DISTRICT

There is no school on Monday, Jan. 25, for students. The district office will be open and all staff members will be attending professional development trainings.

School Bond Walking Tours are offered at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, and Saturday, Feb. 6. Tours begin at the district boardroom, 503 N. Sequim Ave., and include campus sites that would be affected by the bond passage around Sequim High School, the district’s base kitchen and Helen Haller Elementary School. For more information, call Patsene Dashiell at 582-3264.

The next school board meeting is Feb. 1, at 5:15 p.m. in the district boardroom. An agenda is available on the district website (www.sequim.k12.wa.us) 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.

An All District Family Reading Night is planned from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27, at Sequim Middle School. All Sequim School District students and their families are invited to join the district’s teacher/librarians for an evening of literacy-focused fun and games.

The evening begins in the gymnasium with a brief introduction at 5:30 p.m. Students and families then will be invited to participate in three 20-minute, literacy-focused activity sessions. Sessions will be offered for every age, from pre-K children through teens.

Attending students receive a free book at the end of the evening and light refreshments will be provided. A grand prize drawing will be held for gift cards.

Sequim High School cheerleaders will host a 2016 Youth CheerLEADERSHIP Camp from 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, Jan. 23, in the Helen Haller Elementary School cafeteria, 350 W. Fir St.

Children from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade are welcome. Cost is $20 per participant and payment will be accepted at the door.

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m. Participants should bring a water bottle and a small snack and should wear comfortable clothing and athletic shoes.

The camp also includes an optional performance date on Tuesday, Jan. 26, during halftime of the Sequim High School girls’ varsity basketball game starting at 7 p.m. at the high school gym. Cost of the camp includes entry into the basketball game for the participant only.

Admission for friends and family on game day is $6 for adults/students without an ASB card, $4 for senior citizens/students with an ASB card, or $16 for a one-time family pass. Tickets will be on sale at the game.

For more information, contact SHS head cheerleading coach Julie Romberg at jromberg@sequim.k12.wa.us.

HELEN HALLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Dear Gazette Readers,

Our class thought you might like to take a quick look through a teacher’s eyes at a few students’ story starters. These are brief introductions that third-graders have written all on their own. Do the story beginnings grab your attention? Are they all action-packed or is there character development?

Maybe you would like to accept this week’s “Story Challenge” by finishing one of these stories with your own words. Please e-mail your completed stories to Patsene Dashiell, our district’s communications director, at mdashiell@sequim.k12.wa.us. She will forward them to me, I will review them and then read my favorites aloud to my third-graders.

Of course, all stories must be appropriately written for young kids. Thanks in advance for your participation.

Ann Riggs, third-grade teacher

In the year 2003, there was a boy named Thomas Will who was eleven-years-old. He lived in a city called Tacoma, Washington. He loved baseball more than anything in the whole world. He was so much of a baseball fan that his room was filled with nothing but baseball things: baseball cards, baseball toys, and more.

One day Thomas was playing baseball with his sister … A few minutes later a tsunami struck! Thomas was trying to get away from it because the tsunami was near, but he could not go far. Then he passed out.

Two days later Thomas woke up on a strange island not far from his home, but he had been there before. There were no people on the island so he had no one but himself to help him. Thomas went into the forest on the island to find some mangoes. Thomas was eating a mango when suddenly he heard … IT! (Now, dear reader, it is your turn to finish the story.)

Written by Marshall Phipps

Try finishing this Godzilla-type story:

T-Rex (Tyrannosaurus) BACKSTORY: Clomptator was kept by a scientist named Dr. Wazzat. Dr. Wazzat liked to zap things with his lasers. He couldn’t hear that well, so that’s why they called him Dr. Wazzat. Dr. Wazzat kept Clomptator and Clomptator made more dinosaurs. The doctor had a portal and the dinosaurs went through it to New York City.

Lights! Camera! Action! Every year in New York City, the first and last day of the year is when Clomptator comes. He is a big, scary dinosaur that doesn’t stop chomping, so he chomps the helicopters. Soon Clomptator will leave, BUT HE IS GONNA DESTROY EVERYTHING! All the citizens are running everywhere. Soon Clomptator gets his friends with him, too. Soon all the police are called and the firefighters. Clomptator and his friends are mighty. They start to leave after the whole day. A police officer hooks a leash onto Clomptator.

