Education notebook: St. George’s opens performance of ‘Noises Off’ tonight

Lakeside High School in Nine Mile Falls was the recent overall winner of the 2019 regional Knowledge Bowl championship, scoring highest not only in their division but highest overall in the region. The team members are Josh Baerman, Brendan Gann, Cassie Ahrendt, Ashley Jacobson, Ryley Ourada and Ethan Whitmer.

Other regional placers include: second, Gonzaga Prep; third, Medical Lake; fourth, Pullman; fifth, Valley Christian, sixth, Central Valley; seventh, Saint George’s; eight, Freeman; ninth, Garfield-Palouse.

Knowledge Bowl is an academic competition in which teams compete in game-style rounds of oral and written questioning. The oral round includes 50 questions read aloud and teams rush to be the first to answer correctly. The written round consists of 50 multiple-choice questions in which team members deliberate to answer as many as they can in 35 minutes.

The regional competition is hosted by the Northeast Washington Educational District 101, the largest in the state, accounting for Adams, Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens and Whitman counties. The state competition will include Washington’s eight other educational districts.

Lakeside will advance to the state competition later this month in Yakima, in addition to 16 other qualifying area high schools. They include:

4A: Gonzaga Prep, Central Valley.

2A: Pullman.

1A: Medical Lake, Lakeside, Freeman, Deer Park.

2B: St. George’s, Liberty, Reardan, Wilbur-Creston, Lind-Ritzville-Washtucna.

1B: Garfield-Palouse, Valley Christian, Oakesdale, Almira/Coulee-Hartline.

St. George’s presents comedy ‘Noises Off’

St. George’s School opens its performance of the comedy “Noises Off,” today at 7 p.m.

The story is a play within a play, exposing the frenetic behind-the-scenes lives of a theater troupe performing the adult farce, “Nothing On,” as it progresses from rehearsal to closing night. Originally performed in 1982 and written by English playwright Michael Frayn, the title takes its name from the stage direction term meaning sounds that come from offstage, intentional or sometimes not.

The Saint George’s cast features Ben Clark as Lloyd Dallas, Ari Patton as Dottie Otley, Jaxon Spackman as Garry LeJeune, Ella Stiller as Brooke Ashton, Braxton Rickard as Frederick Fellowes, Stella Brown as Belinda Blair, Will Reiger as Selsdon Mowbray, Alex Gustafson as Poppy Norton-Taylor, and Alec Nittolo as Tim Allgood.

Two additional 7 p.m. showings are offered Friday and Saturday. All showings are free admission with no RSVP required and will be performed at the Founders Theater on the Saint George’s School campus at 2929 W. Waikiki Road.

NEC offers mini-grants

The Northeast Washington Education Council is offering mini-grants of $250 to $500 to area schools for purchasing supplies, equipment and activities. All public schools with students in preschool through 12th grade, state-approved private schools and charter schools in the NEWESD 101 region may apply. The application can be found at bit.ly/2sRvZY7 at must be submitted to contactus@newec.org by March 20.

Wagstaff donates

to schools

Wagstaff Inc., an Inland Northwest aluminum producer has made donations to several Spokane Valley area schools in support of general and career and technical education.

The following middle schools received $1,000: Bowdish, Centennial, East Valley, Evergreen, Freeman, Greenacres, Horizon and North Pines.

The following schools received $500: West Valley City School, Continuous Curriculum School and Summit School.