Grant will help screen students for eye problems
They catch problems early on and help kids succeed in school, but they don’t enjoy much publicity and rarely see donations.
This makes the $4,000 grant for vision screenings the Post Falls School District recently received all the more important.
“This is very exciting,” said Susan Thomas, supervising nurse for the district.
The money will buy lighting screens to use for the screenings.
Like most school districts, Post Falls offers eyesight tests in the fall for kindergartners and students in grades two, four and six.
It’s a chance for kids’ vision problems to be caught before the school year proceeds and poor vision starts affecting schoolwork. School nurses set up the screenings at each school. In the past, they’ve used cardboard letterings and have had to make due with whatever lighting the school provided.
“This gives them a standardized way of making sure everything’s the same,” said Robert Johnson, an optometrist at the Kootenai Vision Center. Johnson applied for the grant through the American Optometric Association, which gives out money for “community-based eye initiatives.”
The new equipment will be ready in time for the vision screenings this fall.
Stock market winners
A nine-week competition that pit groups of students against each other to see which could milk the most from the stock market culminated recently with Post Falls teams earning first, second and third place in the region.
Sixth-grade students involved in the gifted and talented programs at Post Falls and River City middle schools competed.
Post Falls students Katie King, Jayden Todhunter, Savannah Hill and Priscilla Perrin made up the first place team. River City students Sean Kelly, Nate Coulter and Brett Menzies got second place, and the Post Falls team of Kate Caldwell, C.J. Miller, Andrew Seib and Jessica Malloy earned third place.
Each team was given an imaginary $100,000 to invest. They studied the stock market before delving in, hearing for a professional stock broker and studying the math involved in investing and paying fees.
“It’s a stimulation of the real stock market,” said Ann Cunningham, the gifted and talented program coordinator.
Boise State University sponsors the competition, called the Stock Market Game, and teams of students from all over Idaho submit their stock information on a Web site for comparison.
The nine-week period gave lots of opportunities to buy and sell different stocks. The students studied national sales trends and tried to invest money in stocks that would do well at that particular time, such as candy and cards around Valentine’s Day, Cunningham said.
“It was a real learning experience because some of the stocks they chose did (do well), and some of the stocks they chose did not,” Cunningham said.
Educators honored
The Post Falls Education Association honored district staff earlier this month at the union’s annual awards banquet.
Wade Quesnell, a PE teacher and coach at Post Falls High School, earned teacher of the year.
Other winners:
“Rookie of the Year: Jessica Lamb
“Educational Support Personnel of the Year: Linda Boggs.
“Administrator of the Year: Mandy Suratt-Florin.
“Patron of the Year: Bobbi Dietz.
“Friend of Education: Lee Periman
“Innovative Program of the Year: Math is Cool; coordinator Gale Adams.
“Teacher Scholarships: Colby Mattila and Tiffany Moore.
“Student Scholarships: Megan Whetherelt and Alison Pollock.
Post Falls senior wins new car
Congratulations to Rachel Calton, a senior at Post Falls High and the new owner of a 2007 Ford Focus. Calton won the car in the annual giveaway car dealer Tom Addis holds for the top graduating seniors in Kootenai County. Disclaimer: The first car Addis gave away went to Hope Brumbach, then a senior at Lake City High and now a Your Voice reporter with The Spokesman-Review.