Liberty High School senior Alexis Court and Alexander Munson (above) enjoy the annual Read Across America Read Aloud, held March 4 to coincide with the birthday of ‘The Cat in the Hat’ author Dr. Seuss. Below, elementary students and their families from Apollo, Briarwood, Maple Hills and Newcastle attended the event. Contributed

With more than 300 students reading, March 4 was a night at Liberty High School to do Dr. Seuss proud — after all, it was the famed author’s birthday

Librarians throughout the south end helped students celebrate in style by hosting a Read Across America Read Aloud celebration honoring Seuss and his works.

“It was wonderful,” said Liberty High School librarian Irene Braillard. “Everyone had such a wonderful time.”

The evening is part of a national commitment to keep students and families reading aloud for fun. The night has been celebrated at Liberty for more than a decade, Braillard said.

Liberty students and faculty invite elementary school students from the school’s attendance area, which includes Apollo, Briarwood, Maple Hills and Newcastle elementary schools, for a night of reading and storytelling.

“They arrived in their pajamas, clutching pillows and stuffed animals in anticipation of hearing their favorite books read aloud,” Briarwood librarian Barbara Soel wrote in an e-mail. “There were many tall white-and-red striped hats among the crowd, as well as red-and-white helium balloons to help create a fun atmosphere for the kids.”

In addition, high school art students volunteered to paint students’ faces with fun Seuss-themed characters.

“I mostly enjoyed seeing the excitement on the painted faces of the children,” said Liberty student Leah Lynch. “The theme was Dr. Seuss, so everyone had cat whiskers on. But the best occurrence was when a young girl ran up to me and announced that she was a ‘pretty kitten.’ Her contagious smile stretched from ear to ear. It was heartwarming how happy she was.”

For every high school student leading a reading group, there were two or three other elementary school students listening in.

“What I think it does is let the little ones know that big kids read and big kids like it,” Braillard said. “It shows they’re lifelong learners and gives them something to look forward to.”

As proof, Braillard said this year she had several Liberty students who volunteered to read who had come to the event themselves about 10 years ago.

“They love reading to the younger students, because they remember going,” she added. “I think they also love to see their elementary librarians.”

“Read Across America is an important event for children, because it gives them an opportunity to socialize with different people in a variety of ages in a safe environment,” Leah said. “Events like these help with a child’s social and emotional development, which is crucial at a young age. Read Across America also encourages the importance of reading to children at a young age.”

To complete the night of fun, Liberty’s culinary program baked 16 dozen cookies for the event, which Braillard said were gone by the end of the night.

Chantelle Lusebrink: 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

Hall Monitor Stacy Buell Issaquah High School

So, Stacy, I am having some serious problems with my life. Like, for serious serious.

My boyfriend texted his friend that he was considering breaking up with me, so he texted his friend, who told my best friend during English, who called me after school to tell me about my boyfriend’s stupidity.

So, I decided to flirt with my boyfriend’s best friend, so that he would be jealous, but it turns out that my other friend is going out with him so she isn’t talking to me.Since she isn’t talking to me, I had to tell my best friend to tell her to tell her boyfriend to tell my boyfriend that I thought he was a horrible person.

But instead of telling my boyfriend privately, they all Facebooked him about how I was flirting with his best friend and now I think our relationship is over.

This is all just such a mess and I don’t know what to do. Help?

Little Miss Talkative

Well Little Miss Talkative,

First, you need to get some less catty friends. This is what they have done to you:

1. Publicly humiliated you over the Internet.

2. Probably jacked up your phone bill by a few hundred dollars with all of these texts and phone calls.

3. Broken your trust.

Second, break up with your boyfriend, because you guys are obviously having communication problems, and that seems to be what he wants. Just do yourself a favor and go have an actual conversation with him to break up with him.

Finally, let’s try talking directly to people’s faces about your problems instead of going through four different modes of technology, shall we?

Stacy

Pine Lake seventh-grader Danielle Backman and eighth-grader Hope Chapman work on their awareness video Feb. 24 in the PLMS computer lab. By Christopher Huber

Pine Lake Middle School eighth-graders Kyle Feuerberg and Henry Jarvis threw a Super Bowl party for 25 homeless men for their multimedia elective class.

