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Schools

July 10, 2012
Marissa Stevens of Washougal and Payden Thornton of Ridgefield put shingles on a play house at Second Step housing.

Summer acts of service

What do you do with 1,400 teens when school is out? On Friday, June 29 this question was answered when youth from the greater Vancouver and Portland areas came to Clark County to participate in a mass service project that included parks, homes. These young people provided more than 5,500 hours of service, fanning out in groups of 50-300 to pre-assigned locations across the county, where they painted, weeded, sorted, cleaned, raked, planted, mowed and hammered.

July 3, 2012

School notes

Camas resident lands on dean's list

July 3, 2012
Young soccer players hone their skills at the Portland Timbers Camas-Washougal Camp in the fields behind Doc Harris Stadium. The city of Camas Parks and Recreation department and Camas School District are exploring a partnership that includes fields sharing and scheduling.

City, School District explore partnership

How do we best serve the public? The City of Camas Parks and Recreation Department and the Camas School District Community Education program are considering that question with the help of an advisory committee, which is exploring new partnership options for recreation services. "We have excellent partnerships in the school and the city that did not come about by accident," Mayor Scott Higgins said at a recent School Board meeting. "We are constantly looking for ways to make it even better. I felt there were some things parks and recreation were doing that community ed was also doing. Why not combine services?"

June 26, 2012
Camas High School librarian Rosemary Knapp (seated) listens to a funny story from career specialist Suzie Downs during her retirement party earlier this month. Knapp, 61, retired after 31 years with the Camas School District.

Teacher-Librarian Rosemary Knapp is retiring after 31 years with CSD

Since Rosemary Knapp announced her retirement earlier this year, she's been asked the following question more times then she can remember:"What are you going to do when you retire?" And her answer? "Whatever I want to: Travel, spend more time taking care of my grandson, exercise more regularly and read more grown-up books," Knapp said. "About 80 percent of my reading for the last several years has been young adult books. I'm looking forward to more grown-up books."

June 26, 2012

School notes for June 26, 2012

Local students make president's list at Gonzaga Local students earned placement on the Gonzaga University president’s list for spring semester 2012. Students must earn a 3.7 to 4.0 GPA to make the list.

June 19, 2012

School notes for June 19, 2012

School District serving free summer lunches The Washougal School District will serve free lunches to all children living in the district boundary who are younger than 18 years old, regardless of family income.

June 19, 2012
Helen Baller Elementary School teacher Laurie Brown and fifth-graders (from left) Billy Schuldt, Janessa Terry, Edward Kovalenko, Blake Riggs and James delGiudice were instrumental in the effort to raise money to save a special needs sensory camp in Vancouver, attended by school district nurse April Sutherland's son, Liam.

Local fifth-graders help save sensory camp for special needs children

When Camas resident April Sutherland found out the special needs camp her autistic son attends would be eliminated due to budget cuts, she and other moms rallied to save it.They went to Vancouver City Hall and gave officials a proposal: They'd provide the funding for staff and make reductions, such as eliminating field trips, and volunteering to set up and clean up, if the camp could be saved. The city agreed with a few conditions, including one that seemed quite daunting: Raise $25,000 in 30 days. Undeterred, Sutherland and other moms did what seemed almost insurmountable. They raised $27,411 in 26 days. "It was a huge collaboration," she said.

June 12, 2012
CHS seniors, from left, Paul Cooper, Annie Kanicki and Sam Svilar will march in the University of Washington band this coming fall.

CHS seniors will march in the UW band this fall

Three Papermakers will trade in their red-and-black uniforms for Husky purple and gold this fall. Camas High School seniors Paul Cooper, Sam Svilar and Annie Kanicki are taking their musical talents to the next level by marching in the Husky Band at the University of Washington. Sam Svilar, a drum major, said that stepping onto the field for his first halftime show as a Husky will be the fulfillment of a long-standing dream.

June 12, 2012

School notes for June 12, 2012

Zeviar earns mastee's degree Dorothy D. Zeviar recently graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Florida with a master's degree in public health and a certificate in disaster management.

June 5, 2012
Liberty Middle School Princpal Marilyn Boerke was instrumental in efforts to obtain an anchor from an old World War II ship to be displayed in front of the school. The relic is a reminder of the school's name and its ties to local history.

Anchor from a ‘Liberty ship’ installed outside Camas school

When a Camas resident approached Marilyn Boerke to ask if she'd like to have a piece of history, the Liberty Middle School principal was intrigued."Eunice Abrahamsen contacted me to see if I was interested in procuring and displaying a 'piece' of a Liberty ship in order to teach our students the history of the local mill and the reasons why Liberty's name was chosen," she said. "I anticipated a small piece of the ship, so I was astounded and thrilled to learn the salvage company was offering to donate one of the ship's anchors." The anchor came from a decommissioned Liberty ship known as the SS Davy Crockett, which had been turned into a flat deck barge. Last summer, an extensive recovery and destruction process began on the ship after it went aground in the Columbia River near Cottonwood Beach. That effort lasted 211 days. The ship was built between 1941 and 1945, when the United States increased its shipbuilding capacity during World War II. At the Camas mill, now known as Georgia-Pacific, workers built ship rudders, cranes and other wartime materials for the Liberty ships being constructed by Kaiser Aluminum in Vancouver.