Sharon Alfaro was eighteen and working five jobs to support herself. She had endured homelessness and changed schools often. The possibility of earning a high school diploma seemed increasingly out of reach each day.

Then she started attending River’s Edge High School in the fall of 2017. A little more than a year later, she’s a high school graduate, enrolled at Columbia Basin College (CBC) and working toward her dream of working as an immigration and humanitarian attorney.

Hanford High School’s Wind Ensemble students, who play everything from trumpets and trombones to oboes and saxophones, will perform for a regional convention of music educators in Portland in February 2019. 

The Hanford students will be one of two featured high school wind ensembles to perform at the All-Northwest Music Educators Regional convention, part of the National Association For Music Education (NAFME). 

Music teacher and ensemble director Russ Newbury says Hanford’s selection to perform is historic for the school’s music program.

“The students are going to perform magnificently,” Mr. Newbury says. “It really is an honor to be selected to perform in front of so many people dedicated to making music a part of our world.”

Join us in congratulating all our students recently selected for all-state and all-regional performing arts groups by state and national musical education groups. We are thrilled to have students recognized for their musical talents and for them to have the opportunity to share them with those outside our community.

Whether a student is interested in fabrication, solar energy or robotics, they can explore it in the Smart Lab at Leona Libby Middle School. The science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) focused class gives students the tools and freedom of hands-on learning that can truly inspire students and help them imagine their future.

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Enjoy seasonal entertainment while supporting students in the arts by attending concerts and performances in our schools through December.

Students at Chief Joseph Middle School had a surprise on Friday, Nov. 16 when James Mattis, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, paid a visit.

Secretary Mattis, who attended Chief Joseph as a student, toured the school and visited a few sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms. He talked about his work as the head of the U.S. Department of Defense and encouraged students to be dedicated to doing well in school so they could be successful later in life.

“Without an education, you don’t know where you’re starting, and if you don’t know where you’re starting, you don’t know where to go,” he said.

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Congratulations to Denise Reddinger, a counselor at Richland High School, for her appointment to a state committee that will advise the Legislature on how to create and support career-related learning opportunities in schools.