THE CHALKBOARD: St. Vincent debaters moving on

St. Vincent High School debaters Julia Hunter and Adam Martin attended the Greenhill Debate Tournament in Texas where the debating duo earned their second bid, making them fully qualified for the Tournament of Champions, which occurs later in the year at the University of Kentucky. This is the fastest any SVHS debate team has qualified for the tournament. In addition to celebrating this noteworthy win, Julia and Adam now have the second highest number of bids across the country, and ranked 19th in the nation as a team in a recent national coaching poll. Their accomplishments together are even more impressive in that they are a relatively new partnership, and have only been debating together for a total of two months.

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Spring Hill Academy students in fourth, fifth and sixth grades have been working on some exciting projects during their weekly Makers Class, part of Spring Hill Academy’s STEAM curriculum (science, technology, engineering, arts and math). Students have welded beautiful metal sculptures, created intricate 3-D models using a 3-D printer, used a plasma cutter to create metal art, and have begun to delve into computer programming. 

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Spring Hill Montessori students are also excited about the annual International Day Festival taking place on Oct. 30. This long-time event culminates a month-long study of cultures around the world. On this special day, students come to school in cultural costumes honoring their family heritage or a place to which they feel connected. Following a school-wide parade the campus community joins together in a celebration of cultures with booths offering games, crafts and other fun activities. As children take a trip “around the world,” they collect stamps in their passports while enjoying samplings of international foods served by parent volunteers.

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How does your garden grow? It seems with lots of help from the students and community supporters of McNear School. McNear Elementary fourth-grade teacher Amy Turko and her students want to increase the biodiversity on the McNear campus, shares principal Sheila Garvey. With funding from a Petaluma Educational Foundation Impact Grant last year and help from former Casa Grande science teacher, Dr. John Shribbs, the students have been researching, observing and learning about native plants since the school year began. They recently planted various grasses and shrubs that were donated from the Casa Grande High School Native Plant Nursery. They are looking forward to continuing their studies in the newly created schoolyard habitat, according to Garvey. The students are also excited that their new garden habitat is drought resistant and water wise, making it a hands-on example of how the impact of drought and other environmental changes on outdoor habitats can be addressed.

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Speaking of growing, Mrs. Elias’s second grade class at Grant Elementary School has been studying the life cycle of butterflies. They have released three butterflies already, and students have been making flow charts of the life cycle, writing up the life cycle by stages, and observing the transformation of the colorful, flying insects as part of this engaging lesson. Keep us posted on the process Shamrocks.

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San Antonio High School’s Leadership Class has been busy re-designing the logo for the school mascot: The Phoenix. Once the artwork was complete, the students ordered T-shirts with the logo to sell to classmates and staff members. The enterprising young group next hosted the annual Back to School Night Pasta Dinner, held at the Phoenix Cafe.  “Students prepared the meal including home-made marinara sauce, salad and baked goods for dessert,” shared Rebecca Lofton the principal of San Antonio High School/Valley Oaks School. “Now they are hard at work, getting ready for Red Ribbon Week activities, including a panel discussion and short videos, “Why I Love Petaluma” and “Another Brick in the Wall”.

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Lincoln School celebrated a visit from Mr. Dick Sharke last week. Many know Mr. Sharke from his more than 30 years as a community advocate and his presentations on drug awareness to Petaluma’s youth. Over the years, he has visited more than 35 schools, annually challenging children to be drug free, not bully, and to make good choices for their future. This is the first year he has given up this full schedule, only visiting three schools. Lincoln School is one of those campuses. The students at Lincoln School enjoyed their time with Mr. Sharke, and shared some of their thoughts on what his message meant to them, including understanding how much he cares for their safety and well being. Plus, they all loved his jokes, according to sixth grader Emma.

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(Maureen Highland is a Petaluma mother and executive director for the Petaluma Educational Foundation. She can be reached at schools@arguscourier.com)