It sounds strange, but the pair teamed up, raised money for food and goodies, found a venue and invited homeless people to hang out Feb. 7 at Saint Luke’s Church in Bellevue. They get a grade for producing videos and multimedia content to promote the cause.

It’s all part of teacher Eric Ensey’s new hybrid multimedia class — Computers4Causes. It combines all the basics of the class with real-world community service.

“It’s a lot more exciting than just doing a presentation on the computer,” Jarvis said. It’s nice to know we made a difference and helped out.”

The idea to mix service with a multimedia class came to Ensey last school year. Pine Lake students are used to promoting local causes and service projects — such as coin drives to help free slaves — he wanted to give them more tangible incentives to a technology-heavy class.

“I was literally running on the treadmill. All of a sudden this light went on,” Ensey said. “The focus of the class was just on the technology,” he said. “I thought, ‘what if I took this idea and combined it with service learning?’”

It took about six months to plan and his study-skills students even helped him develop the grading system.

The first day of class last fall, he asked the multimedia students, “Can you make a difference?”

They proceeded to watch and study awareness videos on various causes and talk about how else to use technology to promote something. Ensey also brought in guest speakers like a video producer for World Vision and a local photographer, he said. All the while he tried to infuse students’ natural interests into the project.

“I teach 21st century skills to use them for a purpose,” Ensey said. The focus was, “how do you take what they like … and serve somebody with it?”

Students broke into eight different groups to promote eight different causes. Throughout the term, they research and choose a cause, document the process, create two videos, a Web page and various graphics to promote the event or cause.

Ensey, a veteran teacher, said he’s been pleasantly surprised at his students’ enthusiasm for the projects. Rather than sitting to study a math book, it gives them something to go out into the world and do, then come back and work with their hands in the media lab. The key, he said, is connecting the students to the real world.

“I get a sense that they’re loving it,” he said. “The kids are thirsting to give back.”

Among the multimedia class service projects were a book drive to benefit students in Africa, spending time with senior citizens and working with the Humane Society.

“I never thought I’d teach a class like this,” Ensey said.

Many of the ideas came from parents, like Stacy Witte, who have connections with charities or just want to help the students do a good job.

Witte, a Pine Lake parent and the volunteer coordinator for Bellevue-based Congregations for the Homeless, helped Feuerberg and Jarvis throw the Super Bowl party. About 25 men came.

“It was a great day,” she said. “I think they learned, if nothing else, every man had a story. Football gives them something in common to talk about then they branch off from there.”

The boys said what most impacted them during this project was putting a face to homelessness — they’re not necessarily dirty or alcoholic.

“We pretty much wanted to break the stereotype of homeless people for kids our age,” Feuerberg said as the pair worked on their video and Web site. “I think they should keep doing this class throughout Pine Lake.”

Ensey said he’s not sure what his end goal is for the class, but it will continue each semester.

“I hope this would be the blueprint for future classes in the school,” Ensey said.

Christopher Huber: 392-6434, ext. 242, chuber@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

Hall Monitor Eric Bice Liberty High School

These past few months have taught me something very important about the students at Liberty High School. They have taught me that despite the worst economic recession of our lifetimes, we have been able to step up and contribute our hard-earned money toward Haitian relief efforts.

Haiti was devastated by an earthquake and represents a country in dire need of our monetary support. This is important, because there is no greater need for children to give than toward Haiti, and as of recently, Chile.I have been surprised at just how far some students have gone in helping these countries with which we have little connection. One student even went as far as selflessly donating the money he received for his birthday. In all, Liberty students have raised $1,405 for the Haitian relief effort, despite having a small school population, which includes a number of families dealing with job lay-offs and other financial issues.

Kids at Liberty are beginning to realize that they are part of a global community and not just the isolated community they call home. What is astounding about this is the fact that kids are looking at themselves as young adults who should take an active interest in striving for the common welfare of everyone.

As many of these students prepare to graduate in June, they will walk away from 12 years of public education with a greater understanding of the benefits of serving others. Whether you donate blood, time or money, you will be happy knowing you have made a difference in someone’s life.