(Now, dear reader, it’s your turn. What happens next?)

Written by Johanna Beckerley

SEQUIM MIDDLE SCHOOL

The Character Trait for the month of November was “Helpful.” What does being helpful look like? You care about other people and willingly volunteer to help others without expecting payment or reward. The following students were awarded Student of the Month for their helpfulness: Isa Benitez, Zoe Bordwell, Cassidy Crecelius, Jaiden Dougherty, Cody Edison, Norman Gaither, Isabel Gallegos, Javier Gomez, Trinity Henderson, Mitchell Horton, Lilly Janis, Braydon Metzger, Kristina Mingoy, Fred O’Leary, Dominic Riccobene, Erin Rosengren, Kathleen Snyder, Madison Stockdale, Anthony Villalores and Kylee Weston Webb.

The Character Trait for the month of December was “Courteous.” What does being courteous look like? You are polite, well-mannered and well-behaved. You are respectful, gracious and are considerate of others. The following students were awarded Student of the Month for being courteous: Mirella Chavarin, Layla Gibson, Camphor Fukushima, Sydney Marchefka, Matthew McCossen, Brayden Money and Hanu Pincikowski.

SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL

Mitzi Sanders, career and college director, would like to remind all seniors that the deadline for submitting a scholarship notebook is Jan. 26. Late notebooks will not be accepted.

Sanders says, “In Sequim, we are very fortunate to have many businesses, organizations, clubs and foundations that support Sequim High School graduates by providing scholarships. Many of these local scholarships are usually obtained by submitting a scholarship notebook.”

A scholarship notebook is a way to showcase what students do besides going to class, Sanders further explains. Scholarship notebooks can contain letters of recommendation from teachers and community members, personal statements, certificates of merit, awards, photographs, work experience, extra-curricular involvement, community involvement, an outline of a plan for their future. Over 100 students took advantage of a scholarship notebook workshop offered last October. Normally, Sanders says, around 100 notebooks are submitted each year.

After the notebooks are turned in, Sanders goes through and reads them. She keeps a spreadsheet with all the information organizations could be looking for. She checks the notebooks for missing information, such as GPA, class rank information, and so forth. She schedules dates for organizations to look through the notebooks.

“Each year we’re adding new individuals or organizations who want to provide scholarships,” Sanders says. “Currently we work with around 50-60 organizations.”

In the past 15 years, awards have been given out in a ceremony in the auditorium, and in many cases, are presented by a representative from the organization. Sanders recounts, “What seniors have to do is unbelievable. The ceremony is a nice send-off with such a generous community. Not every community has a scholarship notebook program.”

There is still time to get a scholarship notebook done. Seniors many times come into the library and the Career Center to work on their notebooks and consult with Sanders. Kyla Rigg, a senior who is interested in becoming a pediatrician, said, “It’s hard to remember everything to include in the notebook. My mom really helped me, because she started putting my school stuff aside back when I was in ninth grade. It is still a lot to track down.”

Sanders encourages the students to find ways to make their notebooks and the accomplishments documented within stand out. Taylor Bullock, a senior who wants to work in the field of criminal justice, decided on a strategy to make his notebook stand out. “I asked the White House for a letter of recommendation, but I haven’t heard back yet,“ Bullock said.

Jessica Craig, a senior interested in a career in the science engineering field, said she is almost finished with her notebook.

“I’ve included my job experience, since I was a certified lifeguard at SARC,” Craig said. “I keep thinking of things to add. The thing I’m most excited about in my notebook is that I’m working on getting my pilot’s license.”

Audrey Shingleton, a senior interested in actuarial science, says it’s been good for her to see some of the other students’ notebooks and get some ideas. “For instance,“ Shingleton said, “I need to figure out how to shrink certificates down on the copy machine so they fit better on the pages.”

There’s still time to get the notebooks done, Sanders says. Students have a couple of three-day weekends during the month of January they can take advantage of. They need to get busy, especially with asking for letters of recommendation, as teachers can get flooded with last-minute requests.

For more information on scholarship notebook requirements, check out the high school’s web page at www.sequim.k12.wa.us/highschool, under Counseling, then Career Center.

End of semester finals will be on Jan. 21-22. Classes will be in two-hour blocks, so periods 2, 4 and 6 will be Thursday, Jan. 21, and periods 1, 3 and 5 will be Friday, Jan. 22.