Camas-Washougal Post-Record

June 14, 2011

Brendan Casey (left) and Zac Schepp pose for a photo while waiting for festivities to begin.

WHS Panthers are encouraged to persevere

With 180 graduates, approximately $700,000 in scholarships and a few technical glitches, the Washougal High School class of 2011 proudly ended its high school career Saturday night at Fishback Stadium. The sun shone brightly as valedictorian Darcy Akers encouraged her classmates to look toward the future. "I don't know what the future holds, but I hope you are all looking forward to the possibilities," she said. "Most of all, thanks to the friends. Best friends are hard to find, harder to leave and even harder to forget. Thanks for being there, whether we're flying or falling."

June 7, 2011

Choir members show off their first-place trophy from a recent festival. The group beat out several middle school choirs for the win.

Hitting the right notes

In some ways, the story of the Grass Valley Elementary School Vocal Jazz choir is the classic underdog tale. At the beginning of the year, nothing seemed to come together. The notes were flat. The students couldn't figure out what teacher Natalie Wilson wanted them to do. They lacked experience and stage presence. Fast forward eight months: The elementary school choir won the Northwest Vocal Jazz Festival middle school level competition, with high praise from the judges.

June 7, 2011

Mount Pleasant School District to try for levy

The Mount Pleasant School District will be putting a levy before voters for the first time ever. Currently, the district uses federal forest funds allocated to Skamania County in place of a levy. However, these funds will expire in January, giving the district enough money to continue through June 2013 only.

June 7, 2011

Going above and beyond for students

Challenging. Rewarding. Enjoyable. That is how teachers Kathy Beckman and Penny Andrews describe their time in the classroom. Beckman is a reading specialist at Lacamas Elementary in Camas. Andrews is a fourth-grade teacher at Cape Horn-Skye Elementary in Washougal. Both have been named Teachers of the Year by the Camas-Washougal Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with Riverview Community Bank. Today, the two were honored at the annual awards banquet at Camas Meadows Golf Club, along with Business of the Year, Lacamas Community Credit Union, and Citizen of the Year, Carrie Schulstad.

May 31, 2011

WHS position removed from chopping block

After Washougal School Board members received "numerous," calls and e-mails, they decided to remove from consideration an administrative position up for potential elimination. The position is held by Gordon Washburn at Washougal High School, where he currently serves as associate principal. Under one potential budget scenario, his position would be reassigned as student services director, which would save the district approximately $14,600. This is in combination with not hiring an assistant superintendent and re-assigning the position as a curriculum director. Under another option, deemed, "worst case," by administrators, Washburn's job would have been eliminated entirely, and an associate principal from elsewhere in the district would have been brought in keep administrative staff at the high school to three people. This option would save $126,000.

May 24, 2011

A young Camtown attendee takes aim at the basket in the hopes of winning a prize. This year's festivities will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 11 at Crown Park.

Celebrating 10 years of fun

Camtown, the city of Camas's annual youth festival, will mark 10 years this June. "We are looking forward to a fun event, rain or shine," said Krista Bashaw, special events coordinator for the city's parks and recreation department. "We always get great crowds no matter what the weather."

May 24, 2011

Professional organizer Krista Colvin (right) helps Jamie Twyman organize a room so she can offer in-home massage therapy. Colvin said that when people are organized, they feel more in control of their lives because their "stuff" isn't controlling them.

A place for everything

In an ideal world, we would all come home to cleaned and organized spaces, without huge mail piles stacked up and threatening to take over the dining room table. But sadly, in the real world, most people are busy with work, activities and life in general, and so the mail stacks up, the rooms remain cluttered, and those "to-do" projects never get done. This is where Krista Colvin comes in to help.

May 17, 2011

Camas High School Principal Steve Marshall's favorite aspect of the new construction is the expanded commons, which will add more than 6,000 feet of space to the school. Inset, Heidi Rosenberg, Camas School District capital programs manager, and Doug Zimmerman of Corp. Inc look over progress of the library addition.

Building the future

When complete, the expansion at Camas High School will allow for a more streamlined campus and room for future growth. But getting there has been a bit tricky, as much of the work has been occurring during school hours. "I'm very excited about having a larger campus and the construction being finished," Principal Steve Marshall said. Heidi Rosenberg, district capital programs manager, said the contractor, Corp. Inc. has tried to work around issues such as state testing and traffic flow in and out of the school.

May 17, 2011

Stacy Yakouba, an eighth-grader at Liberty Middle School, won honorable mention in a nationwide First Amendment contest. Her cartoon depicts staffers at the entertainment news website, TMZ.com, discussing freedom of speech.

LMS student creates a winning cartoon

Stacy Yakouba used her love of popular culture to create a winning cartoon. The Liberty Middle School eighth-grader, along with more than 1,300 other students from around the country, entered the First Amendment Cartoon Contest. "Our teacher had the whole class do it, and I didn't want to get a zero for the unit so I just thought of what I liked and put it together." The contest was sponsored by the Administrative Office of the Courts in San Francisco, in partnership with the Constitutional Rights Foundation.

May 10, 2011

WHS sophomore Eidelynn Stagg won the prestigious Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Scholarship, which will provide her with an all-expenses paid year as an exchange student in Germany. She leaves in July.

Fulfilling a dream

Most 16-year-olds would be apprehensive about leaving everything and everyone they know behind to go to a foreign country for a year. But not Eidelynn Stagg. "I spent a summer traveling all over the country with my grandparents when I was little and I loved it," she said. "And I always have wanted to go outside the country to see more people and get a better understanding of where they live."