In these difficult economic times, the tendency is to withdraw from making donations due to self pity. The true cure for this, however, comes from the deep satisfaction associated with helping those who are even less fortunate than yourself.

The class is hosting its annual Battle of the Bands competition for high school students March 11.

The battle is one of the most anticipated events each year, said student Maria Tilden.

While rocking out, though, your admission and donations will go to a good cause, the American Red Cross Haiti Relief Fund.

About 10 bands from the school will play three songs each throughout the night.

Leadership students are still finalizing the lineup, but they said it’s guaranteed to be a good time for the community.

“I’m looking forward to seeing all the different bands and help expose them to the public, because I just think it’s great that we have so many talented high school bands and I think that is awesome,” said student Lindsay Baringer.

Judges and the audience will help determine the winner.

But this year’s competition won’t just be a fight for bragging rights. The night will also feature a special guest, Barefoot Contingent.

“I think this concert is a great opportunity to expose and witness our extremely talented local groups, several of which the audience may not yet be familiar with, and to be brought together with hundreds of community members by the common cause of benefiting Haiti,” Tilden wrote in an e-mail. “Attendance is certainly directly related to the amount of relief we can send to Haiti, so we’re excited to host as many people as possible in this concert/battle of the bands. The performing groups will be qualified through auditions, so we are sure to feature some raw talent.”

“Helping other people is just a good deed for your life,” Baringer said. “At this moment, Haiti needs a lot of help and if we can help change a life around or give a meal to a kid by donating because we are so blessed, I think we need to share that.

“We would like to invite everybody to come, kids from Skyline and from Liberty and PCFC. Really, anyone in the community,” she added. “Everybody should come out to support our local artists and Haiti as a whole.”

If you go

Issaquah High School Battle of the Bands & Haiti Relief Concert

6:30 p.m. March 11

Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus,

24635 S.E. Issaquah Fall City Road

Admission — $5 at the door

Chantelle Lusebrink: 392-6434, ext. 241, or c.lusebrink@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

On display at Beaver Lake Middle School’s Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Awareness week is the Acura Integra after a July crash that killed Chase Tinsley, 18, and Zackary Oliver, 21, of Algona, after they were drinking at a party. By Chantelle Lusebrink

Twisted metal and stained car seats are all that remain of a car crash that claimed the lives of two best friends.

Chase Tinsley, 18, and Zackary Oliver, 21, were only going to drive about a mile to sleep at a friend’s house after a party on Lake Tapps that morning. They never made it.

Instead, something went very wrong. Their car hit a tree and fell 25 feet down an embankment; Chase was killed instantly. Zach was pinned inside the car, which landed upside down in a pond below. Emergency crews were unable to get him out in time, Chase’s mother Margaret Tinsley said Feb. 8.

“When I saw the car, it sent shivers up my spine and I don’t think anyone deserves that to happen to them,” seventh-grader Sadie Wilbur said.

“It is a strong deterrent from drinking,” seventh-grader Erik Crouch added. “It’s amazing that in two seconds, two lives were taken away. I don’t think anyone who sees that car will ever drink and drive.”

So why was a car belonging to a couple of Algona friends in Sammamish? It’s all part of Beaver Lake Middle School’s annual Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco and Addiction awareness week.

The school has hosted the weeklong awareness program for several years.DATA week —Feb. 8-12 — was adapted from a similar program used at Inglewood Jr. High School in the Lake Washington School District. It is the third year Beaver Lake has hosted the event, sponsored by the Parents, Teachers and Students Association, school officials and the Greater Issaquah Youth and Family Network.

It is designed to provide students with education and information about illegal and controlled substances before they’re confronted with having to choose whether to do them or not, said the week’s coordinator Alayna Niehaus.

“This is something that is really impact-full for the kids,” PTSA co-president Janine Kotan said. “They really pay attention to the stories, especially when there is a parent here to share the story.”

“The ache in my heart will never go away,” Margaret Tinsley said. “But if by speaking I can prevent one family from having to go through this, it is worth it.”

