THE CHALKBOARD: Waugh parents dance the night away

Waugh School District parents danced the night away at the recent Family Valentine’s Dance event. Friday night, the sounds of the festive gathering were heard echoing through the halls as Meadow School and Corona Creek School families ventured over to the Kenilworth Junior High campus for the district-wide event.

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The Penngrove Panthers have a new outdoor learning space, thanks to their dedicated teachers, parents and community helpers. Penngrove Elementary School received a PEF Impact Grant this school year and quickly began implementing the installation of the outdoor classroom. Students will utilize the space for a variety of academic activities in STEAM and Nutrition/Health education, as well as various community-building programs on campus.

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On Feb. 1, the St. Vincent school community joined forces for the second annual school-wide Day of Service. Students and staff dispersed throughout town during the morning to offer assistance through volunteering to support a variety of local organizations, including PEF’s Alphabet Soup, Friends of the Petaluma River, Giant Steps, Happy Hearts Preschool, St. Vincent Elementary School, La Tercera Elementary School, McKinley School, Meadow School, Miwok School, Petaluma Bounty, Petaluma People Services, St. James Church, St. Vincent Church, Sunrise Assisted Living and the Petaluma Police Department. Projects consisted of painting murals, tutoring elementary school students, gardening, providing entertainment for seniors, cleaning the river and much more.

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St. Vincent de Paul High School will be participating in the English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition on Friday. The national program is designed to help students develop their speaking and critical thinking skills and their appreciation of literature as they explore the beauty of the language and timeless themes in Shakespeare’s works. In three progressive competition levels, students memorize, interpret and perform monologues and sonnets in their own schools, at ESU Branch-sponsored community competitions and at the English-Speaking Union National Shakespeare Competition. The SVHS school competition winner advances to the San Francisco Branch Competition. The winner of that event advances to the national competition held in New York City, where students perform their monologues and sonnets before a panel of judges as well as their fellow contestants from across the country.

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Earlier this month, McKinley Elementary and Grant Elementary students ventured into the wilderness at Westminster Woods Camp and gained some exciting learning experiences. Members of the two school communities built relationships with each other as they were able to explore, climb, write, reflect, collaborate, test, learn, experience, think critically, discuss and create together. Students learned about river ecology, watershed and forest conservation. Additionally, these adventurous scholars learned about the life cycle of salmon and the return of salmon to the river. After hearing about the multiple challenges salmon face in order to spawn, students ran a salmon challenge course with their chaperones simulating the challenges, representing raccoons, bears, fishermen, power plants and dams. After running through the gauntlet, students had a chance to reflect and generate ideas about what people can do to preserve our watershed. Upon reflection and after having implemented these changes to the simulation, students had the chance to re-run the gauntlet. It was powerful, hands-on learning.

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The students from several area schools in Girl Scout Troop 11040 are doing something extra special when selling Girl Scout cookies for the month of February. Funds raised through cookie sales help send the girls on local trips and host activities that serve our community. This year, troop leader Ellen Griffin is using The Gift of Caring program to have these young ladies honor our military and send them Girl Scout cookies. The troop is sending donated boxes of cookies to Kuwait, which is where Ellen’s brother’s unit is stationed. Parent Jenny Hlbekas says the girls worked hard to make this happen, and are proud to be sharing these signature treats with the troops, including one of the scout’s uncle, making it an extra meaningful troop activity. The troop started at Penngrove Elementary with nine members and now has grown to include 23 scouts representing Penngrove Elementary, Cinnabar School and three other schools in surrounding communities.

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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.)