Schools applause

National Merit semifinalists

Eleven Northshore School District students have been honored as National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalists, among 16,000 semifinalists nationwide based on scores from the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test. In addition, 40 other students were named Commended Scholars by scoring in the top 25 percent. Semifinalists will be considered as finalists.

Bothell High School:

National Merit Semifinalists – Kailey Bolles and Katie Ewing

Commended Scholars – Devon Chandler-Brown, Aleksande Hungerford, Jonathan Klapel, Wayne Lichty, Charlie Miller, James Orrell, Ryan Salud and Andrew Spence

Inglemoor High School:

National Merit Semifinalists – Brendon Cloyd, David Feldman, William Johnson, Alice Fanling Meng, Abigail Rhinehart, Jeffrey Wang, and Erik Wipf

Commended Scholars – Anthony Chung, Ruben Conner, Danielle File, Carolyn Gombotz, Alex Griffis, Jennifer Hill, Katherine Howe, Jacob Keilman, Inne Leung, Ferris Lupino, Briannan Mandrell, David Patnode, Franklin Pearsall, Ethan Ranis, Shubho Sadhu, Taylor Sandelius, Rachel Steward, Zhuyi Sun, Kaipo Tamura, Patricia Tsai, Robert Van-Leuven, Aditya Vaze, Jean-Paul Wiegand and Andrew Zager

Woodinville High School:

National Merit Semifinalists – Michael Conrad and Kaitlin Thompson

Commended Scholars – Elaine Alberston, Alex Burner, Kelly Glenn, Linnea Pearson, Kristen Penoyer, Christopher Shankland,Thomas Stringer and William Yost

Locks for Love

Olivia Peddicord, a fifth-grader at Garfield Elementary School in Everett, recently donated her hair for Locks For Love for the second time. Her first donation was in second grade.

Garfield gets books

Garfield Elementary School recently learned it will receive 1,310 books from the Seattle-based Page Ahead’s Reading is Fundamental Project. The books are valued at $6,550. These books will be distributed during the school year at three events: Make It/Take It Reading Game Night, Rise and Shine With Reading Breakfast and Splash Into Summer Reading.

Dropout program a star

Project STAR, a dropout prevention program in the Everett School District, was recently recognized with a Promising Practice Award by the Snohomish County Workforce Development Council. STAR stands for Supporting Teens at Risk. The program provides tutoring, online high school classes for credit retrieval and other support services that keep students engaged in school. The project started last school year and served 99 teenagers who had either dropped out or were at risk of quitting school. Counselors helped 23 students earn their diplomas and another 40 get on target to graduate on time.