@SequimSchools — Jan. 29, 2020

DISTRICT

The next school board meeting is 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 3, in the district boardroom, 503 N. Sequim Ave. The public is invited to attend and time is set aside for public comment. To view the agenda and minutes of past meetings, click on “School Board,” “Regular Communication” and “Agendas” on the district’s website at www.sequimschools.org.

The Highly Capable referral period ends on Jan. 31. For questions about the HiCap program, contact HiCap Coordinator Jodi Olson at jolson@sequimschools.org.

GREYWOLF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Greywolf celebrates the 100th day of shcool on Wednesday, Feb. 12.

The next Greywolf Parent-Teacher Association meeting is set for Thursday, Feb. 13, at the Greywolf library, 171 Carlsborg Road. See www.greywolfpta.com for more about the organization.

HELEN HALLER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

The fifth-grade choir concert planned for Jan. 30 has been cancelled.

First graders in Ione Marcy’s class have been learning about Martin Luther King Jr. The lesson included a class discussion on social injustice. The students learned that many people were brought to America as slaves, forced to work very hard in harsh conditions and live in captivity. Slavery was ended in America in 1865 but that didn’t end these people’s unfair treatmente.

When he was a child in the 1930s, Martin was told he couldn’t play any longer with some of his childhood friends because they were white, and he was black.

“Imagine the unfairness of these practices,” Marcy asked her young students. “What if only kids with blue eyes got to go to recess? Would that be fair?”

“No!” they replied emphatically.

Dr. King wanted everyone to have equal rights. His heroes were Fredrick Douglas, Harriet Tubman and George Washington Carver, to name a few. He went to college and earned a PhD in philosophy.

Dr. King spoke out against laws that kept black people out of schools and other places. Rosa Parks, a black woman in Montgomery, Ala., was arrested in 1955 for failing to relinquish her seat on the bus in the “colored section” to a white passenger after the whites-only section was filled. Dr. King organized a peaceful protest to boycott buses. They walked everywhere instead for a year.

Dr. King loved to read. He loved words. He worked to expand his vocabulary because he knew words have power.

In his now famous speech made 50 years ago, Dr. King said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

“Look at our hands. They are all different colors, but does that mean something bad?” Marcy asked her class. “Our hands were all made to do different things.”

Students watched a video of the song “With My Own Two Hands” by Ben Harper that features musicians from around the world. Each student traced their hand on a piece of paper with some of the lyrics from the song:

“I can change the world with my own two hands

Make a better place with my own two hands

Make a kinder place with my own two hands.”

SEQUIM HIGH SCHOOL

Monday, Feb. 3, is the new extended deadline for all students to request a schedule change for second semester. Changes will be made according to the following priority; unassigned period, missing graduation requirement, academic placement change. Changes will not be made for lunch or teacher preference.

Winter Ball is Saturday, Feb. 8. Tickets go on sale starting the week of Feb. 3.

The band booster sponsored Jazz Dinner Dance is Saturday, Feb. 1. High school cafeteria doors will open at 6 p.m. and music starts at 6:30 p.m. The SHS Jazz Ensemble will open and Stardust Big Band will close out the night. Tickets are $25 per person or $45 per couple and include dinner as well as entry into a prize drawing. Tickets are for sale in Sequim at the Full Moon Candle Company and Sequim Animal Hospital, and will also be available at the door the day of the event.

Spring athletes: Just a reminder that spring sports paperwork is being accepted now and is due by 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26. Call the main office at 360-582-3605 for more information.

The Sequim High School Talent Show is in in the SHS auditorium at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 13, and 2 p.m. Saturday, March 14. Tryouts for the show occur after school the week of March 2 after school. More details to come on time and location of tryouts. In the past, students have played music, sang songs, played instruments, gave a speech, performed comedy, read original poetry and more.