Prior to the kickoff, PTSA officials hosted an informational evening for parents with questions, since some of the materials presented, like the car, are graphic.

Included in this year’s week was a presentation by Sammamish police, who brought a drug-sniffing dog and goggles that distort your vision to mimic the sight of someone who is intoxicated.

Registered nurse Kathy Ketchum, program director for the nonprofit Choice & Consequence, was also there. To students, she’s better known as “The Organ Lady,” as she makes her rounds to many Washington schools with a car full of donated damaged organs from teens and adults who died after making bad decisions. She said it is the parents’ hope their son or daughter’s story lives on and hopefully changes decisions made by the students who see them.

Dramatically, she holds up cancerous black lungs, a heart with a bullet hole, a tumor-riddled tongue in front of students. Each organ has a person it used to belong to, and a story that goes with it. The stories cover the scope of bad choices teens can make — not using seat belts, doing drugs, drinking alcohol, racing, using tobacco, and drinking and driving.

This year, Ketchum made her presentation to sixth-graders at the school Feb. 12.

During the week, students and parents were also given a Contract for Life for students and parents to sign. The contract stipulates that teens and parents communicate with each other about decisions and challenges they face, to avoid risky behaviors and to support a healthy lifestyle for both.

While Beaver Lake has had wrecked cars on display before, it is the first year the car came with a parent speaker.

“Today, I really want to talk to the children and tell them to please, take this story home and tell their parents and older siblings, because our lives have been changed forever by this horrible mistake,” Tinsley said. “We’ve lived in Algona for years, because of the community and because of our two families, but it has been changed forever.”

On the Web

Choice & Consequence

www.choiceandconsequence.org

Chantelle Lusebrink: 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@gmail.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

Rache Strand (center) celebrates as she and Jane McNicoll take T-shirt orders (featuring the design below) during lunch to raise money from fellow Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus students for the Central Asia Institute. By Greg Farrar

Students at the Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus are changing the lives of their peers with education worldwide, one shirt at a time.

For $12 each, the students are selling shirts that will send a student in Afghanistan or Pakistan to school for a year through the Central Asia Institute.

“We’re learning every day, and sometimes we take that for granted,” student Anais Gentilhomme said. “We want to help others learn.”

Students began selling their shirts for two weeks as part of a culminating World Studies Service Learning project.

“Students spend the year learning about world cultures, as well as the problems facing people around the world. This is an opportunity for them to have a positive impact on the people they learn about,” teacher Jessica Heaton wrote in an e-mail. “The purpose of Service Learning is for students to identify and meet a specific need in the community and to learn new skills in the process.”

The students took on the project after completing a unit about the Middle East, during which they learned about its cultural, political and religious history.

After completing their unit, students researched different problems in the region and nonprofit organizations that help aid in resolving them. By combining their ideas, students decided to sell shirts to help pay school tuition for children near Afghanistan and Pakistan, student Jane McNicoll said.

Their project is one inspired by the book “Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace, One School At A Time,” by Greg Mortenson, student Michael Lee said.

In the book, Mortenson recounts his failed attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2 Mountain, according to the Central Asia Institute’s Web site. The failed climb led him to learn about the remote mountain cultures along the country’s border shared with Afghanistan and help bring education facilities to the children there. After successfully starting the first school, Mortenson went on to co-found the Central Asia Institute, which has since established dozens of schools in the area and promotes education for women.

“The vote was pretty much unanimous. Their goal is to help teens like us get a future, an education, a life that has hope for them,” student Adam Karren wrote in an e-mail. “This will allow kids to mingle with others, developing relationships with people they wouldn’t have met otherwise, as well as grant them a means to learn, by which they can change their town or city or wherever they may be.”

“We have a civic responsibility to help people everywhere,” student Khalil Somahi said. “It is something we should do, help others. We should help educate them and help them, because it will be a chain reaction. The more they know, the better it will be.”

“Their choice to create T-shirts reflects their desire to educate their local community about a global problem as well as to raise money,” Heaton wrote. “I think that shows how thoughtful this group of students is about enacting long-term change.”

By the end of the first week, the students sold nearly 100 shirts, but want to encourage the community to help out.

