addition, the following students received
individual awards: For outstanding lawyer, Akshai
Baskaran, Sara Schweppe, George McMillin, and
Alexandra Brown. For outstanding witness, Serena
Snyder and Eric Kohan.
Each team had two months to prepare their cases
and present evidence and witnesses, argue motions
and give closing arguments. Local attorneys Jay
Flynn, Kristina McKennon, and Scott Johnson
served as volunteer coaches the Kennewick team.
A panel of attorneys from the Benton and Franklin
Bar Association served as jurors and selected the
winning teams. Kennewick has been invited to
participate in the state competition in Olympia at
the end of this month. No matter what happens at
State, to us, it is an open and shut case, these kids
are great.
Classified Week is March 8-12
Thank you for all that you do for kids!
March 2010
Ridge View Elementary Brings in over
8,000 Books for Reading Foundation
No, that isn’t a typo! Ridge
View elementary students
have brought in an
incredible 8,330 books to
be donated to the Mid-
Columbia Reading
Foundation.
The book drive was
organized by Kamiakin Seniors, Madison Clement
and Lauren Whitehead, Careers in Education
students currently interning at Ridge View. The
books that have been collected are varied—from
children books to the latest New York Times
bestsellers—new to gently used. A sticker is being
placed on the inside cover of each book with the
Reading Foundation’s message “Read with a
child...the most important 20 minutes of your day”
“We wanted to donate as many books as possible
as well as convey a positive message to anyone in
the community who comes across our donated
books,” said Madison. “Going into the book drive
we really didn’t expect there to be an
overwhelming amount, we set a goal of 1,000
books and we felt it may have been a far fetched
goal. To our surprise we met our goal in only the
first day of the book drive with over a 1,000!”
To add incentive to the book drive, Madison and
Lauren contacted the promotions manager with the
Tri-City Americans with an idea to offer a pizza
party with the team for the class that brought in the
most books. So next Tuesday, Mrs. Raklios’ class
(who brought in 841 books) will be having lunch
with Americans hockey players in their classroom!
Want to see your news here?
The KSD Connection generally publishes the first Friday
of the first full week of the month. Send calendar
items and tid-bits to ellen.love@ksd.org by the 30th of
each month. Send story and feature ideas to
lorraine.cooper@ksd.org. Photos are welcome. Please
include names and a description of the what is going

KSD Connection ~ Staff News, Notes, and Events
Aristotle, Galileo, and Sir Isaac
Newton Guest Lecture Series at KOG
Celebrating Seuss at Southgate
January March 2010
Volunteers from the
Columbia River
Exhibition and History in
Science and Technology,
donned costumes to
portray Aristotle, Galileo,
and Sir Isaac Newton for
students
in KOG
classes.
The
scientific
method
and examples of variables were
among the topics discussed at
this very special guest lecture
series.
Curious George Visits Westgate
Curious George surprised students at Westgate
Elementary
with a visit
to their
school last
week.
Students had
participated
in creating
artwork for
the Curious
George
reading event
held at
Columbia
Center Mall.
Southgate Elementary students celebrated Dr.
Seuss’s Birthday this week with birthday cake and
visits from the Cat in the Hat and his side-kicks
Thing One and Thing Two. The celebration is part
of an exciting month of “Read Across America”
activities that started with a kick-off assembly to
encourage the kids to read.
Southgate’s Parent
Teacher Group has been
actively involved in
planning the activities.
They are tracking reading
“miles” on a wall map of
the USA found in the
entry way. Every minute
that a student reads counts
as a mile at the 4 th and 5 th
grade level.
On the evening of March 2, the PTG hosted a
Family Reading night with arts and crafts, book
swaps,
pictures with
Cat in the
Hat, and a
special visit
from DARE
Officer
Meyer, who
read “Fox in
Sox.”

