Schools

School Bus Fleet magazine has named Evergreen Public Schools' Transportation Department as one of its 2010 Great Fleets Across America.

The annual series profiles five outstanding pupil transportation operations around the country and highlights their safety practices, innovative training programs and open lines of communications.

The article on Evergreen mentioned the district's outstanding inspections the last 20 years, including the fact that many of those years, the department has had an out-of-service rate of less than one percent.

Evergreen Public Schools has 240 school buses and transports 16,000 students daily.

The other school districts featured include: Dare County Schools, Nags Head, North Carolina, with 46 buses transporting 1,910 students each day; Garfield School District, Rifle, Colorado, which transports 2,000 students on 43 buses, Hanover Park Regional High School District, East Hanover, New Jersey with 40 buses carrying 3,000 students; and Stumbo Transportation, Ogden, Iowa, which each day transports 350 students on 10 buses.

If it’s not a record in the state of Washington, it’s got to be close. 

Voters in Clark County have approved a maintenance and operations levy for Vancouver Public Schools for every year since 1964 and on Feb. 9, the latest school levy appears to have been passed by Clark County residents.  

This levy will provide local support for basic education and services for the years 2011, 2012, and 2013. That will make 50 years of continuous support for Vancouver Public Schools. 

According to preliminary results, the news was good for Clark County schools. The replacement levy was overwhelmingly approved, with 68 percent voting to approve in the first results released at 8:10 p.m. Feb. 9. In Washington, ballots may be postmarked as late as Election Day or ballots may be dropped off until 8 p.m. on Election Day, so some ballots still need to be tallied. 

Check out the unofficial results.

Final election results will be certified by Feb.

Students in the Vancouver School of Arts and Academics (VSAA) will perform an original screenplay co-written by VSAA teacher Anne Averre and student Sarah Eaton, called Storms and Scoundrels, beginning Feb. 19.

These performances are part of the annual PTSA Dinner Theatre, PTSA’s largest fundraiser. Proceeds go toward student and faculty grants, staff appreciation efforts, senior class activities and much more.

The play takes place in 16th century Havana, Cuba with an entertaining cast of characters. In keeping with the theme, dinner will include a Cuban-inspired menu.

Tickets can be purchased through mail order or online at www.vsaaptsa.org/dinner-theatre.

Dick Hannah Honda has created an exciting program aimed at encouraging high school students in the Green Mountain, La Center, Battle Ground, Hockinson, Vancouver, Evergreen, Camas and Washougal school districts to improve their grade point average in the 2009-2010 school year by offering a new 2010 Honda Civic or $15,000 in cash to the winning student.

High school students are asked to do three things to be eligible to win the 2010 Honda Civic or $15,000 in cash:

• Students must improve their grade point average (GPA) from the first semester of the 2009-2010 school year to the second semester by one-half point (for example, students must improve their GPA from a 2.5 to a 3.0). Students who average a 3.6 or higher for both semesters will also qualify.
• Students must join Dick Hannah Honda’s Fans Page on Facebook.
• Students must send in their completed entry form.

Parent teacher organizations, booster clubs and support groups will also have a chance to get into the action.