“We’d love to get as many sales as possible,” student Sarah Elderkin said.

“For $12, you get a really cool shirt,” McNicoll said. “But it pays for a student to go to school for an entire year.”

How to help

E-mail HeatonJ@issaquah.wednet.edu to purchase your shirt from the Pacific Cascade Freshman Campus or donate at www.ikat.org

Chantelle Lusebrink: 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

Rachael Goodwin, Celeste Veitch and Gabby Recchi (from left), St. Joseph third-graders, sell cookies for 50 cents to classmates, including first-grader Megan Olson (right). The funds raised will go to relief for Haiti's earthquake victims. Below, a student shows off her sugar cookie, with one bite already eaten, for a good cause. Photos by Greg Farrar

Throngs of students filled the doorway to St. Joseph School’s cafeteria.

It’s the lunch rush and the third-grade girls manning the table hollered out the names of delectable treats for purchase like the best of auctioneers.

“What do you want?” third-grader Celeste Veitch shouted over a sea of younger students. “We have cookies, brownies, cupcakes. Let me know when you’re ready.”

For 50 cents each, the endless buffet beckoned to nearly every student, preschool to third grade. Unfortunately for the students, there was a three-item limit.

The school hosted the bake sale at both the Issaquah and Snoqualmie campuses, as part of its celebration of Catholic Schools Week, meant to celebrate Catholic schools and faculty.

But more than a sweet treat for students, the bake sale was a fundraiser for Haitian children.

“We’re doing it for Haiti because of the earthquake,” said third-grader Rachael Goodwin, “to help the children of Haiti, because they don’t have as much as we do.”

They need “food, water and medical supplies,” Celeste added. “We want them to be able to buy strong stuff and live in places that don’t fall down.”

Between the two campuses, the students raised more than $1,000 for one of their favorite organizations, Friends of the Orphans, which operates in Haiti and several other South American countries, said Vice Principal Jackie Olund.

The organization provides housing, food and education for orphans and children whose parents can’t afford to support them. However, the organization doesn’t promote overseas adoption, Olund said.

“Their goal is to educate and make them strong citizens for their country,” she said. “We’ve been making donations every year, for about the last seven years.”

The school’s campuses collect loose change at lunches during Lent, Feb. 17 – March 28, to donate to Friends of the Orphans. Organizers from the nonprofit organization have come to speak to students at St. Joseph’s in prior years, to help them understand their mission and why it’s important to help others, Olund said.

“When we called them to see what we could do, they said they really needed money,” she said. “We thought Catholic Schools Week would be a great opportunity for the kids to do their service, because it is a big part of our mission.”

The organization’s volunteer dormitory collapsed during the 7.0-magnitude earthquake; its epicenter was about 12 miles from the country’s capital Port-au-Prince Jan. 12. In that collapse, Molly Hightower, a Port Orchard woman and a volunteer, died.

The school made the bake sale a special event of Student Appreciation Day during the weeklong celebration.

The week started in 1974, as an annual national celebration of the important role that Catholic elementary and secondary schools play in providing a values-added education, according to a press release from the National Catholic Educational Association.

At both campuses, students participated in a variety of activities, including an all-school Mass and assembly, and student, faculty and parent appreciation days.

Students in each grade have a variety of community service and learning projects they do throughout the year. For instance, one grade holds a pet food drive and pet blessing in the spirit of St. Francis, the patron saint of animals, while another makes sandwiches for Lazarus House in Seattle, which provides sandwiches to people without lunches. Older grades in Snoqualmie have coordinated efforts to donate food and clothing to Issaquah Community Services in Issaquah and for Encompass in Snoqualmie.

The week also serves to market Catholic schools and education to families, so the schools were open for a variety of open houses.

“Catholic schools are all about outreach and how to get ourselves involved in our community,” said Ann Shikany, a spokeswoman for the schools. “This is a wonderful opportunity to get involved with that at a time we’re celebrating nationally.”

On the Web

Friends of the Orphans

www.friendsoftheorphans.org

Chantelle Lusebrink: 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

Hall Monitor Ahren Stroming Liberty High School

Article IV of the state constitution begins with the following righteous preamble: “It is the paramount duty of the state to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders.”