KSD Connection ~ Staff News, Notes, and Events
March is Music in our Schools Month
To learn more about our music programs, follow
the links below to two Inside Kennewick Schools
spots “Music to Our Ears” featuring interviews
with Cheryl Cannard, Ron Pasma, and Keith
Russell and “Inside Kennewick Schools Music
Programs.” featuring Doug Edwards, Michael
Parker, and Randy Bjur.
All-City Fifth Grade Choral Fest
The Kennewick School District is proud to host the
29 th annual All-City Fifth Grade Choral Fest. More
than a 1,000 5 th grade students will be singing,
moving, and grooving to “The Power of Music”
over two nights. Both shows start at 7:30 p.m. in
the gymnasium at Kennewick High School, located
at 500 S. Dayton Street in Kennewick. This year’s
event features a special pre-event performance
starting at 6:45 p.m. by a group of local musicians
and music teachers known as the Tri-Cities Big
Band, (www.tricitiesbigband.org.) Admission is
free! Come on out and support music in our
schools!
World Renown Conductor Leads
Orchestra Clinics and Workshops
Next week, Kennewick School District welcomes
world renowned conductor and educator, Dr.
Timothy Durbin, who will hold master class
workshops for middle and high school students and
lead a special Open Youth Orchestra with hundreds
of students on stage at the Kennewick High
Auditorium on Saturday, March 13.
In addition, a weeklong series of strings and
orchestra clinics will be held by Dr. Kevin
Hekmatpanah, Gonzaga University Symphony
Conductor along with specialty workshops by
Denise Dillenbeck, Philadelphia Orchestra; Barb
Riley, Central Washington University; Teri
Glasford, Kennewick School District; and Garrett
Bunch, of Richland.
Calendar of Events
January March 2010
03/09—Southridge High School’s Spring Choir
“Many Voices, One World,” concert features songs sung in
several foreign languages from across four continents,
including our own. Performances include the Jazz Choir,
Concert Choir, Chamber Choir, and Mass Choir. Admission
is free. The concert begins in the Southridge Auditorium at
7:00 p.m. Free admission.
03/09—Teachers Night at McDonalds for MCP
Join family and friends at McDonalds and enjoy one of the
“Happiest Meals” ever! McTeacher Night from 5:00 – 7:00
pm at Clearwater McDonalds (7505 W. Clearwater). A
portion of the sales and all donations will go to Mid
Columbia Partnership. A special McTeacher’s Sundae will
be available to purchase with proceeds going to Mid
Columbia Partnership.
03/15 – 03/16 – Choral Fest—See story at left.
03/09 Horse Heaven Hills Honor Society
Fundraiser for Shriners' Hospital
The Horse Heaven Hills Middle School chapter of the
National Honor Society will be hosting a benefit dinner for
Shriners’ Hospital at Nothing but Noodles restaurant on
from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Diners must tell the servers
that they are with the HHH Honor Society group to have
proceeds from their order go to the Shriners’ Hospital.
03/10 Science Fair KOG
KOG students are having a science fair at Amistad March
10 th for the building from 12:45 – 1:30 p.m. and in the
evening for parents from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.
03/18 - 03/20 - “Our Town” Comes to the Stage
The Kamiakin and Kennewick High School Drama
departments will present Our Town the beloved all-
American play by Thornton Wilder at Kennewick High’s
Fuller Auditorium. Show times are March 18, and 19 at
7:00 p.m. and on Saturday March 20 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets
at the door. $6.00 for Adults and $4.00 for students and
senior citizens.
Note: The cast is made up of both Kamiakin and
Kennewick High students and staff, including Jack
Anderson, Mark Pickel, Dennis Boatman, Keith Russell,
Dennis Larsen, and Alan Cook.
03/28 Bikes for Books Fundraiser Breakfast
Join us Sunday morning at the Kennewick Masonic Lodge,
601 W. 6th Ave. across from Kennewick High from 8:00
a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and help our elementary school
children discover the joy of reading - and have a great
made-to-order breakfast at the same time - $10.00.