Meridian
Meridian School District coverage
Mount Baker Rotary club gave a total of $32,400 in scholarships to 18 students who graduated from Whatcom County high schools in 2012 and are going on to college.
Each student received a $1,800 scholarship.
- Lynden Christian: Brennan Huleatt, Jami Jo Libolt, John Pawlowski, Chad Heerspink, Kayla Aupperlee and Kaitlyn Brown.
- Lynden: Amber Stokes, Taylor Witman, Fraser Shindruk, Jeremy Korthuis, Cassidy Gunst and Sarrah VanZanten.
- Meridian: Denver VanderYacht and Kelli Terpsma.
- Mount Baker: Rachel Larson and Ben Koehler.
- Nooksack Valley: Charity Caldwell and Courtney Edwards
Six Whatcom County high school graduates have received the 2012-13 Leaders and Achievers Scholarship Program award, Comcast Foundation has announced.
They were among 90 students named in Western Washington and Spokane.
Comcast asked schools to nominate students who showed leadership abilities in school activities and strong commitment to community service.
The Whatcom County students and their schools are:
- Emily P. Steelquist, Blaine High School
- Patricia M. Castrejon, Ferndale High School
- Fraser J. Shindruk, Lynden High School
- Kaitlyn M. Michaelson, Meridian High School
- Brett T. Copher, Nooksack Valley High
- Janice E. Liang, Sehome High School
The Comcast Leaders and Achievers Scholarship Program gives $1,000 scholarships to students.
Lynden Christian, Lummi and Windward kicked off graduations in Whatcom County with their ceremonies on Thursday, June 7.
Lynden and Nooksack Valley high schools are up next, with their graduations beginning at 7 p.m. Friday, June 8.
Below is a round-up of high school and college graduation ceremonies this month. Ceremonies are open to the public, unless otherwise noted.
FRIDAY, JUNE 8
Lynden High School: 7 p.m. in the school gym.
Nooksack Valley High School: 7 p.m. at Sid Lambert Field or Kay LeMaster Gym, depending on the weather.
SATURDAY, JUNE 9
Ferndale High School: 11 a.m. at Civic Field.
Western Washington University:
- 9 a.m. College of Business and Economics, College of Fine and Performing Arts, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, and Huxley College of the Environment.
- 12:30 p.m. College of Humanities and Social Sciences (Humanities Division) and Woodring College of Education.
- 4 p.m. College of Humanities and Social Sciences (Social Sciences Division) and the College of Sciences and Technology.
All three ceremonies are in Carver Gymnasium. Tickets are required for seating in the gym, but there will be overflow seating in the Science, Mathematics and Technology Education building with the ceremonies broadcast on a screen. The ceremonies also will be broadcast live on Comcast channel 26 and streamed live on www.ustream.tv/channel/wwu-live-events1.
MONDAY, JUNE 11
Blaine High School: 6 p.m. in the school gym.
Community Transitions (Bellingham School District): 7 p.m. Bellingham Cruise Terminal, Dome Room.
TUESDAY, JUNE 12
Mount Baker High School: 6:30 p.m. at the school’s Bob Tisdale Field.
THURSDAY, JUNE 14
Meridian High School: 7 p.m. in the school gym.
Explorations Academy: 7 p.m. at Squalicum Boathouse. Space is limited so people need to contact Explorations before June 13 if they wish to attend.
FRIDAY, JUNE 15
Bellingham High School: 7 p.m. in the school gym. Tickets required.
Northwest Indian College: 4 p.m. in Wex’liem community building.
Whatcom Community College: 6:30 p.m. in the Pavilion. Tickets are required to sit in the pavilion; however there will be overflow seating in Heiner Theatre with the ceremony broadcast on a screen.
SATURDAY, JUNE 16
Squalicum High School: 11 a.m. at the school. Tickets required.
MONDAY, JUNE 18
Sehome High School: 6 p.m. in Carver Gym at WWU.
TUESDAY, JUNE 19
Options High School: 7 p.m. in the theater at Bellingham High School.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20
Bellingham Technical College: 7 p.m. at Mount Baker Theatre. Tickets required.
More than 700 people showed up at Roosevelt Elementary School the evening of Thursday, May 24, to see student performances and artwork.
It was the Bellingham school’s second annual Children’s Art Festival Extravaganza.
The school’s 430 students each displayed several pieces of art.
Roosevelt also held a dedication ceremony for the Poet Tree — a sculpture created by artist Tony Hermanutz.
Hermanutz donated it to the school.
LAUREL — The first phase of what will be a major $25.4 million renovation of Meridian High School has been built, with the completion of a new greenhouse, locker rooms and the 13,500-square-foot Career and Technical Education building.
The community can see the results during an open house Thursday, April 26.
The first phase cost about $8.5 million, with the greenhouse completed in June and the locker rooms and CTE building done earlier in April.
The second phase, construction of a 50,000-square-foot Education building that will house most of the traditional classes, has started.
