Join the district in congratulating Alexa Best and Michael Pham for being nominated by state education officials for the U.S. Presidential Scholar award.

Alexa and Michael are among 20 students selected by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to be considered for the national award, which is determined by the U.S. Department of Education.

They are the first Hanford High students to be nominated for the award since 1989 and this is the first time the school has had two students nominated in the same year.

 “Our community and Falcon Family are very proud of them and know they will represent us well,” says Principal Tory Christensen. “These kids can do whatever they strive to do.”

Preparing students for their futures includes showing them how to serve their community. See how fifth-graders in the Highly Capable QUEST program at Lewis & Clark Elementary are using community service projects to help make the world a better place.

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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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