If that’s the rubric, then they haven’t earned a very good score.

For the 2007-2008 school year, the Issaquah School District received $8,405 per student from the state. The state average is nearly $900 per student more, putting us at a dismal 271st out of 295 Washington state school districts in revenue per pupil. If our school district was funded at the state average, we would get an additional $13.3 million.Per year.

It gets worse. The lack of funding forces our district to turn to voter-approved education levies to close the gap. Of every dollar the Issaquah School District spends on daily operations, nearly 20 cents comes from levies.

Broken down further, levies cover 29 percent of special-education expenditures, 46 percent of transportation expenditures, 30 percent of certified staff (teachers) and 62 percent of classified staff (janitors, bus drivers, etc.) All in all, the salaries of 600 full-time employees are paid for completely by levies.

The state of Washington mandated that levies can raise no more than 24 percent of what a district gets from state funding, but that 24 percent levy cap does not apply to 91 school districts who, for various reasons, are allowed to ask for more.

Let’s recap: The state severely underfunds its schools, prohibits them from raising money on their own and enforces its own rules arbitrarily.

Yesterday, Issaquah voters went to the polls to decide whether to continue to provide basic support to ensure our school district remains competent and competitive. I hope they chose to renew our levies. But the fact that our district, and every district in the state, must hold such elections is merely a symptom of a larger problem. The state of Washington is neglecting its supposedly “paramount duty.” It gets an F.

Maria Murray, a fifth-grade teacher, reads the book ‘How I Became a Pirate,’ to students and their families in the Pirate’s Den reading room. By Chantelle Lusebrink

Teachers dressed as pirates and wizards — what more could a student ask for?

Families gathered for a night of reading fun at Clark Elementary School’s first Literacy Night Jan. 25.

“We wanted to make sure reading was really a focus in our school community, because we know how important it is to make sure our kids are growing into readers,” Principal May Pelto said. “Clark is also a school community, and this is a great way to stay connected with our parents and families.”

The event featured seven themed reading rooms that families could go to together, like Reading in the Rain Forest; Cozy Up with a Good Book at the Family Campout; and Come Read in the Pirate’s Den.

“Results have shown it’s very important for students to read with their families, because it really helps promote, not only their reading ability, but a love for reading,” said Mary Browning, the school’s psychologist. “So, we’re trying to promote that within our school.”

Students also brought in old books they had grown out of or tired of to give at the book exchange.

“I had a book I didn’t want,” fourth-grader Abby Jones said. “It’s fun to read new books, since I like words.”

“I came because I wanted a new book,” fourth-grader Madison Schroeder said. “And it seemed like fun.

“It’s important to know how to read books, like science books, because they tell you about science. And if you get a job, like a doctor, you need to know how to read books.”

Families could also purchase a variety of book-themed baked treats from a snack table.

They were serving up book favorites, like meatballs from “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” and fried worms from “How to Eat Fried Worms,” as well as sweet treats from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” said fifth-grader Trenton Sanders.

King County Librarian Ann Crewdson was on hand to explain the benefits of family involvement with children’s reading, help families understand how to navigate their local library system and the benefits of a library card.

“We only have so much time to provide the practice of reading,” teacher Denise Winkler said. “We really rely on families to provide that practice at home through modeling.

“Parents are also the best first teachers.”

On the Web

King County Library System: www.kcls.org

Improve family reading

Read aloud regularly

-Set aside a regular reading time.

-Have your child read to you.

-Pack a book everywhere.

-Encourage children to read everything, like signs and cereal boxes.

-Set a goal for reading and a reward for reaching it.

Share your love of reading

-Set an example by reading regularly.

-Consult books when you have a question.

-Talk about what you read and what you read together.

-Create a family library, with a variety of books.

-Research family trips and projects with your child.

Make books and reading a part of your home

-Get everyone in your family a library card.

-Schedule family visits to the library.

-Play word games.

-Give gifts or rewards of books.

-Have fun books around the house.

-Teach your child how to use books to find answers.

Source: King County Library System

Chantelle Lusebrink: 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.