A $17 million bond voters approved in February 2010, $900,000 from the district and $23.1 million in state funding is helping to pay for the work at the high school as well as a $15.5 million project to put Irene Reither Primary School and Ten Mile Creek Elementary School into one building.
The CTE building houses a wood shop, a metal shop, a large room for art classes, independent classroom, independent computer lab and a classroom in which students are taught horticulture and floral arrangement.
The old CTE building, from the 1960s era, was demolished last week.
As Principal James Everett walked through the CTE building — where students were priming canvases in art class, caring for flowers in the greenhouse, and building playhouses outside the metal shop — he talked about how the project allowed school officials to design buildings that fit the coursework and suited the needs of students and educators.
That included things like space to put a kiln in a room off the main art room — instead of having it in the midst of the room — space to store portfolios, and a state-of-the art metal shop that includes 17 welding booths.
“There isn’t anything like it around,” Everett said Wednesday, April 25, of the metal shop.
As for the renovation project: “What this represents is what we can do for our students. Our students deserve every bit of opportunity that’s available,” he said. “We had been limited by the facilities we had before.”
The new CTE building also will house the Construction Careers Academy and the Academy of Engineering — both operated through Northwest Career & Technical Academy in Mount Vernon. (Fourteen of the construction academy students working on the playhouses Wednesday were Meridian students.)
The Northwest Career and Technical Academy is open to students in Whatcom and Skagit counties. It is one of several state-funded programs that allows students to get a head start in technical programs before graduating from high school.
The Thursday open house at Meridian High School also is a thank you to voters and the community for their support, according to Tim Yeomans, superintendent of Meridian School District.
“Those buildings are a physical manifestation of a change in belief — a belief in what is possible,” Yeomans said, explaining a shift from old ways of thinking that the school district was small, had limited resources and wasn’t going to fundamentally improve in terms of funding.
Everson-based Tiger Construction is doing the renovation work, although Williamson Construction, of Deming, built the greenhouse.
Bellingham-based Zervas Group Architects is the architect for the school projects.
IF YOU GO
What: Open house for the first phase of the Meridian High School renovation, which includes a new greenhouse, locker rooms and Career and Technical Education building. Guided tours will be offered.
When: 5 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, with the last guided tour ending at 6:30 p.m.
Where: 194 W. Laurel Road.
The superintendent of the 300-student Hood Canal School District will be the new superintendent for Meridian schools beginning in July.
The Meridian School Board on Tuesday, March 27, unanimously selected Tom Churchill to replace Tim Yeomans, who is leaving the top job at Meridian to be superintendent of Puyallup schools.
“Tom Churchill has more experience and more credentials to effectively run the school district,” school board chairman Brian Evans said.
“He understands rural school districts like Meridian. I think he’s going to extend the good work done at Meridian,” Evans added.
Churchill beat out David Forsythe for the superintendent post. Forsythe is executive director of teaching and learning for Meridian School District and former principal for Ten Mile Creek Elementary School in the district.
“I feel honored to be selected. I look forward to building relationships with the people in Meridian. We’re in a people business so it’s all about relationships,” said Churchill, who also is principal in the Hood Canal School District.
He said he looked forward to being part of Meridian’s leadership team — comprised of core administrators, principals, assistant principals and department leaders in the school district — and working with the school board.
Churchill, 49, praised the work that Yeomans has done.
“Tim will be a hard act to follow,” he said, adding that Yeomans “is a pretty dynamic guy” and that there were many good things in place in Meridian because of his leadership.
Meridian School District has about 2,100 students, and Yeomans has been its superintendent since July 2007.
As for his plans for Meridian, Churchill said that will be guided by a transition plan being put together by Yeomans and the school board.
“They’re in the middle of some pretty major construction projects, so that will obviously be a high priority,” Churchill said. “I need to get to know the leadership team and the work that’s being done there and to get up to speed. My highest priority will be building relationships with folks in Meridian.”
Churchill also has previous experience as a superintendent when he served in that capacity in the Entiat School District from 2002 to 2004.
Although he’s coming from a smaller school district — with a $4.6 million budget compared to Meridian’s $17.5 million — Churchill said he will be able to hit the ground running because the responsibilities of state reporting and budgeting are the same for all school districts in Washington state.
“We all have the same responsibilities to the state and federal government and local taxpayers no matter the size of your school district,” he said.
Tom Churchill
Churchill also was a finalist for superintendent of the nearly 2,000-student Mount Baker School District, but the Mount Baker school board last week picked Charlie Burleigh, principal of Kendall Elementary School, to be the new superintendent.
Churchill said he was interested in coming to Whatcom County as a step up in his career and also because he had two grown sons in Bellingham.
“We spent a lot of time, my wife Patty and I, in Bellingham visiting our sons,” he said, adding that one son has moved to L.A. to try to make it as an actor.
The Puyallup School District board hired Yeomans for the Puyallup superintendent job on March 6.
That school district has about 21,100 students.
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