DISTRICT
Sequim schools are closed for winter break through Jan. 1. School resumes after winter break on Monday, Jan. 4.
The next school board meeting is at 6 p.m. Jan. 4 in the boardroom. An agenda is available on the district website under Board of Directors. The public is encouraged to attend and time is set aside at each meeting for public comment. For more information, contact Marilyn Walsh at mwalsh@sequim.k12.wa.us or call 582-3262.
GREYWOLF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Families collected food to be donated to the Sequim Food Bank in a December event called Greywolf CARES: 12 Days of Giving. The project focused on the food bank’s wish list and every day for 12 days one item was requested. Teacher Jennifer Lopez said, “It was motivating for the students to see the line of boxes of food stretch further and further around the hallways of our school as the days progressed. The food drive was a phenomenal success as our students came together to support families in our community. It was especially touching to hear many students talk about the things they had done to earn money to purchase these items. We would like to thank everyone that was able to donate food. It was truly a collaborative effort! The students were so excited to have the food bank truck come on Friday afternoon to pick up more than 3,000 items, totaling over 2,000 pounds!”
HELEN HALLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Students in Life Skills class received a visit from Santa Claus during a holiday party just before winter break. Santa did not come empty-handed, teacher Tiffany Malean reported, but brought a wrapped book for each child.
SEQUIM MIDDLE SCHOOL
The next generation of engineers are sitting in today’s classrooms. In an attempt to incorporate more engineering into our middle school science curriculum, students in Joe Landoni’s seventh-grade science classes competed in our annual Convection Engineering Challenge.
As a capstone activity to our study of storms, weather, atmosphere and convection, students built on what they had learned and put the force of warm, rising air to work. Teams employed the engineering design process to devise a fan blade assembly, attach it to a fishing swivel and line suspended above a hot plate set to 8, and capture the warm, rising air.
Controlled variables for this competition included the fan blade material (white card stock paper) and the height the blade sat above the surface of the hot plate (10 cm).
Anticipation surged as groups made final adjustments. Each team was given two, one-minute trials with the total number of complete spins measured. The average of these two trials became their score.
When average revolutions per minute were totaled and all calculations competed, winners were announced. Topping the list was the group of Baylee Hire, Jessica German, Qi Ridle and Riley DeLorme with an average 111 rpm — almost 2 spins per second! Other groups meeting their engineering goal included the teams of Donovan Johnson, Evan King and Yessi Torres (72.5 rpm), Austin Minut, Austin Newton and Bailey Gordeuk (56.5 rpm) and Natalya James, Anthony Cortani, Haley Reed and Robert Ancheta (52.5 rpm). Congratulations to Period 5 with highest overall class average of 25.8 rpm.
Winning teams in each class claimed a 100 milliliter cylinder of candy filled with Hot Tamales and Cinnamon Red Hots. Way to go, next generation engineers!
SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL
Career and college director Mitzi Sanders put together a panel of Sequim High School graduates for the annual Lunch with Alums event held Dec. 17 in the school library. On the panel were Peter Harker (Class of 2010), Elise Beuke (Class of 2015), Katherine Landoni (Class of 2015), Shannon Gordon (Class of 2015), Eddie Cruz (Class of 2015), Jared McMinn (Class of 2013), Sarah Doty (Class of 2012), Katelynne McDaniels (Class of 2013), Mia Amaranto (Class of 2014), Melanie Guan (Class of 2014) and Olivia Barrell (Class of 2015).
Juniors and seniors attended the event and were encouraged to ask questions of the alums, who, for the most part, were back in Sequim on winter break from college.
One thing students wanted to know was how to make your choice on what school to attend. Doty said she always had known she wanted to be a part of the UW Husky Marching Band. Harker shared that he chose Washington State University because when he visited the campus before high school graduation, he felt a “tingle in my toes” and knew it was the right place for him.
Beuke said she did her homework on her top choices and found that the UW boathouse was on campus on the water, while WSU rowers have a 45-minute commute to their boathouse on the Snake River. This made her top choice decision easier.
McMinn said he chose WWU because of its elementary education program and his dad and brother attended there.
McDaniels advised the high school students to make the choice for themselves and to not worry about what other people think.
Sanders asked the alums to define anything they would have done differently during their high school years. Gordon was a Running Start student in her junior and senior years of high school and she said she would get more involved at the campus. Beuke said she would have spent more time with her family.
Thanks go out to luncheon sponsors: the Sequim Education Foundation, Sequim Sunrise Rotary and Oak Table Café.
Please make a note that scholarship notebooks are due by Jan. 26.
The annual Winter Wishes assembly, after weeks of preparation by the leadership students, went off like a dream on Dec. 16, with many students’ wishes coming true, from the trivial to some pretty meaningful gifts bestowed.
The Leadership students would like to thank all local businesses and individuals who supported this event.
Students had a lot of fun at the assembly and among the highlighted acts were a few musical numbers performed by the jazz band, led by Vern Fosket, dance routines performed by junior varsity and varsity cheerleading squads, and teacher Joe Younger’s puppet show of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic, “The Great Gatsby.”
