Group tackles Highway 27 litter

Freeman High School’s Future Business Leaders of America recently adopted a stretch of Highway 27 to clean up the litter.

On Sunday, 13 students from the school’s FBLA chapter and three adults spent three hours cleaning up a 2-mile stretch of highway between Darknell Road and Highway 195.

The group collected more than 51 bags of trash.

The students involved were Chelsa Ayers, Danica Cramer, Andy Coumont, Mackenzie DeRuyter, Allie Fetsch, Dalton Fetsch, Austin Fish, Mason Freer, Josh Grandinetti, Brian Hart, Eric Hjaltalin, Preston Primmer and Travis Sorensen. They were accompanied by adviser Scott Moore and parents Candy Fetsch and Ken Fish.

The group plans to clean the stretch of highway again this summer.

Kudos

•Brandon Mack, a math teacher at Central Valley High School, has received the Washington State Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s Outstanding Young Teacher of the Year award.

Mack was surprised with the award at a staff meeting Thursday.

He teaches AP calculus and ninth-grade geometry at the school and 54 percent of his calculus students achieved a 5 rating on the AP test in his first year of teaching.

“In the hallways, he responds to kids who are not currently in his class, always encouraging them to do well,” said Assistant Principal Shirley Andrews, who nominated Mack. “He seems to know every student in the building.”

Mack will receive $2,000, a free membership to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development and will be recognized at the annual conference in October.

•Rachel White, a senior at Central Valley High School, took top honors at the “2010 Passing the Torch Washington State High School Metal Arts Competition” in the jewelry division.

The qualifying metal artwork was on display at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma.

Other CV students who entered the competition were Kalvin Le, Peyton Rockwood, Elizabeth Wagner, Rebecca Kissack and Shane Flesher.