Teachers receive national certification

The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards recently announced the following area teachers who have earned one of the teaching profession’s top honors by achieving National Board Certification in 2004. Teachers on the North Side who received honors are:

St. George’s School: Rachel Peters, elementary teacher.

Mead School District: Paula Cote, Susan Gregory, Linda Luiten and Constance Ramsey, Colbert Elementary; Cynthia Ridings, Northwood Middle School; Laurie Chadwick and Dave Stedman, Mead High School.

Nine Mile Falls: Alecia Sing, Lakeside High School, and Linda St. Clair, Lakeside Middle School.

Spokane Public Schools: Marion Bageant and Tanya Wunsch, Garfield Elementary; Ellen Gillespie, Rogers High School; Nancy Ingerson, Browne Elementary; Emily Sobczuk, Holmes Elementary; and David Williams. According to the NBPTS Web site, the National Board Certification measures a teacher’s performance against rigorous standards. The process is an extensive series of assessments that includes examinations of teaching portfolios, student work samples, videotapes and analyses of the candidates’ teaching and student learning.

Teachers also complete a series of written exercises that examine their subject-matter knowledge, as well as their understanding of how to teach those subjects.

School board names chief

School board member Barb Richardson is the new president of Spokane Public Schools’ Board of Directors, taking over for outgoing president Rocky Treppiedi. Richardson will serve as board president through November. Don Barlow will serve as vice president for the same term.

St. George’s art exhibit

An assortment of paintings, drawings, intaglio prints, collograph prints, and drypoint prints by St. George’s High School students will be on display through Dec. 17 in the Gilbert Art Gallery on the school campus, 2929 W. Waikiki Road.